ENE 5 to 10.

The temp is in the low 40's now so I will head to the field in an hour or so. I need to affirm the changes I made to the Pathfinder and Ringmaster are where they should be. I put a head with a larger combustion chamber on one of the new .46's. It really powers up in maneuvers and this should calm it down some.
I had to make up a new stooge as the ground is too hard to stick my usual stooge into. It is a board with nails and a hookup for the usual stooge to hook into. I'll pound the nails into the ground and leave it there. With this one I can fly my full fuselage planes as they have to be started up side down. They are fastened to the stooge and flipped over, started and turned right side up for take off. With the stooge attached to the field box I can't flip the plane over with it attached to the stooge.

Still good weather.

I've been to the field most every day so far this winter. I made some changes to the big ringmaster and it flew much better in level flight but I lost the corner on insides. Outsides were extremely hard so I made a few changes and tested them today. Corners seem to be equal now. I made some changes to the Pathfinder and screwed it up. I put it back to the way it was.
I built a new wing for the Lightning and cut the foam wing out. The original had a half inch spacer on the nose and I ended cutting that off and re shaping the nose. I had put fiberglass on the fuselage and now it's biting me with the re build. I'm going to make it into a WW 2 trainer that had two open cockpits. That will give me access to the controls during and after assembly. It's a Fleetwing Model 33 trainer. Easy color scheme.

Finished Banshee.

I got the landing gear and spats on and working.

Cold today.

I've been making and trying landing gear on the Banshee as the position of the blocks in the wing were placed in the strongest place which is at the spar and at the balance point. Two sets of wire gears bent and discarded plus one set of sheet aluminum gear that didn't work out. I made a second set of aluminum gear and this one will work. I had a lot of trouble getting the angle of the bend right so the wheels would be forward of the wing leading edge. I also took weight off the nose to see how it will react. Too cold to test it today.
I went to the field yesterday and the ground was wet. I got out without getting stuck but not by much.

Moving along.

As I was cutting parts for the new rudder for the Nobler I noticed the plans show the airfoil to be on the wrong side of the unit. Anyway I made it right I think.The stab/elev caused a problem as the hinge slots are chewed up pretty bad. I cut a bit off the hinge sides and made new pieces with accurate hinge pockets. I had to add a piece of wood to the leading edge and make a different shape and larger pair of tips. The flaps will be another problem as half of the hinge is still in the wing. Removing them will cause a bigger problem so I have to make new flaps with hinges that match and control horn pockets that match the horn. Then again I can trim some off the original flaps and add a new piece with accurate hinge pockets. The kit flaps are smaller than the plans flaps so this should work out. I loosened the hinges on the elevator by scraping and running a drill through the hinge pin holes.

Good weather.

I cut a half inch out of the bottom of the Nobler turtle deck and glued it back on. The elevator was loose so I took it off and had a time getting the hinges cut out. The kit hinges are the problem as they are too tight and don't move free. I'll have to build a new fin and rudder as the original isn't the right shape. I didn't like the wire landing gear on the Banshee so I cut some aluminum and made a set. They screw onto the wood blocks. I had a time getting the angle to bend the blanks so they would stick forward. I ended up with a 20 degree angle bend and it worked very well.
The wind wasn't too strong around 0800 so I packed up and went to the field. The Banshee flew well and I got in the first full pattern. I think I will install one of the .46's for more grunt. I flew one of the new .46's with the remote needle valve it went good, just breaking it in. This afternoon the winds were less than this morning so I went to Oneco with the Banshee and the Twister with the other new .46. I got in 2 flights each without a mishap.

Winter project No. 4.

I have an ARF Nobler and it doesn't fly very good. The controls are too stiff. This morning I started tearing into ti to find the reason for the stiffness. I disconnected the push rods and the control surfaces didn't free fall. The bellcrank is nice and free although I had to trim a few ribs to make sure the leadouts didn't touch anything. I have plans from Model Airplane News from the early 50's of the original Nobler that is old time stunt legal so I started in making the plane like the plans. The turtle deck has to be cut down a half inch the rudder, the stab and wing tips have to be changed, I have to fill in the nose and build a cowling like the original and make flaps to match the plans. Not to mention changing the hinges. I got a dose of K2r soaking the oil off the nose too. That may take a week to get all the oil out.
The wind is messing things up but the temp is a lot better.