Aftermath.

The contest went very well. The weather was great and a lot of contestants came to fly. We would have broken records but 4 club members did volunteer work and didn't fly. The raffle went well with one of our club members taking home a lot of stuff. Our vice president told the park owners (BREC) that the trailer should be removed and it has bees. He took some park workers out to show them and got stung yet again. I've been flying at South Park driving around the field's edge to get to my spot. The park manager gave me permission to do that. The park has put in a nature walk, that closed the access road, some "pickel ball" courts and a disc golf course. Those things has more than tripled the people using the park. El Dorado contest this weekend. The weather looks good so far. I haven't been able to fly as much as I would like in preparation. I wrecked the first "Wild Thing" and I'm in the process of repairing it.

The Sting.

On Thursday I went to the contest field to get a start on the set up. We store tables and other stuff in an old trailer left there by the park people years ago. I got out some tables and rods and caution tape. I put them in my truck and got attacked by a yellow jacket. It stung my on my upper lip before I could thrash him soundly. I told the former club president about it and he went to check it out. He only got stung on his arm. The next day he was showing some park workers what was happening and he got stung on the arm again. He notified the park people that the trailer should be removed and they agreed. When that will happen in anyones guess. The weather on Sat. and sun. was close to perfect for flying. I didn't compete as I didn't get in enough practice before hand and it just doesn't look right for the contest director to take trophys from others. My feelings anyway. The lunch out club president cooked at the field attracted about 60 people total with spectaters. On Sunday we had 12 contestants going at it for the top three spots. There was some real good flying by several of the expert class flyers. I managed to hand out the awards and get the place cleaned up and get home before 1300 hours. The raffle we have to make money for the club had a lot of stuff. Then one of the members wifes donated some pictures made using a technique called "quilling" for a raffle for the ladies. This has never happened before the raffle is always for the flyers/men. On Sunday more items were donated for the "ladies raffle" and those tickets were out selling the mens raffle. We were trying to end in the "made money" column this year. I think we did but I haven't heard for sure. Today I went flying at the local park with two planes I plan to take to El Dorado in two weeks. One had a vibration during the second flight and after landing I found all the engine hold down bolts were loose and one had broken and one missing. I fixed that at home and put some medium lock tight on them this time. The other plane has a smaller engine and runs different than I'm used to. It took 3 flights before I got it close. The weather for the next 7 days is good flying weather so I plane to get in as much as possible.

Even more good news.

I was getting settled into my new flying spot when the park manager stopped by and told me I could drive around to the old flying spot as long as I stayed on the perimeter and it was dry. I started flying at my old spot and the grass had grown over my launch spot. I've been looking for it with no luck I'm surprised that the grass took over so fast as the ground was bare from exhaust oil. The center where I stand to fly is still bare. The grass has softened up and didn't grab the wheels and tip the plane over on landing. I got a call from the club vice president saying I should fly at the contest this weekend as everything is covered and I have only made one contest so far this season. Now I'm scrambling to come up with planes I have flown recently. I did find that the Pathfinder profile is Nostalgia 30 legal and legal for the profile event and for the main event on Sunday. I could use the same plane for three events but I'll fly my Pixie Bob 2 on Sunday instead.

Some good news.

I found a new spot to fly in the center of the field at the park. The grass has been thick and giving me trouble with taildragger planes so I've been flying tricycle gear planes. They are resistant to nosing over on takeoff and landing. Today as I was packing up to leave the park manager stopped by and told me I could drive on the field to get to my old flying spot as long as it was dry. Tomorrow I'll give that a try. The contest is in two weeks and me and the club president have been preparing for the raffle. We hit the hobby shop for a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff and I have put together a bunch of stuff to sell and what doesn't sell goes into the raffle. Plus I'll give the PT-19 to the youngest member of the club. We have had two cold fronts that deflected two hurricanes away from us in the past two weeks. Florida has been the recipient of both storms. Big mess.

Big changes at the park.

