Flight log for many days

July 5:  2 flights of Toledo Special with the new aluminum spinner provided by don....good flights.  Definitely the front bearing is loosening up and causing the beginnings of the tractor sound.  Gonna fly it til it cries to be replaced!

July 6:  Warbird Day at the Wingdingers!  3 flights of the P-47 and one with the Val.  Oh so fun!  Best flight was my single flight of the Val in tandem with Bob’s blue nose P-51.  We had so much fun flying formation and zipping fast low passes.  A couple guys told me that was the best entertainment of the day.

July 7:   I arrived first...flew the X5 twice and 7HV thrice, plus the Starstream four times.  It’s a funny lil fun plane that flies kinda touchy yet totally spirited and controllable.   I like it lots but just wish the  3s 2200 packs would provide longer flight times than 3.5 minutes!

 Tad flew his Avanti three times, twice with Quang and his Avanti.  They might awesome closeby, low, and fast passes over the runway.  Actually Quang was too close, lol, but all went well.  Those jets took off in nay 2/3 of the grass runway.  They landed well too, but the grass makes good brakes.  Might be tough to stop on a smooth surfaces runway.

No mojo for blog

Been flying but got no mojo for keeping this blog up to date.  Maybe I put too many words into each entry...too much energy!  So maybe i have to be very brief from now on just so long as I log in the number of flights and any adjustments made to the aircraft, mainly as a record book for future reference during repairs, etc.

Yesterday:  Flew P-47 Jug three times in prep for Warbird Day on July 6, a month from now.  The OS91 Surpass II ran flawlessly.  Note I had to replumb the tank after the engine would not start at the field last week.  Cause was collapsed plastic tube in the rubber stopper of the tank.  For some odd reason I used one brass tube, one aluminum tube, and one plastic tube in the stopper when I constructed the plane, or last overhauled the tank...cannot remember if I did so.  Over time the fuel exposure and constant pressure of the rubber stopper collapsed the plastic tube only.  When I opened the tank up and tried to blow through the plastic tube, no noticeable air went through until I reamed the tube open with an L wrench.  Replaced it with another brass tube and the fuel flows and the engine runs again, voila.

Today:  Flew the RV-4 just once.  Left aileron linkage unwound due to engine vibration and loose nuts on each end of the metal control rod between horn and servo.  Yikes!  Thought a parachute opened and that I was going to crash.  Landed safely by keeping throttle on something  more than idle to overcome drag, no flaps deployed for fear of upsetting plane more.  Landed on grass shoulder but rolled onto runway mat.  Saw linkage hanging and left aileron drooping, lol.

Came home and soldered the clevises and nuts to the rod on the horn end of the ailerons and the elevators.  Used blue threadlock on the clevises and nuts on the servo ends of those four servos.  Rudder is cable pull-pull and it looks secure.  Flaps control rods are too hard to remove, as they were a dickens to install into the wings, so I used red/permanent threadlock instead of solder on the horn end clevises and nuts.  Again used blue threadlock on the clevises and horns on the servo end.

Well that is not very brief but at least I got the log done and issues and repairs recorded!

Flight log: 09/06/2018

I flew yesterday and today.  Got in three flights on the good old Goldberg Ultimate 10-300.  Since last flying it, I changed props from 16-6 to 16-8 to get a lil more speed.  The plane indeed seemed just a little faster and groovier.  Idle was still good for slow landings.also today, I dialed out some up elevator that kicks in with right/top rudder during the four point roll.  Basically I zeroed it out.  There is still some up elevator mixed to the left/top rudder.  Looks like the knife edge on either side is pretty straight now.

Yesterday I flew the P-47 twice and it was plain old fun making all kinds of low passes over the field.  Plane flew great, with no issues, and the retracts worked fine yet again.

WARBIRD SATURDAY @Dallas Field

28 Warbirds for the Dallas Warbird Saturday!

That was a lotta fun, 7 hours of flying, friends and food at the Dallas Field for Warbird Saturday.  We had 28 planes for the kodak moment on the runway, from WWI dawn patrol bipes to a Phantom jet.  Most numerous were the WWII warbirds.  I flew my P-47 to my delight, lol, and hopefully it was equally entertaining to the guys.  Four of my fellow krca pilots participated, which was welcomed and appreciated by the Wingdingers.  They really enjoyed the 3d printed Spitfire that Dave brought, and after his retract issue was resolved, Dave and the plane flew well.  His T-28 with engine sound system was also enjoyed.  Jerry’s electric glow lil stick got a good laugh from everyone when they realized the motor was plastic and just a decoy over the electric motor, lol.

