Flyboys – C119 Flying Boxcar

This Page was going to follow the build of my Flyboy Models C-119 Boxcar ARF but I didn’t get to far into it before I got side tracked in life. I still have this one though maybe some day I’ll finish it.

The plane came shipped double boxed and this was my first peek inside the box.

This was only the second ARF I’ve ever done but I’ve seen some crappy Arf’s out there so I wasn’t sure what to expect. An Internet search brought little besides a few guys that bought the plane but haven’t done anything with them yet. Anyway this is the contents of the box, all the Parts were individually bagged and my first impressions weren’t too bad. The construction looks good, built up wing, fuselage and tail sections, fiberglass booms and cowls, looks like complete hardware is included. The not so good……the fuselage nose and tail sections are thin clear lexan that have been painted, not my first choice but I guess their light. The instructions also leave something to be desired. I will be changing a few things on this plane but I’ll get into the specifics as I go.

The first step per the instructions are to install the Ailerons, The plane comes with pre installed CA hinges on the ailerons so you just have to plug them into the outer wing panels and CA them in . I really don’t like CA hinges so this will be my first change, I bought some Du-Bro Nylon Hinges to replace them.

So Far I have both Ailerons installed, the next set is to install the servos in the wing.

This is the entire instructions for servo installation in the wings. It’s pretty straight forward ………or so you would think.

According to the instruction they want you to epoxy the cut outs in the first picture to the outside of the wing to mount the servos too. I wanted the servos to fit a little more recessed than that (such as the servos in the second picture from my Somethin Extra) so I though I could just do I little custom fitting to make them fit. After looking at the height of the ribs I quickly realized that wouldn’t work so I would have to use the cut outs, no big deal or so I thought…………

As you can see even with the cut outs a standard size servo is not going to fit in the wing unless I block up the rear of the servo or the cut out itself. That’s kind of hacked in my opinion so the only option I can see it to run a mini servo.

Even with a mini servo I can’t get the servo as recessed as I would like without opening the wing and making a new mount. The servo holes came precut for standard size servos so I will have to glue in some new bracing.

Next I made some new bracing using some scrap ply I had and glued it into the wing.

I didn’t have any silver covering so I had to utilize the original servo mount cut outs and hack them up to use as filler to cover the rest of the standard size servo holes. It came out like crap but should look ok in the sky 🙂

The other side came out much better, now that I knew what I was up against I was able to carefully cut open the servo hole and fold back the existing cover, glue in the bracing, and then reseal everything up cleanly.

The next step is to join the outer wing panels to the center section. I started by first gluing in the spars to the center wing section. The spars have a tapper to them so you have to make sure the smaller end is pointing out.

Before gluing the outer wing panels on I ran a string threw both sections to make it easier to pull the servo extensions through later.

The almost completed wing, the only thing left are mounting the servos and control horns which I will do as a last step.

I will be running 2 mini and 1 micro servos in each boom so I started by first removing the old double standard servo mounting trays.

After tracing the original servo mount on a scrap piece of plywood I laid out the new servo locations, cut every thing out and epoxied in the new mount.

A quick Test Fit and everything looks good so far.

Swapped out the hinges and glue on the tail control surfaces.

That’s about as far as I go into this built before life caught up with me but like I said maybe one day i’ll get back into this so this page will help me remember what I’ve done.

To be Continued….. some day.

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