We’ll imagine, for a bit, that we are in a magnificent ultra large hobby shop. The Buyer, That’s me, looks at all the basic trainers and frowns a bit. That is what I have been told to get from the more experienced RC pilots at the field. I need to listen to them as they know more than I do at this point (but I will catch up). However, what I really want is a jet fighter, an F-104 or F-15, with all the gadgets there are!

I think the hobby shop owner has seen this syndrome before. Because his first words to me (guess I had that jet look) were “Whoa, let’s learn to walk before we run. Even though my heart says “JET” his counsel convinces me that the prudent thing to do is to buy a basic trainer and learn to fly. “It’s a progression” he says. “Stick with it and in a few years you will be flying all sorts of advanced airplanes”.

OK, a basic trainer it is. I would like to get into this sport as soon as possible so, are there any airplanes that I can fly right away? I don’t want to spend my valuable time building a kit. The hobby shop owner leads me to the Ready-To-Fly (RTF) trainer section. WOW! There are a bunch.

The first one he shows me is a small electric trainer complete with everything for under $200. But, he warns me, they don’t fly in wind very well. They’re great on a calm morning but, when the wind is over 5 MPH they don’t do so well.

On we go to the gas (glow fuel) powered airplanes. Oh my, they are close to $400; I wanted to spend around $300 or even less. But, he says, they are ready to fly in just 20 minutes. Of course you will need to charge the batteries; that takes overnight.

Photo 1

Finally (you guessed it) we come to the Kyosho® section. There is an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) trainer and an RTF (Ready To Fly) one. Kyosho® calls it a ‘Readyset ready to fly’. And it’s only $290.

It has the radio already installed including the pushrods. It has the engine already installed including the tank and fuel tubing. All I have to do, according to the hobby shop owner, is to glue the wing halves together and glue the horizontal stabilizer (it’s called a rear wing in the instructions) to the slot in the fuselage. The owner says I need to use 30 minute epoxy to do this.

I buy the required epoxy for $5. I like it. I don’t even need to charge the batteries—the Calmato uses AA dry cells. I buy it. Along with the fuel and fuel pump and glow igniter (it’s explained in the engine manual) I have everything I need. All together I paid just slightly over $300. A hundred less than those other RTF’s and all I have to do is glue two things together. Tomorrow I’m going flying!

OK, the fantasy is over. We’re going to build this airplane. Don’t worry, it will not take long. We are just going to align some stuff and all will be well with the world.

There are three manuals included with the Calmato. The ‘maintenance manual’ is the one that tells us how to build the airplane. Lets just spend a short time with the ‘instructional manual’; just the first 7 pages.

Read the manual’s precautions. They are all real and worth paying attention to. Next the ‘glossary’ which will get you acquainted with all the parts of the airplane. In common usage in the USA, we call the tail wing the’ horizontal stabilizer’; which is the functional description of the unit—it stabilizes the airplane in the horizontal attitude. Likewise, we call the vertical fin the ‘vertical stabilizer’.

Now, onto the maintenance manual and the first step; joining the wing. We have the 30 minute epoxy at hand. Trial fit the wing joiner dry—no glue. Mine fit perfectly; if yours is a little snug just a light sanding with fine sandpaper is needed. Less is better.

To be honest, Kyosho says that the wing does not need to be epoxied together. The front dowels and wing bolts keep the wing together in flight while the small, white center tape holds it together once the wing is removed. OK, that works but experience has shown that, over time, wood weakens and things become a little sloppy. Besides, you have to assemble the wing anyway so why not spend a few extra minutes applying some adhesive during the process?

Now mix up some epoxy. Equal amounts of part A and part B. A piece of waxed paper is good for this. Squeeze equal lengths of Parts A and B onto the wax paper. Maybe 6 inches worth of epoxy is good. If you mixed a little too much, that’s OK but not enough is not good.

Now spread the mixed epoxy on one of the wood roots (they are the inner ends of the wing halves that will be glued together) and inside the wing joiner slots on both wing halves. The wing joiner is also called the dihedral brace. Slide the wing together, you will notice that the wing is bent in the middle now as it should be, and prop it on the table with weights to keep the ends tightly joined together.

On mine, the wing halves did not line up perfectly, the joint was tight (that’s good) but; the trailing edge was not aligned. It was easy to put a clamp in the trailing edge and align it perfectly (photo 7). You may want to clamp it with a clothes pin. At this point you should wipe off the excess glue that squeezed out of the joint. Use a paper towel or a disposable rag moistened with rubbing alcohol.

(Ed. Note: You might also find it a good idea to wrap some #64 rubber bands around the dowels in the front to keep the entire wing clamped tightly together.)

This procedure takes longer to describe than to do, even the first time. The 30-minute working time of the glue will give you plenty of time to get everything correctly aligned. The glue takes 30 minutes to set but, overnight to completely cure.

Leave the steps about the aileron controls until later when the glue is well set; several hours at least.

Epoxying the wing together is much stronger than the usual RTF metal tube/nylon clamp wing joining system. Actually, this is the wing joining system used on ARF trainers and ARF airplanes designed for high-stress aerobatics. Some RTF wing joints have been known to loosen over time, under flight stresses and with the occasional dragged wing tip. This can require replacing the aluminum spar and/or epoxying the wing halves together anyway. While a little more work, the Calmato’s epoxied wing is as strong as any found on any ARF airplane.

Let’s do the landing gear while the wing cures. Look at the diagram of the nose wheel and put the white plastic control horn on the wire sticking out the bottom of the fuselage before mounting the strut.

The main landing gear is easy. Be careful to cut ONLY the plastic film over the landing gear plate. It’s plywood so it is not really a problem. It’s just good practice when removing covering film to not score the wood underneath. I’ll show you the best way to do that later.