My weekend Buppy.

Old is new again and learning has taken place.

I think I have figured out how to use the newer clear lacquer that attacked the other Wild Thing's paint. I had used the new clear as a test on two other planes to see if it was fuel proof. The lacquer didn't attack the paint on the other planes one of which was the Wild Thing I'm re-finishing.I had sprayed that plane with the first clear lacquer I had found and it wasn't fuel proof and the paint softened. When I got done with the trim color on the re-finished plane I sprayed just the trim color with the first clear. As I had already sprayed the entire plane with the first clear I didn't need to do it again. When That dried/cured I sprayed the whole plane with the second brand of clear. The paint has set for several hours now and it looks very good. I know it's fuel proof because of the test panels I did on the other planes. It's all back together and ready to fly. The weather report is for breezy conditions for a few days so test flights may take a while. The weight has increased a couple ounces but the other Wild Thing is less than an ounce difference so things should be good.

Second copy of the "Wild Thing".

The new clear lacquer I found attacked the trim colors making quite a mess. I re sprayed the colors and it looks better but not as good as it was before the clear. I am hoping that the clear will prove to be fuel proof. The clear didn't attack the black on the nose. Final weight is 33.4 ounces and the balance is on the money without any extra weight. I flew it for the first time today and it flys quite well with an O.S. .20 FP engine. I didn't try any of my engine fixes on this one and things went well. I have a "wings level" problem to sort out but that shouldn't be too hard. Our son and his wife bought a transfer printer and a vinyl cutter for graphics. They did the graphics on the new plane.

The muffler was the cure.

I put the mostly stock muffler on the engine and an APC 10 x 4 propeller. I broke the prefeered APC 9 x 4. Then I installed a normal O. S. brand needle valve assembly into my homemade venturi and the engine ran very well. i have a bunch of flights and it's running as good as it ever has. I have the new copy of the plane ready for paint. I may spray the base white later today. I found another brand of clear lacquer spray paint at Home Depot. I've been testing it on other planes to see how it reacts to engine exhaust. So far it's going well and I'm planning on using it as the top coat. I don't think the new plane will be ready for the El Dorado contest.

Got help for the engines.

I got even more help for the engine problems. I started with my go to tank the Du-Bro 4 ounce then tried to fit a metal tank but it was too long. I had cut out a 1 inch trough for it in the balsa I added for vibration. I couldn't use the metal tank so I went back to the plastic tank but now I removed more balsa so it would fit. Today I figured on trying a smaller plastic tank but I found out that it should be mounted wide side in not the narrow side like I always did. That meant even more balsa got cut out and the tank had to be re plumbed but the tank fits nicely. Pretty soon there wont be anything left but a pile of splinters.

I posted that I was having bad engine runs and got a lot of suggestions about a fix.I tried one that had me put the stock muffler on the engine and it helped a lot. I wa able to get some good flights out of it. That added a couple ounces of weight to the plane and I wasn't sure that the muffler was the cure. Today I tried the tongue muffler and that went very well where it didn't go well at all before. The only change was to use the stock needle valve set up and to turn the rpm's up to 12800 at launch. The rpm increase could have been the problem all along. Anyway I cut away some of the balsa I glued to the front to cure what I thought was the problem, vibration. I opened up an area so the fuel tank sits in it. The plane is flying very well but with all the changes and mods it looks pretty raggedy. I may have to build another using what I know about the design.

Engine run problems.

The Wild Thing flys very well. The engines (I've tried two) run great on the ground but go lean right at launch. It may be the fuel tank location and I've added a brace to hold it in place. I'll try that next time out. I had some tree branches trimmed and left as I figured I would chip them up. I didn't plan on the branches not wanting to go into the chipper. I cut smaller branches off the main branch and they went in but still gave me problems. I sharpened the cutters and figured that I could shim them to make them take a bigger bite as I feed the branches in. That worked very well and the chipping now goes a lot faster. I only used a .010 shim on the blades.

Wild Thing.

The new smaller plane is flying quite well so far. The .25 engine is plenty for the plane and I have a .20 that may be better. I'm waiting for name graphics to finish it off. I finally got sick of the old Pathfinder's raggedy looking paint scheme and stripped it off. I put on a scheme I used several years go and it looks a lot better. The Vector, for some reason, started flying very well. I had to put all the controls and balance back to where it was in the beginning. The new electric Legacy 40 is flying well also as are the two "Pixey Bob's" The first contest is in El Dorado, Ar in May. Our son got a car that had an over heated the engine ruining it. The rest of the car is in great shape. He found another car with the same engine at the local Copart yard and won it in the auction. So he got both in less than a week. Not even enough time to plan it. He will probably have the engines swapped in a week or two. He is documenting it on you tube. Search for aaron s. rose.