The grass situation has made me make up a mower to cut the grass shorter. The grass stalls the engine. I was going to talk to the guy in charge about cutting my spot lower and today I tried to see him. I pulled into the park and at the turn I take to get to my spot there is now two posts in the road way. No way to drive to my spot. no sense talking ot him now. I can walk to the spot if I want, about 500 feet. We had checked out the North Park site and found some soft ball fields that would be as perfect as I can get and a parking lot that has possibilities. On the way home today I stopped at the park to measure the parking lot. The grounds crew was mowing the ball fields when I got there. The parking lot is 125 feet across and that is a few feet short of what I need to fly a small plane. I got out the Nomad 6 and two batteries when I got home and will charge them for an outing tomorrow. These soft ball fields have a smooth clay infield and grass outfields so taking off is as good as it can get.

Running in the high grass.

The first time I heard that saying I was in the Rhode Island Air National Guard. It refers to someone being sneaky around home. In other words staying out of sight while doing bad deeds. "On the front lawn" is the opposite. But here it means that the grass at the park is high and giving me problems taking off and landing. The only way I can defeat it is to use one of the Pathfinders that has a nose wheel. The PT-19 is flying as good as I can get it. The Evo .36 engine is running well and has a bunch of power. I ended up with 61 foot lines and the Evolution propeller that came with the kit. It's sitting ready for use. The weather turned around and it's been raining for the last 3 days. So far in my yard I've got over 8 inches of rain. It's tapering off though. I fixed a lawn mower that will cut much lower than the park is cutting and is light enough for me to put in the truck.It may be dry enough to mow a bit tomorrow. The club has settled on a contest director for the October contest. It was me but a newly minted director took over. Now I can fly. I did win the Publishers Clearing House 5 million dollars for the 5th time today.

The PT-19 lives.

I got to the park early again to beat the heat. I had changed lines back to the 59 footers that was on it. The Evo .36 starteed quickly and I richened it a coupld of clicks on the needle valve. That got me about 9200 rpm. I got to the handle and pulled the release line and the plane had a bit of trouble with the high grass as usual but got off the ground smartly. i had put real 2 degree offset wedges under the engine as the others were 1 degree even though they had 2 on the wedge. That alone cured the tendency to track a bit into the circle. I managed to do the whole beginner pattern with it even though the down elevator was not equal to the up elevator. The engine ran steady through the flight which was nice. I got in a couple more flights and the engine performed well. At home I heated the solder on the pushrod clevis and adusted it so I could even out the up and down elevator movement. That should make it even better. All in all I'm really happy with how it flys and how the engine is running. I may have to install a different elevator horn if I need a bit more elevator travel.

Another good one.

I got to the park a bit early as I wanted to get in a few trim flights with the .46 powered PT-19 with longer lines. I made a change to one of the lines to make the plane fly a bit lower but still high enough for what I wanted to accomplish. When we got down to business things were going well until I tried to start the engine for about the 6th flight. The fuel line inside the plastic tank had fallen off and wasn't in the delivering any fuel to the engine. I hd brought a second plane just in case something happened to the primary plane. I got that ready and did a warm up flight just to see how it was behaving. I handed it over to the other person and he got in several flights with a competition proven plane. At home I removed the .46 from the PT-19 and installed the .36 again as it's running much better. I took the fuel tank apart and put the fuel pickup line back on and re installed the tank on the PT-19. Everything is set for the next session.

PT-19 problems and fixes.

The Evo .36 was too weak so I installed the OS .46. I went to the park this morning and got in two flights with the new comnbo. First up I tried a loop and it was so big the plane pancaked into the turf. It shouldn't have done that so I looked it over real good. I found that the clevis thats attached to the elevator end of the pushrod wasn't the same thread as the thread on the pushrod. Vibration had worn the threads down enough that the clevis had slid on the pushrod giving me very little up control. I squeezed the clevis to tighten the threads and flew it again. I had to hold a lot of up as the clevis slid on the pushrod again. I ran the fuel out and landed without too much drama. I also had to bend the landing gear back inot shape as they got bent backwards in the first flight. I tried to remove them to bend eash but the person that assembled the plane in the first palce had glued then into the wing. Notrhing cracked when I bent then so I guess all is well. I put the lines away in favor of a set of 62 foot lines. That will give me more lap time with the more powerful engine in the plane. At home I cleaned the threads on both pieces and tinned the pushrod threads. Then I slid the clevis on where it should be, I hope, and soldered it in front of and behind the clevis. I shouldn't move. I had run the Evo .36 yesterday and couln't get above 8500 rpm. Today I removed the venturi and ran a .250 drill through it to give it more room for air to pass. Then I ran the tapered reamer into the top and bottom of the venturi and put it back into the engine. I ran it again with the same propeller and was able to get 9800 rpm with a bit more on tap. Should the Os .46 prove to be too much for the plane I'll put the .36 back on.

