A great compliment.

I have flown the Nomad 5 at several contests this year. It is the best looking of the series that I've designed and built. At two contests, one in El Dorado, Ar and in Canton, Ga spectators have told me they like the looks of the plane while it's flying. This past weekend at Zachary, La contest one of the better flyers and builders asked me if I had construction plans for the Nomad he wants to build it. I brought what I drew up during the building of the planes and let him borrow them to build his own. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.
  I sent the paperwork for a contest sanction in and I'm waiting for an answer. March 30 - 31 next year at South Park 5 miles from home. I think it is the best spot for a contest as 8 hotels are within 2 miles of the field and lots of eateries right off the highway. No back roads to travel.
 We flew off the former practice circle at the Zachary contest this year. It worked out very well for all concerned. The winds died down right after the contest ended. We had some really good flyers in attendance.

Two test flights.

I assembled the electric Pathfinder, top photo, and tested it's flying ability before wasting time painting it. That's one good thing about electric power. The .60 size foam core wing plane, hanging on the wall, had to be painted first to keep the exhaust oil out of the wood. Both flew quite well. I still have the Jamison to test fly. It only weighs 35.8 ounces. the Pathfinder is 55 ounces and the big one is 65 ounces.

Moving along slowly and too fast.

As it turned out the new wing kit for the Pathfinder cost me $4.71 plus the $50.00 gift certificate from the kit maker. Last night there was a note that Brodak had given me a $5.00 credit on the wing kit so it is even cheaper.
  I set up the wing jig like I always do and built the replacement wing. When I got to installing the controls the leadouts seemed short. That didn't cause any concern. After completing the wing and installing it in the fuselage I measured to find the center and then things didn't ad up. I should have half of 27.5 inches on both sides. It really is 30 inches on both sides. OOPSIE. I set the jig for 2.75 inch rib spacing instead of 2.5 inches. Still scratching my head on that one. There shouldn't be any problem as the wing will weigh the same just be 50 square inches bigger.
  The new plane with the foam wing and the Jamison are ready to fly. I removed the engine from the Super Chief and put it in the Jamison yesterday. The other is still engineless. The Jamison is light at 36 ounces. the other one will be around low 60 ounces. I'll use the engine from the Nomad 4.
 I'm going to change the wing tips on 4 of the Nomads as an expert designer says the tips should be longer at the rear and not the front like I did it. Luckily the Pathfinder has tips I can copy as I have a new set of plans and the old set too.
  I should find out when I can schedule the contest at the park soon. It looks like late March of early April. Holidays, egg hunts, carnival and another contest in early May are messing things up.

King Orange.

We went to Glen St. Mary, Fl for the King Orange contest I first heard about in the late 50's. It's been running every year for 63 years now. I had to go and see what it was all about. It used to be held in late December but after getting froze and wind blown every year they moved it to mid Sept. Even with the hurricane in the Carolina's there wasn't any wind and the temps reached into the mid 90's. I got a third place in profile stunt using my electric Pathfinder. On the second flight the outboard wing half broke off and that ended that. On my first flight on Sunday with the Hound Dog I scraped the ground on the wing over maneuver and stopped the engine. No damage though. The only thing wrong with the Pathfinder is the wing so I ordered a wing kit for it. It helped that I won a $50.00 gift certificate in the raffle to the place that made the kit.  It came in today.
  I painted the Jamison and the new plane with white dope as a base color. Today I sprayed some green trim and it looks like a flat color. That's it for dope and back to the Rustoleum.
  One of our neighbors put a push mower on the roadside with a sign that said Free. I grabbed it. Today I looked at it and started it. Lots of vibration. I removed the blade and found that it was installed wrong. i had to drill and tap the mount so the blade could be centered. It needs a new blade as the one that's in it now is bent and missing a washer. It runs smooth now.

Said I'd never do it but I did.

The large plane with the foam wing has been giving me trouble with the flaps. The first set was way too small. So I made up another set but they were too flexible. I figured that the expert on the forums could help with the design of  the flaps. The reply's have gone around the barn and are quite hard to build. Then another chimed in and mentioned a design that I could build easily. This is the same person had offered advise to someone else on a different subject and I tried it and the plane crashed because of it. He got it right this time and I just finished building the new flaps. The wing halves are ready to glue together finally.

  The other day at the park I set up the electric Pathfinder for the first flight of the day and the electronic speed controller shorted out and destroyed itself. I was able to get back to the plane and disconnect the battery before it burned up the plane. I ordered a new one and it came in yesterday and I got in two flights with the plane with no problems.
  I got some butyrate dope paint for the Jamison Special and the big planes fuselage. I have to wait for drier weather as it needs to have the fan going when I paint. I'm going to use iron on covering for the big planes wing and stab/elev.

Moving right along.

I'm in the fill and sand mode on the Jamison. It takes a long time to prepare the surface with dope paint.
  I got the foam wing cores on Monday. They are close to going together. I need to design the flaps and install the trailing edge.The foam stab/elev. cores have been sheeted with 1/32 blasa and are close to being joined also. I'll cut the elevators away from the stabilizer and hinge them together.
  I'm thinking about taking the electric Pathfinder to the Florida contest. It's flying really well.

The contest and more.

We left home around 0700 east bound on I-12. Left on I-65 into Alabama. Things were going well until we hit Montgomery, Al. Almost out of town and over the hill a pickup wrecked causing a 30 minute delay. That put us into the rush hour traffic on the loop around Atlanta, Ga. Not fun. We got to the hotel in daylight and it's run by, wait for it, The Patel's. The place we stayed in Plainfield, Ct was run by the same group along with the gas stations.
 Anyway we found the field and it's a nice venue. On Saturday I flew the Nomad 5 in profile and the P-40B in warbird. The winds were switching all over the place and the temperature was in the 90's. I was prepared for the light winds but not the temp. I have been flying in the low 80's for a long time but the 90's drained too much power from the engines. I had a poor first flight in warbird and turned up the power for the second flight and got first place. Not so in profile or the event on Sunday. They had a raffle and I cleaned up on that. A kit of the Jamison Special, a model designed in the mid 40's, a sheeted foam wing from somebody's project, an engine for the kit, some safety glasses, a fuel tank and a propeller. It's all about the raffle.
  We stayed over on Sunday and left around 0315 and beat the traffic on the loop. No accidents or construction delays all the way home. WAZE took us a different route home. 

I've got the Jamison built and being painted with dope this time. I brought some foam wing templates for the plane I have under construction to the contest as a foam wing cutter was there and the wings are being shipped today. I don't know exactly what I'll do with the wing I won in the raffle. It needed fixing as the controls were poorly installed but I got that fixed.

I met with the Park Board and they don't mind if there is a contest at South Park. I spoke with the person in charge and he is coming to look the park over. It may end up being the location of the local contest now held in Zackery if the park board (BREC in this case) gets too finicky.