tater1

I attended many contests in oregon,idaho,washington,montana,even managed a 1st in napa valley,great memories of some fine times and great competitors

alawel

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Hey Tater,
I just looked through your gallery, I do remember you. Hope all is and has been well in your part of the world.

Hey JR,
Sorry for the brief thread hi-jacking. Let's get back to Zeus building. I believe the Zeus of many colors is living in Molalla.

Alan

JRgraham

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Alan, its a forum man Hijack away. Reconstruction on a couple other planes has distracted my time on the Zeus anyways. Hoping to get back to it pretty soon though. It will be worth it though Ithink, wait untill you see the deconstructed rebuild on the Reactor bipe might give your miss wind run for her money, lol. (if the YS holds together long enough anyways...)

Viper Driver

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The psychedelic dream Zeus lives in Portland with my Dad. I think it is availible for rent at a fair price.

JRgraham

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Maaaan if that wasnt a hint...

JRgraham

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Been a few weeks since Ihave been able to get time worked out to continue building on the Zeus. Ihave still been undecided on a Power Plant as it is too. Electric conversion is still possible at this point.

BUT! It just so happens that an old good friend of John Nozler is still an active club member here, and just happened to have finished up one of his two Zeus kits this last week. And, as luck would have it, he asked me to put the Maiden flight on her... How could Iturn that down???

Here is a beautifully done Zeus, by the proud owner Frank Blain (shown below) of the Eugene R/C Aeronauts club.

She came in just over 10 Lbs, complete with a true soft mounted(created by John)YS 140 Limitedwith Hatari pipe. Frank liked the idea of the fixed gear as well versus the retracts, and ended up finding a perfect fit fixed gearoff of anObsession.

Let me just say that this plane flies every bit as well and better than Iever anticipated it too. Within the first couple minutes of the maiden, Ifelt already as if the plane was an extention of myself. Iguess Frank thought something similar too.... because he sent the plane home with me!!! Frank decided for one reason or another, the Zeus deserved to be put into compitition again, and decided to, Iguess, sponser me with this plane for the upcoming Walker Pattern meet this September.

THANKYOUFRANK! Iwill do everything within my power to not dissapoint your decision, and maybe win one in memory of John.

alawel

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Congrats. Not many folks can say they've flown a Zeus. They do fly quite well, I liked the plane John created before the Zeus too, Perfecto. It was very much like the wide bodies of today, not quite as wide as current models but it was much taller through the empenage. Not sure where the one and only Perfecto ended up.

I look forward to seeing the Zeus.

Talk to ya later,
Alan

Viper Driver

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Where else would Perfecto be...at Dad's house, of course. Very nice work Frank, it looks fantastic!

alawel

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He's got quite a collection eh? I guess I do remember talking to him about it. Seems like he aquired it VIA Loren who had put some 2 stroker in it so the cowel was all hacked up. If I were more of a modeler, I'd consider a refurb and electrifying it. I don't like building enough to take that task on though.

JRgraham

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Id love to see the Perfecto.. heard about it a few times..

Well, Igot another short flight on her yesterday. The YS was not wanting to run consistent, so Ididnt stay up long. But wow is it smooth.

Went through the entire fuel system and discovered the motor is actually the YS140 Limited. Dad and Iare use to the FZ sport, Frank just thoughtthats what it was as well, and hadnt really looked close enough in there to see the slight difference the Limited has. So Iguess that should help with the up lines a bit, turning a 15x12 carbon apc at the moment, but may end up with 16x12 area. Maybe even 3 blade something.

Anyways, Call in sick tommorrow Alan, Im gonna be out there by 8am!

JRgraham

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Well, Frank's Zeus and Imade the Snohomish contest, and did allright. Unfortunately Iwas the only guy there to fly Advanced.. Iwas hesitant to fly solo and default a 1st place, but considering Ihad only about 8 flights on the Zeus period, and had never flown a Masters sequence.. Iopted to just take the first

Here are the NSRCA results to the Snohomish CanAm challengefor anyone interested. Iguess Ican at least say Iflew pretty consistent for a first contest in around 17 years.. flying in general for that matter.

Id like to say Thanks to all that attended the contest, it is a nice field, and we had about the best weather conditions you could ask for. Id say there was hardly a breeze every once in awhile at best. Wonderful weekend flying!

