Flight Log: Last Weekend in September

On Saturday, I maidened my new 60 size GP Shoestring.  Flew well, just needing some down trim and aileron trim to fly straight and level.  The Saito 100 ran good, but needs a little more tuning to be great.  Sounds great already though, but I ran it rich.  Seems like it will be fast  and cleaner in aerobatics than the new 46 size version.  By that I mean it has less adverse coupling when in KE, less than even my 50cc AW Ultimate!  The nice thing about the larger Shoestring is that it slows down for landing much more than the smaller Shoestring, and the ground handling is docile.  It did not have any tendency to ground loop like the smaller one.  I think I had 3 flights with the new Shoe.

On Sunday, I flew my Giles 202 and it was awesome, and handled the brisk north crosswind (nearing 10mph) like it was non-existent.  That is still one of my best planes with rock solid and rail like handling.  The OS 160FX ran like clockwork today.  That leads me to Jer's Extra 300 with the same engine.  He put in new bearings and a new O-ring on the needle valve last night, and the engine still ran rich and weak today.  That was sad.  He only took one flight and set the plane aside for the day.

We flew our DLG's with Joe and had a good time.  Since Jer put the Castle Berg receiver in his Colibri on Friday, we can now fly simultaneously without interference to his Colibri.

Last but not least, Alex flew his Alpha 40 trainer today and I awarded him his smiley face on his KRCA membership card.  He soloed each of 3 or 4 flights.  He was doing loops, rolls, and inverted flight with ease.  All take-offs were excellent, and landings were very satisfactory.  I even made him get to altitude then throttle all the way to low idle to simulate deadsticks, and he landed smoothly and safely on the JB sod farm.  Actually after the second such landing, I made him takeoff again, and the engine quit moments later due to running low on fuel, so he got to do a real deadstick.  He did fine and landed without stalling.   The plane decended steeply though, but he saved it with a flare at the very last second that made for a smooth landing on the sod farm.  It was as good as anyone else might do.  Congrats Alex!!!

EC5TACY

Well, that is supposed to look like ecstacy but with my C5 Corvette!  I took the C5 out today on a 50.5 mile jaunt into the countryside.  With no real plan, I headed through town on 22, exited near the prison, headed further east to McClay, north to State St, and then back into Salem.  Once in West Salem, I did the little loop on the twisty rural road that connects Orchard Hgts to Brush College road.  Headed then to get gas on Wallace but they were crowded so I just came home.  Played some CD mixes on the stereo, but mostly listened to the engine purr and sometimes roar during the drive.  It was indeed ecstacy to listen to.  While I may be remotely considering a Boxster, I still really do enjoy the power and even the handling of the Corvette C5.  I need to wash that baby now.

Here she is after I washed her that day:

New Hankook tires and Z06 repro rims!

Sweet Sbach

Tad and I went flying this AM and had a nice time.  Only Rudy showed up today, and no one else on such a gorgeous Fall day!  I flew my Sbach 4 times and Tad did the same with his Kaos Two.  Got the Sbach dialed in a little better by removing some down elevator mix when left rudder is applied in right KE.  All in all, I might need just a smidge more nose weight, but the plane is flying fine right now.  With the rearward CG it sure can land slowly, which I am getting better at by keeping more throttle on during landing approaches and cutting it just inches before touchdown.  My AW Ultimate requires the same treatment.  The Sbach can harrier upright pretty easily using the throttle pulsing like with the Ultimate, but the Sbach just wing rocks more readily.  On the other hand, hovering seemed easier today with the Sbach than the Ultimate yesterday.

The DLE-30 started everytime easily.  Of course on the first try, it took longer since the plane has been sitting for a few weeks after its last flying day, but it started in under 20 flips.  Subsequent starts were on the first or second flip with no need to choke the engine.  I leaned out the high needle just the width of the flat bladed screwdriver because the muffler is still spitting out black on the underside of the plane.  Nothing bad happened, so I will keep the needle there for a few more outings to see if the black decreases.  Nice engine.

