Alpha rises

I described the crash and rebuild of my Eflite Alpha 450 Sport in "Asleep at the switch". Yesterday the PowerUp 450 motor arrived from HeadsUpRC (fast shippers, those HeadsUp guys). I installed it last night, with some minor difficulty getting the standoffs in place and getting a good thrust vector on the motor due to changes in the firewall from the repairs. She fired up sweet! the prop adapter that came with the motor was too small for the APC 10x6 I am flying on her, so I had to drop by my LHS today and pick up an Eflite one. It is a tad short so I can't use the stock white spinner...I'll have to see if I can find a longer 4mm adapter.  It looks a little naked without it.

The nav lights had issues. I plan a short blog entry on those later. A couple of them stopped working and it took some time to trouble shoot that it was the bulbs. I ended up sacrificing the other kit I ordered for a couple of its bulbs, but for now everything looks good. The forward facing white light is quite bright so I may get the scale landing light effect I was going for; the light may not wash out in sunlight. We'll see! So, Alpha is ready, and come Friday when I can get away to the field, weather permitting, Luke and I will return to the sky!