Nose Job

A blink away from completing the repairs to my Stearman. I set up the mount screws per the instructions (geez, I took no pics...). Using card tabs placed over the mount posts, I note the location of the mount holes and transfer them using a Sharpie to the cowl, then drill the holes in the cowl. Honest though, just like the Eflite instructions. I added a post to the top of the cowl to hold the weight of the lead in the cowl a bit better, though it was doing pretty well before. I have to be careful where the lead goes or the motor or ESC blocks the cowl. There's a lot of weight. I am using the same amount of weight, in fact the same weights, as were in before. I used 60 minute epoxy, let it set overnight and put the cowl on tomorrow. I put some of the weight on the motor block, where a piece was already. That's it, ready to fly Friday.

New post at the top of the firewall.

I also set some, well, a lot, of epoxy in the front of the cowl that is the false motor cylinder set. Its very fragile and this epoxy will strengthen it. The false motor is beautiful, the best one I have seen on a Stearman, but the plastic is extremely fragile. The "wires" on the front snap off if moved at all.

Can't wait to fly!

Stearman almost ready!

Repairs on my Stearman are nearly complete after her stall crash. I detailed the major repairs in a previous post. The cowl, cabane struts and N struts arrived from Horizon today. I had found I needed to replace only one of the N struts (the other is bent a little but fine otherwise), and used one I had to replace the other. I installed the cabane struts fairly simply, some minor annoyances from screws not quite lining up on one of the forward struts attachments to the fuse post repair.

I had to repair the lower carbon fiber wing support spar since it fractured and they are out of stock at Horizon. In re-installing the wings it gave me issues, overcome with some sandpaper and a light layer of strong cursing. In the end everything lined up nicely and fits straight. I did find I had to remove a couple of the fiberglass tubes through which the CF spar passed, one in the fuse and one in one of the upper wings as they were damaged. Tested her control surfaces and everything is sweet.

She looks great! I will install the cowl tomorrow and replace the nose weights, reset her CG which has surely changed with the repairs. I am so looking forward to having her ready to fly this by this Friday!

Alpha rises

I described the crash and rebuild of my Eflite Alpha 450 Sport in "Asleep at the switch". Yesterday the PowerUp 450 motor arrived from HeadsUpRC (fast shippers, those HeadsUp guys). I installed it last night, with some minor difficulty getting the standoffs in place and getting a good thrust vector on the motor due to changes in the firewall from the repairs. She fired up sweet! the prop adapter that came with the motor was too small for the APC 10x6 I am flying on her, so I had to drop by my LHS today and pick up an Eflite one. It is a tad short so I can't use the stock white spinner...I'll have to see if I can find a longer 4mm adapter.  It looks a little naked without it.

The nav lights had issues. I plan a short blog entry on those later. A couple of them stopped working and it took some time to trouble shoot that it was the bulbs. I ended up sacrificing the other kit I ordered for a couple of its bulbs, but for now everything looks good. The forward facing white light is quite bright so I may get the scale landing light effect I was going for; the light may not wash out in sunlight. We'll see! So, Alpha is ready, and come Friday when I can get away to the field, weather permitting, Luke and I will return to the sky!

My Field of Dreams...

Its raining, no flying today... but I can dream.

Inspired but some really nice facilities across the country, I took a Google image of BMF, and laid out my dream field. Using a manufactured surface, geotex seems a nice layer to put down over undulating landfill, then adding some nice markings. A grass field would be nice to keep as well, and I would include some nice helipads.

Someday...

S.A.D.

Decal available here!

Found and Lost

Ever have parts in a holding bin that you forgot about and have no idea which plane they belong to?

Hmm.... I found these but lost what they belong to. I have no idea what these go to. Its not like I have a lot of choices...

Mad Max grounded

Mad Max, my POS BlitzRCWorks MX2 is grounded for mechanical failure. I had her tuned up, motor running and flight ready. Took her out to BMF and got the loose wire alert from the ESC. No flight.

The ESC, whose wiring has been poorly soldered, had parted an attachment point and I can no longer resolder the white ESC wire to the motherboard. I tried. I had resoldered all three at one time or another, and the black motor wire, which had also come undone. Its finally no longer capable of holding the solder as the tab on the motherboard has come off. So, Mad Max is grounded until I decide I want to spend more money to get a 70A ESC with a switching BEC (linear gets too hot for the ESC location in the fuse). I may do it... if Mad Max won't fly, I can use the electronics in my next aircraft.