Another first in my life.

I took the big Nomad to the park this morning. I had moved the leadouts back a bit and upped the power a bit and shortened the lines a foot. I was looking for lower lap times and more line tension. The first flight was another short one and it felt pretty good. Good tension and lap times at 5.12 seconds per lap. I put in a fully charged battery and turned the timer up for a full pattern flight. The plane flew quite well and total flight time was 5.45 minutes. I put in another charged battery and turned the timer down a bit and flew another full pattern. This time it ran 6 laps after the last maneuver or 30 seconds less than the other flight. It's ready for competition. I brought the Pathfinder in case the Nomad needed some adjusting at the shop but it didn't. I have 3 more batteries on order.

Now it's ready to fly.

Every night during the design and building phases I scribble out color schemes. It takes me longer to decide which design I like than to build the plane. I finally settled on this design. I had the electric Pathfinder fuselage done up in a similar scheme until the rebuild after the wing folded. It gained about an ounce of paint and after it is really cured it may lose another tenth or so. It weighs in today at 64.3 ounces. The fuselage is Randolph dope and the colors are Rustoleum 2X. I checked the leadout placement and that hadn't changed but I moved them back a 1/4 inch anyway. From 1/8 inch per foot to 3/16 per foot. It's been raining here for a few days now and is forecast to rain until Monday. I think the camera lens fogged over in the humidity a bit. We got a new computer over the week and what a difference. The colors are a lot better now.

The planets have aligned for another first flight.

The field was mowed last Thursday so the grass was up a bit. I set the plane in position for the first flight after bench trimming as best I could. 63 x .018 lines a 11.5 x 6 APC E prop, the motor set for 9500 rpm and a 3300 mAh 4S battery charged for the minimum time flight. The scary part is when the plane is released will it come in or stay out on the lines. This one stayed out on the lines for the takeoff and througout the short flight. It was nice and stable in level flight with a nice turn in the square loop. I thought the outboard wing was a bit low so I tweaked the wing tab a bit for the second short flight. I am surprised at the light line tension, more like my .46 powered planes. I didn't try anything up high so I may need to do something about the tension. If not I'll switch to .015 lines. I think I have a color scheme figured out for it so that will be next.

RTF

I had to make a trip to the hobby shop again to get more hinges. I used more than I usually do on the flaps and elevators. I dipped the knuckles in liquid vaseline and used pliars to insert them into the slots so I wouldn't get slippery stuff all over the hinge with my hands.I used the Quick Grip glue and it proved messy as the tiny tubes were a problem to handle. Epoxy or other glues in a syringe would have been easier. While the glue was curing I installed the motor and ESC and timer. After that I installed a flight battery and checked the balance and leadout position. On the plans for the wing the balance point is 6 3/4 inches up from the trailing edge and, I don't know how it happened but that's where it balanced. The RTF weight is 62.5 ounces. I have the leadouts set at 3/16" to the foot nose down which is where I set all my maiden voyage planes. How far behind the c/g? I don't know and I don't care, this is rocket science compared to trying to set that. I'm going to wait for the first flight until after the El Dorado contest this weekend. That will give the glue plenty of time to cure and give the park crew time to mow the field.

I've heard about the new Monokote.

I bought two rolls at the hobby shop on Saturday and got to use it today Monday. The first thing is the plastic/chemical odor is a lot stronger and not the same as it was. Also the material felt thinner. Using dial calipers I got .002 on the new stuff and .003 on the older Monokote thickness. For what it's worth the new stuff should be lighter. I have figured that covering a wing will ad 2 ounces with the older stuff. As I was sticking the covering down around the edges it didn't stick as well as the older stuff. I raised the heat and then remembered using another brand that needed a longer time for the adhesive to cure so I let it sit a bit before shrinking. It did shrink as well as the old stuff. I used a heat gun on the open bay wing and stab/elev and the iron on the solid flaps. One new thing I tried is to spray some 3M glue on the wing where the landing gear blocks are. It should as a lot of adhesion to the covering there. I'll put a strip of packing tape over the area as well. Compound curves, the wing tips, are a pain in my existence. I put a strip of covering on the tips so I wouldn't have to stretch the covering too much. I picked that trick up from the Fancherized Twister article of long ago. All in all it took 3 1/2 hours to cover the wing, stab, elevators and flaps. Now it's time to glue in the hinges and install the control surfaces. That will take another day then assemble all the flight stuff and bench trim it before the maiden flight. That's looking like next week some time as there is a contest this weekend. Should the plane be deemed worthy I will slop some paint on it.

Fitting the covering.

The directions that come with the Monokote have always said to cover the wing with four pieces of material. That makes an overlap joint at the leading edge which will loosen from repeated wipeings to remove exhaust residue. Being of the lazy but intelligent side of the Rose family I got rid of the leading edge joint. I now cover all my wings and flight control surfaces with one piece of covering that wraps around the leading edges coming together at the trailing edges. It takes a bit of patience and masking tape and a dry erase marker.
  I start by making sure the width of the covering, generally 26 inches, is enough to wrap the wing at the root. On this wing I need 23 inches so I'm good to proceed. Measure the span of one wing panel and  ad a few inches. The sweep of the leading edge will cause the covering at the tip to fold back and if you didn't leave enough you will have a bare spot at the tip. Make it 3 inches extra. Roll off 33 inches from the roll and cut the piece off. This wing is 30 inches per panel so I cut 33 inches on the second panel. The first was very close to not being long enough. Trim off one of the clear selvedge edges. Lay the covering on the wing, align the trimmed selvedge edge with the trailing edge and tape it in place. Turn the plane over and pull the covering snug against the leading edge and lay it against the fuselage. Mark where it needs to be trimmed along the fuselage and the trailing edge. Cut the trailing edge first then the fuselage side as the excess will be used to cover the flaps. Lay the covering over the wing to see if it needs any more trimming before sticking it down. If not you are ready to iron the covering down.

Spice injector for hinges.

At most grocery stores you can find a syringe and needle for inje4cting any meats with spices or whatever. The needle is scary big. I found that with a bit of modification the system can be used to inject your favorite glue into hinge pockets.
   First  cut the point off the needle and using an Exacto No. 11 blade tip flatten the needle around the blade so it leaves a flat point with an even opening. Now that opening will fit into the hinge pocket. I have found that carpenters glue, epoxy and this Quick Grip glue works very well in the syringe and holds the hinges in place.
  I ordered some Quick Grip from Amazon as I couldn't find it in stores anymore in the 2 ounce tube. I got a bunch of tiny tubes and each has the pointy end when cut off fits into the needle so You can inject glue into the hinge pocket with having to clean up the syringe barrel. The needle will fit over the end of an Ambroid tube too.