Shoulda waited longer.

I wanted to use dope paint for most of the re builds. I used Rustoelum lacquer for the white on the "Wild Thing". I gave it that same trim design as the other one. When I sprayed the butyrate clear dope over the white things didn't go well. It ended up looking like a weathered paint job. When I saw that I ordered two cans of two part urethane clear for the other two planes. I flew the Wild Thing this morning and it flew well but needed some tweaking as I expected. The engine ran well but needed more elevator throw whick I took care of at home after the session. I also flew the Vector 40 which I haden't flown since March 31. I had put the Brodak 40 back in with a metal tank so I figured there would be some problems. It took a couple short flights to clear the gunk out of things and the plane was very touchy. I made some adjustments at home and flushed the fuel system. Back in March the vector was not steady in level flight. Since then I have found that lmaking the leading edge of the stabilizer pointed instead of round makes a big difference in how stable the plane is. I have tried this on others in the fleet and got very good results. I taped pieces of 1/8 diameter carbon rod to the leading edge and the Vector was nice and stable in level flight. As with the others, all 1/2 inch thick stabilizers, I glued the rods to the leading edges and covered them with trim kote. As an aside, a hawk was sitting on the baseball back stops while the field was being mowed and while I was flying not far away. I was surprised that the bird stayed so close while the other activitys were going on. The newly mowed grass gave him better hunting.

Waiting for clear.

I sprayed white dope on two planes and Rustoleum lacquer on a third for a base coat. These two are ready for clear coats when the humidity goes down enough. Thge third needs trim colors.

Good luck and bad.

Several weeks ago I was flying my prototype Wild Thing and it scufed the ground inverted. It didn't break the prop so I put it up again. A few minutes into the flight the entire nose section came off. The prop broke this time. The wing wasn't harmed so I deceided to build another fuselage, recover the wing and tail and set it up for the Brodak .40 engine instead of the smaller O.S. .25. The weights are very close with the .40 being 1.5 ounces lighter. I started on the re build when I got a Yak 9 kit from my contest and a Oriental profile kit at the El Dorado contest. I started on the Yak 9 along with the re build and then started the Oriental too. Then i bought another engine, a Super Tiger .51. I planned to put that engine in the electric Nomad. So I started to cut into that as well. I did put the Yak 9 aside for the time being. I designed an engine crutch for the Nomad that fits inside the battery tray portion of the electric mount so I didn't have to cut away too much of the nose. As of now all three fuselages are done and getting the noses fiberglassed. I stripped the paint from the Nomad fuselage as I didn't use fuel proof paint as it wsan't needed being electric. A few more coats of dope and the Oriental wing will be ready for assembly into the fuselage.

Aftermath.

The contest went very well. The weather was great and a lot of contestants came to fly. We would have broken records but 4 club members did volunteer work and didn't fly. The raffle went well with one of our club members taking home a lot of stuff. Our vice president told the park owners (BREC) that the trailer should be removed and it has bees. He took some park workers out to show them and got stung yet again. I've been flying at South Park driving around the field's edge to get to my spot. The park manager gave me permission to do that. The park has put in a nature walk, that closed the access road, some "pickel ball" courts and a disc golf course. Those things has more than tripled the people using the park. El Dorado contest this weekend. The weather looks good so far. I haven't been able to fly as much as I would like in preparation. I wrecked the first "Wild Thing" and I'm in the process of repairing it.

The Sting.

On Thursday I went to the contest field to get a start on the set up. We store tables and other stuff in an old trailer left there by the park people years ago. I got out some tables and rods and caution tape. I put them in my truck and got attacked by a yellow jacket. It stung my on my upper lip before I could thrash him soundly. I told the former club president about it and he went to check it out. He only got stung on his arm. The next day he was showing some park workers what was happening and he got stung on the arm again. He notified the park people that the trailer should be removed and they agreed. When that will happen in anyones guess. The weather on Sat. and sun. was close to perfect for flying. I didn't compete as I didn't get in enough practice before hand and it just doesn't look right for the contest director to take trophys from others. My feelings anyway. The lunch out club president cooked at the field attracted about 60 people total with spectaters. On Sunday we had 12 contestants going at it for the top three spots. There was some real good flying by several of the expert class flyers. I managed to hand out the awards and get the place cleaned up and get home before 1300 hours. The raffle we have to make money for the club had a lot of stuff. Then one of the members wifes donated some pictures made using a technique called "quilling" for a raffle for the ladies. This has never happened before the raffle is always for the flyers/men. On Sunday more items were donated for the "ladies raffle" and those tickets were out selling the mens raffle. We were trying to end in the "made money" column this year. I think we did but I haven't heard for sure. Today I went flying at the local park with two planes I plan to take to El Dorado in two weeks. One had a vibration during the second flight and after landing I found all the engine hold down bolts were loose and one had broken and one missing. I fixed that at home and put some medium lock tight on them this time. The other plane has a smaller engine and runs different than I'm used to. It took 3 flights before I got it close. The weather for the next 7 days is good flying weather so I plane to get in as much as possible.

Even more good news.

I was getting settled into my new flying spot when the park manager stopped by and told me I could drive around to the old flying spot as long as I stayed on the perimeter and it was dry. I started flying at my old spot and the grass had grown over my launch spot. I've been looking for it with no luck I'm surprised that the grass took over so fast as the ground was bare from exhaust oil. The center where I stand to fly is still bare. The grass has softened up and didn't grab the wheels and tip the plane over on landing. I got a call from the club vice president saying I should fly at the contest this weekend as everything is covered and I have only made one contest so far this season. Now I'm scrambling to come up with planes I have flown recently. I did find that the Pathfinder profile is Nostalgia 30 legal and legal for the profile event and for the main event on Sunday. I could use the same plane for three events but I'll fly my Pixie Bob 2 on Sunday instead.

Some good news.

I found a new spot to fly in the center of the field at the park. The grass has been thick and giving me trouble with taildragger planes so I've been flying tricycle gear planes. They are resistant to nosing over on takeoff and landing. Today as I was packing up to leave the park manager stopped by and told me I could drive on the field to get to my old flying spot as long as it was dry. Tomorrow I'll give that a try. The contest is in two weeks and me and the club president have been preparing for the raffle. We hit the hobby shop for a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff and I have put together a bunch of stuff to sell and what doesn't sell goes into the raffle. Plus I'll give the PT-19 to the youngest member of the club. We have had two cold fronts that deflected two hurricanes away from us in the past two weeks. Florida has been the recipient of both storms. Big mess.