Some progress.

I have the Padre flying pretty good again. I had to tweak the flaps to get the wings level and setting the engine took several flights. I got in 3 flights this morning and it's doings 5.4 second laps. I added a bit more tip weight and got more line tension overhead. Flying in the rain didn't do it any good. I cut the elevator travel down a tiny bit and hope to test that tomorrow morning. I have readied the Ruffy for the contest in Wrentham, MA next weekend. I may try the Ringmaster in old time stunt and the Ruffy in classic stunt. I have to get both in the air. I ordered a battery that straps on to the electric starter to get the inverted engines going without turning them upside down which takes two people. I also gave the Ruffy a coat of the clear wheel coating. Maybe good enough for another point for appearance.
The El Camino is running good with the new distributor. I tweaked the timing up until it ran the way I figured it should. No bumping on hot starts so I can tweak it more if I want to.

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Scuffed one up a bit.

I went to the dog track and got in 4 short flights with the Padre and 4 with the Snow Fox. I was mainly trying to get the engines running at the right speed and slowly came close. The wind was picking up and the turbulance was significant. Both planes wobbled around the circle as I made changes to the needle settings. The 3rd flight on the Snow Fox the engine vibrated the plane off track and pointed into the circle a bit. When I pulled the release the lines went slack and cought a weed. The plane flopped onto the ground and scuffed the chin under the engine. Luckily I had removed the stock muffler and put on a tongue muffler so there was no other damage besides the chin scuff and the broken prop.
The wheel clear seems to be holding up after the first outing but that can change after repeated use. I even sprayed the Fox an hour before flying and the paint stuck pretty good. I also painted the Jeep wheels.

Ready to go.

If the winds are reasonable I'll head to the dog track with the Padre for some test flights. I've looked into the archives and figure the Snow Fox is next in line so I got it out and cleaned it up a bit. I took a picture of the Padre and Ringmaster that were re painted lately. I've been moving into the basement slowly too. I found that I had angled the landing gear back to perpendicular to the wing chord when I built it. It has been a hand ful on landing, tipping up on it's nose or back. I noticed another set of screw holes for the gear straps and moved the gear forward to the original holes. That should keep it on the wheels on grass.

Still raining.

I applied the clear early this morning. When I sprayed the new clear on it fogged up really bad. I figured it had to be something with the paint as the colors didn't fog. I waited and the fog slowly went away as the paint dried. I put on a few more coats and now the question is how fuel proof is it. I put the engine/tank/landing gear back on and it's ready to go. Tomorrow looks good so far.

More rain and wind.

I picked the right time to re paint the Padre. It isn't fit for man nor beast outside. We were lucky to get one round in at the contest before the wind hit.
I got the plane painted by 1:00 pm today and I will let it dry until tomorrow before applying the clear coats. I found a clear I hadn't seen before at NAPA. It's Dupli-color wheel clear. I figure it should be tough for use on wheels. Working next to the de humidifier is working out nicely. There's warm air coming out of it and the air is dry as the paint didn't blush. The sun is supposed to come out Thursday.

I'm doing it again.

The contest yesterday was about the only one that gives appearance points. I had that in the back of my mind but took the best flyer anyway which is the Padre. The paint has started coming off in good sized patches and it deserved the 12 out of 20 appearance points it got. I thought about that all the way home and all night. At 7:00 am I took out the Cyclo brake cleaner and started stripping the fuselage. I cut off the rudder and fin and made a new one as the rudder pulled off as I took it out of the truck at the contest. I had glue. The brake cleaner melts the paint in seconds and it scrapes off with a credit card. I had spot putty on and drying by 9:00 am. I bought a new can of primer and at 3:30 pm I applied the first coat of primer. It's drying now. I'll sand that and probably give it a second coat before colors. Red top white bottom separated by a dark blue stripe. I weighed it before stripping to see if there is much of a change. I also moved painting operations to the basement where the de humidifier is. The paint fumes seem to be heavier than air as they always drifted down stairs. So far the fumes have not come up stairs.

Another first.

The rain slacked off while I got in my official flight at the Lee, MA contest today. Only me and another guy in the class and I won by about 40 points. The CD figures I should be moving up soon. I figure I just got here and the others should fly more. Most of the others flew in moderate rain and every one got in one round so we got the awards and went home.