PT-19 again.

I have a person to teach control line flying. I got out the PT-19 and started flying it to get ready. The Evolution .36 engine just doesn't have the power to do anything except level flight. I timed the laps and it's the slowest I have ever flown. Almost 7 seconds per lap. I'm shooting for low 5 second laps. I put up about 10 flights with different propellers and engine speeds but nothing helped. After flying today I removed the Evo .36 and put an OS .46LA in the nose. That should give me what I'm looking for. I'll try again in the morning as Saturday morning I'm meeting the new guy and hope to get him soloed. He flys r/c so it shouldn't be too hard. The park was mowing as I left this morning.

New handle.

I sent one of my handles to a guy in England two others are in Texas. I posted some pictures of how to make the handle on one of the forums. I got a response that mentioned carbon fiber plate for the handle. I watched a video on cutting the material and didn't like what I saw. I had already ordered a thiner than recommended plate. I saw that my band saw has an outlet for a vacuum cleaner hose so I rigged it up and cut out two handle blanks.I've been flying one of the handles and so far it's working very well. I don't have any reinforcement for the line clips but the plante is holding up quite well. I timed the second handle to see how long it takes to make. 22 minutes. It takes a lot longer for the ply and aluminum handle. The weights are really close around a half ounce for both kinds. I thought the carbon plate would wear kinda fast but so far not so much. It's been raining every afternoon for over a week. The park is having trouble mowing and the grass is making take offs and landings harder that usual. I may have to bring my mower again. We finally needed tires on the Tundra. We went to Costco and got 4 new ones yesterday. I thought they did alignments too but they don't. I went to a local shop this morning and got that done. The temperature wasn't too high so I went to the park for a few flights with modified stabilizer leading edges. I think it made an improvement in how the plane flys. Then it started to rain.

Moving on up.

I've been having real good luck with the Brodak .40 enbgine. I had machined (hacksawed and drilled) a second universal motor mount and installed a second Brodak .40 on it. Today,after flying, I removed the first universal mount/brodak.40 and installed the second engine/mount. Same propeller so it should be the same I made a new handle with more overhang on the down line to dampen the outside turns. I tried that this morning and it works well so I'll keep it for the plane.

Mowing and testing.

The long holiday weekend and rain kept the park from cutting the grass last week. I brought a push mower and cut enough to get my planes off the ground safely. The Wild Thing and .40 engine is proving to be a great combination. I don't think the engine likes my low nitro fuel so I added some nitro to the can and will give it a try in the morning. I can get in an hour of flying before the temperature gets to high. I also changed to a 10.5 x 4.5 APC propeller from the 11 x 4. They both work very well but the smaller one gives me a bit more ground clearance. I'm flying with 57 foot lines and thinking about 55 or 56 footers. I have plenty that I can shorten. Although it flys very well on the 57's.

It fits.

I ordered a piece of 3/16 6061 T-6 aluminum plate from Amazon for the second universal motor mount. That came in today and I got to work. The Brodak 40 did fit the first universal mount so I used that to machine the second. After a lot of filing to fit and using counter sink head screws I got the .40 mounted and ready to fly. I changed the wheels for larger ones to handle the long grass even where it's been mowed. I went to the park this morning and set up where they had mowed and was able to get in a couple flights with the .35 powered plane. I still only had a half circle but it was mowed Wednesday. This plane has been really tortured. First with the .25LA that I couldn't get running the way I thought it should run. All kinds of nose stiffeners as I thought it was vibration causing my troubles. Then with the .20FP that went pretty well, then with a used .25 that took a few needle valve assemblies before I got one that gave me some adjustment in the rpm range I needed. Then I figured I could install a larger Max S-35 with the use of the universal mount and that went quite well. The Brodak .40 is only 0.2 ounces heavier than the Max-S .35 so I figured with the universal mount I could put that engine on the plane and that has worked out nicely so far. I plan to give it a try in the morning. A 35 ounce plane with a .40 in the nose should be just fine.

It should work.

