More trim flights.

I remembered that increasing the overhang of the handle slows the control response. I also remembered that I never checked the engine thrust settings after I put it together. It needed the engine pointed down a bit and to the right a bit. I moved the elevator pushrod to the outer most hole. All that helped but the plane was too quick on the controls. I had an old handle that was adjustable for overhang and had less line spacing to work with. That really helped soften the controls. Overhang is measured from the grip of the handle, where your fingers touch the handle, to the attachment point of the lines. My favorite set up has three quarters of an inch of overhang and the one for this plane is about one inch more.

Off and running.

The weather turned dry and a bit warmer so I took the advantage and sprayed the clear on the new plane. As usual there were dirt and runs to contend with after the paint cured. I assembled the plane with the tongue muffler and found it to be tail heavy. I added a Higley heavy hub to the nose and that was good enough for a test flight. The first flight was good but the lines were not even, I needed to shorten the down line a bunch. The plane flew wings level and was reasonably stable in level flight. It had a very hard turn so I reduced the line spacing at the handle. At home I removed the tongue muffler and heavy hub and installed the stock muffler and plastic spinner for a nose weight gain of one ounce. That should ease the turns some and I shortened the down line some more.

Rainy Days and Mondays.

I was given an old design plane that had the wing and tail built. That came in handy as the weather has been very wet and then it got cold. Then cold and wet. The little plane has been ready for clear coat for a few weeks now and it's still quite cold. I got the 2 part clear in the but the can was very warm and waitring a day for it to cool proved wrong. The can is still sitting on the fridge ready for use. It doesn't matter one way or the other as it's beeen too wet and cold to fly anyway. We did manage to get the septic system re built after waiting over a week for a day without rain. We celebrated that victory at Big Mike's. Everything wa right with the world until the call that said there's no hot water. The hot water tank had sprung a leak. We managed to get a new one installed the next day. And it's still too cold to paint.

Re thinking completed.

After not being able to get two engines to run properly on the Little Red Plane, two Flite Streaks and the latest crash, I salvaged the hardware and designed another plane. It's a bit larger with a better airfoil and a full fuselage instead of a profile fuselage. I'm counting on vibration being the cause of the bad engine runs. The full fuselage is more solid and stiff. I ended up sheeting the wing with 1/32 balsa and covering it with polyspan. Sanding open bays is very challanging. I covered the fuselage with paper used by doctors on exam tables as the old standby silkspan is no longer available. It wasn't pretty and I had to do a lot of sanding and filling. Anyway I got the plane almost ready for paint before final assembly. I'm hoping that will reduce banging the assembled plane on tables and lights during the paint process. Plus I'm finding things to do that should be done before final assembly.

The clear coat continues.

After asking how long should I wait to final sand I backed that up by going to Youtube. Everyones advise seemed to mesh so I sanded. I bought some polish used on Youtube and put my buffer to work. It came out quite well. After doing this for 70+ years I finally got a shiney paint job. I had shortened the nose 3/4 inch as the plans I used to build were not quite correct. I re installed the engine and got in a few short flights. It flys better than before. I had to install a larger fuel tank and changed engines while I was at it. The one that was in spewed a lot of oil. I test flew that combination with good results. I should mention that I put a pallet across the ditch I have to cross to get to the field. When I had the plane for the first test flight the pallet slipped on the muddy ground when I stepped on it. Somehow I didn't fall with the plane and field box but the stabilizer got damaged. I had to replace several ribs and re cover the damaged area. All is well. A few weeks ago I flew the little red plane at my sons yard. I pulled up into a half loop to go inverted and the wing tip hit a limb. That caused a violent yaw which broke the fuselage causing a crash. I glued it back together and get in several flights here. Yesterday I was flying it and the engine went wild. I did some loops up high and the motor quit but the lines went slack. Then the engien re started and drove the plane into the ground. The fuselage broke in the same place again. I must re think this project.

Some repairs and a clear coat.

I took the small red plane tomy sons and gotin a flight. The engine went crazy right after lift off as it has been doing. It's still flyable so I did a half loop to inverted. Except I clipped a branch and the fuselage broke just behind the flaps. It was a reasonably clean breaak so I saved it. I fit the pieces together and put some super glue on then scabbed some 1/64 ply over the breaks. I installed the Os FP .20 and a new tank and the right size venturi. It had a .282 in it. Then I swapped the metal back plate to my LA .25 and the plastic back plate with needle valve assembly to the .20. I flew it this morning and it ran very well and flew very well also. On Monday I got the Spray Max 2K clear coat. The next day was dry and warm so I hosed 3 coats on the Legacy 40. I also did a quick clear coat on my Dodge headlights. I just found out that I should wait 7 days before sanding and buffing and I should use 2000 grit paper.

Color is on.

I bought some Dupli-Color Chevrolet orange engine paint for the Legacy 40 fuselage and wing trim. I sprayed the fuselage yesterday and it came out very nice. The best I've ever done in 70 years of doing this hobby. I ordered some Max 2K clear coat and I have to sand the first color after it cures. I figured out a way to get pictures on the forum that enlarge when you click on it. I use the IPAD instead of the camera, then email the photo's to me and pick the photo from the email and down load it onto the forum and hopefully here. Here goes.