One picture is of my winning form and the other is me looking at the certificate. I didn't get anything from the raffle though.

Ready to go.

When I flew yesterday the Fox .40 ran faster than it has been for no good reason. I didn't touch anything. I went to the Sterling school this morning and the engine was running faster than normal again. I tweaked the needle but it didn't change. I opened it a turn and a half and it cleared the obstruction and I turned the needle back to where it has been. It ran like normal for two flights. I took out the re did ringmaster and got in 3 trim flights. I had to put the tab on the wing as the twisting wasn't enough. I lessened the handle spacing to calm it down as it will stall on a normal corner. I got the speed up and the controls down and it flew pretty good. The old time pattern uses 60 degrees up instead of 40 so the maneuvers are a lot bigger which is what the plane wants. I cleaned and waxed the Padre so it don't look too worn. The paint is coming off the fuse. right side between the wing and stab. Another winter project.
I let the El Camino cool a bit and got into changing the distributor. I read the directions as I didn't need them to kneel on and when I hit the starter it started. I adjusted the timing and took it for a short ride. It works but I can't feel any performance change. I wrapped the old one in the new box and stored it up stairs. The air cleaner barely cleares the new cap.

Painted yesterday, flown today.

We went to the dog track this morning and I got in two short flights with the re conditioned ringmaster. I left the Fox .25 on it and it didn't work that well. The plane flew with the outside wing low. When I got home I removed the Fox and installed an OS .25 LA that was on the Super 80. I twisted the wing and heated out the wrinkles to try and remove the warp. If this don't work I will put a tab on again. It needed one to fly straight originally. I planned to paint the fuse. sky blue but I didn't have enough to get a full coat so I switched to insignia blue. I have trim kote to match so it worked out for the best.

I have been wanting to get a new distributor for the El Camino for a long time. I saw an ad in a magazine for a store I never heard of and they had new ones for $75.00, free shipping. It said 50,000 volt coil but it came with a 65,000 volt coil. I plan to install it soon and keep the original for a spare. A new fuel pump is next on the list.

No wind today.

I got in two flights at the Sterling school this morning. The winds were calm for the first time at the site.
I started to finish the ringmaster. I covered the wing with white econokote and will paint the wood parts with sky blue luster kote paint. I have some matching monokote to trim out the wings. I should have it painted by tomorrow maybe flying by next week. The old time pattern is quite different as nothing flows together. Each maneuver has to be set up as it comes. Sorta like r/c pattern.

Progress pictures.

Here's what I got so far. The rib picture shows what I had to leave when I cut back the leading edge sheeting. The ribs are cut to accept the sheeting and be at the same line after the spar.

Getting ready for Old Time Stunt.

The planes are flying well and the Lee, MA contest is this Sunday.
I started thinking about the contest this October. It is going to feature old time stunt and profile stunt on Saturday with regular stunt on Sunday. I don't have a plane for the OTS class. I looked at the fleet and the closest thing to a legal plane is my S-1A ringmaster. The shape is there but the wing ribs are a slightly different shape. The leading edge is sheeted back 3 inches on top of everything. That really stands out and gives the plane away. So I trimmed the sheeting away between the ribs leaving enough sheeting at the leading edge to look like the original leading edge. I repaired the ground off fin and rudder and canopy. The S-1A has a plastic canopy instead of a balsa canopy but I used balsa when I built the kit. I stripped all the covering off the wing and melted the paint off the fuse. with Cyclo Carb Cleaner. I had to repair some cracked wood and I'm in the process of filling holes and dings and coming up with a color scheme. I had a Fox .25 on it that I got off ebay a while back. Of course I threw the old time pattern away a while ago and can't find it anywhere. It's a lot different than the new one. I cut some wood away from the leadouts in the ribs while I was at it too. It should be ready for the contest.

Making progress.

