A little progress.

I ordered the balsa and ply I need to build the fuselage for the Thunderbird from National Balsa. It should be here next week. As usual I forgot balsa for the vertical fin and rudder and plywood for the nose doublers.  I found what I needed at the local Michael's craft store. I cut out the doublers and glued enough balsa together from the scrap box for the nose tripler.
  I figured I would wet sand the elevators to get some of the paint off so I could spray a new coat on. The clear coat has yellowed some and under it the color is white. The wing has the word Thunderbird on the left panel and the number 1028 on the right. That's the original builder's AMA number that has to be on the plane. I was going to try and sand the number off and just for giggles I picked at the "1" with an Exacto knife. What I thought was paint is really vinyl graphics over coated with clear paint. A little heat from the heat gun and I was able to remove the numbers. The shadow shows where the numbers were but it's better than the originals. I'm thinking about making provisions for a nose wheel.
  I didn't like the O. S. .25 so I installed another Fox .35 and got in some flights. It's much better

It's figured out.

The stab./elev. assy. has enough wood in the hings area that I could cut the hinges out and make new hinge pockets for the re assembly. I used a T-pin as a probe to find the end of the hinges and cut them out with the new Zona saw I got at the contest raffle. After looking at the stab. I went to the band saw and cut the trailing edge off and made up a new trailing edge just like I do for my new  planes. After sanding the hinge slots and glueing the pieces together I installed the elevators and cut the bevel sharper so they will move 30 degrees in each direction. Then I glued the new piece to the stab. and it's done.  I will use the covering on the elevators as the paint is a lot harder to get off than I thought. The same with the wing. Luckily, so far, the profile event doesn't get appearance points so it just has to fly well and qualify for the builder of the model rule.
  At the park this morning the guys in charge came over and told me about some others looking to fly there. I had told them about the park when I met them at the contest. Then the manager guy in charge told me I should have a contest there. That surprised me.

Saving what I can from the Thunderbird.

According to the rules if you build one of the major components, wing or fuselage, you can claim to be the builder of the model. This plane was designed and built by a prominent modeler. I got it third hand after it was crashed. The nose was gone back to the fuel tank compartment. I managed to get an engine on and fly it a few times. It flew well. I hung it up while I struggled to figure out what to do with it. After scratch building the Twister it struck me that I could salvage the wing and tail then build a profile fuselage for the pieces. I have the drawings and traced the profile shape and moved things around a bit, because, that's why. I'm keeping the push rods so the "numbers" will be the same. I planned to remove the old covering and monokote things but the paint is real tough to remove so I'll keep the wing as original. The flaps didn't move up and down equally so I cut that rod and spliced in a tube to even out the throws. The wing is a foam core and had a lot of foam pieces inside making noise and could get caught in the bell crank so I spent an hour shaking and picking pieces out. The original fuselage was about 3 inches wide and the wing has that much bare wood. I'll have to lay a strip of fiberglass around it to cover that up and hide the gouges I made removing the fuselage sides. The elevator doesn't move all that much either but it did fly well. I'm going to do something to get more movement out of it but I don't know what yet as it's hinged. I did make the motor mounts out of 3/8 x 1/2 aluminum channel. The photo shows the plywood and balsa that fills the channel. I should have did that on the Twister.
   I flew the Twister with the OS .25 this morning and it went well. I put 60 foot lines for it in the box for the next session.

The Twister.

I've been flying the Nomad and it's coming along.
  I flew the original Nomad in the profile event at the local contest this past weekend and got a third place with it. So far that plane has not failed to get a podium finish. Sunday was weathered out.
  I flew the new Twister today. Fox .35 powered and the engine didn't work right so I installed an O.S. .25. I ran it  to set the needle and will give it another try in the morning. Balance came out right on the plans location with a stock muffler. It weighs 36.7 ounces so the smaller engine should pull it nicely. I came across another Fox .35 as I was cleaning up so there is a chance this one will run better than the first.

The Nomad X.

I got the engine installed and the leadouts positioned almost where they should be. Good enough for a test flight though. It's 56.5 ounces including 1.5 ounces of tip weight that I haven't added yet.  I figured out what to do with Tom Dixon's crashed Thunderbird. I'll salvage the wings and tail section and build a profile fuselage for them. I have the plans so the problem will be stripping the dope off the parts.  I also acquired a set of plans for the Twister. An older model that I've had several years ago. I had one all during the r/c days and would fly it now and then. It's a good profile plane.

Clean out time.

I've been saving the planes and stuff that I don't need for the club raffle in a few weeks. All the planes fly well but not well enough in my opinion. Plus I've run out of room. The Gypsy flys pretty good but needs a lot of trimming and I already have one. The big Strega flys pretty good but I don't need it either. I won that in the El Dorado raffle in the spring. It was too ugly for words which is the reason I re built it. I removed the Evo .60 and put the engine that came with it back in. Even if I wanted I couldn't use it in a contest in my class as I didn't build it. The Nobler in the box is something I won at the same raffle and I had one several years ago and it didn't fly that good so I saved this one for our raffle.
  The new Nomad is coming along and is waiting for a clear coat. I figure the weight will be 55 ounces when it's all together. Test flight in a week or so.