Back to square one.

I had trouble with the heater in the hot rod. I figured it was a weak vacuum signal and couldn't get the carb. port to do it's job. I put the car under the overhang I built and put the El Camino in the garage. I went out today tofix the vacuum problem and the hot rod was wet. I put a fitting into the manifold and ran the heater vacuum line to it. It took some doing to start the car but it started and the heater worked. I drove it out and took the El Camino out and put it in the third stall and the hot rod in its stall. I warmed it up real good to cook off the water. The Saturn is back outside.
I loaded up the rebuilt plane with the $20.00 engine and went to the dog track. It rained on the way but not when I got there. On the second flight it was a light sprinkle. On the third flight it was raining. I packed up and headed home quite wet. It has been raining on and off all day. It should stop early tomorrow. I'm getting ready for the Gil's contest.

Fun across the street.

When we got home from the street rod show Sun. there were people digging holes around a property line across the street. There has been a feud over the house owners parking on the barn owners property all summer. 3 times police came and had the house owners move their cars off the others property. A few weeks age the barn owner dug a line from the road towards the river. Now he has had a black chain link fence erected parallel to the road and down the big dig along the property line. The barn owner also owns a rental property on the other side of the barn and also bought and rebuilt the house is question after it burned many years ago. The present owners of the house were tenants of his until the house went up for sale and they bought it. There is some kind of problem of how they moved out of the apartment that is fueling this argument. The house owners have kept me awake until 4 a.m. several times this past summer so I root for the barn owner.

3 for 4 on ebay.

We had 4 things on ebay that ended today. 3 sold and one got re listed. No money as 2 went for $.99 and the other wasn't mine. I went to the dog track today too and got in 4 flights. Still tuning the engine, I put on another tank and still couldn't get the lap times in the range I wanted. I tried some maneuvers anyway and found that the plane flies quite well at the slower lap speeds. The engine picks up and keeps the plane flying in maneuvers. I was happy with the way it went.
The day started by getting up at 3 am. A trip to the airport and breakfast at Denny's at 5. They should change their name back to Sambo's.

Street Rod show.

We spent Fri. and Sat. in Burlington, VT. It's our yearly trek to the street rod show there with our rod. The weather was great and I didn't get any prizes so we headed home early Sun. morning. Instead of the usual ride down rte. 91 into Springfield, MA we stayed on 89 into Concord, NH. The roads are smoother and we didn't hit as much continuous traffic which is the case on 91 from central MA to Hartford or down the Mass pike to Auburn,MA. I always figured it was shorter but never proved it until today. 10 miles less. I did close to 70 all the way so I made up for the gas saving shorter mileage. The weather at home is great also.

Boned in Rhode Island.

We took a ride to Jamestown today and took in the sights at Beavertail. Nice day a little windy a good day for what I thought to be topless sun bathing. I came across a couple kinda hidden but not quite. I didn't bother them and we went around further down the shore line. Still in sight and now heavily engaged the couple were enjoying the day under a blanket.
We took a detour through the downtown area on the way out and followed the signs for the mainland. Balls. Two dollars later I was headed for Newport. Turned around and two dollars later we are headed for the mainland. RI signage sucks.
We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for a snack and then waited in line at a Hess station for cheap gas. One of us didn't want to wait so we headed home. $.30 a gallon more at home. Balls.
I figured I would mold a leading edge for the new kit I'm building. I had bought some balsa and it looked good and should bend after soaking in water. Nope. I got another piece soaking now. The fuselage is a profile and it has a lot of wood in back of the wing. I checked the plans for another model that has the fuse. cored out and did the same to this one. This mod. I'm not worried about as it worked on the other model. I'll put in a frame and sheet it with 1/16" balsa, after it dries out.

Hard work.

I finally washed the motorcycle this afternoon. It was filthy not being used this season. I had a battery charger on it while I cleaned it and tried to get it running. It took about a half hour of squirting gas in the carb. and kicking before it started. Then it ran out of gas. I put a gallon in it and ran it some more around the yard. The carb. isn't quite right yet but it runs above 1000 rpm. The idle needs some running time to get cleaned out.
The house across the street is getting cleaned up but slowly. The owner had to have his brother evicted as the house was being trashed slowly. It's a mess but looking better.

Test run.

I just finished the test on the K&B engine and it went well. It held a steady 10200 rpm and was a little rich with an 11x4 APC prop. It got one minute 15 seconds per ounce of fuel which should give me enough to do the entire AMA pattern. I'll have to bring it along next time I fly the Twister.
There is some method to my engine swapping madness. 40 size engines can use .015 size lines. Larger engines need .018 lines. This creates extra work to fly the different size engines on the same outing. I only have two planes with bigger than .40 engines, the Ringmaster 576 and the P-51. I can take those together and use the same lines thereby saving time and energy. Oh puke, I think I'm going "Green". I'll burn a tire today to make up for it.

Engine swaps.

It all started when I looked at the P-51. I had removed the Fox .45 and installed an Enya .46 a year ago of more. I took the Fox off the Stunt Pupster and the Enya off the P-51. I had to use a nut plate to get the Enya to fit the P-51 and the holes were too close to the Fox holes so the Fox would no longer fit. I put the Enya back on and now the Pupster was without an engine in it. I had built it for the Fox .40 and switched engines with the red Pupster long ago. I grabbed a .40 and with a couple of blind nuts installed it in the Stunt Pupster. To equal the weight of the .45 I added a stock muffler and called it a day for that one. On the modified Twister I had built it around a Fox .35 and then switched it for a K&B .40. I mounted it with a plate that used seperate holes for engine and mounting. I removed it and made a plate for the other Fox .40 and attached it to the nose without having to drill more holes. Now I have all but one plane with good engines that I haven't made venturis for. I got the K&B on a test board to see how it runs. Maybe I'll try it on a plane again some day.