Gave the Apache a bunch of tosses and found no thermals.  Tad flew the plane a handful of flights and said it is touchy and hard to fly, haha.  He will get used to it when he gets his own DLG.

Ultimate Fun

It was chancy to go out today because it was cool and grey, 53F, and breezy, but I gave it a try because I really wanted to get the AW Ultimate 20-300 up again.  It was slightly breezy at the field too, but I think not much above 5 mph out of the North, so I assembled and flew the Ultimate.  It was a great time.  Nobody else came out, not even the JB guys, although the sprinklers were on.  I got in 5 flights today, in just about an hour of pretty continuous flying, typically 8 minutes per flight.  Assembly and disassembly still bother me because it takes at least 20 minutes to assemble, and 15 to disassemble.

The extra ounce of lead in the nose seems to make a difference, such that I have the type of elevator trim I can live with.  The plane flies level or ever so little up on a straight line when upright.  Flipped inverted, it takes just the slightest down pressure on the stick to maintain level flight.  On a 45 upline, it maintains that attitude, or slightly increases its climb, but very minutely.  I played with mixes to help the plane in knife edge.  Both sides of KE require some up elevator to stop the plane from dipping to the LG.  Left KE requires a little less.  Both sides of KE also require opposite aileron to keep the plane from wanting to return to upright flight.  Thus, right KE (left rudder) needs some right aileron while left KE (right rudder) needs some left aileron to stay in knife edge.  I have a feeling some of the incidences of the wing(s) and elevator are creating the problem, but I am not going to start cutting the fuse up to change these relationships.  It is too pretty and too much work to go down that road.  I will enjoy the AW Ultimate as is!

I did a number of fun things in the air today.  I practiced more harrier upright flying per a MAN instructional article.  By pulsing the throttle continuously, it is really easy to harrier, steering with rudder, and keeping wings level with ailerons.  I also tried hovering a couple times, and the pulsing of throttle helps there too, but I need way more practice to get it to stay put.  I did some rolling circles as usual, lots of slow and 4pt rolls, and loops.  And I tried lots of harrier rolls with high alpha.  Getting better and it takes lots of timing and changing of throttle.  It too will come with more stick time.  Lastly, I tried some clockwise rolling circles, with rolls to the left...more promising than ever before.  I do counterclockwise circles with rolls to the right much better due to practicing that direction all the time.  I am loving this Ultimate even if it is a pain to assemble and disassemble.  It's still impressive and my best looking plane, IMHO.

While I took the Apache, the sun never came out during my flight session, so I did not attempt to fly it.  Of course by the time I reached home, the sun was burning the grey haze off, and I betcha this afternoon there will be some nice thermals, albeit windier too.

2012 Additions to the Build Log

Due to way too many planes populating my garage, for 2012 I concentrated on flying and repairing more than expanding the air force.

09/24/2012:  My only addition so far this year is the 60 size GP Shoestring, the predecessor of the 46 size plane with fiberglass fuselage.  For power I installed the Saito 100.

Theoretically I have a subtraction from the air force because I gave Jeremy my GP Extra 300SP, but it will remain in my garage and take up space until he buys a house.

Hardware!

I lucked out and won the Arch Enemy Fun Fly that was CD'd by Joe.  Lots of fun, but lots of carnage to many planes today.  Luckily my SNAFU was not one to bite the dust.  There were ELEVEN pilots to start with, and I think FIVE crashed today.  Some were due to planes snagging balloons or crepe paper, but others were due to pilot errors, and one due to a dead battery in the plane.  It was very close and I just beat out Brandon and Rudy.  I actually thought Brandon had won, but their guess for the wingspan of a plane was off by 4" while my guess on another plane was off by 3".  If not for that, Brandon would have won by virtue of hitting one more balloon (a good thing) in the Cluster Bust flight...he got 7 while I hit 6.

