Modified Legacy.

I have the new Legacy kit built up to just about ready to assemble. Everything fits where it's supposed to. Everything needed for the final put together is built. I will build a turtle deck instead of carving the big balsa block and use a Gypsy canopy instead of the one provided in the kit. I have a box of unused parts from the kit that I either didn't use or made others from lighter wood. The fin/rudder is 1/8 instead of 1/4 and shaped differently. An electric conversion kit replaced a lot of the plywood parts and 1/64 ply replaced the 1/16 doublers. I had some pre made wing skins so I used them for the wing center section and left over sheets for the leading edges. As it site now the frame weighs 28.5 ounces Ad in the motor and battery and it's up to 50 ounces. I weighed the left over wood pieces and they are 29.0 ounces. I squared off the wing tips and stab tips because of the amount of carving involved and weight. Doing that increases the area of both. I also widened the elevators 1/2 inch. The rear push rod exits the fuselage so I can adjust it easier. I also don't like to cut the fuselage at all to install the wing. With the clevis and 4-40 adapter removed from the wire the wing will slide through the opening nicely. I also made lines on the fuselage on the wing chord line so I can get the flaps set to zero on the bench. The plans call for wing mounted gear so I used aluminum fuselage mounted gear. More weight savings. I didn't use any of the cap strips from the kit. I cut them from the wing rib sheets, after removing the ribs of course. I added the turtle deck this morning. The wing is glued in and the push rods are soldered and ready for action. The bellcrank post is back to the steel rod. I have a Legacy I built for gas power and then converted it to electric. It weighs 56.7 ounces without the battery in flying condition. Ad in 12 ounces for the battery and it's almost 70 ounces. I used everything in the kit for that one. Except the decal. And the wing mounted gear pieces.

Mods for all.

About 18 months ago I was flying my scratch built from plans Pathfinder electric at a contest. On the first maneuver the wing folded. I landed the plane without any more damage. I ordered a new wing kit for it and re built the plane. Since then it just didn't fly like it did before the crash. After making the stab/elev larger on several other planes with great results I began looking at the Pathfinder's tail. I bought and built a second Pathfinder from a kit and made the tail 2 inches longer and it flys very well. With that in mind and after several attempts to make it fly better through trimming and adjustments I started cutting. I had the pieces needed to extend the tail sitting on the bench for a couple weeks now. Yesterday I trimmed the stab and elev. ends, glued the extension pieces on and covered them with Monokote. The weather forecast is not good for several days so I knew I had to get out early to test the changes. Shortly after 0700 I pulled into the park and it started to mist. I got the plane ready and took off as the mist got heavier. The changes worked very well. I put a second battery in for another short flight and the mist turned to light rain but I flew anyway. It still flew very well. I was getting wet and packed up and headed home to dry the plane. I know I made the kit Pathfinder tail 2 inches longer and I ended up making the old one 3 inches longer. The Legacy got it's tail made larger with good results and I ordered another kit to be made electric instead of gas powered. I'll build the tail longer so I don't have to cut it up later on. And building for electric power should make it a bit lighter right off. Now to start on a color scheme.

Progress on the Legacy.

I have the flight time just about right. I got in two full flights and the flight time was 5 min and a few seconds. About 30 seconds short of what I need. Next time out should be right, about 5 min. and 30 seconds per flight. I plan on painting the nose over like I did on the Nomad 2 when I converted it to electric.It's raining and is forecast to keep raining all weekend. I emptied the fuel jug into the gallon container which filled it up. I had a gallon of synthetic oil handy so I mixed up 5 more gallons using synthetic oil instead of castor. Depending on how many flights I get with the electric planes I may be done with the castor fuel in a few weeks. The Pathfinder that has the new wing hasn't been flying like it used to. I bored a hole in the nose and glued a mini ball in it. The mini ball weighs 1.1 ounces and is used in civil war rifles. It measures .570 diameter and is soft lead so there is a lot of damage when it hits.

Test flight.

I got to the park a bit late as the temperature didn't get into the 50's until after I got home at 1030. The new motor box worked perfectly. There was no unusual vibration and the plane flew quite well. Now I have to get the total flight time set so I can get the entire pattern in with about 6 laps to spare. I have 3/4 of an ounce on the tail I can play with to get the stability I want. The Nomad 4 sports a modified stock muffler now. It has a one inch extension that makes it quite long. I removed it and bolted it back together so it looks like a normal muffler. I got in 3 short flights just to see how it performs with the nose weight from the muffler. It's usable as it is.

Rainy days are dangerous.

My trip to the park was put off because of the weather. So I got the idea of putting a proper electric motor mount in the Legacy. I had been holding off doing that because of the things that have to be removed first. All those things are expoxied to the fuselage. Namely the maple wood engine mounts. I had glued them in to last forever. I got the idea to split the maple with a chisel. But instead I put the chisel at the glue joint and hit it with a hammer. That popped the glue joint loose for a couple inches so I pried along the joint until the maple broke aft of the fuel tank area, almost to the end. I did the same thing with the other wood mount and then used the die grinder to remove as much maple as I could reach. Then I assembled the electric motor box and got it to fit. After some trimming I got things fitting like I wanted and glued the box in place. A little more trimming to fit the electronics and the battery and the plane is ready to fly again. I put the finished plane on the scale and it's 0.8 ounces lighter than before.

Legacy electric ready to fly.

I managed to finish the power swap on the Legacy today. Things are a bit cramped as the plane was built for an engine. After putting everything in a place and getting the motor to turn in the proper direction i put it on a scale to find out what the new weight is. 69.9 ounces. That's 57 ounces without the battery. But it wont fly without the battery. It didn't disturb the balance too much, just a bit more nose weight which should help the stability some. I removed the green stripes and painted more black. The nose ring had to be sanded a bit to stop the spinner from dragging. The paint is drying and it's ready for a test flight.

I'm doing it again.

I've been looking at the Legacy trying to figure out how to put an electric motor in it. I have to shape the motor mount so the electric motor will fit but I don't have my die grinder handy. I made a slot for the new motor mount to sit and glued some plywood together for the mount itself. I ordered the parts I need from Brodak and they should be here shortly. I installed the Evo.60 in the Mandarin and got some flights with it this morning. The engine starts off all right but speeds up. I'm going to try a smaller propeller next time out. The prop was 12 inches long but my finger took a half inch off each blade two weeks ago. The Nomad 2 I converted to electric is flying well. I was curious as to the weight now. before it's weighed with an empty fuel tank and it was around 52 ounces. Now it's weighed with the flight battery installed. I was surprised to see 60 ounces on the scale.