It flies.

Friday was the first day good enough for a first flight. After getting the engine started it lifted off and was quite stable in level flight. Not enough elevator authority. At home I made some changes and went out again this morning. Slightly better but not good enough. At home I made a drastic change and lengthened the tail span by 4 inches. Back at the park and it now flys  much better. I have something to work with now.
 That was the problem all along, not enough elevator size.

The Nomad 60 is ready to fly.

The paint has had a chance to dry so I put it all together for the test flights. Weight as this point is 64 ounces just about where I hoped it would be. I have one ounce in the wing tip weight box and a half ounce in the tail. I put a plastic tank on for the first flights that way I can put in the least fuel and get in more trim flights in the session. The tank in the picture is 5 ounces and should be the one when the time comes.
  I managed to knock the leadout guide loose and had to cut a hole in the bottom of the wing to get it back in place. I'll cover it over after it's flying well.

Taking shape.

I tried a new way to align the plane before final gluing. I set it up on the glass table top and used a monokote core cut in two pieces under the wing and two spray paint cans under the stab. After shimming the wing to the chord lines I shimmed the stab to equal the zero setting of the wing. the core pieces and cans held things parallel.  I sprayed a coat of primer and all the gaps showed up. I put some spot putty on and it's drying now. I'll have to thin some and brush it on the balsa parts the ply has a nice finish on it already.
  I gave the Twister wing another session of twist and heat but the weather has kept me from testing this adjustment.
  The weather started to clear and the winds were light so we headed to the park with the Twister. The first short flight showed the wings to be nearly level so I fueled up and got in 2 full pattern flights. Very minor adjustments from now on.

First flight woes and a free lunch.

It warmed up nicely this morning and I took the new Twister to the park. A little hot weather and the engine started right up. Once in the air the outboard wing was high but it was very stable in level flight and turned well. I didn't do anything special  as I didn't know what would happen with the wing not level. At home I put the incidence meter on the wing and found a twist in the inboard panel. I twisted it opposite and re shrunk the covering. Another test in the morning.
 The new Nomad fuselage is nearing completion. I installed balsa caps on the top and bottom so I can sand them down to the plywood sides and round the top. I roughed out the canopy and fin and glued them on. I also made aluminum plates for the engine to sit on and cut out the 1/8 ply doubler for the plates. I called RSM for the landing gear but he's on vacation so that will have to wait. I can use the gear from the first Nomad if I need to. We went to St Francisville this afternoon and stopped at the Francis restaurant for lunch. A bunch of workmates were having their party there and paid for our lunch.

Progress.

The wind was a bit high today so I didn't get a chance to test a few changes AI had made to the scratch built Twister and the P-40. I was able to scrape together enough wood to build the front end of the new Nomad and get the wing and stab tips shaped to the new design. I'm re using the motor crutch from the crashed Hunderbird so that saved some time. All I have to build is the fuselage and I have enough 1/64 plywood to skin it but I need a piece of 1/8 for the doublers. I can get that at Michaels near by. I need fuselage mounted landing gear too.

Nomad 60.

It took some doing but I managed to harvest a usable wing and stab. from the Polynesian. I replaced some trailing edge on the wing and filled the balsa damaged by removing the fillet material. Then I got the idea to build a .60 size Nomad using the spare parts. I drew out the fuselage on my glass table and now I have to dig out some 1/2" wood for the fuselage front section. I may have to buy a piece.
  The Twister kit plane is up to clear coat. Another blah paint scheme. Should be flying this weekend.

And then there were none.

I went to the park around noon today with the P-40 and the problematic Polynesian. I've had a 60 size plane for quite some time and lately more than one. The newest, Hunderbird, died on impact a few weeks ago. The oldest, Polynesian, had been giving me trouble with bad engine runs since it's first flight several years ago. I've tried different engines, fuel tanks, more wood in the nose but nothing changed until today. I put it to the band saw. I salvaged the wing and stabilizer plus the hardware. I am officially out of 60 size planes.
  On the brighter side; a guy came up to me as I was getting ready to wind up the lines and asked about flying with the lines. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned going to school in Killingly, Ct. I said I was from Moosup 10 miles from there. Even more chatting.

