Fiberglass Test

Fiberglass cloth is traditionally laid down with a fiberglass resin/hardner, essentially epoxy, but apparently not exactly epoxy. Discussions and what I have read suggests for heavy duty applications using epoxy rather than fiberglass resin is recommended. It also learned that using alcohol to thin the epoxy can make it easier to spread. I wanted to try this out before using it to join the wing and strengthen the fuse over and just behind the landing gear and the wing along the middle joint on the EFlite Pulse XT, suggested by many posters on RC Groups and RC Universe. These are real weak spots on this aircraft. The fuse cracks and breaks at this point and the small wing joiner allows the wings to fold under aerobatic g-forces.

I learned that the cloth will unweave and fall apart very easily, and that obtaining a sharp edge on the cloth is nearly impossible. I ran some CA along the edges then cut along the CA and it held together very well. It was challenging keeping the CA'd cloth from sticking to everything... I may try another glue to keep the edges of the cloth sharp maybe some thin epoxy.

Yeah, Baby!

I have finally stopped dry heaving... I bought a few planes today, and when I spend money I've put aside like this I start dry heaving. Its just a thing I do.... But I have cleaned out my wish list!

The Hangar 9 Sopwith Camel is an amazing work of art. A discontinued work of art. Why do I fall in love with discontinued models? I had been searching the web for some time and found it at RC Hobbies and More. It was the last one, as they are now out of stock! I then spent the afternoon buying all the parts, though I had planned to wait.... Kenny Chandler had given me a HeadsUpRC 4260-06 motor a while back and it is the perfect motor for this plane. I ordered Hitec HS-485BH servos, and a Turnigy Trust 70A ESC. This is a power hungry bird, so she needs two 2S 4000 mAh batteries that will have to run in series. Just need a receiver! UPDATE: Before the ink dried I also picked up an AR600 for it.

I have had my eye on this one for several months. I have always loved the C-47/DC-3, and bought this one from Nitroplanes. The C-47 has been discounted so I decided to pull the trigger on this before it gets discontinued. I can use batteries I have, and will be putting an Orange receiver and satellite in her. Psych!

And finally, I have also bought the EFlite Pulse XT that I have been planning to buy for a long time. I am setting it up with the Power 32 performance package which will run 4S 3300 mAh batteries. I have a couple and bought a couple more. I went all stock Horizon Hobby on this one but will be using a 60A HiMax ESC that Kenny also gave me a while back. More savings! Also using a Spektrum AR600 receiver.

All of this should be arriving next week while I am off. I will focus on building the Pulse, and will wait a bit before undertaking the Sopwith project. I want to learn how to fly the Pulse well before moving on. The only thing I want now is an F-86 Sabre.... Hmmmm....

Panorama of BMF

CJ Bordelon sent me this beautiful panorama pic. He used Photaf for Android. You can see the runway work over on the right.

KAMS FALL Fly-In 2011

Today was the Koast Aero Modelers Societyn Fall Fly-In at their field in Ocean Springs. It was breezy, occasionally gusty, and sometimes calm. It was the calm that eventually got me...  More on that in a moment. Some pics from today! It was a small crowd, but the field was in perfect condition and our hosts very welcoming!

This little guy is called a Lazy Bee. It was anything but lazy!

So, about that calm. We, (Steve and I) were waiting out the windy day. Around 230 p it seemed to calm down, a lot. It sang sweetly to me.. it lulled me in... Most people had left for the day, the calm was present more than the gusts, but the gusts were still very brisk. I decided after a lot of hemming and hawing to take the Stearman up. Took her out to the runway, and during a long calm period fired her up. Immediately a gust came from her left as she was slowly lifting off, and she flipped left wing over right and nosed down and crashed.

Butcher's bill: Cracked the lower wing spar, again, the tab to the right wing (its usually the left, I believe), and most critically, cracked the entire motor mount right off. Now, I have rebuilt this before, so its already a mass of sticks and epoxy (man, I love epoxy). I reattached it with CA and then built a box of popsicle sticks around the frame, and epoxied it all snug. After it dried I looked at it from the top and noticed that the spacers on the right had sunk into the cracked frame a bit more than I thought, so I pulled the bolts, removed the spacers and reinforced that side of the wall with popsicle stick, and epoxied the crap out of it. Its drying now. I'll drill the mounting holes tomorrow, replace the electronics, the cowl, the wing and she'll be ready to fly! If the winds are good, I may try it at KAMS again.

Wounded Trojan Rehab

The Trojan needs some lovin' after its mishap with the fence last week! Yesterday I took the wounded T-28 Trojan apart, and repaired the plastic firewall with some CA. It had cracked at the bottom where the gear mount is. I also used some Beacon 3-in-1 glue to fix the left horizontal stab (in retrospect, I prefer epoxy for foam repairs nowadays). I placed a small piece of popsicle stick in the foam to act as a support spar. Today its good, strong, flush and level. This morning I removed the remnants of the wing and epoxied the fuse, cracked all the way across the bottom at the front of the wing root, and epoxied the plastic firewall in place against the foam of the fuse with a piece of popsicle stick to support it and level the firewall (a bit right and down remains). I tested the electronics: all the servos, the ESC and receiver and even the motor are all fine! So all I need to replace is the wing and prop! I'll be ordering that wing next week. A little auto primer gray touch up and we will be as good as new!

The upside down fuse. The blue tape is holding tension on the mid-fuse crack as the epoxy dries. The piece of popsicle stick in the firewall can be seen to the left of the yellow shrink wrap on the motor. Epoxy all around the exposed gray plastic firewall to secure it to the fuse.

Underside of the left horizontal stab. It was sheared clean off. Added a little epoxy along the crack for strength.

Topside, same break.

Remnants of the wing. Recovered the servos, they will fly again!

Long view of the fuse drying. The mid-fuse width-wise break is just along the front of the midline lengthwise box on the fuse that secures the wing and allows the aileron leads to pass into the fuse. Again, the blue tape applying tension to keep the gap closed while drying. Will be good as new!

Resurfacing the field at BMF

Harrison County has undertaken a partial resurfacing of our landing field at Bob Miller Field. They are doing one section now and will hopefully do the other end in a couple of years. This is a wonderful compromise that allowed us to get our field much needed repairs while staying within county budget constraints. We are grateful to Harrison County Parks and Rec for making these efforts and giving us a great field! I stopped by and took a few pics of the work in progress. It is expected to be completed within a couple days!

View to the northeast from the clubhouse.

A bit to the right of the first pic...

Continuing right, mid field.

Continuing right towards the southeast.

Panoramic from the clubhouse looking to the east.

View from the road along the north end to the south.

Right down the middle of the runway.

From the road, to the right of the midline, looking back to the clubhouse.

Panoramic from the north end looking south.

Can't wait to see the end product. The piles of dark dirt along the edges is the "grass" that was tilled up. It will be spread over the top and smoothed hard. The original "grass" will regrow from it, but that will take several days to a couple of weeks, but the field will be flyable, hopefully in the next couple of days. It is going to look awesome for our Fly-In on Oct 15th!

Model Aviation Magazine Oct 2011

Hey, Paul Verger gave me a shout out for my contribution of pics to his report in the October 2011 issue of the AMA's Model Aviation Magazine! Thanks, Paul!