With the .35 engine on the New Mexico Universal Engine Mounting Plate that was built for the .40 and.46LA engines I wondered if a forth engine would fit. The logical next step, mainly in weight, was the Brodak .40. I grabbed one and put the calipers to work and found it should fit. That would be great so I'm going to get in a few more flights with the .35 then remove it and see if the .40 will bolt right on. If it don't fit but is really close I'll look into opening the mounts holes a bit. What's nice is that I built a second one and it's an event winner already so I can take liberties with the original.

Another trial.

I put the APC 9 x 4 on the .25 and flew it this morning. With all the stock stuff on the engine and an O.S. through the venturi needle valve assembly it pulled the plane through the pattern with authority. AT and T is making a mess out of this computer. Nothing is working right. I installed one of the Max-S .35's I have and hope to get it in the air tomorrow. I got to the field at 0715 and the grass was in need of cutting. The park handles that Wednesday and Thursday. I set up and hoped for the best. The first takeoff had couple grass snags but the plane got off the ground and flew very well. The .35, with a Zinger 10 x 6 spinning at 8000 rpm pulled th plane very well I was pleased. On the second takeoff the grass won and the prop broke. i went home.

Making it work.

I put the used .25 on the first version of the Wild Thing but didn't have the APC propellers so I used wood ones. I went through a coupld needle valves as the one that came with the engine was very tight to turn. I finally settled on an original OS part and trie it with the wood props. I don't think it flew as well as it could and ordered some APC props. I made a metal tank for the plane and put that and one of the APC's on the engine. It ran better but the tank just didn't work well enough so at home I re installed the plastic tank and one of the larger APC props for the next session.I have experiance with the larger prop and it works well on another plane. I also put a sleeve in the venturi to reduce the choke area and that helped a bit. With the morning low temps in the high 70's and the dew point close by I only get two or three flights in before it gets too warm.

Test and tune.

I finally got a second LA .25 engine for the first "Wild Thing" that I built. I made such a mess ot this plane trying to get the first .25 engine to run in a way it didn't want to. When I finally followed the advise I was getting the engine ran like it was designed to. This plane was so modified that I found it quicker to build a second copy than to un do all the stuff I did to this one. After getting the second plane flying I tackled the first one and got it back to where it was in the first place. All I had for it was an O.S. FP .20 engine. It was enough to fly the plane but now as well as the .25 so I put out a Mayday call for another. The second copy with the .25 got me a first place finish in the profile event at the last contest I went to which is why I wanted another .25 for the other plane. I did some changes to the needle valve asm. and got it installed into the plane today. I hope to fly it tomorrow.

Handle.

A fix.

Fame and fortune.

Several months ago I senbt a picture of my Pixie Bob to the AMA magazine. When it appeared in the magazine I got an E-mail from a modeler in Bufffalo New York Saying he had two engines he would send me "no Charge". I couldn't resist. The "two engines" arrived in a box that weighed 12 pounds. I opened it to find eleven engines, some brand new, two handles, some fuel tanks, glow plugs and other goodies. This is the first time something like this happened to me. It's something you always hear about happening to someone else. I went to Texas, somewhere near Dallas, with my son to pick up a Jeep and flat tow back home. As usual he had planned the trip to perfection. The previous owner said that someone had pulled the hitch pin out of the tow bar and it had swung around and dented the fender around the left headlight. When we got home I noticed that the pin on the other side had worked loose and fallen out on it's own. The large pin that the hitch pin secured was still in place so no chance of damage. I changed the engine in my Jamison old time stunt plane and installed one of the engines I got in the box. There are three of the O.S. Max-S .35's amd I choose one of them as that size engine wa what was used 70 years ago. I'm getting used to it. s

El Dorado, Ar.

I looked at the radar weather before we left on Friday and it showed rain from here to about Alexandria, La. That turned out to be correct. On Saturday the turnout was below average as floods in Texas kept many from attending. The atmosphere was the strangest anyone had ever seen. It is blamed on a pancake landing of one plane half way through the pattern. A $50.00 propeller was ruined to make things worse. I brought both Wild Thing planes, the L-17 Navion for warbird and the newest Pixie Bob.I flew the newest Wild Thing in profile and got a 2nd place finish. I flew the L-17 in warbird and got the win. Mainly because the other guy hit the ground before finishing the pattern. Sunday was rained out so we came home early. We drove in rain all the way to Alexandria again before it cleared up. It was an enjoyable trip just the same.

