Bigger is better!

Or so one supposes, up to a point.... Recent rains have made the grass at BMF thicker, the small potholes bigger, and the ants more industrious. The grounds crew has been doing a great job keeping up with the rapid grass growth rate, but with all that thickness etc, smaller wheels, like those on the Alpha, have trouble negotiating roll outs. In my recent video you may have seen how quickly she ground to a halt. Take offs were breatholders as she would run, and run, and run, and then just break free. Touch and go's were touch-stop and run way out then go. Once the nose gear came up she leapt into the air but getting her to Vr was tough. Any taxiing was a gamble if her nose wheel dipped into a hole. The prop cut grass (and painted her green), and she would tip head over into the dip.

Today I stopped by Orange Grove Hobby and purchased a pair of 2.75 wheels and 2.5 wheels. The smaller one is the nose wheel. Looks good, doesn't seem to have added much more weight. I did have to MacGuyver the nose gear as the axle strut was a bit short if I had collars on both sides of the wheel (its always something). I CA'd a prop adapter plastic ring to the strut and set a thin washer on. The wheel went on with just enough axle to spare to secure the lock nut pretty well.

Off with the small, on with the bigger! 2.75" tires on the back, 2.5"nose wheel. The old wheels were nose about 1.5 and mains 1.75. In the foreground are a 2.5 and 1.75.

Fun and Games!

Having a great time at BMF today doing cross wind landings. Decided to have some fun coming across the field corner more into the wind over the trees. Thanks to Steve Burton for taking the video for me! Follow the tiny dot that becomes an airplane over the trees.

Great Sunday crowd at BMF today. I took Kenny Wilson up on the Alpha using a buddy box and he flew fantastic! He had been flying his Parkzone Cub quite well and this step up was something he was more than ready for. Great job, Kenny!

Posted some pics in the Gallery on the MCRCC website! Check them out!

Cornell Tribute

The original Cornell wing above Phoenixcubby's. 

I took the wing off my Eflite PT19 Cornell in preparation for the new wing which should be here Tuesday. I examined it carefully. At first glance it looks really good, but closer inspection finds seemingly subtle bends that result in a wing that has a twist in it. It still strikes me as too subtle to cause the severe oscillations that resulted, but it is definitely a twisted wing. We'll know when the first flight with the new wing is undertaken. I removed the servo covers with the servos, though I think I will change them to metal gear digital servos.

Mad Max is on Fire!

Literally...

Before.

After. If you could look under the cowl or up front in the fuse, you would see the fired out damage. 

Max took off sweet on half throttle, and I started a nice right hand turn on climb out. 40% rates, 20% expo. She seemed graceful! Getting her back upright however took full left aileron, and any attempt to allow anything less than full left lead to a right roll. Then, for a moment it seemed I had control, but then a moment later she rolled right and I needed full left aileron. I throttled back, no improvement, I throttled forward, no change. I had to hold full left. I tried a right hand turn and she went completely out of control and slammed into Mount Doom in Mordor. It took a second for the sound to reach us. Antonio and I drove over and scaled Mt. Doom, but you could smell the fire as we stood at the foot of the mound. It became stronger, that acrid, burning plastic and ozone smell. As I climbed up and started to be able to see her in the deep weeds that cover the mound, I could see the smoke rising out of the fuse and from the vents in the cowl. I grabbed the battery connection and it came off the ESC in my hand. The fire had already melted the solders! I pulled the smoking battery and tossed it down the mound in one move noting the EC5 connector and the wires were blackened and melted. I blew on the ESC and it stopped smoking by the time I got back to the car. The fuse was cracked behind the wing, but not separated, the gear sheared off and the hatch tossed, but there wasn't much damage outside the burn marks and melted EPO foam. Once we got back to the pits I tried to pull the ESC out, but the motor wires had melted off the ESC and come out like loose hairs, and one of the ESC capacitors followed. The prop was broken, but the motor looks fine, but I suspect she is burnt. 

I was all set to remove the electronics that survived and give the hulk to Steve for spares for his much better behaved MX2, but Ron Johnson came over. Seems he's looking for a challenge and something to do, so he asked if he could have it to work on. If anyone can fix Mad Max and get her flying, its Ron! So, let's see what magic he can work!

I flew the Cubby and Alpha with the Dx8 today, and love that radio. Very happy day all in all! Took Antonio up on the Buddy Box (Luke didn't want to come out today). Storm was moving in so after Cubby flipped on the ground and broke her motor mount I called it a day.

Mad Max

I mentioned earlier that Mad Max got grounded before being maidened after her latest rebuild due to a failed ESC. I bought a new Hobby King 70 amp ESC on Ebay for $35. It arrived today, I soldered the connectors and set it up in Mad Max. Wow... she has more power than I think a foamie should have... I was afraid to go past half throttle! I will need to be very careful with the throttle. I checked her CG and added about 1 oz under the nose, and she comes in a touch nose heavy. I tuned a few controls, having bound her to my Dx8, which also arrived today, and set up 3 rates.

Tomorrow I will try once again to fly Mad Max... I am optimistic, but my luck has not been so good lately.

Rebuilding the Stearman yet again

Needless to say I am getting tired of this recent cycle of fly, crash, rebuild. My latest Stearman fiasco resulted in some minor but time consuming damage. I started the rebuild part of the cycle again this afternoon.

