First flight . . .

I did some repair work on an old ARF trainer that never flew and suffered some hangar rash through the years. I never heard of the model a Hobbico Super Star .40. The covering wasn't of the dry adhesive type but was usable after fixing several holes. The engine is an OS .40FP that had never been run. It started right up on the bench and again on the plane. I used hot water to warm it first. I had to add some epoxy to the wing center section joint and some fiberglass cloth for more strength. It didn't fold. I had to put in two servo's as the plane only had two in it.

  The take off roll was straight, which surprised me, and the controls felt just right for me. I had to change the elevator trim a few clicks at less than full power and it flew very smoothly. The wind was almost calm which is why I wanted to fly it today for the test flight.

Home again, home again, jiggity YIKES!!!

The 1530 mile ride home had a moment or two. The best was when a car passed me and pulled in front, I was in the passing lane, put on the left turn signal and hit the brakes. He planned on using the police turn around to reverse course. I was hard on the brakes as well and hoping there wasn't a truck behind me. He barely made the turn around and I barely missed him. No problems with construction or accidents until coming up on rte 95 in CT. A trailer had rolled over and blocked the north bound lanes closing the highway. We took rte 91 into Weathersfield and across to rte 2 down to Norwich and rte 395 to home. We only lost 10 minutes as the traffic was doing 80 on 91 and 75 on 2. The contest was very good as I entered 4 events and got a first and third. The awaited raffle went very well as I cleaned up. I managed to find a store that sells methanol for 3.74 a gallon. I brought two 5 gallon jugs and had them filled. I also bought a gallon of fuel to go with the three I had there and got two more at the raffle. I planned on bringing home the LSU plane but after loading the Cub Cadet mower and the goodies there wasn't room. I think if we drive ever again we will stay in Chatanooga instead of Gadsden as that will make 3 500 mile days instead of a 450 and a 650 and a 500. The kids at the school are coming along well on their planes. All 22 have been just about built with very few problems while I was gone. Covering will be the tough part. One of the teachers brought in an r/c plane his father had but never flew and I fixed the broken stab. I saw the wing there on Fri. and then I got a radio and engine ready to install. It will take some doing as the motor mount is metal with a clamp to hold the engine but the clamp is missing. It's an ARF from Tower hobbies and about 20 years old. I managed to win a Sig Acromaster kit at the raffle and Aaron won the last item which was a Brodak Bearcat kit. That should be a challenge to build as the fuselage is sheeted and the wing has dihedral. I'm getting ready to paper the fuse. of the new plane. I can't cover the wings until that is done. I can't ad the fillets as they will extend over the edge of the covering and hide the seam. I don't know what kind of paint scheme it will have either. That is the toughest part for me.

Winter project No. 1.

I have the new plane assembled enough to get a weight and balance. 53 ounces with a wood prop and tongue muffler as it's nose heavy. I figure that 2 ounces of lead in the tail will correct the situation. That leaves me 5 ounces for the finish. I've got the school class going well. The first half has the plane almost built. Enough so that they don't need the table and the second half can start on theirs. Between the two they should be able to wallow through it until I get back. They are running out of glue and still need covering, wheels radio's and motors. At least the planes will be built into a flyable condition when the other stuff gets bought.

Whipping them into shape.

Another club member and I are involved with a high school class that's building 22 small r/c planes. In the first week they have the fuselage just about built. I am able to be there every day and that is keeping problems to a minimum. I want to have the fuselage finished and at least half the wing built by next Friday. The students are paired because there isn't enough table space for all to be building. The wing shouldn't be too much of a problem and after that the other student can start their plane. I told them to be real careful to build a right and a left side, so far I'm the only one to build two right side fuselage sides. I traded it with another pair that hadn't gotten as far so it all worked out. No one but me has stuck their fingers to the plane either. I told them not to blow into the pippette to see if it's blocked and you guessed it. I chewed at the glue on my lip for a while. To start we gave a flight demo on the running track/football field one morning. It was calm winds and fog. I got in several flights as the r/c portion waited for the fog to lift a bit. Several other students walked by and some towns people too. I didn't know it but I cracked the stab on two planes. I didn't touch the ground or land hard so the corners must have done it. I repaired both and they are flying well again. I have found that using long lines, 64 feet, on .46 powered planes causes control problems. a few months ago i tried shorter lines and noticed a big difference in how the plane flew. I tried others with shorter lines, down to 61 or 62 feet, and they flew better. Now 62.5 foot lines are the longest I'm using. I had retired one plane because I couldn't get it trimmed right. Yesterday I removed an engine from one of the planes with the cracked stab. and put it on the retired plane. Today at Wrentham, MA I flew the plane and there was a noticeable improvement in the way it performed. I took the engine off the other plane because it wouldn't run right. I put it on the retired profile plane and that ran perfectly. I'm thinking it's overheating in the other plane. I took the Strega to Wrentham and got in two flights with it. Both flights had not so good engine runs. When I got home I ran it and tweaked the needle until it sounded right and put the tach. on it. 7400 rpm seems to be the magic number. I'll have to fly it soon to be sure. The club has a float fly tomorrow, Sunday. I'll probably pay a visit. The winter build has progressed to the point of installing the wing into the fuselage. I molded a turtle deck for it and it is looking like the drawing I made. I'm lucky to have bought the wing cores. I'm going to run the elevator push rod out the side of the fuselage for ease of adjustability. My Guru design has that feature and it works very well. I don't have to build in a hatch to get at the clevis. Of course I haven't had to touch the clevis on the Guru since it's out in the open. The McDonalds drinking straw sticking out of the wing will be to allow me to remove the push rod, cut the straw to length and tuck it into the wing which will allow me to slide the wing into the fuselage with out cutting the bottom off thereby making a weak spot. After getting the wing into position I can slide the push rod through the straw and find the heim joint on the bell crank. I've used that trick several times in the past. It's always worked. I re-located the upright on the flap horn to the right so the push rod will have a better angle out the rear side. The flaps and elevators have brass tubes for the horns to slide into.