Proj is set back by over a week due un-forecast events viz. the monsoonal rain the drive South was subject to last Saturday meant that the spray from the road surface infiltrated every part of the machine. Beside the electricals this included the motors, which ingested the grit at the same time. The whole circus had therefore to decamp, as the chances of a motor shorting out and the disastrous effect that this might have on the batteries could not be countenanced.
Lost the battle but not the war therefore, and back at the workshop I turn the setback to advantage as ever with a few mods. Principally they involve dropping the seat lower and ~ while leaving battery-packs under the seat ~ reverting to attaching the motors and propellers to the underside of the frame. The 'bed-knobs' I leave in place so that the machine is easily inverted to accommodate this fitment (whilst also protecting the angular foot-rest during the same procedure).
The paint needs touching up, but that's the cherry on the icing. Important thing is that the finished article will look slicker. I tried suspending batteries below the flight-deck too, but decide against it. Basically anything heavy such as batteries are altogether harder to suspend than say the avionics. And whilst there are not many machines out there with underslung avionics, there's nothing quite like trying and at the same time I'd like to see if the computerised flight-controller works inverted.
The way that things are made needs constantly to be addressed so that costs are kept to a minimum. The Apple laptop I'm using was designed so that its components could be dropped into the frame from above, eliminating the detachable underside featured on every inferior device prior... and that's design for you.
Weight of what you see in the photo incidentally is just 14.80 kilos all-in.
