Almost spring.

I got a reply from Brodak's magazine Control line World and they will publish my article on the plywood handle. It's the equal of the carbon fiber handle made by the famous guy but mine is much less expensive and faster to make. I've been flying with one and it's working very well. I finally bit the bullet and scoped out the steering column on the Dodge. Three screws hold the plastic pieces on. I removed them and the top came off easily but the bottom piece is held on by the tilt lever.. I called Wholesale Mopar and ordered the combo switch and asked the guy how the bottom piece comes off. He said the tilt lever is screwed on so I should be able to unscrew it. I'm going to wait until I see the mounting bolt pattern on the new piece, I may not have to remove the bottom piece. I found a bag of quick crete at the dump. I figured I could add it to the square pilot circle in the middle of the circle and make it round. I set up forms and mixed the bag and poured it into the forms. The next day I stepped on the new cement and it crumbled. It wasn't thrown away for nothing. Today I went to the local lumber yard to get some cement. Their web site said they opened at 0700. At 0805 still nobody. I ended up at Lowes. I mixed the two bags and now the square circle is round. I got in some flights with the big Ringmaster. This afternoon the winds were still light and the temp is in the high 60's. I grabbed the StregA-36 and went back to the field. I had increased the elevator throw and sealed the hinge gaps since the last outing, which was the first, and made some adjustments on the handle spacing. The changes worked well and I had to take some space out of the up and ad some to the down. The engine ran OK for one of the flights and I got in a full pattern on the second flight. On the third flight it was running good and then went rich. Seems to be the norm for a plane that has sat for a while. I did get it to fit into the El Camino by turning it 45 degrees to the center line of the bed. I have been adding nose weight to the big Ringmaster and the Banshee. Each plane has responded favorably by being more stable in flight. I have spread the line spacing at the handle to get the turns back and that is working too. Kinda scary. I put a weight on the Ringmaster engine last night and then figured I should check where the balance point is compared to the plans. Somehow the balance is where the plans say it should be. Funny how that works. The Banshee has been modified a lot and the balance is about an inch ahead of the plans, which is where the guy that modified the Twister in the same manner that I modified the Banshee said it should be. Another lucky guesser.