Controlled Kaos

Flew the Kaos twice today.  Only Geno and I were there.  The plane flew fine, the engine ran fine.  It was funny when I was done that I noticed I was using 5% fuel....forgot to switch back to 15% after flying the Giles 202 the other day.  When done flying, I discovered copious amounts of raw fuel on the bottom of the fuse, as well as stains inside the servo area above the wing saddle.  Suspected a leaking fuel tank.  Got her home and removed the fuel hatch, found an inch of fuel in the tank compartment, lol.  Poured the fuel out, removed the sopping foam pads, and got the tank out.  Turns out the neck of the tank cracked at the seam.  Dried her out with paper towels and installed a new tank, unfortunately a lil smaller is all I had in my extras.   Kaos is ready to go again.

Kaos and Stinger II

Wow we had a gorgeous morning with full on sunshine but mild temps...the kind where you start with a vest on, then end with a t-shirt.  Flew my Kaos once .  Made a perfect landing.  Gonna jinx it by saying I am learning to land it better so that I don’t nose it over in the grass after too fast an approach and touchdown.   Great fun doing the aerobatics and low passes.

Flew the  Stinger II twice...that sucker is a great plane.   Just wish it was bigger! Love how it still howls on fast passes powered by that YS63!  It can do all the pattern aerobatics like the Kaos but in a different, sport airframe.

Kaos and Toledo Special

This morning I flew the Kaos and Toledo Special once each.  Both are purring along and the flights were great. The only negative was the blue matching spinner on the  Toledo literally just exploded when i tried to start it with the Align starter.  I can only guess maybe the prop was loose.  Don is going to look in his stock and see if there is an aluminum spinner that will work.  The flights were fun, with many rolls, loops, inverted flight, etc.  The landings were happily nice and easy!

Cccccccold!

I think it was around 36F when i headed to the dallas field at 8:40.  The guys decided we should go an hour later due to the fog that has been present lately.  It wasnt foggy today but instead was pretty cccccold!  I used one hand warmer, double socks, tshirt, flannel shirt, vest, medium jacket, ear warmers, and pendleton hat.  Comfy enough, but later as the wind built up, we all got chilled enough to call it a day.  I am ahead of myself.

I flew my Kaos three times today.  No probs with the retracts due to the smooth runway mat we installed this Summer!  The plane flew great but did use most of the runway to rollout on landings.  Due to that behavior and the need for down elevator to hold inverted flight, i will add some tail weight.  That should help the plane slow down for landings.  Other than that, the Kaos flew really nice ....we all love how it looks with the gear retracted.

Usual suspects were there....Don, Ken, Gary, Mike, and Bob.  Dave Martin also flew!  Ken had his pretty blue Carl Goldberg Skylark, first time for me to see it.  Real nice plane!

Flight log 08/04/2018 and 08/06/2018

I flew Saturday at Keizer with Dave, Ted, and Dan.  Got in 2 flights on the G500, 2 on the G700, and 4 on the Aerostar 40F.  All flew well, no probs.  Got lower on inverted stuff, just trying to wiggle the tail more, stabilize, and do it again until I can turn while holding altitude and not dive or climb.  Tendency now is to climb for fear of diving all the way to the ground!

Today four of us from the Dallas club went to the McMinnville field to fly there.  Three of us are actually members...doug, Doug, and myself.  We had fun there....no locals showed up to fly...weird on a gorgeous day that was not too hot.  It was weird flying with a very closed in or confined feeling although it is not really that tight.  The brain just takes over.  Nobody crashed, we hit the runway on landings, and we hopefully did not overfly the owners fence around his home.  I flew the Toledo Special and Kaos twice each.  Nice to have the Kaos stay upright through complete landing rollouts, lol.   No pics..I had my iPhone but as per usual the darn thing said storage full fool!

Here is one pic I snapped at home...my new hat for $20 plus ID badge for $5.  Badge is nice 3D printed one that costs almost nothing to print, lol.

Last two days

Flew yesterday with my pattern planes, the Kaos and Osiris.  I put in one flight on the Kaos, with a nice successful landing on the retracts, without the axle spinning to trip up the plane.  Finally!  I didnt however, taxi back.  I just went and picked the plane up at the end of the runway without trying to taxi on the grass, lol.  Then i put up three flights on the Osiris.  Both planes flew well and i was pleased.

Third good day in a row!