My weekend Buppy.

Old is new again and learning has taken place.

I think I have figured out how to use the newer clear lacquer that attacked the other Wild Thing's paint. I had used the new clear as a test on two other planes to see if it was fuel proof. The lacquer didn't attack the paint on the other planes one of which was the Wild Thing I'm re-finishing.I had sprayed that plane with the first clear lacquer I had found and it wasn't fuel proof and the paint softened. When I got done with the trim color on the re-finished plane I sprayed just the trim color with the first clear. As I had already sprayed the entire plane with the first clear I didn't need to do it again. When That dried/cured I sprayed the whole plane with the second brand of clear. The paint has set for several hours now and it looks very good. I know it's fuel proof because of the test panels I did on the other planes. It's all back together and ready to fly. The weather report is for breezy conditions for a few days so test flights may take a while. The weight has increased a couple ounces but the other Wild Thing is less than an ounce difference so things should be good.

Second copy of the "Wild Thing".

The new clear lacquer I found attacked the trim colors making quite a mess. I re sprayed the colors and it looks better but not as good as it was before the clear. I am hoping that the clear will prove to be fuel proof. The clear didn't attack the black on the nose. Final weight is 33.4 ounces and the balance is on the money without any extra weight. I flew it for the first time today and it flys quite well with an O.S. .20 FP engine. I didn't try any of my engine fixes on this one and things went well. I have a "wings level" problem to sort out but that shouldn't be too hard. Our son and his wife bought a transfer printer and a vinyl cutter for graphics. They did the graphics on the new plane.

The muffler was the cure.

I put the mostly stock muffler on the engine and an APC 10 x 4 propeller. I broke the prefeered APC 9 x 4. Then I installed a normal O. S. brand needle valve assembly into my homemade venturi and the engine ran very well. i have a bunch of flights and it's running as good as it ever has. I have the new copy of the plane ready for paint. I may spray the base white later today. I found another brand of clear lacquer spray paint at Home Depot. I've been testing it on other planes to see how it reacts to engine exhaust. So far it's going well and I'm planning on using it as the top coat. I don't think the new plane will be ready for the El Dorado contest.

Got help for the engines.

I got even more help for the engine problems. I started with my go to tank the Du-Bro 4 ounce then tried to fit a metal tank but it was too long. I had cut out a 1 inch trough for it in the balsa I added for vibration. I couldn't use the metal tank so I went back to the plastic tank but now I removed more balsa so it would fit. Today I figured on trying a smaller plastic tank but I found out that it should be mounted wide side in not the narrow side like I always did. That meant even more balsa got cut out and the tank had to be re plumbed but the tank fits nicely. Pretty soon there wont be anything left but a pile of splinters.

I posted that I was having bad engine runs and got a lot of suggestions about a fix.I tried one that had me put the stock muffler on the engine and it helped a lot. I wa able to get some good flights out of it. That added a couple ounces of weight to the plane and I wasn't sure that the muffler was the cure. Today I tried the tongue muffler and that went very well where it didn't go well at all before. The only change was to use the stock needle valve set up and to turn the rpm's up to 12800 at launch. The rpm increase could have been the problem all along. Anyway I cut away some of the balsa I glued to the front to cure what I thought was the problem, vibration. I opened up an area so the fuel tank sits in it. The plane is flying very well but with all the changes and mods it looks pretty raggedy. I may have to build another using what I know about the design.

Engine run problems.

The Wild Thing flys very well. The engines (I've tried two) run great on the ground but go lean right at launch. It may be the fuel tank location and I've added a brace to hold it in place. I'll try that next time out. I had some tree branches trimmed and left as I figured I would chip them up. I didn't plan on the branches not wanting to go into the chipper. I cut smaller branches off the main branch and they went in but still gave me problems. I sharpened the cutters and figured that I could shim them to make them take a bigger bite as I feed the branches in. That worked very well and the chipping now goes a lot faster. I only used a .010 shim on the blades.

Wild Thing.