Still trimming.

I prepared the Stunt Pupster for a flight today. I brought the regular plane also as I had made some changes to it. I added a half ounce of weight to the tail and shortened the prop, mainly because I hit the ground with it on landing and crunched the tip on one blade. I also added a third layer of nylon over the venturi. All went well but the flight times were shorter for some reason. Maybe the prop is letting it turn faster in the air. The Pupster flew well too. It has flaps and turns a bit better than the other one. The tank is home made and didn't last that long. I replaced it with a 6 ounce plastic one. The winds were very light and that gave me trouble in some of the maneuvers as I kept hitting the wake turbulance and upsetting the plane. I have to move back more under those conditions when maneuvering. I prepared the P-51 mustang I built last winter and flew a couple times. I got an Enya .46 on it with a homemade venturi. I don't know if I ever ran it. Next time out I'll bring along.

Right on schedule.

UPS brought my tonneau cover and the stuff I ordered from Tower hobbies. I put a quick coat of clear dope on the plane and went to tackle the tonneau cover. It took longer than I figured but in the end it fit. The clear dope, however, clouded over due to the humid conditions today. I'll have to wait for a dryer day to spray it again. I did get the wing covering on and shrunk down.
I went to the dog track and the winds were doing strange things to the plane. I came close to the pavement twice in the first flight and called it quits for the day.

Moving right along.

I started cleaning the replacement dashboard and it has a lot of separate assemblies. I have to be careful to keep the screws in place when I take a part off. After cleaning I replace it so it don't get lost. The dash has a layer of clay dust that is hard to remove. It just spreads around when wet.
I moved the divider wall under the lean to so I have 6 more feet of parking space for the winter. I got the El Camino transmission shifting about where I think it should. It's running well also. The tonneau cover should arrive today too. The Herculiner really holds things in place, you don't want to kneel on it though.
The old time model I built from enlarged mag. plans got painted last week and is out gassing waiting for the clear dope and monokote to arrive from Tower hobbies.
I have been practicing the complete stunt pattern lately and it's a bit raggedy so far. I hold a call card and look at the next maneuver while doing the two laps between maneuvers. I also figured out how to stop the plane from bouncing on landing. Just as it touches down or slightly before, I give it down and plant the wheels on the ground. It makes for a nice tail up wheel landing. And with a full 4 ounces of fuel I can get the whole pattern in with enough time left for a second 4 leaf clover. The $20.00 ebay Fox .40 is coming along nicely.

Getting things done.

I was left alone today with a few orders to do. I wanted to go flying earlier than usual because of the rising temperature and wind. I also needed to get the grill bottle re filled and an extra key cut for the El Camino. Not to mention my morning coffee break. I loaded the plane on the El Camino and headed for the coffee shop. Nothing much happening there. I went to the dog track and got in two flights. I tried the outside square loop that starts at 45 degrees up and noses over at the ground. Made it. Then I tried the horiz. sq.8 and got through that. I added a vert. 8 and got through that one too. Those are the only maneuvers, the squares, that I haven't tried. I need to get enough fuel to do the whole pattern, 5 minutes, with a 45 sec. min. cushion. I have a 4 ounce tank and three ounces gives me 4 and a 1/2 minutes. I'll try a full tank and see how much time I have. 6 and a 1/2 minutes will be perfect. I put a plastic tank on the plane after yesterdays session and the inverted engine run is much improved. Lap times are in the 5.0 something range, just right.
On the way home I stopped at the nearby NAPA store because brother Roy said they cut keys. I haad one cut and it worked well. I put it on my key ring. I loaded the gas bottle in the car and went to T&S and got it filled. I switched cars and headed for Groton for lunch with my wife and grandson. Picked up 6 jugs of table wine and came home. The temp. is up so I'll just watch the owner of the land across the street clean out the place. He dumped a lot of large wood there several years ago and is clearing all the weeds and wood up. The Hoyts have moved out, now if they will clean their yard the area will be half decent to look at.

Stupid computer.

Anyway, I went flying at the dogtrack today and on the second flight there was a car not too far away. It turned out to be Dave Miller and his father. They were working not to far off and heard the engine and came to investigate. I had talked to Dave last week and he said he never saw a c/l plane fly. Today he did. He flies r/c a bit at the track also. I heard him talking yesterday about a drag car he painted for $10,000.00 that crashed at Epping, NH over the weekend. The owner had insurance on it so it won't be too bad a hit. I figured out how to stop the plane from bouncing on landing. Just as it touches down I give it down elevator and it sticks. I haven't tried it on grass yet. It may nose over.
I ordered a tonneau cover for the El Camino today. It's vinyl with an aluminum frame and it lifts up like a fiberglass cover. The new bed liner works well, it has a lot of traction and things don't slide around. I also tweaked the vacuum modulator to raise the shift points and that worked out OK. The fast idle cam on the carb. sticks a bit on cold starts so it needs some re working too. I may try the other carb. for the heck of it.

Dave has never seen a control line plane.

Dave has never seen a control line plane.

Good labor day.

The labor day party went well. I moved the cars out of the garage and the El Camino starter didn't work properly. When I moved it back a few days later the starter acted up again so out it came. I got and installed a new one yesterday.
I got in a couple flights yesterday also and I took a tank off another plane that was working right and put it on the one with the $20.00 engine. Big difference. The engine started and ran very well until the fuel line fell off the spray bar nipple. Of course the plane was close to inverted and having learned about trying to bring the plane to upright in this situation I kept it inverted and landed it on the canopy and fin. A little balsa loss that's all. For the future I put wire skids over the damaged spots.