Getting ready for Old Time Stunt.

The planes are flying well and the Lee, MA contest is this Sunday.
I started thinking about the contest this October. It is going to feature old time stunt and profile stunt on Saturday with regular stunt on Sunday. I don't have a plane for the OTS class. I looked at the fleet and the closest thing to a legal plane is my S-1A ringmaster. The shape is there but the wing ribs are a slightly different shape. The leading edge is sheeted back 3 inches on top of everything. That really stands out and gives the plane away. So I trimmed the sheeting away between the ribs leaving enough sheeting at the leading edge to look like the original leading edge. I repaired the ground off fin and rudder and canopy. The S-1A has a plastic canopy instead of a balsa canopy but I used balsa when I built the kit. I stripped all the covering off the wing and melted the paint off the fuse. with Cyclo Carb Cleaner. I had to repair some cracked wood and I'm in the process of filling holes and dings and coming up with a color scheme. I had a Fox .25 on it that I got off ebay a while back. Of course I threw the old time pattern away a while ago and can't find it anywhere. It's a lot different than the new one. I cut some wood away from the leadouts in the ribs while I was at it too. It should be ready for the contest.

Making progress.

My planes have not been keeping tight lines in the overhead maneuvers. I started moving the leadouts forward and the lines have been getting tighter. I re checked the balance on the Vicar and moved it forward a half inch with a 2 ounce heavy hub. It is more stable now and after moving the bellcrand push rod to center the handle it turns about the same inside and outside. I put a Hayes tank on it after flying today and will test it tomorrow if the winds are normal. I put a homemade tank on another plane and moved the leadouts forward but they didn't go far enough. I cut away the covering and removed some balsa from the tip and moved the guide forward an inch. Now I got adjustability. I flew the plane this morning and saw a leak in the tank when I put fuel in it. I fixed the leak when I got home and have to test it again sometime. I did get in a flight with it though.

Winter project.

I took some pictures of my winter project this morning. I am in the process of deciding where to place the landing gear, in the wing, which I'm favoring, or on the fuselage. The wing tips will be squared off some to better match the stabilizer shape. The specs that will be close to the final dimensions are; wing span 51 inches or so, area 550 sq. in., over all length including the spinner and rudder is 39.5 inches, the stab. has a 24.25 span and 152 sq. in. that makes it 27.56% of the wing area. Weight as it sits on the scale with the tank and spinner is what it is. I project the finished weight to be around 45 ounces. An OS .40 or .46 engine. I put foam in the rear of the fuselage to form it and stiffen it. There are two pieces there, about an inch thick, one on top and one on the bottom so there is a push rod tunnel between. Wing and stab are sheeted foam cores. The turtle deck is molded balsa and the canopy is the back half of a Sig WW-2 canopy, it's all I had on hand. The front half is not shaped right so I cut it off.

Summer is here.

I warmed up the bike the other day and found the Du Pont 77 and a piece of 0000 steel wool and started cleaning the crud off the exhaust and wheels. I gunked it after that and washed it after that. Then I put some wax on it and it looks pretty good. I keep finding pieces that go along with it and I have two boxes full and Roy's front wheel. I remembered the padlock today and got that loosened up after many years sitting in the garage window. The saddle bags are in the garage somewhere.
I made a few changes to the Padre and flew it this morning. I put it back the way it was. The Fox is running very well. I got 2 gallons of fuel left from the 12 or so I made up last fall. Most has been burned in flight, 3.75 ounces per flight. Richard Wood's grandson, Brandon, wanted to know how much fuel the engine burned in one lap. Richard came up with .02 ounces per lap at 6.5
minutes total and 5.3 seconds per lap per 3.75 ounces. I wagged it at 2 drops per lap.
The weather here has been quite warm and dry for a while. I have to get things done before 10 o'clock. The grass don't dry off until after noon so I get to mow in the heat of the day.

Did it again.

After about an hour sitting I went out and re started the bike and rode it around the yard. I looked at the tach. wiring and nothing looks out of place. It may have rolled a 7. It's the original that's been getting vibrated silly since '78.

Running again.

I installed the new battery yesterday and tried to start the bike. Nothing. I referred to the info I got last winter when I had trouble getting it started. I did the prescribed electrical test on the module and coil and got a good coil and bad module. I had gotten it running last winter after disconnecting the tachometer from the coil and had installed the module from Roys' bike. For some reason that module now is no good. I wired up the original module and it checked out good. I removed Roys' module and installed the original. After a bunch of kicks it fired a couple of times. I kept at it and got it running. It didn't want to stay running and I had to re start it but it finally kept running. I let it run for a while with a fan blowing on the engine and then rode it around the yard for a bit to get things loosened up a little more. The oil was hot so I ran it long enough. I checked the alternator and got 14.7 volts so it's good. I tried to connect the tach. and the engine started to die but I unplugged it before the engine stopped. I've got to look into that more.
I flew the newer Fox re build this morning. It flys nice and the engine runs well too. The needle valve asm. isn't very good and I have to find a better one. I weed wacked the circle while I was there. The oil killed the plant but new shoots were coming up out of the old ones.

Parts missing.

The order from fox came in the mail Monday. Only one of the rear covers I ordered was sent. I was charged for only one. I called Fox and ordered the last one I need and had another head button added to the order. I installed one of the engines on the kit built Primary Force and I hope to fly it today.
With the weather being cooler I started on the winter project plane. I got the fuse. pretty much framed up and the wing, stab. were built a while ago, both sheeted foam. I'll probably use wing mounted landing gear.
The motorcycle battery came in at the last moment Monday too. Now I need to find some electrolyte.