New shoes for the Twinstar

The Twinstar has plain wire landing gear. Not much fun. I have toyed with the idea of putting oleos on her.

And so I did. I cut the gear struts down long enough to accept the oleo gears and leave a small space to allow them to flex a bit without striking the wing. Making them retracts isn't really reasonable as the wing isn't built for them, but who knows...

The nose gear I initially cut a straight rod for, but it came up a little short, and I didn't include the coiled spring. I regret that now, so I ordered another steerable DuBro wire gear set. I will trim it down but longer and include the spring. Right now the nose points a bit down and the props are only about 2 cm above the ground. It's been shipped and once I install it I'll update this post with new pics!

Beautiful day, same problems...

Such a beautiful day, and only 4 people out at the field all day!

The Twinstar flew marvelously with her new Master Airscrew 8x6x3 props. Her nose fear has always been wonky in the grass, and the beating made it come loose from its turn control arm, ending its flight day after two batteries. I have toyed with the idea of putting ole gear on her... Fund flights!

I didn't take any pics of the Sbach, but she made an appearance.  Despite running great here at the house, and when I started and ran her up, then flew her, she suddenly dead stocked again on approach. I got her down, and in an hour of trying could not get a nice clean reliable idle.i tried super lean, super rich an everything in between.

She threw a lot of oil a fresh gallon today I put 3.2oz in a gallon for a 40:1and she was still covered with a ton of oil, thickly. 

The MX-Bach did what the Sbach did. Despite running awesome at home, at the field she would idle for a minute or two then suddenly stop. No slowing  just suddenly stop.  Though she often did slow her RPms in two steps then stop. I had to set the end point for a rather fast idle. 

Even with a slower landing idle she was too fast, even with full flaps. I went to hit the kill a foot above the ground and when I did I accidentally pulled back on the elevator and she floated to there feet and stalled. Only damage was the gear snapped off just above the wheel.

I mentioned the fuel mix above at 40:1. I threw another 1/3 gallon of 93 octane in the can, and will see how a more dilute mix works out. There is something I am doing that is not letting these engines idle well. There is something I am doing wrong,

New Props for the Great Planes Twinstar

Planes always look better with multi blade props. There is also more thrust, with irrelevant loss of efficiency. Case in point. With twin 8x8 two blade APC props her static thrust was 2.6 lbs (3S). With twin Master Airscrew 8x6x3 three blade props she produced 3.6 lbs of static thrust. Already a speed demon she is going to rip the air! Hope to see tomorrow!

I should have gone flying...

That feeling when you napped instead of going flying on the one good weather day for several days before and after today like you had planned, and now you have to discharge all those batteries.

SNHRCC Wagner Field

John Bieran took this great photo of our flying field, Wagner Field, on the top of what I call Mt. Hudson, the closed landfill, in Hudson, New Hampshire. Southern NH RC Club.

Du Bro RC Products

Du Bro RC makes a wide variety of amazing RC parts and solutions. I asked for stickers with my spinners, and they don't disappoint!

MX-Bach RCGF-USA 35cc is Up for 2020

Brought the MX-Bach down from it's bat perch on the ceiling to inspect and set her up on the Spektrum iX12. This is one of my favorite planes. I really like the larger engines, they seem to run better and tolerate weather and pressure changes better, start 'em and fly 'em! I had the wings on when I set up and programmed her into the radio, but forgot to take a pic.

Well, the clunk has a woodie... I really like the clear tanks.

The Tygon tubing is hard as a rod. I have been replacing these with Viton tubing.

Much better! Viton tubing.

The tank reinstalled. I think you can see it in the video the foaming from engine vibrations. Very little of that passes to the engine. At the bottom of the pic you see a pair of wires running over the side bulkhead. That is the ignition light wire I seem to have passed incorrectly, I cut the wires, passed it under the bulkhead, and used those melting heat-shrink connectors to rewire it as I can't get the plain on the soldering bench. I love those things! Push the wires with a small exposed end, into the tubing, one on each end so they mesh in the middle, use a heat gun to heat shrink and melt the solder. Voila!

The engine in run up. If you listen carefully you will hear the changes from Flight Idle to Approach Idle, and Landing Idle. I do this to prevent the engine from stopping in idle in fight, but slowing the plane down nicely. I hit Approach on final to slow it and as I cross the threshold I move it to Landing Idle, the slowest idle with a pretty reliable RPM. No needle adjustments, just had to find the new throttle end points on the iX12.