Friday, December 7, 2012

What next?

 A week or so ago I took Red Molly to the new school in Sterling for a flight or two. It acted real strange when I pulled a corner. I packed up and went home. I found that the tip weights had fallen out. I put some more in and all was well.
  Yesterday I went to the field to put air into the leaky tire on the mower using my new air tank. Too late, it was flat. I didn't have the right tools to re fill it as the bead had came off. I went home and found I had the right tools in the first place but got it filled from the compressor anyway. Back to the field to replace the tire and brought a screw jack so I dould get the wheel back on. After an hour or two the temp. had risen enough to let me fly in comfort so I went back to the field.
  This morning I decieded to make a new vertical stab. for the Banshee. The original didn't look right with all the mods I did to the model. I cobbled one together just like the one on the Guru. I wanted to fly it and Red Molly so I didn't cut the old one off. The color on the unit is Rustoleum John Deere green and takes a long time to dry. I planned to change and paint it after flying. I also wanted to test the metal tank on the Banshee using pressure and try a plastic one if that didn't work out. At the field I followed a car to the circle. The driver went across the circle and parked facing the center with the nose of the car inside the circle. He moved when I asked him to, he was letting his dog run around. I set up the Banshee and as I pulled the plane back to the stooge the rudder broke off. Less work for me later. The fin was still attached so I kept going. Once in the air it flew as well as ever. Except the engine ran out of fuel in the overhead eights again. I changed tanks and the plastic one, on pressure, blew the vent plug off and most of the fuel blew onto the wings. Red Molly is next. When I pulled a corner the wings flopped around. Tip weights again. I floundered through the pattern and upon inspection found the weights gone again. I didn';t have any others so I went home. I installed new weights and tightened the 4-40 bolt but it didn't tighten. I removed the weights and saw the blind nut was stripped out. Probably from being a metric unit. I got the glue and glued the weights in place. Then it was the Banshee's turn. I cut the fin off and sanded the fuse. top so the new one would have a good glue joint. Some super glue, epoxy and micro balloons later I masked off the area and sprayed the green paint on. I re installed the metal tank and will put 4 ounces in for the next outing. The rain had started before I finished the repairs so I'll have to wait to test the changes.
  I ordered an instruction book from Brodak for the Strega on Monday and figured it would be in today. Wrong again. The kit must have been donated for the raffle without the instructions. I want to double check my progress before assembling the plane.
 And the portable air tank I bought has metric pipe threads. I'll have to use hose barbs and couplers to change it over for the paint spray gun.