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.