Regarding planes lost to the balloons or crepe paper, I saw Bob B's go in when a balloon with crepe paper stuck on his plane and caused uneven drag.  He could not ditch the balloon, and ended up crashing.  Dick snagged lots of crepe paper a couple times on his flight, and the whole electric motor ended up breaking free of the plane, with a resultant dethermalizer effect on the plane...end of flight.  I actually snagged a balloon with crepe paper attached, it hung onto the SNAFU for a few seconds, then fell off to my relief.  I landed with a crepe paper streamer still attached, and to my surprise the dead weight was still on the streamer too!  While it was attached, it fortunately for me did not make the plane uncontrollable.  Brandon snagged two balloons with one pass, shook them off, then snagged another that stayed on a long time while he sped up and gained altitude.  He then spun it off in a dive and landed unscathed.

The last event was the arch enemy task and EVERYONE miraculously drew the task as flying UNDER/UNDER both arches.  The other option was to fly UNDER/OVER.  By vote we eliminated the OVER/UNDER option...bunch of weenies, lol.  The most wild flight in this task was taken by Quang who decided to do his inverted at high speed.  He missed the first attempt when he went UNDER/OVER, and with time on his side he decided to try again.  This time he went UNDER/BLUNDER!  By that I mean he ended up going under the first arch fine, then was too low for the 2nd arch and slid his plane onto the runway, breaking both sides of the prop, but not anything else by some miracle!  We can only presume he hit at such a slight angle on the grass runway that no damage was caused to the canopy, nor the fin and rudder, which are super thick on this plane (GP Cap 21).  It was entertaining to say the least!

Lots of fun.  While I feel sad for the guys that lost planes that they liked, it's part of the challenge and part of the territory.  I took my SNAFU because I considered it my most dispensible, but lucked out with it coming home with just a dinged APC prop, caused by the dead weight on one of the balloons I popped in the Minefield flight.   Joe made the Funfly a lot of fun, definitely funny, and also challenging.  He ran it well.  Folks said they don't want him to run another though, due to the carnage, almost 50% of the planes entered, crashed!  I think some of them were serious, but I thought (as biased winner) it was all in good fun and good taste!  My SNAFU has done well for me this season...winning the Valley Challenge a month ago, and now the Fall Funfly.  It has not met its expiration date, YET!  :)

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New Shoestring, 60 size

My new Great Planes 60 size Shoestring is essentially complete today, with the addition of the decals provided with the ARF.  Powered with a Saito 100, the all up weight of the plane is 7.3#.  At this time the balance point is perhaps 1/4" or so in front of the recommended CG, so it should be a safe maiden flight.  I am using my second Futaba 7 ch transmitter with the usual 617 receiver and 3152 servos on all flight surfaces.  A Hitec 325 is on throttle.  A 6V NimH powers the receiver and servos.  Here are some pics of the plane.

Hey that's me in the cockpit!  Alex made a coooool profile pilot for the plane,
scaled to be 1/4 scale like the plane.  I am wearing a KRCA cap and Harbor Freight
ear protectors, haha.  He flip flopped the pic for the other side and mounted them
on thin plywood.  

I had the ARF about 2 years before finally assembling it during the last couple months.  This ARF is not sold anymore and I was lucky to find one on RCU.  I also have the 46 size version with the FG fuselage.  They are going to look nifty side by side in the pits!




UPDATE on 09/24/2012:  I test ran the Saito 100 in the Shoestring this afternoon, in the side yard.  It would not start at first because the initial low idle setting was too low to stay running.  I upped the throttle and the engine started right up, so I increased the throttle trim to maintain a decent low idle, on the higher side to keep from dying.  Right now the high needle is set at 3 turns open.  While I opened the throttle up a little, I did not run it prolonged at high speed because I don't want to bother any neighbors.  I doubt anyone heard it with the low sound of this engine.  It ran steady and without hesitations, so that is a good beginning.  I am ready to take it to the field to tune it more and of course to maiden it!

