Went flying...

[kittyfritters]

Went to the Sepulveda Basin this morning to test some models. It was a beautiful clear, dry morning only there was only one other flier there. I brought the Ascender, Skinny Bomber, Side Effect, Giant NoCal Beaufighter and a Wright Amount of Wrong with the new stabilizer design. Except for the Wright Amount of Wrong this was the first time I would fly any of them outdoors.

I flew the Ascender first with a longer motor than I used indoors with about 1500 turns on it. It went up about 75 feet and caught an Eastward blowing drift. I thought that I would l either tree it or loose it. but it easily cleared the trees along the park road by about 30 feet then the motor bunched at the rear giving it a stall and dethermalized it so it came down between the park road and the trees around the golf course. That one is going into kit!

I wound the Skinny Bomber with only about 1000 turns in a smaller motor and walked out into the field far enough to compensate for the Eastward drift. The wind turned around and started blowing West! I walked back the other way and launched it. It started climbing and then the wing came off! I had been flying it indoors with the wing saddle on by friction and forgot to use some dental bands to hold it on for outdoor flying. It's so light that no damage was done and since the flight started well I didn't bother to set it up again since I wanted to fly the Beaufighter.

Don Smith helped me wind the Beaufighter and since it is trimmed for a hard right turn and has a lot of power I walked out about half way into the field and launched it down wind figuring that it would turn back towards the "pits". Unfortunately, the wind had become strong enough that it couldn't turn into the wind and I ended up chasing it to the West end of the field.

By this time I realized free flight flying had been blown out and packed up. At least I didn't loose anything and nothing got broken. I just have to get up and get out earlier!

KF

[staubkorb]

An amusing report, Howard ! My biggest problem is getting up early (aside from the wind and moisture already rather excessive even when still dark).

[kittyfritters]

Well, this was embarrassing!

I took my Minnow to the contest and it would not ROG. Yes, it was Ground Hog Day but that was still no excuse. Minnows are quite reliable fliers and I had built one straight off the plans that wouldn't fly...Or so I thought. Several people looked at it and, although they had ideas, no one really hit on the problem. The problem was that I just got careless. As my signature says (In Latin) 'When all else fails, read the instructions.' I glued the stabilizer to the top of the motor stick... It's supposed to go on the bottom where there is an angle cut into the motor stick. (See photo) There was no decalage. Not only would it not ROG but if hand launched it would not climb but only fly level. I tried moving the stabilizer from the top to the bottom but I had assembled the model with CA and the debonder made a mess.

Fortunately, Dave Gee brought a spare Minnow which I borrowed and managed to put a time on the board, over a minute, but I still finished second to last.

Undeterred by this stain on my image I put another one on my bench. We shall see how it flies Wednesday morning.

KF

[Balsa-naut]

Well, I've been out flying a few times this year. Over the winter, I built four stick planes, a replica SFA World Tour Flyer, a 12-inch wing span Cloud Tramp, a 57-Minute Wonder (Flying Models—March 1992), and a Poly-Wog (OuterZone plan oz4371). The flying sessions have so far been mostly trimming sessions on a few days with fair weather.

The World Tour Flyer is almost trimmed out, but hasn't had many flights since the weather has been marginal for flying. WT Flyer circle climbs to the left, but glides mostly straight. On the last flight, the wing did separate from the mount on landing, but it was a clean separation and a simple fix. Glued back in place and should be good as new. Has not been out for a flight in about six weeks time.

The 12-inch Cloud Tramp has been more of a problem. Mostly issues from the amount of down and side thrust or lack of side and down thrust. It's stalling under power and flying straight ahead. Mini-Tramp has been to the bench for a thrust adjustment, but hasn't been out for a check flight since then. Considered lowering the trailing edge of the stab, but Mini-Tramp seems to be flying a bit fast to try that, so it got a thrust adjustment.

The Poly-Wog was a bit tricky to build with the cambered polyhedral sheet wing. The build article says to hold the wing parts with your fingers until the glue dries. Experience says some effort may have to be applied with a different construction method, especially with PVA glue. The weather was cold back when Poly-Wog was finished, but I couldn't help but try an indoor flight onto the sofa. Of course this doesn't end well. Deep stall and tail first landing onto the floor, breaking the fuselage stick immediately in front of the tail. That was repaired. First trim flights outdoors, glides OK, but stalls even with low power. Used a pebble stuck into the clay at the nose to tame the stall, but the glide was too steep. Back to bench, added down thrust. Poly-Wog is set up with a hand carved 5.5 inch (ca. 14 cm) diameter prop with a 6.6 inch (ca. 17 cm) pitch. The prop was unbalanced which caused in-flight vibrations. The vibrations were fixed by doping a bit of tissue on one tip and gluing a bit of wire on the hub opposite of the freewheeling clutch. Out to the park, low power flights, not terrible, but needs improvement. Last flight that day was an open right hand spiral dive resulting in a broken motor stick in front of the wing mount. Back to the bench for gluing and wrapping repair. Back out for more trimming. Actually had a nice flight with about 4 climbing circles and a decent glide. The very next flight on a bit more winds was a spiral ending with a broken motor stick just behind the prop mount. Back to the bench, more gluing. Back to the park. First flight, low power, right dive, broken motor stick at the nose again. Well, maybe that motor stick isn't up to the job? So, out to the big box “hobby” retailer to buy the one straight, dense, but hopefully sturdy, in stock motor stick. Removed wing, tail, and prop from the broken fuselage and glued them to the new stick. Prop carefully aligned? Check. Out to the park, 50 winds on the prop, good little climb going to the right and gentle glide, nothing broken on landing. Repeat, 50 winds, same pattern, nothing broken. More winds, almost a complete circle, nothing broken. Out comes the winder, 150 winds, climbing circle and a half, still nothing broken. Worked up to 400 winds with a climbing circling flight, nothing broken. Called it a day; trim held true on a few brief park flights a bit later on. Poly-Wog seems ready to take more winds on the motor.

