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| Douglas
A-1H Skyraider, VA-25 |
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This is a deluxe
version of the Skyraider, but the manufacturer's obviously good intentions
fell somewhat short, probably because the engineering concept overreached
their manufacturing capabilities. Also, it seems like GA's engineers
and designers couldn't decide whether they were going to make a solid
model or a working-flaps and working-rudder version.
Paint, glue, and the meaning of messy.
Both flaps on my model were oversprayed, and the glue used to fasten
one of the flaps to the wings was applied too heavily and then broke
loose when the model was placed in the (excellent and elegant) box
at the factory. When the gluing broke it also snapped off one of the
two flap levers on the underside of the wing. There was obvious overspray
on the port side just under the anti-glare paint in front of the canopy.
Paint was also chipped off the top of the trailing edge of the port
flap.
Broke brake mounting. The port side
dive brake wouldn't lay flat against the fuselage no matter how I
maneuvered the thing, and I finally held it down with tacky clay.
I couldn't figure out how to deploy the starboard-side brake, so left
it alone for fear of damaging the surrounding fuselage paint.
Tell tail tale. The rudder may or may
not have been designed to move from side to side, but if it was then
both the off-set hinges and the end of the Pitot that was pushed through
to the top of the rudder prevents the action from occuring. It just
isn't clear what GA was trying to accomplish with the hinged rudder;
were they trying to create a realistic separation from the fin, perhaps?
Gear down! This is the only model I
have that had an available gear-up or gear-down option that came with
the gear down. When starting a photo shoot it is nice not having to
go through the battle of fitting the gear-down (which on average,
for models in general, takes about an hour of trimming a filing).
However, when I tried to remove the gear for some "flying"
pictures, I found out that to get the gear in place, the factory guys
and gals had to pretty much jam or pound the leading-edge trim pieces
(which anchor the gear struts) into place in the wing, indicated by
the large areas of pealed and missing paint in the wheel well on one
wing, and the fact that I couldn't remove the leading edge trim piece
on the other side (and in fact broke off an X-acto blade trying to
do it). I quickly reassembled the gear-down before I forgot how the
pieces fit, and decided to leave well enough alone.
Sampler. For pictures of some of these
problems, click here. If
you can't stand the pain, don't. |
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