What's that big box by the back door... Or... The P-40 assy. is DONE.

I talked to a buddy of mine the other day, Roger, from West Virginia, just catching up and chatting. He's missed the last couple of contests due to life's curveballs, we are all familiar with that. A day later I got a text from him saying I could expect a package from Brodak that I didn't order. So I thanked him and started checking the mail over the next few days hoping some cool trinket would be in the box. Monday came, surely it would be there after the weekend... nah. I was in the carport piddling with Big Red, my aircraft carrier and noticed a giant cardboard box propped against the wall. Whoa, I never heard the doorbell ring. Sure enough it was from Brodak. The last time I got a box that size it was my Oriental ARF... good grief, the guy sent me an ARF! I wonder what kind it is. Another Cardinal, a Smoothie, pages of the Brodak catalog flipping in my mind. I toted it out to the shop and swung the blade of my folding razor knife out and went to work. Layer after layer came off like a gigantic cardboard Russian matryoshka doll, geez it sure was packed in there. Finally, Tahdaaah, A P-40 Flying Tiger.

These are probably the best built and best flying competition ARFs John Brodak sells. I know that because Stunthangar told me so. And Wayne has two, one electric he built and another gasser that is the prototype Bob Zambelli built while he first developed it for Brodak and later gave to Wayne. It's also the same plane Mike Londke has used to paste me with in the last two contests at Huntersville.

I tried putting it aside until I got rolling on the Cardinal kit, but every time I walk into the shop I gravitate straight to the P-40. It looks like a real piece of cake to put together, much much higher quality than my Oriental ARF of 3 years ago. This plane needs no upgrading of the bellcrank and leadouts or anything else I can see except maybe CF control rods. It all fits together like a glove, straight and true. The Oriental was not even close.

So now I have two planes occupying my mind and I've started working on both at the same time. I hope my feeble thought processes can manage it. I have two good engines, an LA.46 for the Cardinal and an FP.40 for the P-40. I hope that's enough power for it. If not I'll run down another LA. I already have all the other hardware to finish it without having to order much besides threaded inserts and spare props.

I went through a time last winter when I dreaded going to work in the shop, but now I've got the full-on building bug. So without further blather, here' are the pics:







By the way, a question.
The booklet always says to position the engine first, but it seems like that should be last for balancing purposes. So last it will be. I'll be using a bar clamp because this engine has a corner of the mounting tab broken off. That also gives a little bit of adjustment room. My question is how much gap do you usually allow between the nose and spinner backplate? An 8th of an inch seems about right. It's what I usually do, just that I have never asked any opinions on that.
Rusty