Loved the fat Hellcat that Don flew...just one flight and he made a great landing except 50’ too long.  In other words he landed in the mowed rye grass with no damage.  I helped Bob carry his new P-51 Blue nose P-51 for its two flights.  Very sweet plane with a strong Saito 125 up front.  Has cool keleo scale exhausts...nice but they sure spat fuel all over my arms and t shirt each time the Saito started up!

Couple of crashes.  A bad one was an AT-6 Texan that landed dead stick in the  rye grass, snapping the wing off.  Maybe it was just the wing bolts...i did not inspect it.  The other was Joe’s Phantom EDF.  He had assembled it just for the photo shoot, without wing tubes.  Then he flew it that way...yikes!  The wing collapsed and the jet dethermalized to the ground in a real flat spin with motors still running.  Not much damage due to the very slow flat spin into the rye grass.

Food was great....hot dogs, hamburgers, beans, pasta salads, desserts, cookies, chips, pop.  What a great day.  What more could an RC addict ask for!?

Flight log: 09/12&13/2017

Flew yesterday...one flight on the Sbach 342 but i did not fly it again due to fuel feed issue at end of the flight!  Came home and pulled the tank out of the plane.  As suspected, the clunk with fuel line inside the tank had slipped off the tubing that runs through the tank stopper.  No barbs on the tubing but there was a zip tie cinching the tygon line to the stopper tubing.  With time the tygon compresses and stiffens, just slipping off.   I just replaced rhe tygon with a more flexible one and added a new zip tie.  It just needs to be checked annually.

I had my Aerostar 40F and knocked out five flights on it, playing with flaps all the time.  Just a relaxing aircraft!

TODAY,  i flew my P-47 twice.  The guys there absolutley loved the appearance, sound, and flight handling.  Landings were tail up main gear touchdowns, things of beauty.  Takeoffs were crap.  Too much torque causes the plane to veer left on takeoff.  I need to add tons of right rudder to counteract the veer.  Simply need to fly it more to get the blend of throttle and right rudder.  Not much of an issue at KRCA where the left veer is typically out over the sod farm.  At Dallas RC, the veer heads the plane into the pit area fencing!  It was a great morning of flying.

Warbird saturday

Yesterday was warbird Saturday at our club field.  Hardly anyone showed up, but it meant i got to fly my T-28 and P-47 as much as i wanted.  Three flights on the former, and two on the latter made me happy.   Both flew like usual and made it through another Zmemorial Day weekend.

As part of this years event, we also had a combat session with our Scythe wings.  Mike, Dick, Chris and I were the only ones with our wings.   We had about three sorties.  Chris and i managed to hit each other over the tall grass of the North field.  My plane spun down while Chris stayed up another 20 seconds or so.  I thought that won the kill for Chris.  Much fun had by all.

Warbird Saturday

On May 24 we had our warbird event, just an informal gathering of warbirds for the Memorial Day weekend.  Only 11 planes showed up, and their 4 owner pilots.  I took my T-28 Trojan and P-47 Jug/Thunderbolt as I always do.  One of these years I need to get a new and different warbird.  Seems though the interest in this event has waned considerably and it could be just a personal event after this.  Anyway, I got 3 nice flights with the T-28 and one with the P-47.  With irrigation pipes right on the 3 edges of our our runway, we really had a little aircraft carrier to take off and land on this year.  All went well for everyone with no incidents with the pipes.  Oh, my single flight with the P-47 was due to the risk with the pipes, but my one landing was totally greased on, tail high, with tail staying in the air for a good 30 feet till the plane lost speed and rolled to a stop straight ahead.

See the pipes with sprinkler heads lining the south edge, with JB worker.

