Saturday's are always busy, and one with perfect weather, very. I was there for almost 4 hrs and got maybe 4-5 flights. I took the Pulse XT60 and the Ultrastick out. I just flew and didn't bother with pics or video.
As I was getting ready for the first flight of the Pulse XT60 I warmed up the engine and thought the cowl was really shaking (I think I saw the muffler jiggly too). Had a nice flight. As I was setting up for a second flight I realized I didn't have two US 4-40 screws (I think that's the size) and that's why the cowl was loose. I taped the loose side and taxied out to the runway. As I turned to take off I saw the muffler was really dancing so taxied back and saw it had come lose. I taxied back to the bench. A flying buddy, Larry, gave me two screws for the cowl (he has a small hardware store in the back of his car). I removed the cowl to fix the muffler and being rear mounted I would need to remove the engine. I really wasn't in the mood to do this at the field, I came to fly, so I set the Pulse aside for the day.
Flew 2-3 flights on the Ultrastick over the next 2-1/2 hrs (a lot of waiting my turn). I had it dialed in. At the end of my last flight I realized I was getting tired and my vision unreliable (cataracts, need good lighting and cloud clover was moving in). I wisely called it a day.
You can see the muffler hanging loose. One bolt still attached. Thought the other lost but it fell out of the cowl when I removed it. Pulled the engine, reinstalled the bolts with a friction lock washer and some thread lock. This one always shakes loose. This is an real RCGF 20cc (which Joe Nelson told me is actually a 26cc). The muffler has come loose on this engine a few times
One thing I later noticed as I worked on the firewall for the MX-Bach, is that the exhaust tube got bent back. It's straight back, no cracks. I forgot to look but I think this 35cc is a DLE. It doesn't need replacing, which is good as I can't afford one right now.
The firewall is coming along nicely. Had to Dremel and hack saw the notch flanges at the four sides. Tomorrow I will drill it for mounting the engine, the center hole for the fuel lines and a small hole for the throttle control rod. I had to cut the original one to get the engine free of the firewall, so I'll be making a new one. I noticed that the flange holes on the engine box to which the fire wall gets attached did not appear to have epoxy in them... I am not sure why, though I see this on landing gear hard points that are also installed using flanges so that it can break out clean. Is this what they had done with the firewall? I am not sure I will, I think I will epoxy all the way around. If this plane crashes again I don't expect it to survive, and I would just as soon the engine breaking free in flight not be the reason it crashes
I knew I had a large set of aluminum landing gear. They were not drilled so I was able to custom drill them. Here they are installed. They are curved, which I don't think I have ever had on a plane before. Terribly upset the carbon fiber ones were broken in the crash. These I'll work great!
Tomorrow I will install the firewall and the engine. Then I will need to repair the under cowl and the canopy. I got some metal L brackets I may use to repair the cowl mounting tabs, but that's an idea still in the works. This hasn't been too difficult a repair so far.
I really do love the RCGF Engines. The only engine that really gives me trouble is my Evolution 10cc... Though the 26cc RCGF Engine on the Pulse is acting the fool.
Pulse XT60. Ran fine but like I was running gravel through it... It ran fine last week... I do like the silencers, they do seem to bring the noise down a lot.
The field was pretty busy! A lot of people were there, lots of helis mostly.
The wonderful Eflite PT-17 Stearman.
Flew beautifully! Flew sideways... too windy. Flew one battery.
Once again I spent a lot more time than I should working the Evo 10cc. She started wonderfully, ran fine, took off and flew around, super sensitive elevators, and went to idle, noticed it got very, very quiet... dead stick landing went fine. For some reason she would not idle all of the sudden, no matter what I did... Spent over two hours, finally started idling fine. Brought her in for landing, and I slowed too much, pushed the throttle forward and she took too long to respond and stopped flying a foot off the ground, and, of course, ripped off the gear. No other damage. Resetting the crash clock...
I had a lot of things to get done in the shop today. My last post was about the Mile High RC Silencers I installed on the RCGF 26cc equipped Pulse XT60, but I also installed the replacement RCEXEL CDI from RCGF-USA on the RCGF 10cc engine on the stik, and setup the Eflite Stearman on the iX12.
