Finally got it.

 I changed the round plastic tank for a metal tank in the Privateer. The round tank wouldn't stay still and rotated throwing everything out of tune. I test ran it at home and the engine ran very steady. I got the chance to fly it yesterday and the engine ran very well in flight too. This was during the open house the club had and the winds were all over the place. I put the Privateer away and took out the big Ringmaster for a couple flights. On  the entrance to the wingover  the wind took the plane and I had to backpeddle to catch it. That became more like a backhobble quickly and ended up with me sliding on one knee and regaining control of the plane. I rolled up the lines after that flight.
  While I was talking to the owner of an El Camino, who stopped in, a former club member came in. R. Frechette. We talked for a while but I don't think he will rejoin.

Still more findings and a screw up.

The winds calmed down by noon so I went to the field with the Guru and the Privateer.  The Guru engine problems seemed to be solved but the wings are flapping in corners now. I had one ounce of tip weight so I removed half of it when I got home. The Privateer was next. I got the engine started and turned the plane upright and set it down. A bit of needle tweaking and the engine quit. I tried to start it but no luck. I drained the fuel through the uni-flow tube and all the fuel came out. That tells me I hooked the lines up wrong. The tank is a slide in and the lines are out of reach with the engine in place. When I got home I removed the engine and found the lines reversed and the tank in wrong to boot. That's all fixed now. I have to mow tomorrow so I'll give it a try then.

  I had trouble with my C. Crane wi fi radio so I sent it back for repair. I had bought a new one and used the packaging to send the old one back. I had bought the old one a while ago.  The old one came back today and they replaced it with a new one.  Still cost a repair charge but a third cheaper than the one I bought.

More findings.

I ended up with two turns to the up on the elevator pushrod. The engine now ran funny so I inspected the tank set up at home. I have an r/c engine mount which makes for a deep tank compartment. The tank is a four ounce round plastic item and it sits way too deep or above the spray bar. I put a piece of half inch thick foam rubber in to even the tank center line with the spray bar. The winds have been too high early in the morning for a test flight but I did run it here and it seems to be better.

Two more gallons gone.

I finally found a home for the S/T .60 that works. Mating it with the profile P-63 did the trick. Removing the .025 head gasket and installing a .010 helped too.
 I brought the Guru out yesterday and for some reason I have to make large changes to the controls. Up is good but down is way too much. All it's done is sit on the wall. Maybe my touch has changed. I added a turn of up into the push rod and will check that next time out. The Privateer engine ran funny so I removed the tank and put new tubing on it and put it back in. I have up and down pretty close on that one. The flying weather has been real nice lately. The smell of the fertilizer lingers at the field still.
  I did some research and found the water temperature sender that Dakota Digital uses with their gauge packages. They want $32.00 for one but I found it on Amazon for $13.00+shipping for a total of $20.00. It's been reading 20/25 degrees low for a while but steady so I could rely on it's reading.  The stud that the wire connects to is loose.

More leaks.

I hadn't flown the A-36 in 9 months so I went to the field between the rain drops yesterday. The engine wouldn't settle down. start off strange and get stranger. I had to launch at 7400 and it would speed up as soon as it moved forward. After a few laps it would settle down but then speed up again. At home I removed the engine and checked the head shim. It was .020 thick so I installed a .010 shim. Then I removed the tank and pressure tested the engine and tank. The engine passed but the tank had 4 leaks. Two pin holes in the side wall and one in the end solder seam and one in the feed tube joint. Hopefully I can get out today to test it. I would like to put a plastic tank in but there isn't much room. If this fix doesn't work I may have to operate.

Making progress.

After switching engines on the P-63 and Polynesian things went better. I removed the head from the S/T and found a .025 shim. I figured that was too big and installed a .010 instead. The engine runs much better now. I had 65 foot lines on the P-63 and 64 on the other. I tried the 64 foot lines on the P-63 and found it flys a lot better and has a sharper corner too. The drag induced bow in the lines must have been causing springyness in the controls. I cut a foot off the longer lines. I may get out today between the raindrops.

I was shocked.

With the hay cut we can finally see the field. A couple new club members and a found plane that flew away. All good news.
 As I was reading the latest issue of Control Line World I took my time going over each page in order for some reason. Generally I just read what interests me and finish a magazine in an hour at most. Not this time though. In the early morning down in the basement shop I came to the end of the mag. and saw a plane on the inside back page, in full color, that looked like the Legacy I built with the same graphics. I thought I had been scooped again and reduced to the role of a copycat until I looked at the person holding the plane. There was yours truly standing with yours trulys plane. Not quite the cover of the Rolling Stone but pretty good just the same. I had sent a few pictures in to the editors a while back with no expectation of them being used. I had gave them permission to do whatever they want with anything I submit as we had several go arounds with other stuff they needed changed but didn't want to offend me by going ahead and changing it themselves. They know more about good english than I do so I told them go ahead and change anything you want. I don't think it hurt to have the designers name ,Allen Brickhaus, on the wing.

