Taxes made me do it.

I bought a 1978 Harley-Davidson Super Glide (FX) back in 1978. Brand new. I have about 70,000 miles onit if I add up the totals on the three speedometers I've gone through. It's older than rubber mounts. Well it's really a 78 and a 1/2 model as Harley came out with electronic ignition in late 78. It has served me quite well for an AMF year Harley. A couple weeks ago I got our town tax bill and I was not happy to see that the appraised value of the bike rose from 2000 to 6000 dollars. The town is going by values it gets from some book. My 37 ford also increased but not 200% like the bike. Of course we have only one avenue of relief and that is to re-register both as "Early American" vehicles. That designation has a max. vehicle value of 500 bucks for tax purposes.And this means a trip to the CT DMV. Not a thing to look forward to. Whenever I go to buy something I manage to get the new person at the cash register. And they mess things up and have to call for help which generally is no better than the newby. That happened twice today. Once at breakfast in Norwich and again at the DMV. You can just feel the love in the DMV office. Anyway three different helpers got the price of the two class transfers down to 112.00$. I tried to keep one of the vanity plates but the newby said "were not supposed to". The vehicles just don't look right any more.

Another muffler idea

I don't know if anyone remembers what the header for an OS .61 thats made to fit an Omega pattern plane looks like. It's tilted down and back almost like a Fox tiltdown muffler. It was made this way to get around the retracting nose gear. Anyway, it was the only header that could be made to fit the Fox .45. I elongated the mounting bolt holes to the inside and ground down a washer to fit inside the pipe. The outlet hole on the stock muffler is .375 so I ran a .375 drill through the washer hole and jammed the washer into the pipe. Now the exhaust exit points at the wing leading edge. I took a piece of 3/8 copper tube and jammed it into the washer hole and the exhaust will exit under the wing. I looked at the first muffler with the straight out pipe and many holes and cut it off just above the holes. I left the washer hole alone, about 5/16 dia. and only drilled two 3/16 holes above the washer. Now I have to test them. I don't know what to expect as I've made other changes in other areas. I ordered some balsa from Lonestar and 4 gallons of 25% all castor, 10% nitro fuel from Sig. They should be coming in soon. I have to add 4 ounces of castor to each gallon to bring the oil up to 28%. That is the recommended amount of oil for Fox engines. You can't help but get a good smoke trail with that stuff.

I didn't have a picture of the new muffler for my last post so I took one.

More changes/bench trimming

I've been slowly adding tail weight to the P-51 to get more sensitive controls. I can afford to do it because of the stability. I can trade some to get the control feel I think it should have. The other day I remembered a nitro pipe set up I bought from Fox Mfg. years ago for a .40 size engine. I never used it. But now the exhaust adapter and exhaust pipe tube screw together unlike other headders that are welded. I took the assembly apart and found it would fit the Fox .45 exhaust port. Now all I need to make a very light. sort of muffler is a tube to fit into the exhaust adapter. Sort of like a tongue muffler only different. This one is free. After a short search I found some aluminum tube that I used for tuned pipe extensions on the r/c pattern planes. The tube almost fit into the threaded portion of the adapter but needed to be necked

down a bit. In my basement is a small wood lathe that has a chuck to hold small pieces of wood. I put the tube in the chuck and tightened it up. After several tightenings and fittings the tube was necked down enough to fit tightly into the exhaust adapter. Now to close up the other end of the tube. I figured the tube shouldn't be closed completely so I found a steel washer that almost fit and ground the o.d. of the washer down to make a tight fit in the tube. I used a tubing cutter to make an indent in the tube so the washer wouldn't go too far in the tube. Then I bent the end of the tube inward to capture the washer securely. I calculated the area of the exhaust hole in the stock muffler and the hole in the washer and drilled some holes in the wall of the tube above the washer to equal the area of the hole in the muffler. OOPS. A slight miscalculation on the area. Now how do I close the holes without having to make a new tube assembly.I thought about using some window screen rolled up and inserted into the tube through the hole in the washer but I couldn't get any as the neighbors were home. Then it hit me I could take a piece of a screw

