More changes

After flying the P-51 and Twister I had to make some wholesale changes. The Twister flew like it did new but that was not steady. It acted like it was tail heavy, quite jumpy in level flight. Unlike the P-51 which was rock steady inlevel flight. I found an old nylon control horn that is over an inch long. I removed the bolt and installed the horn on the flaps. The pushrod from the bellcrank went into the top hole and the elevator pushrod went into a hole that gave very close to 1 to 1 deflection. Close to 30 degrees up and down for flap and elevator. I found the c/g about where it should be but I wanted to move it further forward. I found a pair of 3 inch wheels and replaced the 2 inch with them. That moved the c/g slightly forward. Very old Perfect wheels. Then after much figuring and head scratching I installed a very old Veco 2 1/4 inch aluminum spinner. The Fox prop shaft is quite short and won't accept a plastic spinner. All together the changes should soften the controls and have brought the c/g up to the spar. On the P-51 I had to figure out why the engine slowed way down like it did. I didn't find any dirt or debris in the fuel system. I removed the needle valve and put a piece of fuel tubing over the threads and replaced it. I made up a new tank. A 4 1/2 ounce uniflow style, wedge shape, and installed it. Hopefully this will fix the engine run. I'm not ruling out the fact that the engine is new and maybe just cranky. Muffler pressure is a possibility too. I think I'll look for an article on trimming on the Pampa site or Stuka stunt.

I flew the rebuilt and modified Twister the other day. There was a pretty strong wind, for a test flight, and the wind was boiling off some trees causing much unwanted turbulance. I used the first Fox .35 I ever bought on the model. It has to be 40 years old and hasn't been run in 39. I used the new 60 foot lines and the new stoodge. All new and untried things is a recipe for disaster. The Fox started right up but needed a glow plug change. I had a 10x6 wood Zinger prop for the test flight. 15% nitro and 28% oil Red Max worked really well. The model was very sensitive on the controls and the wind knocked the model around a lot. I didn't dare try anything but level flight because of the conditions. Lap times were 4 and a 1/2 seconds and
my homemade uniflow tank gave a consistant engine run with a slight speed up a half lap before stopping. I packed up and left after the flight. I put an APC 11x4 on to get the lap times up to the 5 second range. I also added a longer bolt to the flap horn to get the geometry back to where it was before the crash and soften the control a bit. I reduced the line spacing from 4" to 3 1/2" by raising the down line 1/2". I found that I can't move my wrist in the up control as much as I can for the down control. Some calm morning I will try the Twister again. The new stoodge worked as planned but the thin board is too flexible. As soon as I make a new one with metal hinges I'll feel better. I must get up the nerve to fly the P-51 some day too.

My old stoodge won't work with a tail wheel so I made this from a piece of 1/8" pressed paper wall board. Tape is the hinge now and a double shear thing holds it upright against the stab. I drilled two holes for the steel tent stakes to hold it in place. A tug on a string pulls the wire pin and away it goes. At least that's the plan.

I finally got the new longer control lines. Not being ready to use I had to make the ends. I made them like the instructions said but I had to make a crimp tool first. I took two pieces of 1/16" wire and a small pair of visegrips and put the copper tube between the wires and squeezed with the visegrips. It took a little practice to get the feel of the crimp.

This is a shot of the control set up. I put a pair of Robart surface deflection things on elev. and flap at 2" from the hinge line and found that up had 1 to 1 travel and down had 1 to 5/8 travel elev. to flap. So I changed it . I wanted to bring the pushrod clevis' closer to the hinge line so I made this flap horn from copper sheet. I bent it around a 4-40 bolt using a vise and vise grips. I drilled holes and with the T.L. A.R. method I installed the horn on the flap bolt with a lock nut. Control movement is closer to 1 to 1 now. I can change it if I feel the need. But what do I know.