Test flights OK.

 I got out early today with both planes. First up was the Polynesian with the Evo .60. No problems with the run. A good steady run through the entire pattern. The P-63 with the S/T ran great as well. I only changed engines leaving everything else intact. I'm in the ball park with the S/T venturi as it now needs 6.0 ounces of fuel for the pattern. I have one more thing to test and thats the 13 x 6 prop. Maybe next time out.

Fuel tank test.

With the changes to the S/T engine it still had the same quirk. A good steady 4 cycle run until after the square eights. Then it slowed down to a good steady 5.6 sec. laps from 5.3.  Now that generally means some kind of tank anomaly and I have a six ounce round plastic tank just like the one on my P-63 which feeds the Evo .60 and gives great engine runs. Both using uni-flow.
 When I built the Polynesian I used an r/c motor mount and originally planned to use the Evo .60 until I got the S/T. I had drilled the mount for the Evo first and the s/t rear mounting holes are the same as the Evo rear holes but the s/t front holes are further forward and I simply drilled new ones ahead of the Evo holes. The exhaust ports are in the same location and I had made the needle hole for the Evo, which is  to the rear of the s/t, but covered it over. I opened that back up and installed the Evo and installed the s/t in the P-63 where the Evo came from. Now if the Evo does the same thing the s/t did I will be assured that there is some kind of tank problem.
  I added an extension to the Evo venturi and made a velocity stack out of some brass tube. I test ran it this morning and it's ready to go when the wind dies down.

  I brought the Dodge to the dealer to check on the fast idling. The engine won't slow down when  the clutch is disengaged. They found a bad MAP sensor and a bad sensor in the power steering pump. They don't have the MAP sensor so I have to go back on Thursday for that.

Not much of a hurricane.

I got a flight in with the new trim and things were a better but still a bit down on power. I removed the venturi and found it to be smaller than the ones in the OS .46. Then I noticed that the spray bar hole was not centered in the venturi. I drilled a new hole and it wasn't right either so I drilled another and broke the drill in the hole. I couldn't get the piece out so I threw it away. I got another from the parts dept. and got that installed. After some measurements I found the venturi was lacking in area and probably is the cause of the lack of power. I couldn't find a replacement so I did some figuring and came up with  enlarging the venturi to .300 from.274. After doing that I remembered the Evo .60, which has a true venturi and measured the area of that venturi. Then measured the area in the S/T venturi, subtracting the area of the spraybar, and came up with almost exactly the same thing. Real close to 15 sq. mm. The winds kept me from testing yesterday but an early flight today may be possible.

Went the wrong way.

The Super Tiger engine I got from Gil runs pretty good but has some strange traits. I didn't pay any attention to them as I had never run a S/T .60 c/l engine before. I did think it strange that I couldn't prime the engine by closing off the venturi and flipping the prop. I began to suspect a vacuum leak and today I removed the engine from the plane and pressure tested the intake system.  I found a leak at the O-ring seal and then another at the draw bar that holds the venturi in place. The draw bar doesn't fit well at all and I suspect it came from another engine. I put it back together and put a blob of  Plumbers Goop over the draw bar  end.
 As I was about to re install the engine I noticed a side thrust shim under the r/c motor mount I used in this plane. I almost didn't pay any attention to it but then took into account which way it pointed the engine and where the leadouts are. I had put it in the wrong side. I removed the shim and put the engine back in. I added a half ounce of tail weight yesterday so I need to get some test flights in, maybe today if the rain holds off. Dry so far at 0730.

Slowly but surely.

  The recent problem with remotely controlled drone aircraft has put the radio controlled modeling community in the spotlight. There are model airplanes that weigh over 100 pounds and require more than one person to fly it. It's not hard to see the concern of the feds here. The people who fly model airplanes using wires to control them are almost immune to being called a drone and therefore being regulated out of existence. A lot of these modelers dislike r/c as a general rule. I find it funny that these same people are finding ways to control control line planes using a radio. The Navy carrier group and others are using radios to control the engine speed for their slow flight and landings. Some using insulated lines and others radios and receivers just like an r/c model. I just read about one person that made a bellcrank with a Hall effect device that controls r/c servos that move the models control surfaces. And the building of 100 inch wingspan control line models is gaining popularity in a few areas. And the builders are using some form of radio control over the engine. Not many want to be pulled around the circle by that big of a plane though.
 But if all that is put together by someone that has no knowledge at all of the modeling hobby that person can only conclude that r/c and c/l are one and the same and should be regulated to near extinction.
 As Pogo once said "we have met the enemy and he is us".