Ready to fly.

After much searching I copied the paint scheme on my Nomad 5. I had the paint and something to go by so it worked. I put it back together and set the controls again and the paint has had a chance to cure. I charged the batteries for the electric planes and they are next up so the Mo'Best will have to wait a bit.
  The new engine parts came in from Japan late last week. I have 3 smaller engines that share common parts with the larger engine I'm building. I only ordered the missing parts needed to build two complete engines. The crankcase, the cylinder head and the piston pin. I had bought the piston and liner years ago from Tower Hobbies and I have 9 spare back plates not counting the ones on the donor engines. Anyway, I got both engines assembled in a couple hours without hurrying. I made hex socket head bolts for the head and they were ready for use. The stock bolts are Phillips and strip easily.
  I've been running engines on boards clamped to anything handy and that is getting old. I won an engine test stand in a raffle and I mounted it on a 2 x 6 and still had to clamp that to something. Yesterday i checked the saw horse supply at Home Depot and found a plastic one for under  $20.00. I bolted the 2 x 6 to the top of it and ran the engines. Much easier. I'll put one on the Shark 610 and the other on the Bearcat.

Moving right along.

With the adjustments working on my profile planes the Mo'Best is getting a make over. I removed the paint with thinner and stripper and scraping. Now it's filling and sanding. I never liked the paint scheme but it didn't fly well enough to put all the work into the new finish until now. Now I have to find a design I like and can easily copy.
  I found that the manufacturer of the engines I use has a stash of parts for them. They discontinued the engine a while back and complete engines are scarce and getting quite expensive. I ordered two crankcases and heads as I have all the other parts to make two complete engines. The parts are coming from Japan so it may take a while.
  I have decided on a diet for my engines of full synthetic oil fuel after every 15 flights to clean out the castor oil residue that fouls the engine and causes erratic running.
  The first contest I can make is in El Dorado, Ar in early May. The next is in Dallas in early June. Another in Canton Ga in Aug.

All that glitters is not goldfish.

With the success I've been having with the leadouts I tried it on a plane with a full fuselage (not a profile). It didn't work. I figure the round shape of the fuselage, in cross section, allows the air to flow over it more evenly than the slab sided profile. Also there is little to no engine offset built into the full fuselage and I use offset shims on the profiles. Today I'm going to try the Chipmunk. That plane is the poorest overall flying plane I have. I moved the leadouts forward like the others so I'm hoping it helps. If not it will go into the raffle in our October contest.
   I got the title from an old cartoon show "Rocky and Bullwinkle". There was a segment called "Fractured Fairy Tales" in it one comment at the end of the skit was what I used for the title.

More trimming finds.

I have figured out that I've been setting the leadouts too far aft. I tried one plane with them moved forward a ways and it flew a lot more stable. I figured that flying too much sideways is shading the control surfaces causing a loss of control authority. I tried moving the leadouts forward on another plane and got improved flight again. With that in mind I got out the Wildcat that flew poorly from the start. Moving the leadouts forward improved the flying on it too. Today I got out the Mo' Best and moved the leadouts on that one and it flew better also. I'm going through my fleet moving leadouts and flying them to make sure the change works on each plane.
   The new field box is working out well. I found an empty peanut butter jar that will fit inside and I'm using that to hold the fuel. I don't know what the fuel will do to the plastic so I keep the jar in a baking tray while at home.

Thinning the herd.

Not the planes this time. I got a new field box. It really is a tackle box from Cabela's and it's cheap. Probably very close to the sale price of my old one when it was new. I spent the afternoon transferring stuff from the old box and making a place in the new box for it. It came with 4 smaller parts trays that got the small parts all separated in their own divided place. I only used two of the trays to hold the small stuff and there is room for more. I had to rig up a holder for the fuel jug on the outside but as soon as I can modify another quart can I'll be able to put it inside as well.

Twisting more out of the Twister.

With the extra performance I'm getting from enlarging the stabilizer I got the idea to try that on one of the Twisters I built. The first one is scratch built from plans so i used that one as the test mule. The original stab. span is 18 inches and the balsa I had to work with was 1 1/2 inches wide so that brought the span to 21 inches. It flew pretty good before I added the wood so it will be interesting to see what it does now. The weather is cloudy and some rain but I may have a window to get in some flights.

More changes to test fly.

It's been windy lately but in the morning two days ago it was very light wind so I headed to the park with Nomads 3 and 5. I had enlarged the elevators on #3 and put the salvaged canopy from the highly modified Strega ARF on it. On #5 I installed the metal tank I made for it and that needed testing. I didn't realize it but I had installed a venturi I made a while back and it is .015 larger in inside diameter. I got in two flights with 3 3/4 ounces in the tank for the first flight and 4 ounces in for the second flight. Both flights ran out of fuel before I could finish the pattern. All my other engines of the same size and type use 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 ounces for a full flight. I took out #3 and it flew very well. I've since flown #3 with a full tank of fuel and it is enough to finish the pattern. Some fill the tank and draw out a set amount but I avoid one step and put in a set amount. It amounts to the same thing.