Do you remember how we left this poor little A-4?

He had just been painted…

He was scared…

His little ailerons were trembling…

He was afraid that he was going to prematurely dump his flaps…

Poor little guy!

 

Do you feel lucky, Punk? Huh? Do you??!

All he needs is a pair of Terminator sunglasses to complete the picture.

I can almost see his lip sneering…

 

 

He’s a bit irritated, though. His landing gear has been installed so now he wants to run around. Silly A-4! You can’t run around, yet. You haven’t had your brains installed!

 

 

See… you have nothing but an empty beak.

Yes, you have a BEC, but that’s not going to get you up in the air.

Besides, we still have some details to work out.

 

 

 

 

Jay had to do a little more refining in the landing gear cavities so that when the switch is flipped the gear will actually go all the way up instead of getting stuck.

There’s nothing worse than flying around with your landing gear showing.

 

 

 

 

We also had to install the pilot’s seat.

“Kerry, that’s not the pilot’s seat!” Jay says as he rolls his eyes.

I thought that was a pretty silly place for the pilot to sit. After all, right in the apex of the ducting would be REALLY noisy!

If it’s not the pilot’s seat, what is it?

 

 

It’s the battery tray!

I guess that it’s a good idea to have somewhere to place the batteries. Especially with the way that Jay flies you want to make sure that they are VERY secure.

 

 

 

But there’s not a lot of room in there.

How many batteries are you putting in there?

“Three”

Wait, what?! Three??!!

Will they fit?

 

 

I guess that they will… like sardines!

I’m told that they will be secured.

I sure hope so.

If this jet goes in nose-first there is going to be one heck of a crash!

 

 

 

And the back of the pilot’s seat is actually the backstop for the battery.

Good thinking.

Can you imagine if one of those batteries got wedged into that ‘V’?

 

 

 

But wait, folks, there’s more!

The BEC and landing gear will have their own separate batteries. Just little guys, but they have to go somewhere, too. I think that we have a few millimeters left on the little platform at the bottom of this picture. Let’s just wedge them in there. Grab the shoe horn… we might need it!

 

 

 

The speed controller will be riding piggy back.

I asked how it will get any air flow over it to keep it cool during flight.

I was told that the nose gear door will assist with that job.

Boy, there sure is a lot to fit into that little space.

 

 

The flaps look pretty, too.

Nice and red…

 

 

 

 

… on both sides!

Plus you can see the beautiful landing gear door.

It almost gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it?

 

 

So the A-4 is almost done! As long as nobody else brings Jay an airplane to build for them (he’s had two more to do since the Seniorita!), then he can probably have this finished up by the end of the month. The only problem will be the maiden flight. Our club’s field is grass and Jay would really like to take this off of the pavement. We might have to visit the place where we hold our club’s Air Shows as they have a paved parking lot that he can use. That will be exciting!