Just about ready for El Dorado.

The Oosa plane is flying well as is the Navion and Oriental. This will be the first time in a long time that I'm not using an OS.46LA engine on a contest plane.The Navion has an Evolution .60 and the Oriental has a Brodak .40. This morning I took the Oosa plane to the park to find out how much fuel to use for a pattern flight.l put in 4 .75 ounces and started the maneuvers. I got to the square eights when the air went very turbulent. I had to fly out the tank in level flight. Even then the plane was rocking in the wind. I had started a timer at engine start and it landed at 6 minutes and 45 seconds. I have 8 minutes to get the flight in so that should be enough fuel. The Evo .60 takes the same amount and the Brodak takes 3.5 ounces. I hope I do better in the raffle than I did last November. My plan is to get $10.00 worth of tickets on Saturday and $30.00 worth on Sunday. Saturday's raffle has small tools and stuff so I won't have that much to gain. Sunday has the kits and engines. A lot more valuable and useful.

Landing gear fix.

The raffle wing I used on the Oosa plane had an unknown landing gear mounting system. I didn't have the gear that was made for this wing so I substituted the gear from the J.D.Falcon. I used another set for that plane. I didn't have much hope for the security of the gear but went with it as I didn't know how it was built. \ At the park this morning I heard a sharp sound as the plane rolled out after landing. The right side gear had broken it's internal mount. At home I removed the gear and came up with a repair plan. I would install a 5/8 dowel for the gear to fit in and glue the dowel to the internal structure. I drilled a 5/8 hold where the dowel would go and drilled an 1/8 inch hole in the dowel for the gear wire to fit into. After drilling the 5/8 hole in the wing block I could see the way it was built. The gear I used was about 1/8 inch too short to work properly in that wing. With the dowel installed the wire fits in full length so it should be plenty strong. Next time out should tell. I was so pleased with the results that I did the same mod. to the left side gear. I also noticed that the flap was hitting the pushrod so I cut a bit off the flap and freed up the flap for more movement.

Third time for this wing and stab.

This plane started out as the second scratch built "Wild Thing". Then the fuselage broke off just behind the engine. The wing and tail servived so I built the "Swizzle Stunt" with the parts. That stick fuselage broke and the wing was chewed up but usable. It sat around for several months waiting for an inspiration to strike. Nothing did so I built another fuselage, repaired the wing and this is the result. I flew it this morning and it flys well with an O.S. Max-S .35 engine on it. I'll probably give it away.

New planes

The trophy McCoy .19 has a home. I put the graphics on right after the orange on the wing tips. I call it "Rat Fink", after the "Big Daddy" Ed Roth cartoon character. No special reason I just like the name. It still needs the clear coats and final assembly. I got a Super Tiger .51 from Ebay for 25 bucks. I kept the innerds from the .51 I sent out for bearings so I installed the ABC piston and liner into the ebay engine and put the engine on the plane I call the "Carpet Bagger". It had a .51 in it originally. The other plane I deceided to name it "Oosa Stunt Man" after the three names given to the three originals. The first plane ws a no name plane except it had very large USA on one wing and AMA on the other. So someone started calling it "Oosa-Amma". the second plane didn't have a name either but to be used in a magazine article it needed a name so the editor called it "Stunt Machine". The third copy the designer did name, he called it "Statesman" I actually thought about calling it Oosa Bin Laden" but didn't.

The trophy .19 has a home

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.