[Al Lewis]

Well it’s been a while since the days when I wrote reviews on planes on RCU so when I was given the opportunity to review a new 31% EG Aircraft MX-2 by Azhar Osmanbhoy of Aztech Aeromodels I jumped at the chance. Up until now Azhar has been the U.S. distributor of Secraft RC plane accessories through his site Secraft USA. His latest endeavor, Aztech Aeromodels, has made him one of the newest distributors of quality ARFs for the RC community. He is located in Redmond WA making it that much easier for us guys in the greater northwest to see, first hand, and buy his new lineup of EG Aircraft and Slipstream planes. For those of you that attended the Olympia IMAC event, you’ve already seen the 100cc version in the capable hands of John Wondra. This is the 50cc version in the same scheme. As he was so close to me I drove over to Azhars place to meet him and to pick up my new MX-2 personally. Glad I did as it gave a face to the name and introduced me to a genuinely nice person will a passion for our hobby.

The plane came double packed in heavy cardboard shipping containers, one inside the other, and each piece has been individually wrapped in bubble wrap for further protection. The cowl is wrapped and protected by yet another box making it even safer for shipping. All in all, one of the best packing jobs I’ve seen to date.

[Al Lewis]

Now I’m sure that most of you have seen build threads on the EG Aircraft MX-2 and have to wonder what makes this one different. Well to begin with Azhar has come up with a new color scheme, Scheme C, for the plane which is proprietary to him. As far as I’m concerned anything that is red, white, and blue with stars is a great scheme. There have also been a couple of changes by EG to the original aircraft. The two main changes have been the elimination of the lead edge fillets on the wings and the refitting of the cowl to cover the top edge of the front bulkhead in the fuse. Earlier planes required the builder to either paint, or cover, that edge. This is no longer the case as the cowl has been re-fitted to cover it completely. As for the wing fillets it seems that the only way to attach these was to the wing itself. This caused problems when transporting the wings as the wing rested on the fiberglass fillet and, often as not, caused them to break.

[Al Lewis]

Now to the plane itself. When I first looked at the plane I thought that the price was a bit high at $750.00 including shipping, $999.00 with a DLE 55, but, after going through the list of items that come with the plane it seemed like a good deal. The plane comes complete with both main and horizontal stab CF tubes, a beautiful air foiled CF main gear, CF tail gear, CF spinner, titanium connecting rods, and all of the hardware necessary to build a quality plane. The CF items alone would cost you at least $250.00 if purchased separately and that’s without multiple shipping charges making the plane quite a bargain for those that want to build a quality plane without all of the hassle of finding and ordering those parts on their own. The plane also comes with three sets of canister mounts for 55, 65, 70mm canisters, fully plumbed and installed fuel tank, dashboard decals and huge stickers, two wooden templates for mounting either a 3W or DA/DL engine stand-off pattern and top quality hardware. It even has servo wire extension clips to make sure nothing comes unplugged.

[Al Lewis]

Now to say that anyone actually “builds” an ARF is a stretch of the imagination for those of you that actually build planes from sticks but in this case it stretches the imagination to even further limits. The hatch/canopy is pre-built and the aileron and elevator surfaces are pre-hinged so, with the exception of gluing on the rudder, it becomes more of an assembly rather then a build. The openings for the servos in the wings are already cut out and the elevator servos mount inside of the horizontal stabs which have pre-cut out slots for the arms. Basically all you have to do is to mount the servos, engine, and switches, glue in the control arms, bolt on the gear, and it’s pretty much a done deal.

[Al Lewis]

According to the manufacturer the plane is rated for a 45-60cc engine. At 31% scale I would never attempt to fly this plane with a 45cc engine but considering how light the plane is I’m sure a 55 would 3D the plane very well. With that in mind I decided to go to the max, with regards to power, and install a RCGF 62cc engine in the plane with a Vess 23A prop. The lightness of the plane can be attributed to some clever use of layering in the fuse and wings of thin hard ply with the inner layer being cut out to provide the necessary rigidity. This is supplemented by CF reinforcing through the fuse and wings making for a very strong, yet light, airframe.