9 Flights!

It was grey, cool, and calm at about 8AM when I was first to arrive and stay.  I think someone else came due to the fresh tire tracks, but they left, likely due to the wheeled sprinkler being on the East end of the runway.  With that sprinkler in the way,  I flew my Star for 4 batt packs that I had.  Rudy arrived around 9AM and knew how to move the sprinkler, so he did that, and I was able to then fly my P-47 for four strafing flights.  Made my best takeoffs due to the hard, short, and dry grass runway, and due to the wind being directly down the runway from the West for some of the time.  WIth this plane, I need a ton of right rudder very early to avoid the torque pull to the left.  Landings were okay, with just two nose overs out of 5 landings, haha.  Lots of fun doing low flybys and various low rolls.  Only a few fliers came today: Rudy, Chris, Mike, and late arrival Harvey.

Star

The wheeled sprinkers were watering the East end of the runway and the pipe sprinkler ended on the West end.  Managed to mow nearly everything except where the pipe lay on West end.  Then proceeded to fly 3 packs through the Star.  Did not unload and assemble the P-47 due to the sprinklers and the SE to SW wind.  It just would have been hairy to takeoff or land with a bit of tailwind if going E to W on our runway.  I did not want to takeoff and land from W to E because of the wheel sprinkers off the edge of the runway...too risky.  Star flew well though!

KRCA Warbird Weekend

Doug had his impressive H9 B-25, not yet ready for flight!

I will report just briefly on this annual event that our club held this weekend.  The weather was better on Saturday than Sunday, so more pilots, planes, and audience were present on Saturday.  The weather was much windier, greyer, and slightly damp on Sunday.  I would say we had maybe 7 pilots on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.  Maybe 10 spectators in all on Saturday, just a couple on Sunday.  I took the T-28 and P-47 to the event on Saturday, and had 3 flights with the former, and one with the latter.  Re the T-28, one or the other main LG wheel doors broke on two of my three landings.  Landings were just a challenge with the crosswind. of maybe 5mph.  I managed a really nice tail high main gear landing with the P-47 somehow.  Both planes flew well and the engines ran nicely.

Knowing that winds would be higher on Sunday, I opted to take just the T-28 AND my SNAFU.  The latter loves to play in the wind, which it did lots of on Sunday.  I might have had 5 flights with it.  I left the T-28 in the truck.  With just a few pilots and planes on Sunday we did not even have a static display on the runway like Saturday.  BTW on Saturday, the Keizer Times photographer came out and took many snapshots of the planes and pilots.  I made a lot of low passes for him, and maybe I or the P-47 will be in one because he took many photos of the P-47 in the air, and asked me to identify the type of plane after he was done.  :)  Too bad we don't get that newspaper but I hope Ron will share his!

No Better Than This!

Holy moly, absolutely a beautiful day weatherwise with sunny blue skies, scattered clouds, 50F-60F, and very light wind from the North.  It was a great day with 2 out of 3 sons there.  Tad brought his AW Extra 300 and nano Blade.  Jer brought his Carbon Z Yak and mcpx Blade.  I flew my P-47 Thunderbolt four flights and declare it ready for Warbird Weekend at the end of May.  Also brought the Blade 400 which Jer flew for one pack, and I refrained when he said the wind was a bit much at that time.  All went well till Jer cracked the Yak in half during slow inverted flight.  Terra firma won.  Next Doug cartwheeled his Mentor on landing and tore off the fin and rudder.  Things happen in threes, so next up, Wilfredo lost power on his TRex 500, and autorotated it into the North field's grass.  Smashed a LG and tail fin, but remarkably that was all.  Sleuth work by Wilfredo found that the tank clunk line was disconnected, possibly and probably due to his filling the tank with the exhaust plug ON the muffler, which caused backpressure on the clunk and blew the line off.  Sounds plausible!  A small adjustment was needed on the P-47 to get it to roll smoother.  Apparently the main gear had too much toe-in, causing the tires to rub sort of sideways on the axles, and torque the struts inward.  I adjusted the axles, lining them up as straight as I could to minimize these effects.  I could not notice better rolling performance on the next takeoff and landing, but the adjustment had to help in my mind.