My Zeus is back on the table again now. Iwill finish her up over the next couple/few weeks Iimagine. Her profile may be a little behind today's demands for pattern aerobatics, but will absolutely handle up to advanced, Masters would have a couple weak points... but all that aside, is a wonderful plane, and will make at the least a damn fine backup.

Here are some shots of the twin to the Zeus Frank built (shown above). Its amazing with full carbon fiber layup.You just dont see thatevery day.
So, stay tuned. The Zeus construction is back on!

JRgraham

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Back to work a bit on the wings, Ihave measured and cutout the ailerons, and routed out hinge point anchors. Iglue in 1/4 balsa blockstuds to the trailing edge, and then cap that with 1/8 balsa strip. 1/8th balsa caps on the ends as well.

Iam pondering how Iwill do the 45's on the ailerons still, as Ihave a couple ideas Imay try. Ihave always in the past beveled them by hand... Ithink Iwant to try something a little more pre-fab'd for perfection. Maybe even not the typicall 45 either, so for now Iwill leave them until Iget back from working on the field.

alawel

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Bout time you got back on that. Glad to hear that the Snohomish event went well for you, I got an email from someone that attended, they said you flew the plane quite well. I'm still bummed I missed it. I look forward to seeing the Zeus in Creswell this coming weekend.

JRgraham

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Hey Alan, yeah Ididnt mean to prolong construction so long, but It should go together fairly quick from here.

Snohomish was nice. Creswell is ready. Just another quick mowing is about all thats left. Should be a decent turnout. See you there!

Viper Driver

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JR,

I wouldn'd do 45 degree bevels on the ailerons. 30 to 35 degrees should be plenty. Doing it by hand is probably the most accurate if you draw lines to sand to. I figure out half the thickness of the aileron at the root and the tip, and then calculate how far back the bevel needs to go and put a point there.

alawel

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Hey JR,
I was just figuring that if you were working on the plane, you wouldn't be out practicing.

See ya Friday,
Alan

JRgraham

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Practice... Have not been able to get much in since the kid blew up the Ugly Stick couple weeks ago...

Friday Yep, will be out there !

JRgraham

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Okay, time for some progress reports

So I ended up hand sanding all my control surface bevel's, and have finish sanding all the tip's and edge's.
Wings and stabs are ready to cover.

JRgraham

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Ive obtained a brand new OS 1.60FX and pipe to mount in this thing.
The Zeus was designed only arounda YS 120, so this will be different. The remote needle valve will be a plus, and the pipe length ends up the same too.

I created a firewall by laminating 4 layers of 1/32 light ply and a layer of carbon fiber. Thisends up just over the4mm thickness mark, and 13 layers... and unbelievably strong.Iuse a vaccume bag for my laminating. Ithen use a 1/4 foamboard stuff to make a template, and with that Icut the real deal.

Ihave also made my first real motor bay cuts to the fuse. Even if this motor simply didnt fit, the motor bay cutout is universal to YS.

JRgraham

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Ihave the Budd mount and motor rough set in place. Everything seems to be falling into place nice so far.

crankpin

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Very nice, following along, color scheme figured out ?

Crank

Viper Driver

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Looking good JR!

alawel

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That thing looks like a frikin meat tenerizer. Should be plenty of power for it. There are a few of those engines on the Northwest pattern circuit and they seem to run quite well. Jim comes to mind. I believe he has one in his Option.

It is looking good JR. I look forward to seeing it in person.

JRgraham

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Thats funny, Alan! Yeah, Jim has the same one in his Option 160.

Well having flown Frank's Zeus with the YS 140, the uplines were there, but there was enough struggle pulling it up that on longer upline with rotations, and Iwas really working rudder hard... almost like the tail was pushing the plane up, versus the motor pulling.. Idunno.. Anyways, this should cure that

Color is still getting tossed around.. maybe green/yellow wings, and orange/black fuse ? *coughs*
Speaking of color though, this thing is ready for paint prep.

JRgraham

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Firewall is in, Iused epoxy as Ialways have. Iwill laminate some carbon fiber around the firewall edge since the firewall is somewhat thin.

Iam lacking the proper wrap around header pipe still. Ican only hope there is one out there somewhere, so Idont have to do a hack job on the one Ihave. The Budd nose ring to complete the engine mount install should be ariving any day.