The dual silencers on the RCGF 26cc
The new ignition on the RCGF 10cc is under the cover. One of the possible causes of the left aileron twitch that lead to the 720-deg/sec snap roll the other day is ignition noise. The wire covering on the original sparky wire was gapped in places, so I replaced the CDI, and I tossed a torrid (ferrous ring) on the ignition power lead to further isolate the receiver from the CDI. We'll see if this makes any difference.
I haven't flown the Eflite PT-19 Stearman in over a year. Not sure I flew it at all last year? I opened the hatch to see what I have for a RCVR, and found an "older" Spectrum AR600, and an Orange 3-axis Stabilizer System. The Gyro wasn't set up... no idea why. So, I set it up. It works fine! I have it setup on the iX12 to allow me to switch it off in flight. The AR600 is nice, two antennae, but no telemetry. With the iX12 and its sweet telemetry skilz, I am all about the telemetry now, so will probably replace it with a new Spektrum AR620.
My Eflite PT-19 Stearman, all set!
I so need to get out and fly something. Overcast and cloudy tomorrow, but light winds!
Brisk winds. Brought out the Stik with its RCGF-USA 10cc, and the Pulse XT60 with its RCGF-USA 26cc. Both worked fine last week. Neither worked fine today. It took some tuning the 10cc, but that wicked un-commanded aileron movement occurred and was pretty constant at high RPM. I just read a story about a plane crash where the prop was out of balance and generated a vibration freq that caused this to happen. Hmm.... will be checking the balance of the props.
I even had my son Luke with me to video... but alas, nothing flying today. The Pulse was not running right since getting her muffler tightened, and part of it was the fuel lines kinking. I knew this might be a problem at some point and it was today. And to boot, the screw that secures the spinner stripped. Grounded.
Got her home, fixed the fuel system redoing all the lines and making it a 3 tube system so that the engine gets its fuel directly. A new spinner screw was all it took to solve that problem. This all took about an hour or so. I was not in the mood for further foolishness so called it a day. Tomorrow will be too windy to fly, so I will once again tune the engine and get the cowl back on.
Same as yesterday, another waste of time.
UPDATE (5/28/2020): I took the plane out to the backyard bench and ran it up. Took about an hour to find decent settings. Still 4-cycles a bit at WOT, but now it has great RPM and Idle. I'll put the cowl back on, and next time I go out taker her with me to be disappointed again. There has to be something I have lost in tuning my engines for this to keep happening.
After yesterday's debacle, I moved forward with getting the rest of my fleet flight ready, today starting with the Pulse XT60.
Took her off the wall and out to the work table. Decided not to lug the wings out just yet. Spent an hour running her and tweaking the needles. She started right up and ran pretty well, but I felt she was running rich still.
After repairing the stripped aileron connector, I attached the wing and ran the engine to see if the ailerons wanted to play the fool and jitter, but nope, all is well. Has only been a problem on the Stik and the Stick.
I'm pretty happy with her and look to take her out tomorrow, weather permitting. I will do a few cosmetic fixes before then.
This is right after starting her having had her on her back repairing the lead. She had to cough up some air first. As I wound the needles to full closed to reset them I stopped counting after about 4 turns... I set them at 2 and 2, finding that's the min to start and run up, probably ended up closer to 2-1/2 for the high, but closer to 3-4 for the low to get a smooth run up. It still stutters a bit with crash to WOT, but its quick and consistent. Last year she ran smoothly on the ground, but 4 cycled in the air at WOT. Will see.
Next order of business was getting the Hangar 9 Pulse XT60 out and get the engine started. After a bit I sprayed some gas into the carb air inlet, and she started right up! Yes, that's snow on the table.
Checked out the engine, fuel system and battery. After the engine run I discharged the receiver-ignition pack and am recharging it. I am hoping to get a break in the weather tomorrow and get a flight in at SNHRCC.
All back together!
My favorite aircraft!
