Two looking for three.

So far I've run two of the three engines. I need a front bearing for the third and rear covers for two of the three. I timed 3-1/2 ounces in the latest one and got 6 minutes or run time. Not too shabby. I have one plane without an engine and one on the drawing board. I may get the stuff from Fox on Saturday.

Stuff came today.

I went to the dog track this morning and got in a check needle setting flight. 5.5 sec/lap. Close enough. Then it rained off and on for a couple hours. Awful humid.
I found I didn't have the right front bearing for one of the re built engines. Then I founb I didn't have enough rear covers. So I called Fox and ordered the parts. I told the phone lady that if she thought of anything else I needed to just throw them in the box.
I was up stairs and went to get the mail and there was a box at the door. The UPS guy had come and gone and I missed him. Anyway I got enough parts to assemble 2 engines. Well, one without a rear cover. I put the plain bearing engine together and ran it for 7+ minutes. It ran well and miserly for 3-1/2 ounces of fuel. I started to put the other one together but the temp. up stairs is climbing and I gave up. All it needs is to put the only rear cover on.
I'm pretty sure I've settled on a fuselage shape for the new plane with the foam stab./elev. and foam wing. I am in the process of molding some balsa for the turtle deck behind the canopy.

Good weather.

We went to the dog track this morning and I got in 4 flights. 2 with the Padre and 2 with the Super 80. I had made more changes to the 80 and removed the trim tab on the wing as it was straight and didn't look like it was doing anything. The plane flew quite well until I inverted it and saw the wing high. I put another tab on when I got home. I tried the two tanks I got last week on the Padre. Neither holds as much fuel as the old one. They do hold more than enough to fly the pattern. They must be removing the tanks from the mold machine too fast or something to make them shrink a bit. I tried heating a spare tank and pressurize it to make it bigger but it wouldn't work.
I did order a battery from denniskirk.com. I need to run the Harley now and then to keep the oil out of the chain case. Should be here in a week.
The order from Fox is still en route. It was shipped last Friday.

On line shopping site.

After the success of moving leadouts forward on the flite streak I moved them forward on the Super 80. What a difference. I removed all the engine off set when I got home and hope to test that change tomorrow. I got new tanks and tried one today. It don't hold as much as the old one I've been using. I'm surprised there is that much of a change inthe same line of tanks. I got the other new on and will test it as soon as possible.
Roy stopped by today and told me about his new tires and seat on his HD. $50.00 each for the tires. Denniskirk.com he said. I looked it up and found some good prices on batteries but no acid. Kinda makes sense though.
I called Fox and my order had shipped Friday. I made another order for the parts I need for the third engine. Maybe tomorrow the first one will be in.

Not yet.

Nothing from Fox today.
I brought the Flite Streak to the dog track this morning and got in a flight in calm winds. It finally flys well.
The fuel tanks I ordered at the hobby shop came in today so I drove an hour and got them plus a few other things.
I started drawing a fuse. for the new stab. and it's taking shape.
We went fishing at Porter pond and I cought a tiny pickerel and Kyle got two small blue gills. It was raining lightly the whole time.

So far so good.

I went to the dog track with the Flite Streak this morning and got in one flight. The plane flew quite well even in the breezy conditions and turbulance. I'm on the right track finally. My order from Fox wasn't in the mail today.
I noticed the lawn mower not cutting evenly lately. The right side of the mower deck was lower and leaving a stripe as it cut. I gave it a look see this morning and found the right side supports that attach the deck to the tractor were broken off the deck. I pulled about 6 pins and pulled the deck out from under the tractor and set about welding the support back to the deck. Lots of things in the way but I got it welded on. I cut two pieced of sheet metal and welded them to the support and deck, like a brace. I mowed the lawn and it looks much better. In a few days the grass will tell if I got the height set right to the tow behind mower. It should be close.
I had a set of foam cores that go to a pattern plane designed by Ed Avena about 20 years ago. I took the stab. cores and sheeted them and will build a plane with an airfoil stab./elevator. I'll use the Cardinal wing I sheeted a while ago and build a new fuse. for them when the weather cools off a bit. The airfoil stab. is supposed to make the plane more stable.

Get the saw!!

I made more changes to the Flite streak this morning. I removed the washer that offset the engine thrust line,moved the leadouts forward a bit. sealed the hinge gap, tweaked the engine into a bit of down thrust and moved the pushrod from the middle hole in the bell crank to the inner hole. Zero to minimal flight difference. I had noticed that the controls were rubbing on something and couldn't see what it was. When I got home I cut into the wing tip and trimmed a little wood so the leadout guide would move a bit more forward. Then I saw the spot the leadout was rubbing on so I cut away some more balsa. Now the leadout was touching the next rib down the ling so I cut some more covering off and trimmed that rib too. One more time and the controls are free. I installed a patch over the wing and re set the leadout guide for the next time out. Hopefully this fixes the hunting problem. I'm still waiting for my stuff from Fox.

Cheap grass killer.

The grass and weeds at the dog track is dying. I mixed a few more gallons with more oil in it. I gave the weeds that were still green a heavy coat of stuff. I tried the Flite Streak again and it still flys badly. I got one other trick to try and that is to seal the elevator hinge gap. If that don't work I'll have to put the saw to it. I think I have made the Fox ,40 crank case usable. I'll be able to use a strap on tongue muffler. I have to get a new rear bearing for it. It uses a common R-8 bearing and Fox sels them but I didn't order one.

Did the right thing.