My planes have not been keeping tight lines in the overhead maneuvers. I started moving the leadouts forward and the lines have been getting tighter. I re checked the balance on the Vicar and moved it forward a half inch with a 2 ounce heavy hub. It is more stable now and after moving the bellcrand push rod to center the handle it turns about the same inside and outside. I put a Hayes tank on it after flying today and will test it tomorrow if the winds are normal. I put a homemade tank on another plane and moved the leadouts forward but they didn't go far enough. I cut away the covering and removed some balsa from the tip and moved the guide forward an inch. Now I got adjustability. I flew the plane this morning and saw a leak in the tank when I put fuel in it. I fixed the leak when I got home and have to test it again sometime. I did get in a flight with it though.

Winter project.

I took some pictures of my winter project this morning. I am in the process of deciding where to place the landing gear, in the wing, which I'm favoring, or on the fuselage. The wing tips will be squared off some to better match the stabilizer shape. The specs that will be close to the final dimensions are; wing span 51 inches or so, area 550 sq. in., over all length including the spinner and rudder is 39.5 inches, the stab. has a 24.25 span and 152 sq. in. that makes it 27.56% of the wing area. Weight as it sits on the scale with the tank and spinner is what it is. I project the finished weight to be around 45 ounces. An OS .40 or .46 engine. I put foam in the rear of the fuselage to form it and stiffen it. There are two pieces there, about an inch thick, one on top and one on the bottom so there is a push rod tunnel between. Wing and stab are sheeted foam cores. The turtle deck is molded balsa and the canopy is the back half of a Sig WW-2 canopy, it's all I had on hand. The front half is not shaped right so I cut it off.

Summer is here.

I warmed up the bike the other day and found the Du Pont 77 and a piece of 0000 steel wool and started cleaning the crud off the exhaust and wheels. I gunked it after that and washed it after that. Then I put some wax on it and it looks pretty good. I keep finding pieces that go along with it and I have two boxes full and Roy's front wheel. I remembered the padlock today and got that loosened up after many years sitting in the garage window. The saddle bags are in the garage somewhere.
I made a few changes to the Padre and flew it this morning. I put it back the way it was. The Fox is running very well. I got 2 gallons of fuel left from the 12 or so I made up last fall. Most has been burned in flight, 3.75 ounces per flight. Richard Wood's grandson, Brandon, wanted to know how much fuel the engine burned in one lap. Richard came up with .02 ounces per lap at 6.5
minutes total and 5.3 seconds per lap per 3.75 ounces. I wagged it at 2 drops per lap.
The weather here has been quite warm and dry for a while. I have to get things done before 10 o'clock. The grass don't dry off until after noon so I get to mow in the heat of the day.

Did it again.

After about an hour sitting I went out and re started the bike and rode it around the yard. I looked at the tach. wiring and nothing looks out of place. It may have rolled a 7. It's the original that's been getting vibrated silly since '78.

Running again.

I installed the new battery yesterday and tried to start the bike. Nothing. I referred to the info I got last winter when I had trouble getting it started. I did the prescribed electrical test on the module and coil and got a good coil and bad module. I had gotten it running last winter after disconnecting the tachometer from the coil and had installed the module from Roys' bike. For some reason that module now is no good. I wired up the original module and it checked out good. I removed Roys' module and installed the original. After a bunch of kicks it fired a couple of times. I kept at it and got it running. It didn't want to stay running and I had to re start it but it finally kept running. I let it run for a while with a fan blowing on the engine and then rode it around the yard for a bit to get things loosened up a little more. The oil was hot so I ran it long enough. I checked the alternator and got 14.7 volts so it's good. I tried to connect the tach. and the engine started to die but I unplugged it before the engine stopped. I've got to look into that more.
I flew the newer Fox re build this morning. It flys nice and the engine runs well too. The needle valve asm. isn't very good and I have to find a better one. I weed wacked the circle while I was there. The oil killed the plant but new shoots were coming up out of the old ones.

Parts missing.

The order from fox came in the mail Monday. Only one of the rear covers I ordered was sent. I was charged for only one. I called Fox and ordered the last one I need and had another head button added to the order. I installed one of the engines on the kit built Primary Force and I hope to fly it today.
With the weather being cooler I started on the winter project plane. I got the fuse. pretty much framed up and the wing, stab. were built a while ago, both sheeted foam. I'll probably use wing mounted landing gear.
The motorcycle battery came in at the last moment Monday too. Now I need to find some electrolyte.