Another bummer.

I was getting low on methanol to make my fuel mix. I bought it from a hardware store that also races circle track. We drove there today with my new 5 gallon jugs. They said they don't have any more and don't know when they will get some. Bummer. I used to get it froma carbruator shop closer to home so I headed there. He has some but not enough. Again bummer. I searched for methanol and prices ranged from $125 for 2 1/2 liters to $375 for a 54 gallon drum. Amazon had 5 gallon pails for $125. I figured that buying fuel from the hobby shop would make the most sense. I bought 4 gallons of 15% nitro and 2 gallons of 10% nitro. I went to the brands web site and found that the oil content is 17% for both nitro contents. I want 22% oil so I need to ad 6.5 ounces of oil to each gallon. The fuel I take out so the oil will fit amounts to 39 ounces of fuel and that will take 1.5 ounces of oil to bring it up to 22% oil. I still have over 3 gallons of my mix and enough methanol to make another 5 gallons of fuel so I should be inn good shape for the next season.

That didn't happen.

As it worked out the engine in the Carpet Bagger wouldn't cooperate and got sidelined for the electric Mo'Best. I used the Oriental for the Profiel and Classic events with the Jamison for Old Time stunt. We had a cold front pass through on Friday and for the contest the winds were very strong out of the North blowing right into the sun. I could not see the plane after it came close to the sun and almost crashed on every flight on Saturday. I have been taking a pill that helps me see better when driving at night and it also makes seeing during the day when I look at the sun when flying causeing a flash blindness. On Sunday the wind was a little lower and I managed a second and a third out of the 5 events I entered. The winds all summer were light and variable so I wasn't ready for any kind of wind. The next day and into the week after that the winds were back to light and variable. The temperature has been below average in the mornings with no rain for going on 4 weeks. I am working on the Oriental and Jamison for the El Dorado contest on Nov. 7/8. Both engines are not up to snuff and I'm trying things to fix the problem. I can get through the patterns with them but they could be better running. Both are Brodak .40's. I changed the needle valve assy. in the Oriental engine as I noticed the first one has larger spray bar holes than a spare I have. It may make a difference, I'll find out in an hour or two. The other one keeps loosening up the muffler hold down bolts. Max length bolts and carb cleaner and blue lock tight for todays test. Plus I wired the muffler to the engine. If it falls off I wont have to look for it and if it falls off at the contest I get a Zero for the flight. The sound that the tire was making on the Tundra wasn't the tire after all. It was the wheel bearing. It took the dealer two days to change it and it's quiet now. I must have put 10,000 miles on it with the bad bearing. That caused the oil seal to fail covering the wheel speed sensor to fail causing the warning lights on the dash to light up causing the anti skid and cruise control to not work along with any thing to do with brake functions.

Latest happenings.

Our grandson got married last year and this Sept. he produced a baby boy. That ment we had to go see our new great grand son, in Ct. Another and probably last drive back there. All the other trips we took 3 days. This time we figured 4 days would be easier on us. And we spent 7 days there getting the visiting done. During that time a wheel speed sensor on the rear wheel crapped out lighting up the dash like a Christmas tree. No cruise control. We made it back on time and got the truck fixed and all is well there. Now I need to get ready for the local contest and there is a storm in the gulf that is going to mess up my planned flying time. I need to get a plane ready for the profile and N-30 events and one for the big event on Sunday. I have rejected the first choice for profile and N-30 and am going with the scratch built Carpet Bagger. Which is really a scratch built Mo'Best. I need to fly it to see how it performs in the changing atmosphere and temp. I changed engines in it a while back for the better. The air is getting cooler and the planes/engines react differently than in the heat. I also am starting to use another batch of fuel and that can change things also. Hopefully the storm wont ruin too much of my flying time as the contest is next weekend.

Second engine mod.

