It's not stopping.

It's April 27th and the weather is still abnormal. The wind is very tricky at the park plus the rain comes when it feels like it. I've been able to get some flights in but not what I want. I've deceided on the Pathfinder for the profile event at El Dorado in mid May. The L-17 Navion will be the warbird entry and I'm trying to find the best plane for Sunday's event. I should be able to get that one by contest time. I was goint to scratch build another plane and was drawing one up when I noticed that the Twister has never been built as a full fuselage plane. I'm in the middle of cutting the parts out of the spare balsa I have. I need to make a hobby shop run for more balsa and hardware. I'm streatching the wing 2.5 inches to make up for the width of the fuselage. The fuselage is 2 inches longer than the plans show but that mod really helps the kit plane fly better. It's raining again.

Bad weather.

I figured out a way to use a spray bar that had no needle. Without both it's useless, until now. I do have remote needle valve assemblies that came with the engines but the spray bar is too small for what I want to do with the engines so I remove the stock one and replace it with an aftermarket unit. I have two units that didn't have needles. They got broke in hard inverted landings. I soldered closed the end that the needle goes in and installed the remote unit except for the stock spray bar. The weather calmed down a bit and I got to the field and flew the new set up. It worked perfectly. The weather turned bad again and I was sitting in the shop trying to figure out what planes to bring to the upcoming contests. The Mo'Bestgot the nod but I figured I could improve on the control system. I measured the plans for control system set up and found it to be less than optimum. I couldn't get the push rods in holes that were the same distance as the plans. I found a flap control horn that was made for the Pathfinder and after some work got it mounted and hooked up. A few other tweaks to the plane and it's ready for a test flight.

A new test and an old problem.

Most of the engines I use on my planes, the OS .40/.46LA, come new with a remote needle valve. I use an after market needle valve asembly that has a larger diameter spray bar which restrics air flow giving me the type of engine run I'm looking for. This style puts the part that I have to turn to adjust engine RPM real close to the propeller. This morning I had the idea to use the larger spray bar with the remote needle valve. The larger unit has an open ended spray bar as the fuel goes in one end and the needle screws into the other which adjusts the amount of fuel getting into the engine. The original remote unit has only one end open so I soldered the open end of the larger unit so it would act like the ssmaller remote spray bar. I hooked the engine up on the test stand and started it. It ran very well on the stand. I'll have to try it on a plane in flight when the winds cooperate. My seven year old toilet started to fill when it wasn't supposed to. There is a leak in the flush valve seals somewhere. I watched several posts on youtube and got the parts to fix things and when I tried to take the valve apart it didn't want to budge. Snaping and cracking noises made me very wary of what is going to happen so I stopped. While sitting outside after breakfast a plumbers truck pulled into the neighbors yard. I talked to them and got a card and made an appointment with the office to have them look at the situation and fix it. We will probably go to an ACE hardware store and look at electric mowers today.

How I do it, cheaply.

Handle holder.

Home made line winder.

Wait is over.

The new mower came on time Monday. I noticed marking on the deck that wasn't what it should be and then I saw that the mower wasn't the right one so I refused delivery. The right one came today and I got to work installing the fittings so I could tow two push mowers like the old mower. It took some welding and drilling but I got things installed and it's ready for the first mowing when the grass recovers from the freeze. I brought the new Pathfinder and the re-controlled Legacy 40 to the park this morning. The Pathfinder flew well but was really touchy on the controls and a bit ligt in line tension. Pretty easy fixes. The Legacy really improved all around. Not much to adjust on that one. I took a strip of clear trim sheet and painted it to match the wing tip bottom where I cut the hole to fix the leadout slider. That looks much better than the patch of blue tape. I also installed a larger fairing over the hole I cut for the external pushrod. The wind has been higher than usual lately and messing things up. Generally around the equanox the wind is stronger than the rest of the year.

The waiting game.

I finished the new Pathfinder two days ago. Ready to fly weight is 52 ounces just like the old one. The weather has been cold in the morning so we have been doing other things instead of flying. Yesterday as I was mowint the lawn the 23 year old Cub Cadet's mower deck broke apart from rust. I scrambled to fix it so I could finish the lawn. This morning I looked up mower dealers and what they have on hand as I need another riding mower for next week. I foound that Lowes carries Craftsman mowers and that the price wasn't too bad. After a trip to the Apple store we stopped at Lowes and bought one. I'vehad two other Craftsman mowers in the past and they gave me good service so why not get another? It is scheduled to be delivered Monday afternoon. I removed the fittings that held the two side push mowers and will install them on the new mower. I figured on going to the field this afternoon but the wind wasn't playing along so I will wait until tomorrow. I'm anxious to test the revamped Legacy 40 and the new Pathfinder.

Yet another screw up. (make that plural)

On my Evo .52 powered Legacy 40 the elevator had a lot of slop. I have been trying to zero the controls but the slop kept me from doing it properly. There was only one cure and that is to run the push rod out of the fuselage side and install a new control horn. T get the push rod routed to the outside I needed a 3/4" hole drilled at an angle in line with the path the push rod would take. That path ended up being 6 inches long. when I got it drilled, with a piece o sharpened brass tube, it extended well beyond the stab. leading edge into plain sight. I had to cut a 1.250 hole in the top of the fuselage so I could get at the front end of the push rod to free it from the flap control horn. There I noticed I had put the rod into the wrong hole so I could fix multiple errors at the same time. I was able to cover most of the exit hole with trim kote and the hole in the fuselage top with black trim that kinda looks like the checker board on the wing. I also weighed the plane and it's 66 ounces. There's nothing I can do about that error. The other Legacy 40 weighs 53 ounces. I went way overboard on the paint o the other one. The controls are nice and not sloppy and I want to test fly it if the wind dies down. Before I cut into the fuselage I had trouble with the leadout guide. I had to cut into the wing tip, on the bottom, and during that repair I managed to break the guide off and had to fix that. During that repair I managed to glue the slider to the plywood guide. During that fix I managed to break the guide off it's mount again. I was more careful with the glue this time. The new Pathfinder got clear coated this morning. It's drying now and hopefully will end up close to 52 ounces ready to fly. That's what I figured anyway and that's what the old one weighs.