The Don't Hit the Balloon Funfly!

Lots of fun today in the funfly that Jeremy was CD for, aided by Tad.  Congrats to Rudy for the WIN!  I did well, in the events but picked a lousy deuce in the card draw, for only 200 points, the least possible.  That dropped me from 2nd spot to the bottom half of the competitors, haha.  Good fun anyway, and it was a great day of flying and banter with the guys.  Sandy, Becky, and Rachel watched and helped score from the tailgate of Jeremy's truck, so that made it more fun to have them there!  Anyway the SNAFU performed well with NO deadsticks.

Flight Log: 06/29/12

Day before the funfly, so I flew the SNAFU today about 4 times. Darn if the engine did not die once and I nearly splatted the SNAFU.  It died in a hard place going away from the end of the runway at a low altitude. I decided last second to yank hard left towards the small area of rough grass we have near the windsock.  Luckily, the plane did not stall, stayed flat and landed safely.  Whew, thought I was going to lose my funfly plane!  I richened the needle valve about two clicks and she ran fine but not real fast after that for another flight.  This OS 52 is so finnicky about the needle valve setting as the temperature changes!  Just 2 clicks makes a BIG difference.  I also got the Toledo Special up for a flight, its first after the wing tip damage and subsequent repair.  It flew well and is like its old self again.  Glad about that!  Lastly, I took the Blade 400 up for 2 battery packs.

AW Ultimate

Didn't fly this today, but am preparing for the next outing.  I added 2 ounces more of weight on the engine box next to the ignition battery.  That brings nose weight to 4 ounces of lead.  I recall the plane was still a tad tail heavy last time I flew it, requiring no down elevator when inverted.  I like my planes to require slight down elevator pressure when inverted.  This added nose weight hopefully does not give the plane a tendency to nose over during taxiing!

Related to this plane, today Alex helped me design a t-shirt with the following photograph on it.  He had a $10 off coupon from some place called Zazzle.com where he bought a self-designed t-shirt himself.  We also included the KRCA Krosswinds "logo" on it that I designed for vinyl stickers.  Photo of t-shirt will follow after I receive it in the mail.  The layout on the shirt is something like below with the KRCA logo under the picture.  :)

Mowed and SNAFU'd

Mowed yesterday, then flew the SNAFU for 5 flights of practice for the funfly on Saturday.  The OS 52 did not die once, so hopefully it stays that way for the funfly.  It is taxiing well, as long as I don't go too fast and actually lift off the ground, and the loops are staying nice and vertical from the end.  Should be a fun funfly.

Flight Log: 06/25/12

Kind of an ugly day with slight drizzle at times, but I got in 4 flights on the SNAFU, and one battery pack on the Blade 400.  Decided to give up after that, with the drizzle continuing, and the JB guy adjusting nearby sprinklers.

Dumb Thumb!

Well, either I dumb thumbed the Toledo Special today, or I got hit by a sudden crosswind on takeoff.  Almost up to take off speed, in fact maybe I was lifting off, and something happened so fast that I can't even recall exactly other than the plane was jostling from one wing tip to another, to a main gear to another, and soon the engine was dead and the plane was upright with the left wing tip hanging and crushed, and the left main gear arched downward, not upward.  The prop did not even hit, the firewall is intact, and I was embarassed.  How do I mess up a takeoff after probably hundreds with this plane?  Well, I had one great flight with it today before then.  Flew the SNAFU 5 times today, in practice for the funfly.  It only died once.  BUT all it takes is one dead engine for a zero score on an event, and there goes any chances to place.  Other than that, the plane flew well and I am ready for the funfly.  I do have to make sure the plane does not take off on the fast taxi event though!

Rudy flew his newly re-covered electric stik (looks great), and Quang flew a 40 size Seagull Ultimate with a Magnum 91 four stroke powering it!  Rudy and I had fun practicing lots of landings for the funfly coming up.

Update:  Here are the repairs I made to the wing tip.  Too bad, I should have taken a before pic of the damaged wing tip hanging down!

Some braces and gussets can be seen, but this doesn't capture how many
broken or bent pieces there were!  CA is a wondrous thing!

I used the best color match in my Monokote scraps that I could find.

NOT BAD!  Most folks won't even notice from 10' away.

I CA'd both wheel pants in a few places...damage was not bad there.  Also I bent the aluminum LG back into shape so the wing and stab sit pretty level with the ground.  She is ready to take to the air again!

Stinger II

The morning was rainy as forecasted, but it began to look sunnier close to noon, so I headed out with the Stinger II.  When I got there, Bruce and Brandon were there too, but a thunderstorm with rain was heading our way from West Salem.  I could just watch it approach, so I assembled the Stinger but put it back in the truck under the tonneau cover, with the flight box, etc.  Sure enough we had 10 minutes of really hard rain, and then it was done and gone, with sunshine and mostly blue skies!  Bruce and Brandon had to leave, but I put in 5 flights pretty quickly on the Stinger and had my fun.  Nobody else came to fly.