Warbird Weekend DAY ONE

We had a great showing of warbirds on Saturday/yesterday.  I did not count, but there were 3 or 4 times the number of planes we had the last couple years.  While cool and cloudy in the AM, the weather turned partly sunny, albeit breezier in the PM.  It was a grand day of flying with nary a crash.  I flew my P-47 and my T-28 four times each, I think.  Either 3 or 4 times each.  Both were pretty much flawless except for one landing (last one) with the T-28 when I managed to bounce and tear off one landing gear door.  No harm as it was easily fixed with CA at home.  I did find a broken CA hinge on one flap, looks like from simple fatigue.  I fixed that at home by slicing the remaining two hinges, and installing 3 new CA hinges from H9 (which should last longer).  The T-28 is ready for low passes again today.  :)  I know I am.  Thanks to Rudy and Shane for the nice event planning and hosting, and thanks to Bob B for the low cut grass!

Jug, Shoe, and Sundown

Well, I flew my P-47 Jug three times today in prep for Warbird Weekend three weeks from now.  I did not nose over once on takeoffs or landings.  I did overrun the west end of the runway on rollout of one landing, and luckily the Jug must have hopped over the leftover sod clumps, hence my LG did not get ripped off or bent back.  Whew.  I flew the Shoestring 4 times and it was a ball all day.  Had to quit after the 4th flight because I hippity hopped the landing, and at the end it just tripped over its wheel pants and ripped up the left one.  Had I flown again, I probably would have torn it off completely.  It won't be pretty anymore, but I can fix it.  Durn it.  And lastly, Tad had a great day getting to know the Sundowner 36 better and better, but on the "one more flight" at the end, he had a deadstick and planted it in the hardpan dirt of the JB sodfarm.  Too bad as it was a good flying airplane and the engine was breaking in better on each flight.  The Sundowner had a fast life of 2 whole days, arg!

Flight Log: 03/08/2012

Wowser what a gorgeous day!  Between 50F and 60F with little to no wind, it was just fine for flying.  I had 3 good flights with the P-47.  Unfortunately takeoffs still suck, and landings always end in a nose over.  The plane lifts off sooner than I would like...I need to ease off the up elevator sooner while on the takeoff run.  On landings, I think a little tail weight is in order to prevent the nose overs.  The plane is not sensitive to elevator while in the air, so I am going to add 1/4oz of stick on lead to see if it helps and if the plane gets too touchy.  When it gets too touchy, I will back off the lead.

I crunched the Citabria pretty good on a hand toss takeoff.  I did not get my right hand back to the xmitter fast enough as the plane glanced off some slight wind and headed to the turf.  Oh well, the plane was much too fragile and somewhat touchy in the air, so I won't miss it.  I will get the Tensor ready to replace it.  BTW next time I will take off from the dirt road till completely comfortable with one of these light electric airframes.

Maintenance

At the field, I noticed that the throttle servo on one plane has been very slow, way too slow. Of course once at home I forgot which plane it was. Last night, I took the xmitter and turned on each plane in order and found that the Toledo Special is the one. Took it down and put in a new Futaba 3004 servo that I got from Tower the other day. Throttle is fast again, responsive like it should be. Marked the old 138 as dying/slow and put it away with others. I can use the connector at least. Keeping planes in safe flying condition requires continual visual checking, and repairing as needed.

Warbird Weekend 2011 Day 2

Our Warbird squadron was very small this year!

It was another great day at the field even though hardly anybody cared to show up!  It was another day of just essential guys there...Joe, Mike, Bob, Tad, and me, haha.  Also showing up late for just one flight was our prez Ron.  Great day though.  It was grey and overcast in contrast to what the weather man said it would be.  Nonetheless it was great because the rain held off, the wind was 7mph mostly straight out of the west and down the runway, and we flew and flew!  Got in 3 flights with the T-28 till one LG door almost fell off in midair, this time breaking between the door and the arm connected to the strut.  A heavy douse of CA at home made the plane ready for the next sortie.  The P-47 was flawless and I notched another 3 flights with it.  My takeoffs sucked but none were as bad as yesterday's almost fatal encounter with the windsock pole.  All landings however were pretty light and on the mains.  None nosed over except on the first one to try to taxi back to the pits.  After that one, I killed the engine on the runway and carried the plane back in.  All flights were exhiliarating and entertaining even to myself, lol.  The most fun was when Joe was up with ME-108 and Tad was up with his Kaos and we ran pattern doing low passes over the runway.  Holy moly, FUN!  Tad's was definitely the fastest, and mine the slowest.  Joe cartwheeled his ME-108 on the last landing by stalling and correcting late with the rudder, inducing a snap 3' off the ground and near the fence.  Happily the damage appeared pretty minor...broken wing tip and stab tip, broken wing mounts.  Joe will have it back up in no time.