[Al Lewis]

Now on to the plane itself, and its components. Here are a few of the things I noticed about the plane that I really liked. To begin with the main wings are set into the fuselage giving added support to the structure and aiding the CF stab. It also gives a good appearance as opposed to those that simply butt up against the fuse sides. When I examined the horizontal stabs I found that the innermost former was plied with an outside layer of composite rather then the usual wood adding strength to the bolt areas that hold it in place against the fuse. Both the main wings and horizontal stabs have CF anti-rotation tubes installed rather then the wooden dowels found in so many planes. Be sure and check these, and all other joints, to make sure they are securely glued into place. The cowl already has the mounting ring installed making it ready for bolt up to the fuse and the engine box and firewall are pre-built with the firewall having a very strong interlocking joint making pinning unnecessary. All you need do is to seal the exposed wood to make it fuel proof which I did using a good clear polyurethane. The only minuses I found were that the instruction CD wouldn’t come up on my computer, no problem as you can download the full instruction manual from EG Aircraft or have Azhar e-mail you the .PDF file, as I did. The included control arms require you to bolt them onto a hub. I personally didn’t like the idea of using a plastic, or glass filled, hubs on a plane this size although you can get aluminum hubs for this purpose. The only other thing, which I found slightly humorous, was that the dashboard decals are included but the hatch is fully built making the dashboard inaccessible. You can of course remove the covering from the rear of the hatch and apply the stickers. Azhar assures me he will contact the company about installing these when they build the hatch at the factory.

[Al Lewis]

The control horns on this plane are a bit different then the standard through bolts or screw on horns that most are use to seeing. These are made of fiberglass composite and there are two for each point. The slots for installing these are pre-cut and all you need do to install them is to cut the covering over the slots, apply some good epoxy and press them into place. I use a two part Super Epoxy for these applications because I have found in the past that it is very strong. No guessing as to placement. I used a toothpick to make sure the holes lined up while waiting for the epoxy to dry. In the case of the rudder horn I found it necessary to widen the slots a bit, at the rear of the slot, to get the horn to slide into place. A dry pre-fit is a real good idea before mixing any epoxy. Once dry you can install the titanium links with the 4-40 ball joints using the supplied hardware and nyloc nuts. Be sure not to clamp these too tight against the ball link.

[Al Lewis]

Now the engine box gives two methods of installing the throttle servo. One is a cutout in the bottom of the box itself and the other is the usual hardwood side mount which you can assemble and epoxy on the inside of the box. I choose a third method and decided to try out one of Secrafts aluminum throttle servo mounts. This cool unit can be temporarily glued in place using some CA and then permanently bolted on using the four mount holes in the legs. I really liked this and found it to be much more rigid then the hardwood mounts I’ve used in the past. The engine mounting itself, in the case of the RCGF 62cc engine, required that I enlarge the pre-existing hole in the firewall for carb clearance as I was using 2 3/8” stand-offs which would not allow the carburetor to completely clear the firewall. This would be the same using a DA or DLE engine and, in fact, I could have used 2 1/8” with the longer hub on the RCGF. Once I marked out where I needed the opening to be it was a quick and simple job to enlarge the opening using a sanding drum on a Dremel motor. There is a space for the EI battery on the floor of the fuse in front of the fuel tank and the EI itself was mounted on the right side of the engine box, on foam rubber, using tie wraps.

[Al Lewis]

I found the installation of the horizontal stab servos to be easier then past planes using this method due to the fact that they aren’t recessed as deep into the stab. Now there is another feature in this plane that I must admit I was a bit skeptical about when I first looked at it. It’s a cardboard tube that runs from the rear to the front of the fuselage to route the rear servo wires. I had visions of me trying to work them through this with a piece of wire but found that the servo extensions slip completely through them with ease. BTW for those of you using a heavy engine setup there are openings under the covering on both sides of the rear fuse for a push-pull twin servo setup for the rudder. Using the RCGF 62cc engine I found that the plane balanced at the nominal CG of 6½” from the lead edge of the wing using the pull-pull setup and 1¼ ounces of weight in the tail so I left the openings covered.

[Al Lewis]

With the engine mounted the supplied three line fuel tank made plumbing a cinch. The tank is clearly marked as to which line goes where and the installation of a fuel dot on the left side of the fuse made easy work of installing the necessary lines. I ran the vent line to the top of the tank and out of the back of the canister tunnel through two holes I drilled. The only thing left to do is to install the landing gear. The main gear is mounted via four bolts which go through aluminum angle in the fuse and are held securely by nyloc nuts. The tail wheel assembly requires only three wood screws and a drop of epoxy to mount it. One thing I was very glad to see were the fully detailed wheel pants. The cutouts are pre-existing and the blind nuts already installed making it an easy task to install the two bolts in each to mount them firmly to the CF gear.