E-flite Carbon-Z T-28 Trojan 2.0m - Modifications (part 1)

I've yet to maiden my T-28 as I wait for good weather here in the UK but thought details of my mods might help others here.

Like many I decided to get 2 of the excellent sevo harness connectors from Hans (https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...) and they are perfect. I'm in the UK and communications with Hans and subsequent delivery were faultless - and I had to pay no import duty which was nice.

I had gear lowering issues like many others. Despite checking all connections and with no issues with the actual gear servos I had to conclude that I was experiencing classical brown-out symptoms. Quite simply the ESC/BEC seemed unable to cope with all 3 gear legs operating together. This was confirmed because whenever I unplugged any one of the 3 legs the other 2 would lower togther without issue! The symptoms I had were that on gear lowering 2 of the legs would lower but one (variable) would not do so for some time - if at all. I approached the UK seller (Wheelspin Models) and they referred the issue to their supplier. To cut a long story short they accepted my 'request' for £30 to pay for necessary parts to overcome the model shortfall (rather than having a built model returned).

To address the gear problem I disconnected the red gear servo power supply lead at the receiver and then added in a new, switchable, 800mah lion battery to provide power when the receiver signalled movement. This completely resolved the problem and so it is clear that E-flite have not solved the gear problem - at least not on all suipplied models. Maybe some have no issue but clearly others do it seems. My YouTube video shows this fix (   • E-flite Carbon-Z T-28 Trojan 2.0m - Modifi...  ").

Having seen a few videos on sound systems I decided to invest in the ESS version and it works very well. I've created a video and posted it to YouTube to show the fitting but especially to get across the sound of the ESS Air Sound System. In the video you'll hear it with the volume slightly less than full and that's because full volume use with a 6S voltage can cause transducer/speaker failure. I'm also running it with the canopy hatch cover off and it sounds better with that in place.

You'll find others videos that demonstrate use of this sound system in the air and it sounds impressive - especially given the large volume of the T-28 battery bay. I've also attached a few photos that show the installation. My next modification is quite an extensive one. I'll be adding full head tracker (like:    • 💥FPV Dogfight from RC Plane Cockpit - E-fl...  ) but the use of a Flight Controller to provide airspeed, heading, range/bearing to take-off point, and much more all displayed as an On Screen Display (OSD) in the goggles I'll be wearing (   • Best views from the A-10 cockpit ! Head Tr...  ). I'll post more on that project and describe what's required and how I did it - of course I'm learning from the excellent online resources - YouTube especially.

I hope this is of use.

Tony