When I got the trophy McCoy .19 running I had to build a plane for it. I made up some ribs and put together a 30 inch wing of 221 square inches of area. The fuselage is totaly designed by the T.L.A.R. method or "That Looks About Right". The tail is from the Vector 40 but cut down. I bent the landing gear wire like the older kits had. One piece that was installed through the wing cut out in the fuselage before the wing was installed. I forgot that part today and had to force the gear into position with the wing glued in first. The gear went in without messing things up. The nose is drilled for the .19 engine and the O.S. LA .25 and FP.20 will fit into the rear bolt holes. The front holes interfeer with the McCoy's front holes so I installed two inserts to be uses with a strap to hold the .20 and .25 engines in place if needed. I plan to fly it off the cul de sac circle next to my house. I have to get some Spider wire fishing line or equivilent rather than use up some valuable .015 cables to make the short lines. The finish will be my usual style using Brodak butyrate dopes and clear and thinner like I did on the "Wild Thing".

Time to go.

I got the chance to spray the clear today. Humidity was down a to reasonable levels and I had the new clear and thinner. I finished the color trims yesterday, the clear today and tomorrow I'll put it back together and get ready for a test flight.

Disaster repair.

I wanted a plane small enough to fly in the circle at my house. (The plane at the top of the top photo is the one being worked on. The bottom photo is that plane with the paint stripped off.) The plane ended up too big but it flew quite well. As I was painting it I used some Rustoleum lacquer and Dupli-Color engine paints tha I have been using for a few years with good results. I found some Rustoleum clear lacquer and used that for the clear coats. It was a lot cheaper than the 2 part urethane I was using. The color coats crazed when I sprayed the clear. Not the normal bubbling or fine cracks but large cracks that went through the color coats down to the covering. Ugly didn't do it justice. I finally got the ambition to strip the paing off the plane and re paint it with dope. I got the base white on today and I have to wait for it to cure before adding the trim colors.I have to get the right thinner and more clear butyrate dope before any more painting. I think the hardware store thinner I'm using is causing the gloss colors to turn into flat colors.

Wing repair.

One find day, or night, the plane slipped off of it's hanger and fell down onto a hand truck handle. That made a big dent in the wing leading edge. I set it aside until I could figure out how to repair it. This is what I came up with. I trimmed the damaged wood away and replaced a 4.5 inch piece of leading edge. Then I glued inside the wing sheeting pieced of balsa to make a bed for the final layer of balsa so that it would be at the same level as the original wood. Some spackle to fill the viods folowed by a layer of silk span doped on. Several more coats of dope then two coats of color and it's done. As far as I'm going to take it anyway. I put the engine back in and got in two flights with it and the repair held up. The plane is a dog because I built it way too heavy. At least 12 ounces over what it should be. Even with a .60 in the nose it's not what it could have been. I took the engine back out and hung the plane up in the garage.

Changes to the changes.

I built the last two planes for the Super Tiger .51 engine. I tried to change the bearings but I couldn't get the crankshaft out. i called and sent it to the person who re worked it in the first place and maybe he can get the crank out and new bearing in. While waiting for the engine to be returned I tried two methods of installing the beloved OS .46LA engine in the planes. The motor mount is wider than the OS engine and had to be shimmed closer for one trial and i used 3/16 pads for the second method. Both required the installation of threaded inserts into the wood mount beams. The smaler engine pulls the plane through the pattern with authority so I'll prpbably keep the .46 in the plane. I may have to as I had to use blue loctite to keep the bolts from vibrating loose and falling out in flight. The newest new plane, a loose copy of the Oosa Amma/Stunt Machine/Statesman in profile. The original designer built three copies and the first didn't have a name, the second was named by a magazine publisher as it didn't have a name either but needed one for the article and the third was called the Statesman. I can't think of an oppropriate name for the profile so it will stay without a name also. I did copy the paint scheme as best as I could from a magazine black and white photo.All i know about the wing is that it will fly. How well and how long remains to be seen. It's was a raffle prize. Today I hope to spray on the clear coat as the humidity is down for a few more days.

USA AMA (almost) profile.

I won a built and sheeted wing at the local contest in October. I had a magazine size plan of a plane called Stunt Machine but bettter known as USA AMA or Oosa Aama. It had the letters on the wings in huge type that just begged for the other name. Which the designer hated. Bob Hunt built a copy in honor of the designer and published the plans in a magazine centerfold with a scale. I used them to come up with a profile fuselage shape and the twin rudders on the stab. ends.The wing shape isn't right but it's what I have. I'm planning on using the Super Tiger .51 engine on it. That engine is on the New Plane now. I'm also figuring on using an O.S. .46LA. It may be light enough when done.

Another new plane.

This is the one I made from the extra set of ribs that came in the J D Falcon kit. The fuselage is a copy of the Mo'Best as the ribs are close to ones from that plane. I got a short window of low humnidity today and the temp was right so I took the oppurnity to spray the urethane clear. I puty all the pieces on the scale and it should end up at 53 ounces. I won a complete wing with flaps in the raffle in the Zacharyt contest last month. I drew up a fuselage for it based loosely on the old Stunt Machine design. I need to get some 1/2 inch and 3/8 balsa to get that one started.