Running the engine up. The idle is tuned a bit better. She runs perfectly! I had to keep my foot on the back rung of the table to keep the engine from pulling it off the ground and dragging it off! Power baby.
I was taking a break from the Morane Saulnier Type N because I was struggling to get the cote to work properly. I am no fan of Ultracote.... I was unable to get it to shrink properly without suddenly melting and the edges wrinkling and retracting. It was incredibly frustrating.
I got some new Ultracote since I had started with it. I also decided that the conditions in the environmentally uncontrolled garage (temps in 90s, high humidity) were not helping. I brought my cote stuff into the air conditioned house.
The first couple of attempts didn't go great, but were better. Then on the third try the Cote Gods decided I had taken enough abuse and cut me some slack. It just started working! I was done with all of it in an hour. It's not perfect but actually looks really good! You may notice only the forward dowel is present. I am thinking of screwing the wing in place, and securing the front under the front deck with the pegs I installed in the front of the wing, and crossing them with rubber ands across the fuse. John was worried the front wasn't secure enough, but the rubber bands should secure it with the pegs.
I am very happy with it! The only cote challenge left is making the tricolor rondels. I would like one on each side and two on the top and bottom of the wing. That's 4 large and 2 small. Callie Graphics has them, and if I can find out what the sizes are I may just buy them.
According to the British rules, scaled to a 12" chord, the rondels on the wings should be 10"-6"-2". By math, my Morane is 1/6th scale (26'9"scale wing span, 26*12=312"+9=317"/56" model wingspan = 5.7, so 1/60 scale
I'm going flying tomorrow, should be near perfect conditions. Taking the 26cc Hangar 9 Pulse XT60 and the 30cc MX-Bach. Set them up for the season today. I changed the Pulse's receiver pack from LiPO to a 2400 mAh LiFe battery as the IRs in the original LiPO were poor. The MX-Bach IRs were fine so I am keeping it
The weather was perfect, occasionally gusty, but right down the runway North-to-South. I packed out the RCGF-USA 26cc PulseXT 60, and the newly repaired RCGF-USA 26cc Phoenix Waco F5C. Excited to get to the field, and fly, fly, fly!
Love this plane, the Pulse XT60! It flies sweet, is fast as anything I have, with power to spare!
SO much frickin' fun!
Since replacing the sparky the is back to her old reliable self again. What a joy to fly!
The Waco was ready to fly, and fly she did!
I flew her for a 20 min flight, getting her trimmed out. She needed a bit of nose down trim, but roll was fine. It was a bit gusty up high, but she handled it well. Take off has to be done gracefully, slow power up, just like the real Waco. She is squirrelly on the ground with a tremendous P-Factor (that's how she ended up in the weeds last year). A bit touchy in flight, but I was getting used to her and in the end was feeling very comfortable with her.
On my second take off as I was gaining speed she caught a clump of grass and tipped enough to ground strike the prop, breaking it, and flipped. This side of our field (the gasser side) is lumpy, adding to the take-off challenges. Fortunately I have another 18x10 at home, and she is already back up.
I expect to take this duo out again next flying day!
Amazing day to fly! Took the Pulse XT60 and the Waco, first flight of the season for her.
Had to retune the low needle again, kept cutting out on run up from idle to WOT. Running great now. Clean at WOT, a bit sputtery in the mid-range. Way powerful. Flew amazing!
This engine, an RCGF 26cc with a Vulcan 18x7 CF prop, has always run perfect. The Waco is difficult on the ground, really wants to ground loop. Practiced take offs trying to get a clean roll out, flipped her a couple of times spinning around. Learned that she has a lot of P-factor so I have to bring her up slowly and let her run up and lift off. Got the hang of it.
But not before breaking the Vulcan CF prop.
She is sooo over powered, and the 18x7 likes to tip cut the grass and ground strike stall. So I took advantage of having a 17x7 APC. I think once I find she flies well with it I may keep it for a while. I will get a Master Airscrew Classic 18x6 after that unless I can find another black 17".
