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.