Fame and fortune.

Several months ago I senbt a picture of my Pixie Bob to the AMA magazine. When it appeared in the magazine I got an E-mail from a modeler in Bufffalo New York Saying he had two engines he would send me "no Charge". I couldn't resist. The "two engines" arrived in a box that weighed 12 pounds. I opened it to find eleven engines, some brand new, two handles, some fuel tanks, glow plugs and other goodies. This is the first time something like this happened to me. It's something you always hear about happening to someone else. I went to Texas, somewhere near Dallas, with my son to pick up a Jeep and flat tow back home. As usual he had planned the trip to perfection. The previous owner said that someone had pulled the hitch pin out of the tow bar and it had swung around and dented the fender around the left headlight. When we got home I noticed that the pin on the other side had worked loose and fallen out on it's own. The large pin that the hitch pin secured was still in place so no chance of damage. I changed the engine in my Jamison old time stunt plane and installed one of the engines I got in the box. There are three of the O.S. Max-S .35's amd I choose one of them as that size engine wa what was used 70 years ago. I'm getting used to it. s

El Dorado, Ar.

I looked at the radar weather before we left on Friday and it showed rain from here to about Alexandria, La. That turned out to be correct. On Saturday the turnout was below average as floods in Texas kept many from attending. The atmosphere was the strangest anyone had ever seen. It is blamed on a pancake landing of one plane half way through the pattern. A $50.00 propeller was ruined to make things worse. I brought both Wild Thing planes, the L-17 Navion for warbird and the newest Pixie Bob.I flew the newest Wild Thing in profile and got a 2nd place finish. I flew the L-17 in warbird and got the win. Mainly because the other guy hit the ground before finishing the pattern. Sunday was rained out so we came home early. We drove in rain all the way to Alexandria again before it cleared up. It was an enjoyable trip just the same.

My weekend Buppy.

Old is new again and learning has taken place.

I think I have figured out how to use the newer clear lacquer that attacked the other Wild Thing's paint. I had used the new clear as a test on two other planes to see if it was fuel proof. The lacquer didn't attack the paint on the other planes one of which was the Wild Thing I'm re-finishing.I had sprayed that plane with the first clear lacquer I had found and it wasn't fuel proof and the paint softened. When I got done with the trim color on the re-finished plane I sprayed just the trim color with the first clear. As I had already sprayed the entire plane with the first clear I didn't need to do it again. When That dried/cured I sprayed the whole plane with the second brand of clear. The paint has set for several hours now and it looks very good. I know it's fuel proof because of the test panels I did on the other planes. It's all back together and ready to fly. The weather report is for breezy conditions for a few days so test flights may take a while. The weight has increased a couple ounces but the other Wild Thing is less than an ounce difference so things should be good.

Second copy of the "Wild Thing".

The new clear lacquer I found attacked the trim colors making quite a mess. I re sprayed the colors and it looks better but not as good as it was before the clear. I am hoping that the clear will prove to be fuel proof. The clear didn't attack the black on the nose. Final weight is 33.4 ounces and the balance is on the money without any extra weight. I flew it for the first time today and it flys quite well with an O.S. .20 FP engine. I didn't try any of my engine fixes on this one and things went well. I have a "wings level" problem to sort out but that shouldn't be too hard. Our son and his wife bought a transfer printer and a vinyl cutter for graphics. They did the graphics on the new plane.

The muffler was the cure.

I put the mostly stock muffler on the engine and an APC 10 x 4 propeller. I broke the prefeered APC 9 x 4. Then I installed a normal O. S. brand needle valve assembly into my homemade venturi and the engine ran very well. i have a bunch of flights and it's running as good as it ever has. I have the new copy of the plane ready for paint. I may spray the base white later today. I found another brand of clear lacquer spray paint at Home Depot. I've been testing it on other planes to see how it reacts to engine exhaust. So far it's going well and I'm planning on using it as the top coat. I don't think the new plane will be ready for the El Dorado contest.

Got help for the engines.

I got even more help for the engine problems. I started with my go to tank the Du-Bro 4 ounce then tried to fit a metal tank but it was too long. I had cut out a 1 inch trough for it in the balsa I added for vibration. I couldn't use the metal tank so I went back to the plastic tank but now I removed more balsa so it would fit. Today I figured on trying a smaller plastic tank but I found out that it should be mounted wide side in not the narrow side like I always did. That meant even more balsa got cut out and the tank had to be re plumbed but the tank fits nicely. Pretty soon there wont be anything left but a pile of splinters.

I posted that I was having bad engine runs and got a lot of suggestions about a fix.I tried one that had me put the stock muffler on the engine and it helped a lot. I wa able to get some good flights out of it. That added a couple ounces of weight to the plane and I wasn't sure that the muffler was the cure. Today I tried the tongue muffler and that went very well where it didn't go well at all before. The only change was to use the stock needle valve set up and to turn the rpm's up to 12800 at launch. The rpm increase could have been the problem all along. Anyway I cut away some of the balsa I glued to the front to cure what I thought was the problem, vibration. I opened up an area so the fuel tank sits in it. The plane is flying very well but with all the changes and mods it looks pretty raggedy. I may have to build another using what I know about the design.