Apache Airtime

Went to the field to mow, but took the Apache along for a few tosses.  After my therapeutic mowing, I flew the Apache and only needed about 4 launches when I found a few very light thermals emanating around the pits.  The air was light, nothing real vigorous, but the Apache shows light air very clearly when it is tipped away or when the whole airframe bobbles upwards.  After I rode the first thermal, I decided as an afterthought to turn on the timer.  I landed with over 8 minutes on the timer, and I think I had at least the same time before I even switched it on, so I am claiming a 15-minute flight, lol.  After the hand catch, I dissassembled the plane, put her in the back of the xB, and headed home.  VERY SATISFYING!!!

Airworthy Again

I got the AW Ultimate out for the first time after the irrigation pipe debacle.  The plane seems to fly pretty much the same, perhaps a wee bit tail heavy due to the repairs to the fin and rudder, so I might add a little more weight to the engine box.  All in all though, I am pleased to have it flying again, and looking about the same.  The JB workers moved the irrigation pipes right up on the runway after I had completed two flights.  After that I put away the Ultimate and assembled the Apache.  In about 20 launches, I found zero thermals, so I packed it up and headed home.

UPDATE on 09/25/2012:  I noticed the muffler could move a little when forced during disassembly, and made a note to self to retighten it.  Yesterday I took off the cowl and found both muffler bolts were slightly loosened.  I removed them and retightened them with a little bit of red threadlock this time.  While the cowl was off, I took the opportunity to add an ounce of lead on the engine box, to compensate for any weight I added due to the fin and rudder repair.  I weighed the lead bundle and it now totals 5 ounces.  Checked all other screws and bolts and tie wraps and everything looked good under the cowl, so I put it back on and the plane is ready to fly.  Hoped to fly today but it is windier than it will be tomorrow, so I am choosing tomorrow to fly.

3 Days of Flight

After being in LV for five days, I sure needed to go flying.  On Friday, I took my Toledo Special and had a few flights with it, all smooth as glass.  On Saturday, I took out the Imagine 50 and had 5 flights with it, very smooth like butter.  And today I took the Intruder out and had 4 flights, smooth as grease!  Don't ask which is smoothest...glass, butter, or grease, I just know all three flew real graceful and in harmony with my brain and fingers.  Enjoyed it immensely, and had no mishaps.

On Saturday, my three sons flew too, and made it a real nice experience.  Unfortunately Alex slightly cartwheeled his plane on his first landing, jarring his nose gear loose, breaking the stock 3-blade prop, and cracking some of the fuselage wood that holds the tail group on.  That ended flying the Alpha 40 anymore for the day.  Later though, he and Tad got to fly Rudy's electric mini Ultra Stick, and had a ball with it.  It looks like Alex is already ready to advance to something beyond a high wing trainer.  At home in the afternoon, Alex and I repaired the Alpha 40 and it is ready to fly again.

I flew my Apache DLG on Sat and Sun too.  Caught small thermals for 5 minute flights a couple times on both days.

Windyish but Great Flying

The winds were out of the South this AM, and fairly healthy at 5mph+, but the flying was great.  Tad had fun with his Kaos Two, and was happy it made it through its second flying day.  Alex did great with four solo flights.  Tad and I did not touch his transmitter at all!  Al had all good takeoffs, avoiding the fence and the pipes laid along the south edge of the runway.  He also made 3 outstanding landings, better than Tad or I have ever landed that plane. They were straight down the runway, with no hops, fairly greased on!  The other landing was decent, but snaked around the final moments before touch down due to the crosswind, but had no hops.  Alex'es flying progress is phenomenally fast!  He was looping more today, as well as doing many rolls, and inverted flight, and all of it seems to be getting lower and faster.  He IS learning throttle management though, witness throttling back on the back side of loops, and making low approaches in practice for landings.  He knows to be at full throttle with that flat bottomed wing inverted.  Very enjoyable to watch his improvement each time out.

I flew my Stinger II a few times, twice with Tad.  His Kaos and my Stinger are fairly evenly matched in speed so we had fun making passes together, but he did try to keep lots of air between us so that he went home with the Kaos intact.  :)  Another fun day.  Too bad Alex will head back to college very soon.

