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I started building a model of the old "Chief" , the one in the middle, several weeks ago. I got the plans from England off ebay.While I was doing that I read an article on engineered wood on clstunt.com and got to thinking how about and engineered wood profile fuselage. I laminated lite ply and made a maple engine crutch and covered the whole thing with balsa.The model on the right. The wing is a Nobler unit with a different wing tip. The object waqs to make a profile fuse. that is as stiff as a built up fuse. I had a piece of maple from Woodworkers warehouse sitting nearby and I got the idea to make a profile fuse. out of that. The maple is 1/2" thick just right for a profile fuse. I cut out the fuse. core from it and rimmed it with balsa to get the shape I wanted. I then drilled many holes to lighten the thing. I built up the fin and rudder from sticks to save tail weight. Poking more holes in it. I built the wing from the Nobler root airfoil making a straight wing with no flaps to keep it simple. I sheeted the fuse with 1/16" balsa from the nose to just behind the wing and 1/32" balsa from there to the tail. I added a 3/8" balsa tripler to the left side of the nose and 1/16" ply to the right side, where the engine will mount. When I mounted the engine, a converted Fox .40, I drilled two sets of holes so I could move the engine to get the right balance without having to add nose weight. The fuse. on the table shows the fuse. drilled and sheeted on one side. Projected weight, ready to fly, will be around 40 ounces. Pretty light for a hard wood airplane I think. Most balsa planes of this size, .40 powered and 55 inch wing span, come out around 50 ounces. Now I have three planes to paint and cover. On another topic but related, there is a contest in Baton Rouge and the C.D. lives on Meadowwood Dr.
Perry Rose

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Weekend in Vermont

Way back when I was playing airline pilot I was based in Burlington VT. My wife went to school with a lady that had moved to the Burlington area in the late 60's. I was there a couple of years when the National Street Rod Assn. started holding a national rod show there. I ended up building the rod pictured in an earlier post in 1997. Anyway this past weekend was the annual Northeast Nationals at the Champlain Valley fairgrounds. I left Moosup friday morning and arrived around 2:30 pm that afternoon. Hot rods every where. The best weather ever. And I bought a new Lincoln 180 wire feed welder and a wiring kit for a project car this winter. My car is not too big and fitting all our stuff and the welder, which isn't that big, into it was trying at best. The vendor helped me get the welder in behind the seat. But then he had to go back in and get the s/n for the bill. He managed to shut the passenger door and jam it on the seat back. When the door was opened the cable pull to the bear claw latch failed. We made it home using the driver door. I removed the door panel and replaced the cable with a rod. I have to do the drivers door some day because it will fail also. I have a set of Dakota Digital gauges in the car and they have been updated and calibrated a couple of times. The water temp. gauge has been reading in the 150 degree range since the last calibration and I didn't place any stock in the reading. When I got home today I opened the radiator cap and stuck two analog temp. gauges in the water. They both agreed around 160 degrees. I turned on the ignition switch and the Dakota Digital gauge agreed with the other two. 70 mph going up mountains and the big Chevy 502 peaks out at 160 degrees. I didn't believe it until today.

A use for the new school

I never had a use for school new or old. But in the town of Sterling, where I was born and raised, they built a new grammar school. It's out of the way and has a paved running track about a quarter mile long and a ball field and a soccer field. The track infield is paved also for about two thirds of the infield making it ideal for flying model airplanes. I've only tried control line models so far but r/c models will work too. 3.8 miles from my house it's a no brainer. I duffed in the Twister and the Ringmaster so far. In the horizontal eight the Twister scraped the fin and canopy causing minor damage and the Ringmaster bellied in today. I don't think the balance is right on that one. It is jumpy in flight. Again minor repairs.