The new smaller plane is flying quite well so far. The .25 engine is plenty for the plane and I have a .20 that may be better. I'm waiting for name graphics to finish it off. I finally got sick of the old Pathfinder's raggedy looking paint scheme and stripped it off. I put on a scheme I used several years go and it looks a lot better. The Vector, for some reason, started flying very well. I had to put all the controls and balance back to where it was in the beginning. The new electric Legacy 40 is flying well also as are the two "Pixey Bob's" The first contest is in El Dorado, Ar in May. Our son got a car that had an over heated the engine ruining it. The rest of the car is in great shape. He found another car with the same engine at the local Copart yard and won it in the auction. So he got both in less than a week. Not even enough time to plan it. He will probably have the engines swapped in a week or two. He is documenting it on you tube. Search for aaron s. rose.

Possible solution, maybe.

The electrics on the new Legacy 40 have been behaving normally. It's possible that the Deans connectors were dirty cousing the erratic operation. It took 25 flights to get the plane flying fairly well. I chased several trim fixes before adding wing tip weight which almost cured it. I think it's going a bit too slow so I'll ad some power for the nextr session. While that was going on I started to build another plane. Smaller and profile. I finished the colors today and will clear coat it when the humnidity drops.

Battery test.

I re charged the 5 cell battery that I didn't use the other day and the two 4 cell batteries. I upped the flight time a bit and the 5 cell went off normally. I put oneof the four cellss in and I was surprised that it flew the plane very well. The other 4 cell went just as good. At hopmw I turned the flight time up to about 5 minutes. I'll need a few flights to get it at 5 and a half for the full pattern. Ice storm last night and very cold. Almost everything closed because of it. I need to get to the DMV to straighten out something about the El Camino. I think I know what it is and I have papers that says I'm in the clear but the computer hasn't been told that. I want to file a statement of non use so I canb drop the insurance.

First flight in the books.

I charged three of the 5 cell batteries and headed for the park. When I hit the start button the motor just twitched back and forth. I tried it a couple of times and figured it may work. In flight I timed a lap for information. I tried a second battery and upped the rpm's. The lap timne was the exact same which is not right. I put it in the truck. I tested the start function several times and it started to act normal. This morning I gave it another test and it was still normal so I headed for the park. It acted normal when I hit the start button and after the delay period the motor ran normally. Lap time was very close to what is needed so things seem to be back to normal. I have two 4 cell batteries that are 3 ounces lighter than the 5 cell and I plan to give them a try. I also made room for the batteries to be pushed aft an inch or so and that should help cornering. My next project is going to be a smaller version of the Twister model that I re engineered into a full fuselage plane. I hop to be able to get the original plans reduced about 10% at the UPS Store when they open on Tuesday. If they can't do it I'll have to go to Office Depot and hit the small copiers. I have a .20 and a.25 size engine doing nothing.

Ready to fly.

The jury is in the plane is ready to fly. I don't know how the designer came up with the balance point on the plans but with the battery in the plane and all the weight I took off it balances an inch aft of the desired spot. I checked the other one and it balances aft also. Without the battery it weighs 45 ounces. The battery is 12 ounces and that is the lightest one I can find. I checked the speed controller and timer and the rpm is at 9200 and that should be good for a test flight maybe in the morning. Unlike a fuel powered plane electrics stay at the same weight throughout the flight. The others get lighter as the fuel is burned off. I was hoping for low 50 ounces but it is what it is. I just hope I don't need to ad tail weight or nose weight.

Change of plans.

I started to implement the paint scheme with the star but couldn't figure out how to best tape it off. It didn't take long before I gave up on it altogether. I had just enough paint for the trim I put on the plane. It took about 6 hours to get both colors applied. I have a bit more to do on the bottom before the clear coat. I have to figure out which clear coat to use as It doesn't have to be fuel proof on this one just copmpatable with the other paints. Storms all around today so I didn't get in any

flying.

Another senior moment.

The saga of the Vector is slowly coming to a close. I stumbled on,what I thought was a second set of plans. It was not the same as the set I was using for the trim sessions. Then I tried to find the set I was using but couldn't find it. I let the Force be with me and grabbed the plans I was using and they were not Vector plans. They were the plans I was using for the Legacy 40 I am building. I put things right according to the Vector plans and some handle changes and it flys a lot better.I made another handle swap for the next time out. Trying to roller skate in a buffalo herd will lead to disaster because you have to look out for number one without stepping in number two. The new Legacy 40 is up to paint. I may need to get another can of white to get proper coverage for the base coat. Seeing that it's electric I can use a clear coat that looks good and doesn't have to be fuel proof which saves the new can of two part urethane I have.