AW Ultimate is Ready to Rock and Roll

I think I spent about 8 hours yesterday after dinging the AW Ultimate, and another 12 hours today fixing all the mess I created with my deadstick landing "under" the wheeled irrigation pipes.  So here are some pics of today's progress.  I final sanded the fin and rudder, located  new Robart pin hinges, covered the fin and rudder with spare Oracover, then epoxied the hinges, joining the rudder and fin.  I CA'd a couple larger pieces of balsa back into the cockpit backplate, filled cracks and holes with Model Magic, sanded, and painted the backplate flat black.  It used to be speckled grey like the cockpit floor.  Using blue Oracover, I covered over the area right behind the canopy that had been burnished hard by the pipe.  I heat gunned any wrinkles out before laying down the new blue.  Let's see, I added some thin fiberglass cloth on the inside and outside BLUE edges of the rear part of the canopy that got shattered by the pipe.  I did not do any gluing to the cracks in the clear part of the canopy because I think anything done there will stand out more than the cracks and burnishing.  And FINALLY, I removed the aluminum landing gear and bent the right side back into about the same shape as the left one.  I used the largest adjustable wrench I have to grasp the wheel end of the LG and bend the nearest angle to attain near vertical alignment of that face and therefore the wheel.  For the angle that sits at the corner of the fuselage, and for the strut section between the angles, I just held the LG at the flat part that attaches to the fuselage, put the wheel face of the LG on the carpeted ground, and leaned with all my weight to get that angle back and remove some bow in the strut caused by the hard landing.  After reassembly the right stab is only 5mm lower than the left stab, measured to the ground, so that is close enough!  Here are more pics.

I will add the yellow and silver trim to the fin later.

That was about 20 hours of hard labor to repair the Ultimate to flying condition.  Not cherry anymore, but it still should fly good, and I am thankful that the plane did not get totalled by the irrigation pipes.  Luck was really with me to allow the wings to make it through before the ensuing bounce and resultant damage to the canopy, cockpit, turtle deck, fin, and rudder.  If I did add any weight via the repair, it should be nominal and maybe I will need another ounce of lead up front to counteract, but that is nothing for this plane.  I am going to fly it as is and see if it behaves the same or more tail happy.  Whew, dodged the bullet on this one!

UPDATE:  I added the silver and yellow trim to the top of the fin...NOW the repair looks complete! :)

Update2:  I used white Monokote to seal the gap between the fin and rudder.  This gap was smaller before the crash, and I had it small during the trial fits, but for some reason I could not get it that small when epoxying the hinges in.  You can see in the pic below what the gap looks like at the top of the hinge line, and how the seal looks  between all the hinge points.

Dead Stick Dufus

Well, I had a good time flying my AW Ultimate for three flights today, until the engine quit on some vertical manuever that I don't recall.  I had enough altitude, but did not rush to make it to the runway.  The plane is big and tricked me, it seemed closer to me, and I thought I already crossed the wheel sprinklers.  NOPE!  In retrospect of course I should have landed parallel to the pipelines, but I really thought I was north of them already.  But luck was with me because it could have been really ugly.  I landed hard with wings level right under the pipes on wheels.  The wing made it through, but the ensuing bounce caused the plane to jump up into the pipe.  The plane hit the pipe right on the last 6" of the canopy, causing some damage to it and the turtle deck, and then sheering off the top few inches of the fin, and knocking the rudder off most of its hinges, yanking hinge mounting blocks out in several places on the fin and rudder.  Looks ugly!  Also squashed the aluminum landing gear, but amazingly there was no bad damage to the pants, or cowl!

I came home and spent all afternoon trying to repair the fin.  It is not pretty, but I got the woodwork done except for final sanding.  Got the rudder fixed lots faster, under an hour.  Then I will cover both and rehinge it.  It was tough to get the fin to be aligned correctly again.  After my first attempt at gluing the shards back together, the fin was not aligned good enough to me, so I busted it loose and tried again and again.  I got it done good enough.  Hope I did not add too much weight with extra wood, some epoxy, and lots of thin and thick CA!