I built this plane several years ago. I built it to have an electric motor but after several batteries failed I figured it would be better off as a glow powered plane. I collled in some maple motor mounts using some of the electric mount and battery box. I made it for the EVO .60. The Super Tiger .51 and Evo .52 and the ASP .52 would fit also. I tried all of these engines and they didn't perform well. That was mainly due to the plane being built for an electric motor and it doesn't vibrate so I didn't make the nose strong enough for a glow engine. Last week I hade had enough and ripped the maple motor mounts out and preped the nose for the alunimum rectangel tube mount. It took a lot of cutting and fitting to get the new mount to fit right and the thrust vectors to be right but I got it. I filled in around the new mount and added a half inch thick cheek piece for extra added vibration absorber. Yesterday adb today I got the colors painted and it's curing before spraying on the 2 part urethane clear.I'm going t swap the Fox 35 muffler for a lighter tongue muffler and that will bring the weight gain to a modest 1.7 ounces.It weighed 55 ounces ready to fly before I started this mod. and it should weight 56.7 after it's finished.

I can't believe it's not butter.

The weather lately has been very hot. in the high 90's, very little rain and very light wind in the morning when it's cool enough to fly. I get in two or three flights from 0700 to 0800 and head home. Without a light breeze the plane will run into it's own wake and could crash. I've lost a few that way. It is very good for trim flights so that is what I do. I've been doing a test using two part urethane clear spray paint in a can. There is a button on the bottom of the can that you hit to break a vial of activator in the can. Shake it up and paint. Trouble is most of the time you end up not using the whole can full of paint. I painted the Chief with the two part paint and right after I put the can into the fridge. 37 degrees F. I check it every week and so far it's not curing in the cold. My Yak-9 has been trimmed to fly properly, I sset it up to the way the plans said. By now the nose has been worn and holes poled through from too long bolts. I filled the holes and cleaned the nose area and sprayed two coats of Rustoleum white lacquer. I let that dry a few hours. I took the paint out of the fridge and heated some water and warmed the paint in the can. I sprayed two coats of clear on the new paint and so far it's curing normally. Now what I'm looking at is will the paint cure faster in the fridge once it's been warmed of not? I was going to fly today but I remembered that the lawn needs a bit of mowing and the morning is the time to do it.

Looks like it's a hit.

The Chief is complete and flying. I've been doing short trim flights to get more "up and down" control. I ended up with moving the elevator pushrod just about as close to the elevator as it will go without binding. I also added about 3/4 of an ounce to the tail. Today's outing, in calm air, was successful. It's ready for a contest. I did switch to a handle with more adjustment just for grins. Without the digital angle finder I wouldn't have noticed that the fuselage cutout for the wing was 3 degrees off the stabilizer. I'm glad I cut the wing cutout to equal the stab cutout. Even with the tail weight the plane is stable in level flight. I have found that to be true with all my planes. Convential thinking says that addding tail weight makes the plane wander all over the place. I've found that it makes the plane corner harder.

Hit or miss.

The weather has been poor for flying lately. Rain has soaked the parks I use and they can't be mowed until it dries out a bit but it rains again after mowing. I did buy a kit that was produced by folks in Florida that I've never herd of. All hand cut parts and a warning on the box that "above average modeling skills needed to build this kit". It should have read "exceptional skills". I had to trim over half the parts to fit, the wing ribs are still questional as far as an airfoil goes. I did manage to get it built up to paint but I don't hold much promise on how it will fly. It's a model designed in the 1940's kitted originally by Veco. My son and I welded his trailer hitch back together using my Lincoln wire feed welder. I bought it in the early 2000's at a car show in Burlington, Vt. I didn't get to use it for what it planned and it's barely been used since. It performed quite well and my son laid down some nice beads with it. He has a knack for wire feed welding. I was able to get my helmet set so I could see something during the welding. I forgot about the control that sets the darkness needed and over the years of non use it was turned all the way dark. Oh goodie it's raining again. That does keep the daytime temperature down so it has a good side. I must say that the Twister is flying very well now. Double checking everything with the digital angle meter before gluing things in place really helped. I flew it off a hard dirt surface and it bounced a lot on landing. I soldered a wire across the nanding gear legs about half way up and that stopped the bounce.