Construction
6/27/99 - Purchased the plane from Riders
Hobby. They were having a sale - everything 10% off!
6/27/99 - Began construction
7/??/99 - Finished main construction
7/20/99 - Purchased Engine, a used K&B 0.61 which runs
horrible. Hard to start, bad transition.
8/03/99 - Purchased Radio - Wow, got the JR - 652.
Choose because comes with better servos, better looking quality, and I think
it is prettier than the Futaba (the only other real option around
here.) Choose the 6 channel computer radio because I plan on using the
same radio for the next few planes and a 4 channel would not be useful after
this first plane, for the most part. Also, choose the computer version
because I would not mind doing the mixing later for the V-tail Bonanza or
what ever I choose later.
8/13/99 - Finished covering
8/16/99 - First taxi attempt. Bolts worked their way out for
engine. Bad because can't slow down motor. Luckily plane hit
grass and turned itself off.
8/17/99 - Construction check by staff at Riders.
8/17/99 - Go to Aero R/C Club to view training night.
8/20/99 - Do some taxi test at school yard. Not
too bad. Chipping up prop a lot though with driveway and grass and
rocks.
8/21/99 - Do more taxi test. Gust of wind launched
plane into air. Did a few bounces and cut the engine with my
"black top meets prop" technique. Just for fun, also did
another taxi, applied up elevator, and oops, plan 10 feet in air.
Landed in soft grass, put plane up because I would launch it again.
8/23/99 - Apply to AMA.
8/24/99 - Accepted to AMA. AMA# 656258
8/24/99 - Went to Aero R/C Club to try to do first train
fly. Ended up doing nothing because of the extensive rain.
8/24/99 - Create this page.
8/25/99 - Create spread sheet to left. Spend all day trying to
figure out what charge on receipt belongs to what part.
Flying Time
8/31/99 - Went to Aero R/C Club for first flight. Met up with
Instructor Richard Haario. After starting it and tuning the engine, we sent
the plane into the air.
First flight: It flew but there was a serious tendency for
the plane to climb. He gave the controls over to me and I did the
basic oval until it was time to land. No problems landing.
We realized that the controls looked good, so we decided to shim up the
back of the wing to control the climbing. We found some scrap ply in
the trash shimmed up the rear of the wing about 1/16". We also
gave it a little more Aileron control because it seemed sluggish to turn.
Second flight was much better. It did not climb as fast, and it turned
better. I ended up doing some figure 8's (parallel to the ground)
along with the ovals.
We landed and tried to give it even more aileron control because Richard
could not make it roll without using ruder too.
Third flight started out with 2 dead engines seconds after
takeoff. We richened out the engine and was able to fly again.
This time I did many loops, a few large loops and an accidental roll.
Had to give the radio back (no trainer cord or box yet for JR there) to
Richard to save as I got confused as to the orientation of plane. This
flight lasted 20 minutes.
Looking at the plane some more, we noticed that the aileron controls are
hitting the back of the main fuselage compartment. This is why we
can't get any more turning. At home, I shortened each aileron control
rod (one coming out of wing) about 0.5" and cut excess with Dremel.
Found a way to clean it (Amway's aerosol Sea Spray) and re-tightened the
covering with the Heat Gun. I also cut the canopy plastic a little so
that the front of the wing could sit slightly lower.
Overall, a very good plane. Only real problem was the aileron
controls hitting the hardwood dowel that the wing rubber bands connect to
and the wing wanting to pull the plane up into the air. I hope to fly
this plane later this week, or next Tuesday at next training day at the
latest.
9/7/99 - After work, try to go to Aero R/C Club and see if
my above alterations to my plane work as planned.
First Flight of the day started normally, except that it seemed
like the wings needing shimming again (there were supposed to be shimmed at
this time.) The ailerons were working fine this time. We practiced
split-s, immelman and inverted flight. After landing, we noticed
that the wing shim had slipped into the plane. We re-shimmed it again,
although the ailerons were hitting on the inside again.
Second Flight started out with a stall like last week. We
re-adjusted the engine, richening it again and took off. The aileron
controls were bad again, but the wing was working fine otherwise. We
started to practice landings without trainer cord. I would bring it in
close, with nearly no power, then take off again and again. Richard
decided that I could land it, so on the last one in, he cut the engine off
(or it stalled) well, it bounced a good one, but I brought it in nice and
safe.
I now need glue in the shims for the wing, and glue in a stop block so
the wing won't slip back towards the tail section (also hurting the ability
for ailerons)
09/10/99 - Join Aero R/C Club.
Construction time. I cut off the wing foam
padding and used 1.5 stacked pieces of plywood to permanently increase the
forward tilt of the wing and also added stop blocks so the wing won't creep
around the fuselage, instead of shimming it all the time. I will cover
this with the blue and re-pad it with the old padding. Lost another
engine mount bolt. This one was holding down the engine mounting plate
to the fuselage.
9/13/99 - Purchased more engine tie down screws and
washers. Keep loosing them suckers.
9/17/99 - Received Aero R/C Membership card in mail.
Only have to pay 60% after Sept 1.
9/21/99 - Went to club. We flew the plane 3 short
times because I got there late. After we (actually Richard and Gordon)
adjusted the engine, it still stalled once in flight after a touch and go by
Richard. I ended up taking off 2 times and landing 2 times. That
plane really stays up in the air now. My first landing, the plane kept
on going in the grass and went nose down in the culvert. It was not
damaged.
10/6/99 - Balanced prop. It was quite a bit out of
shape.