Control line planes have always had a flap horn that served as a way to get control from the bellcrank through the flaps to the elevator. If the model didn't have flaps it didn't matter. The horn always had the holes for the clevises in a line. This method uses a bolt through the flap leading edge and two plastic horn brackets facing in opposite directions as yopu can see. I checked travel of the elevator and found it to be the same in up and down. The horn on the elevator points in the opposite direction of the flap horn and cancels out any differential travel.I have yet to try this system in flight as I'm waiting for longer lines to fly with. The model in white is the modified"Fancherized Twister". It's also the one with the new flap horn set up. I was concerned about the c/g but as I added engine and tank the c/g came out just about where it should be. The other is the profile version of Pat Johnston's P-51. This is also waiting for longer lines to come in. The color scheme is from one of the Tuskeegee airmen units of WW2.

The Fancherized and Roserized Sig Twister.

After losing the Twister in a power off one point landing and reading about the Fancherized

Twister I set about adding my two cents worth. I added two inches to the wing center

section as it was in pieces from the crash. I also added adjustable leadouts ala Fancher

article. The fuse. was made new and three inches longer as in the article. I angled the

fuse. rear down towards the fin as I didn't care for the Fancherized fuse. shape. I kept

the new fin/rudder shape though. Another bit of advice I used was to make the stab.

and elevator thicker, which I did. 1/4 inch thick. I added a 3/8 thick block to the insideof the nose for support ala article and I sanded the thing ala article too. It workedvery well. I used lite ply on the nose doublers and in the engine mounting area I pokedmany pinholes in the lite ply then applied three coats of thin CyA to harden the soft wood.I also ran the engine bearers back to the wing cutout. I used the Sig supplied three piecelanding gear wires. Not being able to leave well enough alone I added 3/8" to each wing tipfor a total wing span of 50 3/4 inches. I found that rustoleum has a spray can of lacquerclear. I put on two coats on the fuse. light sanded and brushed on a coat of thinned

spackle. I'm going to give it one more coat of lacquer and then paint. Monokote for the

wing and stab so I can use monokote hinges as the leading edges of the flaps and elevator

are hardwood dowels. I liked the picture of the 19 pointer on the forum so I plan to do

something like it.

Why is this double spacing on me? The wing looks a lot longer than it really is.

The Fancherized and Roserized Sig Twister.

More Pics.

I'm still trying to get used to this stuff. Here is a few more shots of my fleet of control line models. The P-51 was built from an article in Model Avaition mag. It is supposed to have

a full fuselage but I didn't want to take the time so I made it a profile. Too many WW2

fighter models have invasion stripes so I used a color scheme from one of the Tuskeegee

airmen units. The ones in the group photo are a Ringmaster from original Sterling plans

I got from the AMA plans service,Fox .35 power, the one with the kite shapes on the

wing is a scaled down and profile version of a "Strathmoor". A early 60's design. Fox .15.

And the half-A from hell. A copy from M.A.N. early 60's. I'm going to try to put one more

photo in here. It worked, I think. Now it's double spacing on me. The fuselages on the rack

are bottom to top, The Beachcomber, Prettner's Curare a fg/foam kit, The Sultan, The

Taurus, The Reb, The Boxer from plans from Salient Designs. Standing are the Astro Hog,

The Deception and The Panzer another f/g and foam kit. Other than the Boxer, Curare and

Panzer all were made from M.A.N. plans I enlarged out of the mag. I needed something to

do when I retired and this fit the bill nicely. Many models are legal for Old time pattern

contests and Senior Pattern contests. Luckily for me there are no contests of this type

near enough to here. All dressed up and no where to go. Ya hoo.

Flap horn set up.

A 4-40 screw through the flap with a washer under the head
and an elastic stop nut holding the screw on the flap. Two
DU-BRO 3/32 E/Z Adjust horn brackets for the bellcrank
and elevator pushrods. I've used this style with great success
on R/C pattern planes but this is the first for a double on a
u/c plane. Anyone else tried it?

Trial run

I tried to get some pictures on here but we will see.