Best Flying Day

I think today was my happiest flying day ever.  Why?   Because I had all THREE sons at the field, flying for one of the first times.  Alex is the impressive addition to the Young Team.  We brought his Alpha 40 and he got 4 flights with it today, after a forgettable beginning...after assembly  Alex said the rudder servo was not operating!  We thought we had a binding nose gear after the last outing, we fixed it, and the rudder servo seemed fine then.  Nope, not today.  Luckily, Sandy and Rachel were heading out from home soon to shop and would be passing near the field so we phoned them and asked them to bring a servo to the field, which they did.  Al and Jer got it in the plane, it worked fine, and Alex got to fly. He soloed two flights and did WELL again.  He is really good very early in the game.  He did more loops, rolls, and inverted flying, and a bunch of landing approaches.  Really good stuff.

Tad maidened his Kaos Two that he completed in the wee hours of the same morning.  After a 10 minute break-in on the ground, he successfully maidened it and flew another flight or two after that.  The plane is a fast and nostalgic bird!

Jer helped Shane maiden his new GP Extra 300SP, same plane that Jer has.  Shane's though, has an OS 55 AX motor that really halls arse!  Jer put it through the wringer and the plane passed with flying colors, pun intended, lol.  Shane was happy but doesn't think he is ready to fly it himself.  He wants to work up to it with some other planes.

I flew my Giles 202 for four flights.  With the cool temps today, I had to keep leaning the engine a click or two each flight.  By the 4th flight it was really sounding great and moving like lightning.  Great flying with it today. I must have been performing good because I got a couple compliments from Dick et al about the nice flights and landings.  :)

Jer and Tad also flew their little red Migs along with Joe's Sabre.  Cool little bullets made for great entertainment and low fly bys over the runway.

Lastly, Jer, Joe, and I flew our DLG's, finding some light air here and there, but not catching any boomers.

In summary, it was a day to remember, really because I had my 3 sons there together with me and enjoying the day together with our common hobby, and making some everlasting memories.  Oh yeah, we ended by going to a new Mac Donalds at Keizer Station, Joe included, and I treated the gang.  Super FUN day!!

Sunday Flying

Forgot to log my flight activity for yesterday/Sunday.  I flew my T-28 Trojan and Stinger II.  Both flew well, and I had 3 or 4 flights on each.  Notable was probably my best landing ever with the T-28, diving for the end of the runway with full flaps and low throttle, and pulling up just at the right time, but keeping down elevator pressure for a greased on landing with no hops at all.  I don't think it can ever be bettered, equaled maybe.  The YS63 in the Stinger operated well the first three flights but on the fourth it was easy to start but would die after idling a little bit.  After I fiddled with the low idle mixture to no avail, Joe suggested just running the engine up with the glow starter still on to burn off any excess fuel that loaded up the engine.  Seemed to work.  The plane idled fine to taxi out and after landing.  I will have to remember that for future similar occurrences with this engine.

Flight Log: 09/01/12

Here we are already, first day of Sept 2012!  Took the Sbach and Apache DLG out today.  Jer had his Colibri, so I that is what instigated getting the Apache out again, first time in a year?  Had 3 nice flights with the Sbach, but it was quickly growing windier by noonish, so the last flight was not real pleasant with heavy crosswind on takeoff and pretty bumpy air.  Sbach handled nicely for the first two flights, and Jer commented that the rolling circles were looking smooth, so that is encouraging.  The DLE-30 started nicely and ran well, but seems touchy on idle for some reason.  Had a bunch of launches with the Apache, and ended with a nice thermal or two on the last flight.  I bailed out of the good air as it drifted south, and because the farmer on the North field was fumigating with some gawd awful stink yellow chemical.  Jer was flying too, and we could taste the bitter "poison" in our mouths.  He said it was making his eyes sting.  I landed and we put our stuff away, and sat in the car when the tractor made another pass.  After that, we went home to avoid any more chemicals in our lungs.