Flew for the third day consecutive at the Dallas field.  Got in four flights on the Starstreak, and just one on the Kaos.  The Kaos had a simply awesome flight from takeoff to almost landing, lol.  I mean it streaked high and low on a rope, looking great with the LG retracted.  Upon landing, it was just a little fast , but the axle on the right strut twisted inward on contact with the ground, and just nosed the Kaos over.  At home, i determined that although the strut has flat spots for the set screws, i think i accidentally set the axle outside that flat spot.  So i dremeled the flat spot larger on the strut such that now the set screw should really hold the axle from torqueing offline.  While at it, i bent the struts forward as much as possible while still laying in the wing properly.  Hope these actions solve the problem of the nose overs on landings.

Pattern birds day

It was pattern birds day to me, so I took the Kaos and Osiris out for fast fun.  Got in three flights on the Osiris and two on the Kaos.  Had trouble with the LG on the Kaos...the axle kept slipping on the strut, and I could not get the little hex nut tight due to L wrench slippage.  Got it home and used my good heli set plus some blue threadlock to secure it, hopefully for good.  The Kaos nosed over on both landings, but that could have been due to the turned axle, or the retracts being too close to the CG.  I changed the ply shim on the back of each mounting plate from 1/16" to 1/8".  that moves the wheels forward another 1/4" and hopefully that is enough to stop the nasty warbird habit of nosing over on each landing.  So ungraceful and disgraceful after a sharp flight!

Hope that does the trick!

Kaos functional!

Finally the retracts on the Kaos are functioning properly!   I remembered having a low profile retract servo NIB but purchased over 20 years ago for the Tigershark kit that i never completed.  Found it where i thought i last saw it in one of the Craftsman cabinets in the garage!  Opened her up and happily found it to be virtually the same size as the Hitec ones from Don.  I don't know why both Hitec retracts had soft and weak splines on the servo output shafts, but they just spun inside the servo arms after very little use.  I got the Futaba installed with new Futaba servo arm....the splines on the FUT retract servo are deep and sharp.  The servo worked great today, and i had two flights with no retract issues.  Man that Kaos looks great screaming low over the field with the Enya 60 full bore with retracts up, lol.  Also had two good landings where the plane did not nose over on the LG, but could not taxi back over the grass.  Just had to kill the motor and go fetch the plane.

Ken's Snapper(?) and Don's Pulse in background

Kaos again

Flew the Kaos again and had the same issue with retract failure as last.  But on the second flight i knew the prob was there so i just kept the gear down for the whole flight, no prob, lol. Flew great.  Haven't been able to land yet without nosing over at the end of rollout in the grass, just like a warbird!

At home later i found a new but very old Futaba retract servo for the uncompleted Tigershark.  Same mount pattern and case size as the crummy Hitec retract servo, so i will install it and hope to cure the issue of stripped servo output arm and servo arms themselves.

Awesome Winter day

What Winter?  While coolish at about 44F to start, the sun came out after some early light fog, and the temp gradually rised.  Got to strip off the jacket after a bit!  It was a great day with really no wind nor rain.  Flew four flights on my SNAFU and two with the new to me Kaos!  The maiden went really well with no issues. I think i put on a couple clicks right aileron and one of down elevator.  Sweet plane!  Groovy like on rails as it should be, fast, but it slowed down nicely for landings.  The only problem was on the second flight , the retracts would not come down all the way and lock, so i landed with gear mostly up.  Meant to land on the grass but ended up on centerline of the mat and then the Kaos slid down centerline about 70 feet, lol!  That put a slight dent on the bottom of the wing between the retracts, but no other damage occurred!  I came home and replaced the servo arm on the retract servo with a new one.  The one i took off had stripped splines.

While there, the gravel truck with backhoe delivered a load of 3+ gravel then a load of  3/4”.  He laid the gravel to extend our driveway to the shed.  Very generous father of one of the young boys who flies in the club.  I think Don and Cliff gave him $100 for the time and effort!

Cool trade for a Kaos!

The other day at the Dallas field, Don approached me about making a trade we once discussed in the Summer of 2017.  At that time, I offered a lightly used Saito 82a for the Kaos plane complete with servos and Enya 60 two stroke engine, and mechanical retracts.  We didn't know each other much then, as I had just joined the Dallas club.  It was a no go then because Don had recently finished the plane and still was attached to it.  So I forgot all about it.  So the other day, he refreshed my memory and asked if I still wanted to make the trade, to which I pretty readily agreed.  We made the trade a couple days ago at his beautiful home.  Since that time, I have installed my receiver and battery, then made some mechanical trim adjustments such as changing one aileron servo horn to match the other in length, and remounting one elevator control horn closer to the hinge line to match the other elevator half.  I also programmed my Futaba xmitter with some expo on ailerons and elevator similar to my other planes.  This is gonna be a fun flyer!