Still trimming.

I had put over an ounce of weight on the tail of the Oriental to bring it into balance or close to it. The weather didn't cooperate today so I was left thinking about the Oriental problem. It occurred to me that the plans show the plane with a Fox .35 engine. The Fox is very light compared to the LA .46 I put on the plane. That along with a heavy APC propeller is the problem. I removeed one of the Brodak .40's from one of the Wild Thing's. The Brodak engine is also very light compared to the LA .46. I used the wood prop that was on the Brodak and had to put a .080 spacerunder the prop to get it away from the nose of the fuselage. The Brodak is about 1/4 inch shorter in the nose. The mounting bold holes are the same or very close to the .46 and it bolted in without any problem. I weighed it after the engine swap and it's 3.5 ounces lighter. Total weight at 40.1 ounces. I may get in a flgiht tomorrow if it stops raining. I ordered some show rubbers so I don't get my feet wet in the morning wet grass. Either dew or rain the grass is always wet in the morning here.

Trim flights

I've had several sessions with both planes so far. I'm getting close to where I think the planes should be. The Nomad has a vicious turn that I'm calming down and the Oriental has a lazy turn I'm trying to turn up. I did get a pattern in on the Oriental so that is going good. The Nomad flys too fast so I have installed a prop with less pitch. It's poor weather today so there isn't any flying. The Oriental was designed for the very light Fox .35 engine and I have an engine that is 4 ounces heavier so it is nose heavy. I have added about 1.5 ounces of lead to the tail to bring the balance aft of the point shown in the plans. That sould improve the turns a lot. I also ardered some shoe covers so I don't get wet feet walking through the grass in the mornings.

First flights.

I waited 24 hours until I started to final assemble the two planes. Everything was pre made or drilled except fot the fuel tanks. I had a 6 ounce round Sullivan tank and put it on the Nomad with the S/T .51 engine. I borrowed a 4 ounce Du-Bro tank for the Oriental. I had a set of wheels for the Oriental but had to make a tail wheel out of a dowel. I knew the Oriental wing has a twist and it showed up right after takeoff. I tweaked the flaps and that helped but I put a tab on the outer wing when I got home. I also put the APC 11.5 x 4 prop back on as it needs some nose weight. The Nomad flew good as it was not a new build. The engine didn't run that well but did have plenty of power. The conversion to glow power created a tail heavy condition which I countered with an APC 12 x 5 prop over the wood prop and a stock Evolution muffler over the tongue muffler. That switch created some drilling as the muffler mounting holes didn't line up with the engine holes. Both planes are readuy for another trimming session.

Final assembly soon.

After the mess I made of the paint job on the repaired Wild Thing I ordered some urethane spray paint for the other two planes. The paint came in yesterday and the dew point dropped out of sight so I got busy and sprayed the clear coats on the last two planes. They are curing now and should be ready for final assembly tomorrow. If I can wait that long. Either way test flights next week.

Shoulda waited longer.

I wanted to use dope paint for most of the re builds. I used Rustoelum lacquer for the white on the "Wild Thing". I gave it that same trim design as the other one. When I sprayed the butyrate clear dope over the white things didn't go well. It ended up looking like a weathered paint job. When I saw that I ordered two cans of two part urethane clear for the other two planes. I flew the Wild Thing this morning and it flew well but needed some tweaking as I expected. The engine ran well but needed more elevator throw whick I took care of at home after the session. I also flew the Vector 40 which I haden't flown since March 31. I had put the Brodak 40 back in with a metal tank so I figured there would be some problems. It took a couple short flights to clear the gunk out of things and the plane was very touchy. I made some adjustments at home and flushed the fuel system. Back in March the vector was not steady in level flight. Since then I have found that lmaking the leading edge of the stabilizer pointed instead of round makes a big difference in how stable the plane is. I have tried this on others in the fleet and got very good results. I taped pieces of 1/8 diameter carbon rod to the leading edge and the Vector was nice and stable in level flight. As with the others, all 1/2 inch thick stabilizers, I glued the rods to the leading edges and covered them with trim kote. As an aside, a hawk was sitting on the baseball back stops while the field was being mowed and while I was flying not far away. I was surprised that the bird stayed so close while the other activitys were going on. The newly mowed grass gave him better hunting.

Waiting for clear.

I sprayed white dope on two planes and Rustoleum lacquer on a third for a base coat. These two are ready for clear coats when the humidity goes down enough. Thge third needs trim colors.

Good luck and bad.

Several weeks ago I was flying my prototype Wild Thing and it scufed the ground inverted. It didn't break the prop so I put it up again. A few minutes into the flight the entire nose section came off. The prop broke this time. The wing wasn't harmed so I deceided to build another fuselage, recover the wing and tail and set it up for the Brodak .40 engine instead of the smaller O.S. .25. The weights are very close with the .40 being 1.5 ounces lighter. I started on the re build when I got a Yak 9 kit from my contest and a Oriental profile kit at the El Dorado contest. I started on the Yak 9 along with the re build and then started the Oriental too. Then i bought another engine, a Super Tiger .51. I planned to put that engine in the electric Nomad. So I started to cut into that as well. I did put the Yak 9 aside for the time being. I designed an engine crutch for the Nomad that fits inside the battery tray portion of the electric mount so I didn't have to cut away too much of the nose. As of now all three fuselages are done and getting the noses fiberglassed. I stripped the paint from the Nomad fuselage as I didn't use fuel proof paint as it wsan't needed being electric. A few more coats of dope and the Oriental wing will be ready for assembly into the fuselage.