Cornell Toast

I started the autopsy on the Cornell and it has not illuminated the cause of the up elevator fiasco. Bobby was maidening her with her new wing, took off sweet, and got stuck in up elevator, climbed to her death.

The wing cracked a spar, but did not separate. I removed the cote and was able to easily CA the spar. Good as new. I will replace the cote and be done with it. Once I re-cote it, it will look great and have full function.

The fuse is toast. It is fractured along every spar in several places, and the cross struts are all busted up. There is no way I will be able fix it. I will likely order a new fuse... please let that be the end of it. Let her fly like she used to with her new wing and new fuse...

I love this plane waaay too much to let go.

Way too much. Now I'm crying... sobbing like an 8 year old little girl...

Doc's Cubby by Steve Burton

Steve videoed me flying my Cubby. Its got a nice 8mm look to it! Thanks, Steve!

Airfield 1400 mm Zero Coming Soon!

Clean Cubby

The past couple of flight days the Suicidal Cubby has been in a mood and rolls hard left or right as her feet leave the ground, whatever she wants, and slams into the ground. She has broken her motor mount, parted her motor "bolts", cracked her fuse... she has been just a pleasure these past few days. Today was no different. One takeoff-crash combo, and I had enough. I took her home and cleaned her up, redid her cote and tape, made her tighter and more secure. I re tilted the motor to improve her thrust vector and give her a bir more right. She broke my last 8x6 APC eprop, so I put a 9 x7.5 I had on her, which is probably better for the Alpha 400 motor she has on her. She looks great!

Suicidal Cubby all cleaned and snugged up!

Tomorrow's brood. I'll be taking the Stearman up, happily I hope. I will have a better runway for the Trojan, and we'll see if Cubby will break her recent depression and soar!

Sweet Tea 28!

Oh yeah, baby, this Trojan T-28 is one sweet machine! My Nitroplanes 800mm T-28 Trojan is one of my new favorites! And she proved I ain't got me no shanks! She is responsive, quick and agile. She glides well and is easily controllable, but she needs a soft touch and focus. In a brisk upper wind she was buffeted a touch but she held her turns. She likes her rudder. Very nice! I see they are back in stock but when I got mine she was $65, now she's $74. 

Her prop is 1/4" above the ground... it is deep in the shortest grass. I used a bunch of foam mats to make a runway that is 4 ft x 16 ft. I found it a bit narrow as the she pulled right (the Trojan's front gear pulls right when the rudder is centered, need to fix that). I think with a centered nose gear the width is doable for takeoff. It would be a bit challenging to land on as she comes in quick so there is little room for error. For takeoff the runway was short and unless there was a nice headwind she ran off and buffeted through the grass unable to takeoff. I got her off the runway when I caught a headwind, but each flight took 3-4 tries. Tomorrow I will pick up a couple more packs of mats to make it longer, and consider making it 6 feet wide, which I think would be perfect. I think she could takeoff in 24 feet, so I'll pick up two more packs at Harbor Freight ($10 for 4 squares). And we'll see if I can control her well enough to land her there as well. Landing her on the grass is rough on her. I may also put the tires I removed from the Alpha, which are bigger than the stock wheels, but they may add too much weight.

That went well...

We'll be moving on to Cornell #4... Bobby took her up for me today. He is the pilot's best pilot, easily the most experienced and trusted pilot in our club, one of the best in the country. Point being, what happened is not the pilot's fault.

Here's what happened...

Bobby checked her CG and her controls, and approved. We took her out to the flightline and he spun her up, got a feel for her, then took her up. She looked sooooooo sweet! She eased up, he pulled back on the stick and she rose clean, stable and in control! It was something else! But, its always something... at about 10 feet AGL she suddenly nosed straight up and climbed, and Bobby said calmly, "Hmm..... I'm not doing that..." He cut power as she stall turned and headed back down in a slight curve, and slammed into the ground right where she started. He said it was as if her elevator was stuck on full up. He had no control over her once she nosed up. We checked controls after the crash and it moved freely. We have no explanation. Other than the shanks... I'm putting her away for a while. Her new wing is cracked and not broken but separated from the fuse, her fuse is cracked clean in half, and the hatch cracked and split through the upper fuse when it was pushed back.

I will be haunted by that sweet takeoff... it was all what I love this plane for, and then some. I was so sure she was ready...

Weight and balance

Earlier today I blogged on Jerry and my experience maidening the Cornell after her new wings and motor mount were installed. This evening I installed about 2 oz of weight in the nose (I think each of these is 1 oz). This makes her balanced at the Eflite designated CG, and a bit nose heavy at almost 1/3 of the chord. I think this is a decent amount of weight and doesn't add too much to her overall weight. I think I am going to just have to keep the slight right rudder trim as there is no good or easy way to angle the motor to the right and keep her true through the cowl. Tomorrow I hope to see if she flies better.