With holes enlarged and "joined" I then fitted the flap control rods and checked for interference. Once I realised that the lower control rod end actually nests inside the fuselage with flaps fully retracted, well, then I could understand why the side of the fuselage needed to be cut out....to allow room for the rod-end bearing to pass. Again, I cannot find anything in the instructions or drawings that identify this. What am I missing??
I used a die grinding bit in my cordless drill to enlarge the holes in the right spots, before then reinstalling and adjusting the rod lengths so that the flaps nested neatly against the fuselage underside when fully retracted.
I then thought I'd check my initial control stop positions that I entered into the VP-X. If I reference the fully up position as 0 degrees, then first stage of flap is 17 degrees, and full flaps is 30 degrees. My aim was for 15 and 30 degrees, so only a small adjustment on the VP-X settings is all that's required. Pretty happy with that.
I then just played for a while. I do love the one-touch operation that the VP-X provides. One touch down on the flap switch and they drive to the first stage. A second touch and they go to full flaps. One touch up and they fully retract. When the flap motor is driving then a single tap on the switch in the opposite direction will cause the flaps to stop where they are. I love it.
Picture is upside down, but you get the idea of how the flap control rod end nests inside the fuselage
