Houston, we have temps.

I went to the school this morning and mowed the infield. That should stop my lines from snagging on the weeds. When I got home I checked the mail and the insurance card for the El Camino came in. I hurried to the Putnam DMV and waited in line for an hour and came away with temp. plates. I called a close by garage and service center and used car lot who also does emission testing and VIN checks. The El Camino needs a front end alignment so I scheduled it along with the VIN check for Friday. The DMV gave me a paper that had the names of places other than the DMV who can do the VIN check. For $20.00 plus the alignment it's worth it not to be in line for several hours at the Norwich DMV. Possibly by Sat. or Wed. the El Camino should have plates.
I installed a Fox .35 on the newest Primary Force and an old K&B .40,converted to c/l, on the stretched Twister today. Weights and balances are in the ball park on both planes as built. I ran the K&B yesterday and it ran well. I had to shave a tad off the sides to get it to fit but it worked. Test flights coming up.

Got it.

I just won the bid on a bench seat with fold down armrest. This kind of seat came in the fancy packages. SS,GS and so on. $150. plus $95 shipping from WI. Now I can get the right seat covers for the stock seat and off we go.

I found one.

I chanced to check ebay for bench seats and came across one for the El Camino. It's in WI someplace and is shippable. It ends around 11 tonight and I'll hit it hard. Still waiting for the insurance card. I can't figure out what the red lights in the rear bumper are for. Stop lights for sure but it has some in the rear corners already.

Another close call.

I took the new plane to the field this morning. The grass had been mowed recently but the whole infield is dirt. Small grassy weeds are growing all over it. I set up and started the engine and took the controls. I pulled the release the plane started moving and the lines snagged on a weed. The up line of course. The plane got airborne and came in on me in a climb heading back out of the circle. I gathered up some line and the plane reached the end of the lines before hitting the ground. The impact of the plane reaching the end of the lines wasn't bad so I continued to complete the flight. I remembered that upon landing yesterday the lines hooked into a weed and turned it around. I didn't think about it until after the incident today. I checked out the new school in Sterling and the old school in Oneco both are usable until The weeds are taken care of.

Next week comes early.

In my last post the plane missing a piece of it's wing and flying inverted is the one hovering above the blue pool in the bottom picture.
Anyway I went to the school with the new plane and got in two flights. All went well. I put in 2 3/4 ounces of fuel in the 6 oz. tank and did the beginner pattern on the second flight. The engine runs were too fast and didn't want to slow down. I made a change to the handle spacing and opened it up to 3 1/2" from 3. I also changed tanks to a 4 oz. from the 6 and removed the spinner. The new weight is 38 ounces. Right where I planned it to be. A perfect day for flying too, bright sun and a little wind from the NW. Perfect for the softball field I fly in as I use 3rd base line to start and take off towards first. The plane has a nice glide and touchdown but in the grass it wants to nose over as the grass grabs the metal gear legs.

Big toys for big boys.

I went to see a model show at a nearby airport today. I didn't know what to expect. Some kind of giant scale show was in progress when I arrived. These planes are 40% or bigger and are way overpowered. Control throws are extreme to say the least. The people flying them are very good at it. One of the tricks was to dunk the planes tail in a wading pool on the other side of the runway. I didn't see what happened but got a shot of one of the planes flying around with half of one wing missing the other on the runway broke all to pieces. Many thousands of dollars down the drain.

Over and done with.

I finished painting the latest plane today. In between working on lawn mower engines I applied two coats of blue and the black canopy. I final assembled it and the weight with spinner is 41 ounces. Without is 39 so I met my goal of high 30's.I'll let it dry for several more days before a test flight. Balance is a bit nose heavy but that is good.