New field.

I visited the club web site and there was a notice about a new flying site in Brooklyn, Ct. I'm waiting for a reply to my request for the location of the site.
I've been flying several times since getting back home. My planes are trimmed to fly smooth and not like the rule book says so I've had to change things to get harder corners. I took the twister out today and got in some flights. It's flying pretty good but the engine is not right. Maybe dirt in the spray bar. The filter in the fuel jug was full of crap. I got the methanol for nothing.
The winter projects are coming along. I got all the parts built and hinged. I'm ready to glue the wing into the second plane then it's on to filling and sanding.
I looked at the El Camino steering and I will have to remove the tie rods from the wheels, center the steering box, adjust the tie rods to fit the wheels, re install the tie rods and then take the rag joint off the steering box to center the steering wheel. The adjustment sleeves are out of whack as one has a lot of space between the threaded parts and the other has them close together. When I'm done they should be almost evenly spaced.

It all worked.

When we arrived in Slaughter, La I started on the new stab in the Primary Force. After an hour it was in and glued. I took the big Twister, now called "Mr. Twister", down and readied it for testing. I set the leadouts using my new 3.5 degree nose down method and didn't have to replace the leadout slider as it is a plastic Brodak unit. The next morning I noticed the new stab was crooked. I spent two hours peeling the epoxy off and re aligning it and re gluing. I went to the nearest flying spot, a ball field, and flew Mr. Twister. What a difference. I flew the P.F. but the old Fox was cranky but the plane flew well also. I got in several trim flights and full patterns with the Mr. Twister and was running low on fuel. Off to the hobby shop. The fuel I was using isn't available any more but there was another brand that was supposed to be the same blend. I tried it to be sure and was happy with how it performed in the OS LA .40. I found the engine used more fuel for the pattern but the tank is big enough to carry the half ounce extra.
At the contest I didn't get a score I figured I should have so I asked a knowledgeable person to watch my flight and see what I was doing wrong. He gave me several pointers but it was too late to effect that contest. I finished 6th out of 8. The next morning, Sun., I got in a short flight after tweaking the elevator for more deflection. and waited for the official flights to begin. My first flight really impressed the judges as to my improvement from yesterday. The second flight was as good. I was third after all flew but there was some kind of mix up with the appearance points and the director had all appearance points removed from all flyers in my class. That moved me up to second and a most improved congrats from the director. All because of the person that gave me hints. I got a Sig Banshee kit, a handle and two hats in the raffles.

I ran around Mon. morning to find some cardboard to wrap the kit in so I could mail it home. I sent two boxes at about 1100 that morning and they were waiting for me on Wed. morning after I got home. Winter project no. 3. I will be sending another OS .40 to La. to put on the Primary Force.

And the old computer crapped out and we just got the new one running.

Test flights.

I got the idea to use nylon tubes on the leadout guides on my planes. I figured the plastic would be more slippery than the metal pop rivets I was using. I noticed an improvement on the first plane so I went ahead and changed all of them. I went to Oneco yesterday and the planes flew awful. The wind was strong and coming over the building created lots of turbulence. I wasn't sure if the wind was doing it or the change in the leadout guide had failed. Today I took three planes to the little league field and tested two that hadn't flown yesterday and one that did. The wind was just right and the planes all flew very well. I'm happy.
I read one of the notes on the plans for the 576 Ringmaster and applied it to the 576. It flew a lot better than it did. I couldn't repeat the setting on other planes as the levels bubble was out of sight. I began to measure the drop of the nose from level to free hanging. I came up with a 3/4" drop and set up all the planes to that. Measuring that is not easy with the plane hanging from the leadouts. I wondered what is the angle of the fuselage from level and came up with 3 degrees. The 3/4" is measured at the nose so I measured from the nose to the leading edge of the wing and then put 3/4" under a ruler at that dimension and took a level and put a shim under it until it read level. I transferred that to a protractor and got 3 degrees. Then I hung the planes that were changed and set the level on the side with the shim in position and they all are close 3 degrees nose down.

Another find.

I had found a note on the Ringmaster 576 plans that said the plane would hunt in level flight if the leadout position was forward of that shown on the plans. My plane did hunt so I moved the leadouts to the plan position. It did fly better but still not dead nuts stable. This morning I figured the only place left was the leadout guide. I use the rivet portion of some pop rivets for the leadouts to pass through and the cable may be dragging on the metal rivets. Out with the old and in with nylon tubes. I went to the little league park and the plane flew very well in level flight. So much so I went through the fleet and changed 3 or 4 more to the nylon tubes. Two planes have the Brodak adjustable leadout system and that has nylon sliders to begin with. I'll have to bring some tubing with me and see about the Primary Force and the Twister.

Things are coming along.

I went to the new school and mowed some of the clover so I could fly with out the lines getting snagged. I finally contacted a club member and relayed my idea to give Bolmet a plaque for letting us use the field for over 30 years. He will pass it on at the meeting.
I have a color scheme for the first winter project plane. It will mimic the Vietnam service ribbon. Yellow background green edges and 3 red stripes. It's different. I'm naming the plane "Red Molly" taken from the song "Vincent Black Lightning".
Some people are laying on anything and stiff as a board it's called something but I don't remember what. I saw John Force do it on TV a while back. While listening to the above song there was a picture of the motorcycle during it's record breaking run on the salt flats and the rider was doing what John was doing. Only at 150 something MPH.