Almost an ARC.

I glued the pieces together today. I had the flaps and elevators mated to their horns and removeable from the horns. I had glued a 4-40 nut onto the flap pushrod so I can use the nut driver tool to r & r the pushrod. It's a pain to count turns and install it using a pair of pliers. I cut a drinking straw from McDonald's to fit over the ball link on the bellcrank and jam the bellcrank full forward and then remove the pushrod and fit the straw end into the pushrod cutout to hold the bellcrank in position for the trip through the fuselage cutout and to hold the ball link in place for the re installation of the pushrod. I generally do this with the wing fully sheeted and not being able to see the ball link.  I cut the bellcrank pivot rod 1/8" longer than the wing is thick so it will stick out 1/16" on top and bottom so I can put a brace on the wing sheeting and the rod and fuselage sides. As the rod gets to the fuselage side I push the rod down to sheeting level and flex the thinnest side over the rod and push it back up inside the fuselage so the other end will slip through. Nothing new there. After truing the wing to the fuselage I tack it in several places. Then I install the pushrod into the ball link. I only go a couple turns before twisting the straw to check that it's free. If it isn't free to turn remove the pushrod because it got threaded between the straw and the ball link. Put the push rod back in and try to twist the straw again, repeat as necessary until the straw is free then turn the pushrod in the number of turns you counted when you removed it. You didn't think of that did you? I didn't and that's why I put it there instead of at the beginning. in this case I needed 15 turns to reinstall the pushrod. What this does is give you the strongest fuselage possible as there isn't any cuts to scab over after the wing is installed.
  I've tried several different ways to true up the wing to the fuselage over the years and stumbled on this method today. I have four pieces of marble broken from the same large piece and two of the biggest ones are under the smaller two that the wing is resting on. The engine crutch area of the fuselage is the only parallel part of the whole thing so I put two framing squares on the marbles next to the wing panels and wiggled the fuselage until it mated to the squares. A couple glue tacks and I'm done. I rechecked the alignment with a tail to wing tip measurement and it's good. Any flat board with a hold in it for the nose can be used.

Save that balsa.

Many years ago I built an XLT r/c pattern plane. It was designed by Joe Bridi and the construction techniques he used are still relevant today. I don't like to waste wood by hollowing out a large and expensive block of balsa. What Bridi did was to use triangle stock and a top plate of suitable size to take the place of the inch thick balsa that will be reduced to a tenth of it's original size. Bridi trimmed one of the 45 degree ends so the triangle could be glued to the fuselage side in place of the block. then a top plate is glued to the tops of the triangles and the proper radius drawn on an end. After carving the outside to a rough dimension I used the shoe shine method with a strip of 80 grit sandpaper to smooth the outside then the piece is removed and the triangle stock is hollowed saving tons of balsa and time. There are lots of kits on the market that have blocks of balsa that can be replaced with this method and the blocks saved for something better, like selling them on ebay or making your own triangle stock.

And the times are hard to change.

I'm not too surprised at the stunt "powers that be" not making c/l stunt or c/l in general more interesting for the r/c crowd. The ARF and ARC models appeal to the new modelers of today just as the Scientific hollow log kits apealed to the new modelers of yesterday. I started by trying to build a print wood stick and tissue kit when I was about 5 years old, 1949. Trying to cut out the formers with their many 1/16" square notches for the stringers outside with a double edged razor blade was futile to say the least. I got a plastic ready to fly when I was about 8. The good part is it had an engine. I got it to fly a couple times before the fuel destroyed the plastic, but I had an engine. The many hollow log kits were my first successful attempt at building and flying. From there I climbed the ladder of kits and finally gained enough skill to start scratch building planes. A logical and methodical progression that is the proven way to advance any kind of learning. I think the 'powers that be' should embrace the ARF/ARC models as the path to being a successful c/l flyer. Do away with the builder of the model rule in the classes below expert and have a logical progression from beginner to expert not just beginner and expert like it is today.  By that I mean distinct and separate skill classes for each group. Each class having a tougher group of maneuvers than the last. For a beginner to move up to the next class today he needs to fly the expert class pattern. It's like having a 20 foot ladder with one rung at the bottom and one rung at the top. It just doesn't make sense to me. I crashed several models between beginner and intermediate trying to learn the expert class pattern. Most people don't have as many planes as I had to keep going and after crashing or thinking they would crash they are gone, back to r/c. I know the argument put forth by the "powers that be" and most of it doesn't make sense to me either. Arguments should be made on how simple c/l is compared to r/c, how much less costly, the small area needed to fly, the interchangeability between r/c equipment and c/l equipment, the ability to "feel the model", never losing a plane in a tree, only having to walk 60 feet to pick up the pieces, that building a good flying c/l model will make you build a better flying r/c model and when r/c is stopped by NOTAM or some other regulation you can go into your back yard and still fly.

Good weather equals flying, bad equals building.

 Thursday and Friday I got in a bunch of trimming on the Polynesian. After the wholesale changes it flew better and a few more tweaks here and there produced more results.  I got it flying 5.5 second laps and using 5.0 ounces of 10% fuel per flight.  I think it still needs more tip weight as I only have 3/4 ounce in it.
 The Privateer needed stuff and I ordered it from Brodak and it came in yesterday. I installed the horns into the flaps and elevators this morning, installed the leadout slider and tied the leadouts, made up the tip weight box and installed the wing tips. I still need some triangle stock so I'll stop at the hobby shop when we bring the grandson home today.
 Between the 10% fuel and my  2% fuel I've gone through another gallon.

A few good days.

I've been flying the Polynesian tying to get it trimmed. I've made several changes and test flights with a bit of improvement. The weather has been awful and I've read some more on trimming and made wholesale changes again. Tomorrow looks like it will be flyable.
  I ordered some stuff from Brodak for the new Privateer. The wing is just about ready to install but I need the control horn to go in first. That stuff is almost here.
 The new metering rods on the el camino carb. seems to be working. It runs a bit better.

Still looking for spring.

 The winds have been kinda strong lately left over from the blizzard. I've been working on the Privateer and it's coming along nicely.  I took the wing out of the jig this morning, Easter, and got it to fit into the fuselage. The controls are in loosely. I need to add shear webbing to the spars and build the tips. I need control horns and a few other items before I can call the wing complete.
  I went fishing for a few minutes yesterday and only got one bite. The river is still too high and it was below 32 early in the morning. Typical opening day here.

The blizzard.

During the storm a few days ago I got into the building season mood and started making a kit of the plans I had enlarged the day before. So far the kit is looking like a plane. I got the wing about 1/3 built with the molded leading edges drying and the fuselage sides starting to go together. The stab/elev are cut out and hinged as well as the flaps/wing trailing edge. Fin/rudder are cut out and set per the plans. I made doublers like the Legacy with 1/64 ply going past the trailing edge of the wing cutout and 1/32 ply from the nose to the wing spar. The rest of the construction is similar to the Legacy.
  The rain has swollen the river for opening day of fishing season again. All that remains is for temps in the 20's for Sat. morning.