Flight Log: 06/26/2011

What a fantastic flying day. Hardly anybody came, again, lol. Early on it was just me, Mike, Cory/Sherry, and Anthony. Jim Stone came around 10, and near 11, Joe showed up. I flew my Intruder 4 times, and the Toledo Special 3 times. Because the JB geniuses parked the sprinkler on our runway, we flew on the south side of it, using the sprinkler system as our "barrier". It was fine!

The INTRUDER is definitely my fave plane now. It starts well, packs lots of power, and flies like they say...ON RAILS. Lands easily too. It is so smooth and precise, I just love it! I did lots of slow rolls and 4 point rolls, and threw in one 8 point roll. The loops can be crazy huge, the stall turns are purdy, but I do need to throw full rudder early or the plane misses the turn and just flops over instead, lol. Inverted flight is effortless, so I love to do loops and slow rolls from inverted. Before flying today, I adjusted the set screws in the adjustable stab by 1.5 turns of the set screw, raising the LE of the stab that much. It required one click of up trim in flight. Might need a little more rudder deflection to hold KE unlimited time. Right now, the nose will drop after holding KE a few seconds. Hmmm, that would help on the stall turns too! I'll make the adjustment either mechanically or by programming.

The Toledo Special flew well again too. It's an entertaining plane which is very relaxing. Oh, I also flew my Apache for a bit. Caught a 5 minute flight on a couple small thermals. Just a great flying day! Can't get enough of this stuff.

An Ultimate Day!

Man it was gorgeous out, a bit on the windier side with 10mph gusts, but a very great day to be had at the field.  Flew my CG Ultimate 4 flights and the Shoestring twice.  All flights were excellent.  The Shoe handled fine on the ground today, and finer in the air.  Landings were ok, but not buttery.  The Ultimate showed me again why it is one of my favorite planes.  Tad's AW Extra just would not start today, so it was a bummer.  Nevertheless he stayed a long time, and talked a lot with Quang.  For the first time, Quang flew a glow plane at our field...the GP Extra 300SP with an OS 55AX.  It was very fast, and he showed he can fly planes as well as his choppers.  He likes fast and low, and constant activity.

Flight Log: 06/24/2011

I needed to mow the field today, so I took my Yak with me just in case the wind was not what was forecasted.  It was not, it was light, so after I mowed the already short grass (Bob likes to mow frequently, but I think it is too frequent), I got to fly twice.  Actually one gas fill up, with several landings.  The OS 120 Surpass III with the new bearings did not want to stay running after the start.  Had to open the low mixture screw up about 1/3 turn and then  she was fine.  Also opened then closed the needle valve to find a seemingly happy spot.  The engine ran well, but the 16x6 MAS prop seems to just not get the thrust.  It does let the engine wind up more to 9,000 rpm, but the plane seems slow and vertical is not very strong.  It runs out of climb.  I will try another prop.  Still, it's a good flying plane and landings were much better today because I held a higher low throttle on approach.  Greased on in fact.  

Pattern Workshop on Loops!

Don't get excited.  I think it was a bust.  Mike offered a workshop on tips for doing better loops to be held immediately after the June 20 monthly meeting.  We had 11 pilots at the meeting.  Half the guys left right after it ended.  Mike talked about doing the loop properly and how it should look, but he did not get into tips on how to do it.  He asked me to fly and show how two consecutive loops might look, so I did so with the Imagine 50.  They looked pretty decent and the guys complimented me on them.  They were being nice or didn't know what to look for.  I had a short presentation on tips but did not give it, nor was asked to.  I guess I thought the interest was not there.  Only Ron flew and attempted a loop with his bipe after I demo'ed, so that showed me nobody really cares about improving, or they just wanted to get home already.  THAT is really ok because we all just wanna have FUN, and nobody wants to be critiqued by others.  I flew the Imagine for a full flight as others packed it in, then I too packed and departed. 

Happy Father's Day!

It was a great day of flying with sons Tad and Jeremy today.  Hardly anyone came out.  It was basically just us plus Mike and Brandon/Bruce.  I took my Intruder and Extra 300SP and had innumerable flights, about 4 on the Intruder and 6 on the Extra, burning up almost half a gallon of fuel!  Tad took his Kaos and 50cc Extra, but flew just the Kaos.  Jer brought his Extra 300 Gene Soucy.  We had a lot of excitement flying low passes in groups, sometimes Mike joined us.  I took a few flights alone with both planes.  That Intruder is just such a sweet pattern plane, and I got lots of satisfaction doing slow rolls about 50' off the deck.  It makes it easier to judge if the rolls are on a line when closer to the horizon.  Turns out my Extra 300SP is slightly slower than the Kaos and Gene Soucy, and my Intruder is slightly faster than them. 