clamp with the slots in it and roll it small enough to fit around the outside of the tube over the now too many holes. It worked. Making the new muffler served two purposes, it took two ounces of weight off the nose which kept me from adding weight to the tail and it reduced restriction on the exhaust which will give more power. A couple days prior to this session I got some advise on how to fix a problem I was having with the engine run when it was inverted. I was advised to lower the tank in relation to the engine. I did and it helped. I also noticed that engine vibration on the plane was causing air bubbles in the fuel feed line to the engine. Now how do I insulate the tank from the vibration and keep it adjustable. The original setup has a slotted arangement that is bolted to the plane. I made a metal tray with many holes instead of slots and hooks to rubber band the tank to the tray. I glued a piece of foam padding under the tank and when I test run the engine to check the muffler there were no bubbles in the fuel line.

Fox .29 is the answer

I got in several flights with the Ringmaster/.29 combo in very good flight conditions. The plane was more stable than ever and had lap times of 4.9 sec. at 2 cycle and 5.5 at 4 cycle. My stoodge release line was three pieces of cotton string I tied together several years ago. It always annoyed me at the distance the pin would snap back when I pulled the string to release the plane. Many many years ago I bought a set of control lines made from kevlar. They are very wide and thick compared to cables. I only used them on one flight and the drag of the lines is extreme. I remembered those lines the other day and used it to replace the old cotton, stretchy string on the stoodge. Now I just gently pull the line and the plane is off. Good move. I saw a line winder and made one of those also. a piece of aluminum a piece of dowel and two screws. It works real well and a lot faster. I'm in the process of changing the leadout position on the Ringmaster. I made a better set of adjustable leadouts but I am slowly getting back to where they were in the beginning. The Ringmaster isn't that stable, it seems to wander in level flight so I have to keep after it a lot. It will climb after leveling off after a maneuver. I like to fly the Twister after the Ringmaster as the Twister is a lot more stable all around. I'm starting work on an old "Chief" from plans I got from England. The airfoil is shaped like a polywog and is a lot of trouble to get covering to stick down to the ribs as they are undercambered on both sides. I'm going to change the airfoil to the one used on the Nobler.

If bigger is better, smaller may be boss.

I went to my r/c club flying field and found it usable for control line planes. I fired up the Ringmaster and it didn't run too well. I got a couple short flights in and concluded the .40 was too powerful. Mid 4 sec. laps. I flew the Twister and made a leadout location adjustment. I think it needs another adjustment but I'll fly it first to see. When I got home I removed the .40 and
installed a Fox .29. It has the same mounting bolt pattern as the .35. I had to fit a muffler to it and that took an hour as it isn't made to use one. An O.S. .25 r/c muffler works fine on it. Maybe I'll get in some more flights in the morning before the temp. gets too high.

More power for the Ringmaster

I must have 20 differant size r/c engines. Most of them are in an r/c plane. Makes sense. The forums I've been following sometimes refer to an r/c engine in a c/l plane. Why not. I have a well used, strong running Fox .40 r/c hanging around and the Fox .35 in the Ringmaster has been running very well. Why not remove it and install the .40? I give up, why? Because.... If something is working well add more power and it should work.... well.The .40 has a larger case where it mounts so I had to relieve the mounting area somewhat. In order to maintain interchangability I made two 1/8 inch spacers that move the engine out away from the fuse. so I wouldn't ruin the motor mounts. I bolted the spacers to the fuse. and then bolted the engine to the spacers. Now by removing four bolts I can change engines if t he .40 doesn't pan out. My preferred flying site is a grade school yard that has summer school in session. Crumb grabbers everywhere. The fall back site is a ball field quite near some houses so I can't fly as early as at the school. The temperature and humidity are quite high right now so I will have to wait for a break to test the Ringmaster. I put a pushrod anchored to the sheet landing gear leg up to the carb. to hold it wide open. After getting the c/g moved forward the Twister is flying better than ever. It still is light at 44 ounces. I wonder how an Enya .45 SS would work? Well, I'll bet.