The 57-Minute Wonder has been showing some odd flying habits and has had the least amount of air time until recently. It was built with a wooden 6-inch prop with narrow, thin blades. So, out for the first flight at a small park. 'Twas a nice little putter climb and smooth a glide to a landing which broke the prop. So, back to the shop, glued and covered the prop with tissue for extra strength. Of course, I couldn't resist a little indoor flight onto the bed, so, um, yes, first glide, OK. Second flight a bit short, into the side of the mattress, and broke the repaired prop. The carved prop was binned, and a 6-inch plastic prop took its place. Time passes and outdoor flying starts. Ol' 57 wants to climb right and glide left. More time passes.

Did some park flying this evening with Ol' 57 using finger winds only. On one flight, the motor came off at the prop and hung straight down from the rear peg. I expected the stalling to begin, but instead had a flat glide. Since the wing mount is just taped on, the wing was moved up on the stick about 3/8 inch, which seemed to be a large move since The 57 has a 2-inch wing cord; big stabilizer at work I would guess. Had a couple of good right-left flights and called it a night. Undecided on attempting to trim for right-right, left-left, or just leave as is.

So, the Poly-Wog and SFA World Flyer are behaving with moderate winds. The 12 inch Cloud Tramp needs a check flight and 57 Minute Wonder needs more flights and some thought exercises.

Last year's builds, a Cloud Tramp and a Delta Dart (OuterZone oz7931) still fly well enough to cause concern about tree landings and flyaways. Boxy Bipe had its landing gear moved forward to prevent motor bunching at the front hook, but wasn't climbing well on the one too breezy day it was out. Boxy requires more flights in calm breezes to see if the wing needs to go forward or if it requires less down thrust. Happy Days.

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[kittyfritters]

I went to the Sepulveda Basin this morning with the original Ukrainian Resistance, a production Ukrainian Resistance, a Skinny Bomber, a Wright Amount of Wrong, a Giant NoCal Beaufighter and one of the static display model Guillow's Beavers that I built for trade shows 12 years ago.

The Beaver had been hanging from my ceiling for a decade. Since it was never meant to be flown it has scale dihedral and a scale size elevator. For some reason I decided to try to fly it indoors, last Wednesday, at Stonehurst and it flew, not spectacularly but it flew. So I decided to try it outdoors today. In dead air, indoors, it will fly but with a 3 mph breeze and that scale dihedral no way.

The Skinny Bomber flew well enough that I sold another one.

The Wright Amount of Wrong had a bad landing and broke the nose block. This was a new one since I broke the nose block at Stonehurst on Wednesday hitting the wall. I decided that this is a design flaw and I am redesigning the nose block, will change the plans, and issue a supplemental nose block kit (free) for anyone that has bought one.

I didn't get a chance to fly the Beaufighter since the wind started to come up and it doesn't like to turn into the wind which can be a problem on this relatively small field.

My last flight of the day was the production Ukrainian Resistance which demonstrated it's usual spectacular climb. I had a few bad moments when the drift started taking it to the tree line higher than my 30 foot pole would reach but I was flying on an unbraided motor and it bunched at the peg which caused it to stall and come down just short of the trees.

All in all it was a pleasant mornings flying. (Or as my wife puts it, "play time with my friends.")

KF

[kittyfritters]

The O.F.F.C. meeting this morning was practice for next week's RTP speed contest. The pylon was at one end of the gym to keep the center clear for free flight models.

I was trying various combinations of props and rubber to see if I could get one of my speed models over 30 mph. The Speed Merchant did 29 and a fraction at the contest three years ago on four strands of ancient Pirelli rubber. I still had enough left to make one more motor but, as might have been expected, the Pirelli disintegrated as I tried to wind it. Well, that's history.

I couldn't get my "open" class model over 15 mph on four strands of 1/8" F.A.I, tan and the Speed Merchant ("closed class") would only go a bit over 20 mph so I decided to try six stand motors. I made up a six strand motor, lubed it well, stuffed it into the Speed Merchant and cranked 600 turns into it. It only takes three laps to get a timing so these motors are quite short and 600 turns had frightening torque.

Normally, these models only rise as high as the top of the pylon since they are set up with no incidence or decalage and have ventral fins to hold them level at take off. This time the model jumped into the air and leveled out at basket ball hoop level which was when we found that there was no gap between the limit of the tether and the basket ball hoop at that end of the gym. The speed merchant hit the metal hoop at about 30 mph and shattered. Needless to say, the pylon will be moved over a bit next week! Now I have to build a new one...

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The photo of the models on the floor shows three "open" class models and a profile racer class model. The one with the butterfly tail is Jim Leuken's 30+ mph "open" winner from three years ago.

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[kittyfritters]

Guillow's 900 Series Typhoon 2004 - 2020 R.I.P.