We had a GREAT day all the way up to when on our last pass (not planned) we all pulled up after show center to climb vertically into stall turns.  We were all pretty close but I was on the right, when I pulled my throttle and stalled and proceeded back down.  Tad was doing it about the same time, but Jer was still going up.  Unfortunately they were on the same path and they met with much impact, tearing the wing off the Kaos and the left stab off the Gene Soucy.  I saw just the fuselage of the Kaos making like a javelin back to earth, and the wing fluttering like a leaf very slowly.  From the corner of my eyes I thought Jer was recovering and would make a safe landing.  I had to take my eyes off them and watch my own plane, and I landed quickly.  By then, it turns out Jer's was able to do a controlled crash into the tall grass on the north field, and Tad's wing was still spinning its slow path back to terra firma.  The good news is that the boys found their planes without endless searching.  The bad news is the Kaos fuse was totalled and the wing had major damage on one leading edge to back to the spar.  The Gene Soucy left stab was torn off completely and hanging on just by the control rod to the servo, the canopy was ripped off along with some fuse balsa and never found, and there are small cosmetic dings on various parts of the fuse.  All in all, a very nice save and she will fly again.  Tad has to get a new plane.  The boys took it well, just one of those unlucky things that happen now and then!

Flight Log: 06/17/2011

No clouds or rain or wind was forecast for today, so I took the tonneau off the truck and packed up the Extra 330L for some fun.  It was pretty uneventful flying.  There were JB workers laying pipes and one was mowing, but this was all happening at the far east and south ends of the sod farm, so I took off and flew mostly over the north field.  Got in two nice flights.  The DL-50 started as well as usual, which is very relieving.  My landings today were too slow, and I have now set low idle higher so that I don't come in so slow.  Still, I need to keep some throttle on to avoid stalling.  The plane just keeps slowing down till it pancakes, and I don't want to fix the LG again!  The first landing attempt was a rather hard bounce, and I immediately slammed throttle full on to get back up safely.  The next landing was still slow and bumpy but I got her down and found no damage.  Took her up again and had another good flight.  Landing was still too slow, but I carried more throttle on final, and can only get better.  I think this new situation is a result from putting throttle on a curve so that there is now less engine response in low throttle.  The new Airtronics SD-10G transmitter seems to be working well...all I can say for sure is that it has not had any glitches, lol.  I decided to quit as I was not sure where the workers would be as they laid their pipes.  A good day of flying, 2 more flights on the big Extra!  :)

Yakking it up Again!

I took the Yak-54 to the field today, very anxious to try the OS 120 Surpass III again for the first time after the bearing replacement.  It started and ran like a charm and sounded great again.  It regained some lost power too.  I tached it at 8,000 rpm on the 17x6 APC, but I backed down on the needle to fly around 7,900 or so.  While I have tried smaller props to get more rpm, they did not make the plane go faster, nor climb better.  Still, I might try a 16x6 MAS with these new bearings on the engine.  Vertical was good today and unlimited but slow, and required rudder to keep her vertical.  Not bad, not great though.  Sprinklers were still down the runway, so I took off from the west half towards the west, and landed on the grass just west of the west end of our runway, where there were no sprinklers.  Loops and rolls (4pt and slow) were very much on a line today.

Bearing Replacement

Just a reminder of sorts to myself so maybe I don't have to learn the whole process everytime I change bearings.  I changed main bearings (front and rear) on my OS 120 Surpass III the last two days.  Not a whole lot of fun, but very satisfying once all done!  Here are some notes to self:

1.  Bought these bearings for just over $10 for the pair from McGuire Bearing Co at 2125 N Commercial St, NE.  They are both shielded on both sides, but I still don't fully understand shielded vs sealed vs not.  Main thing is Bax at OS Engine Support on RCU says it's ok to go unsealed or sealed.  Got the dimensions (IDxODxWidth) from places selling the bearings for certain engines, such as Boca Bearings. 

2.  When dismantling the engine, remember stuff like where the little dot on the cam was at TDC.  For the 120 Surpass, the dot is at the bottom of the cam directly in line with the pushrods.

3.  To remove the piston requires (on the OS 120) sliding out the cylinder sleeve first, by pushing from the bottom.  Then I have to hold my tongue just right to slide the stirrup under the piston off the cam shaft.  Putting it back on is even harder.

4.  Once left with just the crankcase, the crankshaft, and the PITA bearings, it's time to heat the mess up in the oven.  Guys recommended 275F for 20 minutes and 400F for 10 minutes.  These removals never work easily like everyone seems to say they do. I heated the case up 400F for about 15 minutes. When I rapped the engine on the rear, the rear bearing inner race and ball bearings fell out. The outer race stayed in the engine. I did more heating, and the front bearing came out in one piece with a little help from a screwdriver and dowel.  I gave up last night with the outer race stuck in the engine.  This morning I tried heating the engine at 400F for 10 minutes in the oven...NADA. Went to 450F for another 10 minutes...with my needle nose pliers, I think I saw the outer ring of the rear bearing rotate a smidge. Went to 500F and it rotated more and I got it pulled out half way. Went to 530F and after 5 minutes more, a gave the engine a tap on the wood block, and the outer ring of the bearing FINALLY FELL OUT!