I tried to order parts on line from Fox. After a half hour I gave up. The site didn't know my e-mail and then it did. Over and over I tried to get it to work. I had Ma try it on the I-pad with a new e-mail and it went through. Hopefully by weeks end I'll have enough parts to make two .40 size engines.

Breakfast and a cow show.

I've been having problems with a Fox .40 on the big ringmaster lately. I changed tanks and got nowhere. I removed the spray bar and saw something inside so I put the brake cleaner to it and it vanished. Same thing again. I removed the spray bar and the thing was still inside. I put a torch tip cleaner through the bar and the thing was no longer there again. I looked at the cleaner and it wasn't there either. I looked at the exit end of the spraybar and theree it was. A tiny piece of fiber that would plug up the outlet hole in the spray bar and mess up the fuel flow. I flew it this morning and it went like the one on the Padre. I put a filter in the line too. I thought I had fixed the Fox .40 that I broke off a muffler lug but the JB weld didn't hold. I tried a different fix but it sould require some close machining and I don't have the tools to do it. I will order a new crank case from Fox on Monday along with more castor oil. I have parts from another .40 and may get a second crank case for those parts. This one is a plain bearing or bushing and the others are ball bearing engines. For the price of one engine I'll have two.
At breakfast this morning Ma sat facing the window. As I was eating she said there is a cow out side. Sure enough someones cow was walking along the side walk trying to get in. Luckily ol' bossey didn't have to go and spared somebody the cleaning of the area.

Might rain today.

We went to the dog track this morning. The weeds are having a time with the oil residue. I got in 3 flights with the Padre. I read a post on what to do to fix a plane that wanders (hunts) up and down as it goes around the circle. One of the more knowledgeable replies said to move the leadouts foreward a bit. I moved the leadouts of the Padre forward a bit and the plane didn't hunt nearly as bad as it has. It would start a climb going into the wind and a dive going down wind. I was constantly correcting for it. In todays wind the plane was stable all around. The reasoning is to get the fuse. more in line with the flight path.
I went to the plumbing store and got a thing called a shark bite coupling. I wanted a union so I could bypass a leaking shut off valve while gluing some pipes together but they didn't have one. I guess it works on the same principle as the fuel injection connectors on some cars. Just stick the pipe in the fitting and it's sealed. Push on the right place and it comes apart. $5.00 dollars vs $1.50.
I'm waiting for the forecast rain to start but it don't look good. Maybe tonight we will get some.

New weed killer trial.

I mixed some many years old kerosene with a quart of drain oil and headed for the dog track. The sky clouded over as we got to the track and helped a lot keeping the temps down. I sprayed 3 gallons on the weeds growing in the asphalt cracks. The Bayer weed killer made no change to the weeds at all. If this blend don't work I'll have to get some agent orange. I drained the Kerosun heaters as the fuel in them is as old as the stuff I mixed.
I have to get a new saw chain or have the old one sharpened I don't know which. Maybe both.
I've just about concluded the grass trials at the new school. I have wheels that are big enough to keep the plane from tipping up on it's nose but not too big as to look stupid. It's a major points loss if any part of the plane, other than the wheels, touch the ground during landing. The Pathfinder works very well with the trike gear. It flys pretty good too.

All cleaned up.

I went to the new school this morning and tested the new tank. It went well until about half the fuel load was gone then the engine sped up. I think it is because the tank is moving around so I put more elastics on it. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

I got to scraping, sanding , priming, painting the wheels and clear coating the hub caps. They look a lot better now.

Rims and tires.

I went to the new school again this morning and got in two flights with the pathfinder. The trike gear works very well on grass.

I went to Brooklyn and got 4 tires and rims with the donut spare this afternoon. I cleaned them off a bit and took some pictures of the worst ones. Should be good for the duration.

88 at 1030 am.

We went to the new school at 0830 and I got in 3 flights before the heat got too bad. I flew the Pathfinder as I had re installed the trike gear. I bent the nose gear straighter to give more prop clearance and bent the mains to the rear to keep it from tilting on the tail with no fuel. The changes worked well and I got in two partial patterns as I couldn't get enough fuel in the tank. The overflow tube was split lengthwise for a half inch. I took it apart and covered the split with fuel tubing. The Flite Streak flew horribly yesterday with the c/g set to the plans. I put it back and it still flys poorly. I added a Higley heavy hub but the temp. kept me from trying that change. What is strange is that the other Flite Streak flys so well. I built them both the same. I checked the alignment of the wing and stab. and it's not off too much. About a half degree so I cut under it and added a wedge to bring it into alignment. But that didn't help. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler a bit.
I've improved my horseshoe game a bit. I don't do any back swing and I get more ringers like I used to. This way I'm forced to throw the shoe higher and farther to reach the stake. I'm almost at the bottom of the league and need more ringers to climb up.

A.M. flights.

I'm heading for the new school in Sterling shortly and a person from the Boston area should meet me there. I went there yesterday and someone was hitting golf balls through the space I wanted to fly in. I ended up at the dog track. I hope to get there first today. The new guy don't want to fly off pavement at all but there is a lot of grass to choose from. I'm still trimming the Snow Fox and am getting close. I had to reverse the flap horn to get more down control. I built it like the plan, I think, and had more up. The pushrod holes were in front of the hinge line so I moved them in back of the line and things were better. I put 3 inch wheels on it to keep it from tipping up on the nose on grass but haven't tried them yet. Looks stupid. The second Flite Streak flies like crap and I re-set everything to the directions yesterday. I'll try that today too.
We went to Jereme's to visit with Neal for a while last evening. The usual fare for a cookout. Beer, tequila, wine, explosives.