4 inches of global warming.

It's melting fast. I checked the park and it will be flyable this afternoon. I want to test the change I made to the nose of the Polynesian. I built it with an r/c engine mount. It was a good idea except that the tank compartment is unobstructed. While that gives you a lot of room for the fuel tank it also is lacking in stiffness. The normal engine crutch hardwood beams add a lot of strength to the structure and that keeps the engine under control. With the r/c mount the engine vibration causes runaway as soon as it lifts off the ground. I had this problem on another plane and had to add a floor to the compartment at the height of the engine where the hardwood beams would have been. This is what I did to the Polynesian with hopes it cures the engine run problem. I also cut an inch off the nose length to help with the heavier engine I'm using.

Quick and easy alignment.

I've used this method in the past and it works very well. I've used spray cans under the wing as well as one pound coffee cans. I use the same brand and size of can to be sure the cans are the same diameter. The same with the stabilizer.  The Twister I'm building is aligned using 2 ounce plastic cups from IHOP. I save the cups to mix other stuff in and figured I could use them to hold the plane. Two for the wing and four for the stab. I used two incidence meters as moving one back and forth is aggravating. I saved the end of a broken tape measure to set the wing and stab parallel. I glued a triangle to a second piece of the tape to use in case the trailing edge is swept like a Ringmaster. Large 30/60 triangles set the fuselage square and vertical to the wing. Now it's up to covering and paint if I ever decide on what color scheme.

No luck.

I flew the Evo .60 powered plane and the engine did the same thing as the S/T .60. At home I took the tank out and it occurred to me that by using an R/C type engine mount it left the tank compartment open and susceptible to vibration. I went about installing a 1/4 inch balsa floor in the tank compartment that will ace like the traditional hard wood motor mount we normally use. I had the same thing happen to another plane and the extra wood fixed the problem. The rain has kept me from testing the fix.

Another screwup.

I've been having run problems with the S/T .60. I swapped it out for the Evo .60 this morning and at the field it did the same thing as the S/T. I went home without flying it and dug into the fuel tank compartment. There I found I had run the uni-flow line to the spray bar. I fixed that and ran it in the yard to test it.
 The Twister is coming along. I found the fin and rudder are a lot bigger than the one I scratch built from plans. I trimmed it down as I don't like the top design at all.

Flying in the fog.

I took the same planes to the field this morning and first up was the 665. I put a 12 x 4 APC on it as I put the last 12 x 5 Zinger on the P-39. The engine started and I set the needle and let it go. The engine ran very well and the changes I made to the plane worked. So tight engine mounting bolts are a must. The Shark 665 has been through a lot. The wing folded last year and I made a new one as the fuselage didn't get hurt too bad. The miss placed stab. kept it from being a good plane though. Now it's pretty ragged and something is rattling around inside the wing. That's the way it goes with my planes. As soon as they fly well they fall apart.
  I built about 80% of the wing from the Twister kit today. It's out of the jig waiting for center sheeting and controls. It took longer to install the bellcrank than to assemble the wing. I'm using the salvaged leadout wires from the crashed new plane and the leadout slider.

Another OOPS.

  The 665 has had a problem with level flight from day one. I put the incidence meter on the wing, leveled it and checked the stab. It had one degree of neg. incidence in it. A little hacksaw blade work and some glue and it's ready to go.
I took the 665 and the P-39 to the field. First I flew the P-39 and leveled off inverted at ground level. Broken prop. I got in 3 flights with it using a smaller prop. The 665/ASP went lean again. I put an ounce in the tank and tried again but the square loop sent it into warp speed again. The stab. fix seems to be working but it was hard to tell at those speeds. At home I started to remove the engine and put the .46LA back in. I loosened the non exhaust side bolts and the engine tilted. I checked the exhaust side bolts and they were loose. I put thread locker on all the bolts and tightened them down. I'll give it one more chance tomorrow. I figure I didn't tighten them properly when I put the engine in.