Here is a quote from Bax for future reference:  "You can use a regular kitchen oven to heat the case, but make sure you've completely degdreased/de-oiled the case and bearings. You don't want any petroleum smoke inside a food overn. You can also use a heat gun, such as used for shrinking film covering. A butane torch will also do the job. j With both the heat gun and butane torch you have to keep them moving around the case to make sure it gets evenly heated. The heat won't affect the bearings. The aluminum case will expand more than the steel bearing races and will allow them to come out. If the bearings are especially stubborn, we've added more heat. As long as the case is heated evenly, we've not had problems."  Some guys are concerned that 500F can damage the engine, but we'll see when I try to start and fly this engine!


5.  The sad thing is that the new bearings would not simply drop in place.  I had to heat the engine up again to 500F to get them back in, and I also froze the new bearings for half an hour.  Had to tap on the crankshaft to get the rear bearing seated, and then had to slip the front bearing on over the prop shaft and that required some tapping with hammer and wood block to get it seated, but luckily the assembly went together with just one heating in the oven.  Only burned two fingers on my left hand when I missed the pot holder while grabbing the engine.

6.  Reassembly was not bad, the only hard part being getting that piston stirrup back on the camshaft.  Took many tries and a little tapping.  Seems it fell apart but would not just fall back together.

7.  Gaps seemed fine, so I did not readjust.  Not a hard thing to do with this engine since the head is exposed on the Yak-54 cowl.  Also the plug looks ok, and it is easy enough to change if need be later.

Anxious to try her at the field...it won't sound like a farm tractor anymore!

Pooped OUT?

Guess the FunFly yesterday took too much out of most of the guys, lol.  Today only a few showed up besides me...Joe, Mike, and Brandon/Bruce.  Bob Ross was there early, and packing it up when I got there around 9AM!  That's Bob, opens up the field for us on the weekends.  Took my Imagine 50 and Shoestring today, but on my way to the field I realized I forgot the wing tube for the Shoe.  Not wanting to turn back, I decided that I was tired anyhow, and that the Imagine would be sufficient.  I was right.  I got in four great flights with the Imagine and went home by 12:45PM.  We flew out in the sod farm as the sprinkler was still parked on the east end of our runway.  The Imagine was great.  I did a high number of 4pt and slow rolls today with it, and also tried a few 8pt rolls.  Those are kinda scary, but I am feeling more comfortable doing them already.  Gonna get that perfected too.  Just another great day at the KRCA field!

Spring 2011 KRCA FUNFLY

WE had a good turnout of 11 pilots for the FUNFLY on Saturday, June 11.  I did badly on my first flight, mistiming 50 seconds in my head by an extra 13 seconds.  At 50 points per second, I immediately lost 650 points of the 1000 starting points for each pilot!  Couldn't make it up all day even though I flew flawless after that.   I ended in 5th place.  Tad did well on his first funfly, and finished 2nd!  Jer had a bad day, which I attribute to the suffering for poison oak, and he finished 6th. He did win the red cone award and title of Conehead by hitting red cones 3 times, shattering the same one he hit twice!  I flew the SNAFU, Tad the Kaos, and Jer the Yak.  BTW Jer also had to fly with Joe's xmitter because he forgot his at home.  That added to the challenge for Jeremy.  Here are the results, with a correction added by moi for the 100 bonus points I was not credited for.  It doesn't matter because my 5th place finish would not change so I am not notifying the scorer, lol.

Flight Log: 06/09/2011

Looks like the OS 120 Surpass III in the Yak-54 really needs new bearings to fly anymore.  I had two flights with it today, but it is sounding like a tractor in bad shape at that.  I think it affects how it runs after the flight too.  After one landing, I throttled back up to return to the pits and the engine hardly responded to higher throttle.  A new adventure lies ahead.  I have done a bearing job on one engine before, and that was a Saito 82 last year.  Looks like this plane will be hangared till I get around to the job.  There is no pressure when I have 14 other planes to fly, lol.  Life is REALLY good!!!

SNAFU and Intruder

Today was much nicer than yesterday weatherwise.  Light winds were 180 degrees from yesterday, so today they were out of the south.  I flew the Intruder 3 times and the SNAFU maybe 5 or 6 flights.  I am very exhausted from the hot sun and the full day of flying with the guys...Joe, Mike, Brandon, and Cory.  Both planes flew well.  The Intruder is just so exhiliarating to fly with its speed and super arrow like rolls.  GOTTA LOVE IT!  I had much slower landings today for some reason, and it was not due to any wind into the plane.  I think I am just getting used to it, slowing her sooner and keeping some throttle on, and just knowing its speed range better.  The SNAFU is just a ball of fun every time.  Another good day at the field!

Annual Work Day at the Field

Warmest day of the year so far but it was windy.  Good thing it was our annual work day at the field!  When done with that in just an hour, I flew my SNAFU 4 times in winds we estimated were about 15mph gusting to 20.  The SNAFU is easy to fly in such winds due to its maneuverability and responsiveness.  Kinda fun to idle down, pitch up a little, and then walk the plane backwards compared to the ground, haha.  Mike flew his Uproar and Joe his Bampf and new red electric Mig.  Everyone else stayed grounded.