The great news is my friend, John, whom I suspected was a master builder, will take on the repair of my Alpha Sport wing. I had almost opted to just by the latest generic trainer that looks very much like the Alpha Sport, but mine is part of my story and I couldn't just let it go. He's an Engineer, and I mean capital E Engineer, as I realized when I saw his workshop. Over 40 years of RC experience, a lot of it hanging from the ceiling in his ginormous spectacular and manufacturing level equipped workshop. So much history. Next time I am there I will take pics, I was too awe struck to think of it today. John's skills at expert building and cote work just dazzled me?. So many complex surfaces that look painted smooth as clear ice... My little project is but a sneeze for him. Dude is a legend.
The lack of planning that bit me in the ass was me rushing out of the garage grabbing two planes without inspecting them. After visiting John, I headed out to the Flying Tigers field in Derry. It was a bit awash with recent rains, but flyable. Turns out the tail wheel connected to the rudder of the MX2 had broken off the bottom of the rudder. Also, the ailerons went literally juggy with vibrations intermittently. You no fly. Turned to the Cubby only to find the model wasnt even programmed into my iX12... I had purged a few planes, but I wouldn't have purged that one. No problem, its a simple setup, made q model and programmed my DR/Expo. Ok, the reciever, into which I need to plug in the bind plug, under the wing, attached by two 2.0 hex top screws. Easy-peasy. Except I don't have a 2.0 hex driver in my go box. Son of a ....
The gods have warned me its time to go home. Several times.
Got home and went straight to the garage workshop. Easily fixed the rudder thingy. Epoxied it, and added a popsicle stick along the bottom to add structural strength so this won't happen again (will add a pic tomorrow). Then I decided to swap out the aileron servos as the jigging kept happening. Made sure it wasn't the reciever, it wasn't. Should be an easy pull and replace. Well... the plane is sealed and the leads wind their way through the fuse to make it to the instrument compartment. The fuse is made rigid by a wood box that runs thru most of the fuse and a center wall to wall plate of thick foam There would be no simple pull and replace. Had to crudely tunnel along the wires to release them and pull them. Then to pass the new leads, more tunneling thru foam. That wasn't so bad.
The servo arms laughed at that notion. The small arms had a special extension arm of brittle plastic on it held together to the servo arm by a very tiny screw. Had to carefully take it apart, and reestablish it on the new one. Hand drilled a small pre-hole, and replace the tiny screw. Of course the screw has a 1 mm hex head hole, my smallest driver being 1.5. Used needle nose pliers to extract that. Replaced the screw and the new arm, and installed. All's good. Started out smoothly with the other one right up to when the special arm snapped while screwing in the retaining hole. Great. That's just great. Found a plastic part I could trim and make new extensions. Yes, extensions, as they need to be identical on both sides. And... it won't accept superglue, which I need to hold them. I sanded them, glued again, clamped, and walked away. I hope the sanding creates a bondable surface. I just need it to hold long enough to put a couple of retaining screws in, very tiny ones. This plastic won't split. We will see how that goes tomorrow.
Never got around to binding g the Cubby, that for tomorrow too.
Having an awesome time!
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