A good outing.

I got to the dog track yesterday and the now back to stock Fox .35 with the hemi kit installed ran like it should. The weather was mid 40's with gusty winds so I didn't fly more than once. The Fox ran in a 4 cycle when level but went into a 2 cycle in maneuvers which is what I'm looking for and how it should run. The engine is quite powerful in the 2 cycle mode and the plane gains speed in the maneuvers. Time to get back the the plane for the Brodak contest. I believe you get 10 points extra if you fly a Brodak kit that's why I bought the Pathfinder. I have to test the Fox .40 I put new bearings in also. There shouldn't be any problems there.

Fox .35 saga.

After many flights and tank changes the Fox kept running at a 2 cycle and wouldn't go back to a 4 cycle in level flight. I remembered that I had done some hop up tricks to that engine about a year ago. I removed the hemi kit and put it on the other .35. I ran it today and it behaved like it should. I tried it in all the attitudes it will see in flight and it gave me the 2-4 break like it should. The other .35 now has a high speed crank I can't really use. I took out the parts from a damaged Fox .29 and the cranks looked alike. I removed the modified crank and put the .29 crank in. fit and stroke are the same. I installed it on the other kit built Primary Force and readied it for testing along with the second .35 powered PF. Cold and rainy today so I'll have to wait to test the engines.

Test flights

I got to the dog track yesterday and flew the hemi .35. It gave me trouble and I finally found that the tank was moving down after some maneuvers. I put in the supplied head shim before finding the tank problem and can't decide to remove it or not. The engine will run good in inside maneuvers but wont break into a 2 cycle in outsides. I have moved the tank up a bit but the wind is too strong today to test the change. I got the right front bearing from Fox and assembled the old .40 and ran it on the bench. I removed the $20.00 Fox and installed the old .40 to see how it runs. I opened the combustion chamber with a half inch spherical carbide burr. Should work. Looks like next week before the weather calms down for flying.

Update.

I have flown the Pathfinder and it flies well. I still need to get used to it. I just returned from a visit to LA, Nice weather and lots to do. I got in some flying with the Primary Force and won my class at the annual contest in Baton Rouge. I also helped my son solo a control line plane. All he has ever flown is R/C stuff but the transition went better than expected. I never touched the controls as he was doing well from the start. Three successful flights.
On my first flight I bounced on takeoff and shortened the prop a bit. It flew pretty good but not that good. I didn't have a prop of the same size and had to get one from Gil. I ordered 6 from Tower hobbies and took 4 home. The bearings in the Fox engine on the PF were making noise so I decided to replace them when I got home. I had one for the rear but had to order the front one from Fox along with a Hemi kit for the .35. The stuff came in today, barely a day after ordering, and the front bearing wouldn't fit. Fox is sending me another one, I hope it fits. I put the Hemi kit on one of the .35's and ran it to see how it runs. I'm surprised at the sound and performance. Just like the big boys now.
I put the Fox .25 on one of the kit built Primary Force models and flew it yesterday at the dog track. The engine isn't right yet. The plane flew very well in spite of the engine. Luckily the .25 and the .35 have the same mounting hole dimensions. I added some head shims to the .25 to calm it down and next time out I'll bring the hemi .35 too. Yesterdays weather was perfect and today it's high 40's 20 to 30 mph winds and spitting rain now and then. Maybe tomorrow.
Gil gave some head shims to put in the PF's .40 and it helped the run considerably. He said I should put in another. I have some spherical carbide burrs and took the head button and opened up the cavity the glow plug is in. This should take the place of the extra shim. I have heard of other "big boys" doing this to calm their engines a bit and decided to give it a try. I have some planes with similiar engines mounted so I can try it out in flight some day soon I hope.

Wet Sunday.

I just about finished the winter project and it stopped raining long enough to get in some ringmaster flights. The dog track is 4.7 miles from home and is used by several r/c fliers.

Rocket man.

A couple of years ago I found a model rocket with all the goodies. I bought some engines for it 2 weeks ago and went to the dog track to shoot it off today. the wind was blowing from the turnpike so I angled the launcher into the wind and up it went. It deployed the chute and landed a couple hundred feet away. I sent it up again and this time it landed on the huge pile of rubble near by. The wind kept the chute open and that kept the rocket from falling down the pile. I climbed up and got the thing and slid back down. Enough of that. The carb change is going well. I went and got a coffee the other day and it ran well. The hot rod needed a tweaking as it was starting hard. I changed some vacuum hoses and that did strange things to the carb. It started up normally today.
This weekend is the Ringmaster fly-a-thon. I should be hearing from others who will come and fly at the dog track. If not I'll fly mine alone and take a picture of the planes for posting.
I got a box of support stuff to send to LA for the contest in 2 weeks. I'll ship that out tomorrow.

Carb. change.

I've been wanting to try the Edelbrock carb. on the 350 for a while. Last week I took it apart and cleaned it out. A lot of dirt and gunk build up. I bought a hand choke cable at NAPA and put the thing on. It took a while as I had to re route some lines and make some new fittings but it finally was ready to go. It started and I tuned the idle mixture a bit to keep it running while it warmed up. I took it for a short ride and it ran well. The throttle response is much quicker than the Holley but with the hand choke I can control the fast idle better during the warm up period. That's the main reason I wanted to try it. It does require a different starting technique and I have to learn what it wants. So far so good.