The three blade Master Airscrew 14x7x3 came in today for the Pulse, which was flying a 15x6. The 3 blade aluminum spinner from eBay arrived a couple of days ago. Wow. Look. At. That. LOOK AT IT! That is beautiful!
I had today off for an appointment with my eye surgeon who unexpectedly dilated my right eye, because you know, I had a car-full of airplanes I was taking directly to the field... Dammit... Winds were going to get even better and I was off on a sunny day. I. Am. Going. Flying.
But even though I am an idiot, I waited a while and made sure I could see well enough to fly. I had also brought the Ultrastick to maiden today, but not with one eye, no matter how perfect the weather. The field will require me to fly high with that one and I wasn't going to risk losing orientation.
Hanging in the gang cover at NH Flying Tigers Field,
Derry, NH
Wanting to tune up my go-to plane and continue to re-train my thumbs, as well as make sure I can safely fly with one eye, I flew half a dozen packs on the Alpha Sport 450 first. I have flaperons on it, to slow it down on approaches, but it's already really, really floaty. I think I am going to try spoilerons, and see if that will slow it and make it less floaty. I am beginning to see this revived version really wants to be nose heavy.
For the first time in years I took the vintage Eflite PT-19 Cornell out and up today. It's so light I put a Hobby King Orange stabilization system on it, and it makes a tremendous difference. Speedier and snappier than I recall, it flies on rails. Really enjoyed flying it after the first flight jitters, did about 3 packs.
Flight of the Cornell
I came with only four of ten or so 3S packs charged, so I got to trial the lead setup I ran from my hybrids auxiliary battery. I have to leave the engine "on" so the computer can sense when to, and to charge that battery. Worked perfectly!
I had psyched myself up to maiden the Ultrastick 10cc today, and by late afternoon the conditions could not have been better, and only one totally non-judgy pilot was there. I was sooo tempted, but my right eye didn't un-dilate until a couple hours after I got home. I was not adding that crash variable to the test flight. Benched. I am itching to get that plane up.
The even more exciting part of the day was when I got home, I used a suggestion from John Hayes to make it so the throttle closes when throttle cut is turned on. I had gotten the engine easily started on the first try after years of sitting, and tuned to to run superbly, quite easily. I did have to adjust both needles. But the throttle barrel would not close completely, so I had to manually choke the engine to stop it. John showed me which screw to adjust. There is a spring loaded screw on the back port side of the carb (top in the photo). This screw stops the throttle barrel at the desired position, which for me is fully closed. This is the last pic of that screw, because I didn't realize it was spring loaded, and to allow the throttle to close completely, it had to be fully withdrawn. Yep... Shot out of there like a bat out of hell... It went where screws go when the cross the edge of the workbench... My vintage garage has a stone and dirt floor.
It's in there somewhere, I think. Couldn't even find it with a magnet, but tons of iron chips and aged metals were everywhere.
Nice idle, nice slam to FOT, smooth mid-range,
and throttle cut works now! I got an exhaust extender today
and will install it soon.
Have to work the next 3 days. Sunday's weather is stormy, Monday winds 7 mph but not much gusting after 2p. Hope to maiden the Ultrastick. My rule is only one maiden a day, so the Goldberg Falcon 56 will follow that another day, unless the weather is pristine. A little nervous as I have never flown 3-channel and this field is tight. John says it will be fine!
Flight schedule is to get the Pulse XT60 26cc gasser, the Eflite Stearman (the real balsa one, not the overpriced foamie thing*), and the massive 30cc MX-Bach (MX2 fuse, Sbach wing). I also have the Cosmic Wind (I think a Great Planes 450 size speedster), and my helis airborne. Full summer. Need good weather matching days off.
* I so hate that Eflite went from making affordable beautiful and desired balsa ARFs to selling foamy overpriced crap. This is what kills this hobby. Foamies are fine, l just waaaay overpriced, and just don't fly like the balsa planes. Good small to medium balsa ARFs are hard to find. Muss my Eflite Ultimate, my Pulse XT25 (my all three me favorite plane), and eventually my Cornell and Stearman may expire with no decent replacement.