I was lucky, slamming into the ground from ~50 ft she should be wood chips, but she came down in thick weeds which cushioned her crash. All askew...

Damage to the connections of both lower wings to the fuse. The uppers were fine.

Prop toast. The false motor doesn't look so bad but its confetti...

Left wing sheared the tab clean off.

The right wing actually pulled the entire tab out and fractured the rib it attached to on the wing.

These cabane struts were forced and bent forward by the impact.

You can really see this on the right.

One of them sheared its attachment off the wall of the fuse.

The wall of the fuse above the right landing gear was caved in. I pushed it out, put a piece of salvaged sheet balsa over it and sanded it flat. The sheet of plywood inside to which the gear attach was bent in a previous crash. Its what makes this gear more likely to bend back, so I slipped in a piece of popsicle stick wood and CA'd it in place. This will lever the gear attachment forward and give some resistance to bending back. You can see it in the hole at the top. I don't want this to be too strong, but prefer it give away and protect the gear.

Re-coted. Looks great!

Gear back on, and snug.

And all aligned. good repair.

I removed the nickels I had added in an attempt to bring the CG forward. I don't think they made her too heavy, but she flew better before I installed them, I think. There's no telling anymore. This 550W motor and a 12x6 APC prop with a 3S battery create more than enough thrust... But boy she stalls easy and deadly.

You saw the before pic of the right wing above. Here I've rebuilt the rib, and re-installed the tab. There were a lot of tiny pieces.

The separated tab of the left wing.

CA'd in perfect position.

The spar also broke at the same place it has the past 3 times. Horizon is still NIS on the CF spars, so I once again drilled out the dowel I used last time, and replaced a segment. CA'd it together, sanded it smooth.

Waiting for new cabane struts, will replace the N strut. I have the very original cowl with a cosmetically damaged false motor that I will use until I get this bird flying right, but I have ordered a replacement.

I hope to figure out this CG problem, but will likely settle for resetting the mechanical down elevator we had originally. Trying to get it right with nose weight has not worked well for me. Right now I just want her to fly like she used to...

Another Successful SAD Mission

How much more of this can I take?

The much anticipated Cornell and Stearman flight certs went off today. With clear disdain for the 8 hr Bottle-to-Throttle rule, the Twins showed up with alcohol on their breath... they were't kidding anyone under those dark goggles, they were still partyin' in their little plastic heads. I mean, we have to blame this successful SAD mission on someone, why not the "busted" pilots?

This morning was moist and ungodly hot, but a deep calm lay over the dew, an occasional breeze from the north.   I can only imagine what the density altitude was with the heat and humidity. The sun was up over the trees and wouldn't be a problem. I took the Cubby up, then the Alpha for several packs. Wonderful flying, several great flights. The dew was making the grass a bit grabby so touch and go's were a bit difficult as the planes would grind to a halt, and take some time getting enough speed to take off. I took a deep breath... it was time to fly the Twins.

They are beautiful on the flight line.

I started with the Cornell. I had my suspicions about the right wing being tilted up, thinking I could see more of the bottom of the wing than I should be able to. I was right. She lifted off sweet, nicely balanced, and as she came out of ground effect I had to counteract an increasing tendency to roll left. I was instantly fighting a hard roll left, no aileron available to make a turn right, and heading for the trees. She was oscillating hard in roll and would not find an even keel. She stalled and crashed from 10 feet AGL just clear of the north end of the runway.

Damage is limited to the front. The cowl is crunched, the motor and prop are good, but the firewall gave away and took a bit of the fuse with it at the top. Easy repair. I took another hard look at the wings, and while they look awesome I can see the Army Air Corp star on the bottom of the right wing but the left wing remains flat, so there is definitely an upward twist in the wing extending from the root out to the tip, the forward part of the chord is up.This puts the wings in conflict forcing a strong left roll component. She was doomed. I will be ordering new wings... The price on the wings is going up so they are likely closing out stock on replacement parts as they have already discontinued the plane. Will need a new cowl too.

One successful SAD mission completed!

The Stearman was my mistake... She had flown fine last time, still a bit tail heavy in flight, but a little trim and she was fine though a tad sluggish.. I added more weight, a couple of oz, to bring the CG forward some more. I was concerned she was getting pretty heavy. She took off a bit sluggishly, tail down, and despite my having balanced out the leftward CG shift by re-positioning the battery she needed a lot of trim to keep the right wing down. This suggests the wings are not aligned as well as they seem. I seemed to have her trimmed out after a bit, and took her around a couple of scary turns, but in the second turn she stalled dead in the air at about 50 feet, and spun nose straight down hard into deep grass just to the southeast about 50 yards into the blackberry patch. There was no recovering her from this deadly spin.

The grass saved me from more severe damage. The wings are broken off the fuse but appear fine. The N strut on the left and the cabanes are a mess, and I suspect the fuse where the cabanes join is also a mess. The motor seems good, but the false motor part of the cowl is broken on the bottom.  I'll be taking some of the weight out, at least the new nickel weights, and just settle for having to fly her with some down trim. A second successful SAD mission...

Needless to say, neither plane was certified ready for flight... I will start the autopsies later, maybe tomorrow. I have had enough for today... so have the Twins.