Tad maidened his Kaos after breaking in the 46AX with a tank of fuel.  Mikes method to run kinda rich and then pinch the fuel line to the carb to momentarily lean the engine seemed to work very nicely...real cool idea that is so simple.  The engine started easily all day except when we tried to start it on an empty tank, haha, which both Tad and I thought I filled up.  Ok den, the engine ran well and is very quiet in the air.  The plane flew like a dream with very little trim needed.  Flies like the proverbial on rails, and it is FAST!  It even whistles like my Intruder!  Landings were fast, but we think he can add tail weight to improve inverted and KE flight, and also slow down the landing speeds.  What a great little plane that is so cheap!  Tad is super happy with the return to glow via this highly satisfying and high performing plane.

Tower Kaos 40 with OS 46AX

Takeoff for the maiden flight.

Warbird Weekend 2011 Day 1

It was an ugly day weatherwise, so only a few pilots showed up to fly besides me...Bob, Mike, and later Joe.  Thing is, it was flyable the entire time I was there!  Flew the T-28 four flights and the P-47 just once.  Had a horrible takeoff with the P-47 towards the east, and nearly hit the windsock pole!  Thought I had good speed on the ground when I lifted off the mains, but the plane wallowed in the crosswind and wandered with low air speed towards the pole.  Barely missed skewering it, but I did, and the rest of the flight was perfect.  Will try again tomorrow.  The T-28 was flawless in performance today.  The only maintenance required was that the LG doors separated from the struts and caused covering damage.  The zip ties held the doors on or else they would be out in the 80 acre sod farm somewhere.  I easily fixed them with a good dose of CA at home, and repaired the covering too.  She is ready for Day 2.

FUN Sunny Day!

Today was even better than Saturday weatherwise, with near 70F light winds from the North (crosswind), and very sunny blue skies.  I took 3 planes today...the P-47, SNAFU, and Apache.  I got in 3 nice flights with the P-47 but am not happy with my take offs.  The plane requires full up elevator to keep the tail on the ground during all taxiing, and even with that, the tail is bouncing all the time.  Take off requires judicious application of throttle while decreasing up elevator and keeping on the rudder to steer properly.  I need to let go of up elevator sooner so that the plane does not take off from its 3 point stance like it did all three times today.  Oh well, once up, the plane flew like a dream.  Low passes were gratifying, giving me big grins all flight long.  On the last flight, Joe took his ME-108 up at the same time, and we got in some nice dog fighting and low passes together.  He is flying that plane so well, and it is not that easy to fly because it looks like it has a high wing loading. 

Flew the SNAFU a bunch of times, perhaps 5 flights, many with Joe flying his Ultra Stick.  Pretty evenly matched, we made lots of circuits for low high speed  passes, and also low and slow to see who could get lowest to the ground.  Unfortunately, after my last flight, Joe kept flying his and ended up totalling it when the engine quit in a low altitude stall turn.  Durn it.

I flew the Apache a bit and managed to latch onto a small thermal for perhaps a 5 minute flight.  Jer flew his Colibri and Joe his Swift but weren't able to find much lift.

Jer flew the pants off his Extra which performed pretty well with the muffler repair that Jer concocted, to plug a hole left by one exhaust stack falling off the muffler last time out.  Tad flew his AW Extra 300 and was crisp and spot on during landings today.  He was real happy with how the DLE-55 started so easily today with the new NGK CM6 spark plug in the engine.

Mike flew his Stearman which is giving him some small fits by not running right.  Sounds great on the ground then it richens up in the air.  He has an idea for resolving the problem.  Kudnas flew today, all kinds of planes as usual.  Jer maidened a Funtana for Bruce and Brandon, and managed to save the plane with a pancake landing after the engine quit at fairly low altitude while inverted!  Dean flew very nicely his UCanDO, which made him happy.  Jim Stone flew his Radian probably longer than all of us on several long flights that he had.  Al flew early and departed early before most people came.   Bob Ross was there a long time with his Saratoga and TF Texan.

To sum it up, one of the best days of flying this year!