FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

The pink Saito was the bi-product of some of us joking about paint Saitos weird colors. I was challenged by another forum member to fly a pink airplane covered to match the pink painted Saito he would provide, he sent along a prop. In exchange for doing so I get to keep the engine. The engine is used but has been rebuilt and painted and runs like a top! So what flier in his right mind would turn a free Saito down? An old friend and airplane mentor provided me a unfinished Great Planes Pete N Poke in need of a little TLC so all I need to do is provide the covering, tank, radio equipment, and other bits and pieces to finish it. Hey the Duke wore a pink shirt in some of his westerns so I can fly the heck out of a pink airplane!

Mike

Telemaster Sales UK

...and a pink model should show up well against any sky!

Got any grand daughters Flyer?

Telemaster Sales UK

Rain! It's raining here! Only a light drizzle but it looks as if it will stay for some time. This is our first fall of rain since August 11th.

ETpilot

acdii

Looks like you need to replace some fascia boards, look a bit on the rotted side. I have enough of that on my house to know. I'll be more than happy to send some rain to France, We have had enough to last months. Last week 4-5" fell in a couple hours here, and it has rained all day yesterday and some really big bands are going by today.
I have been wanting to put up a new TV antenna, but the weather has not cooperated.

My workshop flooded again, just finally got it dried out, and the rain yesterday got more water in. GRRRR.

Telemaster Sales UK

The rain has given me the opportunity to work on the Big Guff.

I am building the Big Guff's fuselage pretty well as Walt Good built his: 1/4" sq (6mm) frame, balsa block from the nose to the firewall, 1/16" (1.5-2mm) sheet from the firewall to the trailing edge, grain vertical and 1/32" (0.8mm) balsa sheet over everything, grain running horizontally. I only differ from Walt's method of construction by using the 1/32" sheeting with the grain across the fuselage top and bottom rather than in line with it. So far I've finished the port side, and as you can see, I'm waiting for the glue to dry before shaping the 1/32" sheet to conform to the lower longeron and tail platform. Then I'll have to sheet the starboard side. The fuselage is already very rigid. Apologies for the untidy workshop.

The fuselage is so long that I've had to elongate the pushrod for the elevator. The rudder will be actuated by a closed loop.

Here's a few pictures for you.



Port side of the Big Guff fuselage fully sheeted. Waiting for the glue to dry.




Starboard side yet to be sheeted.




Outer pushrod elongated with fuel tubing!




Push rod inner joined by a small length of threaded rod.

acdii

I took advantage of the rain to be in my workshop, which thankfully has dried out. Had to make a couple corrections to W1 and W2 for the Liberty Sport, and then inventoried the parts, found I am short a 1/4 x 1/2" stick for the spar. I do have 1/4" stock to make it from though, so will do that for the center section. While I had the laser powered up, I made some gussets for the wing out of 1/8" balsa, took all of 5 minutes to program the cuts, and burn them. Then I tried a grayscale engraving on Alder. It kinda sorta looked like what I was going for, but lacks enough detail to be worth it. Still have some work to do to get it close to what I would like. Might work out better doing a reverse image on Lexan.

Of course now all I can smell is burnt wood, apparently the seam on the blower leaks, so not all the smoke gets pulled out, so I sealed it with metal duct tape.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Unfortunately just 3 grandsons so far.

acdii

Hey, they don't have to be girls to like pink, John Wayne wore pink shirts, so......

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I have one grandson that likes pink but they all love airplanes so they won't care about the color.

red head

There's nothing wrong with PINK airplanes . When I built my Extra 300 , we covered it in Pink, Purple and White . Every time we demoed it we got lots of neat comments about it , and I have to say that it was one of the prettiest planes around. Sorry I can't send a picture as proof as it was neat. Red

ETpilot

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

It will be my turn for a new roof in a few weeks. That big storm we had took down tree branches that actually damaged the 1 X 6 decking in addition to trashing the roof shingles. I just paid the insurance renewal so I can expect a big increase next year. I'm going to see if they can back the antenna tripod back a couple of feet if the cables will stretch that far to improve reception.

acdii

I have a new Wineguard to install so we can get OTR since Directv was cancelled. We either have something to do in the evening, or it is raining. SMH. My workshop is finally dry enough to work in, had a little dribble come in from the storms on Saturday, but vacuumed it up. Did some more work with the laser too. I started building the center section for the top Liberty Sport wing and found that W1 and W2 were wrong and had to redo them. I had some scrap 3/32 laying around so didn't have to waste a full sheet for the 7 ribs. I also made some gussets from 1/8" stock for the wing. Having the laser sure is coming in handy, and the software is getting easier to use. There are wing fairings made from 1/32 plywood that I cut using the laser, and those are now installed and used balsa filler to make the fillets. Once that is dry and sanded to shape I will harden it with CA. Almost to the point where I can final sand to shape the fuse and get the covering started.

I also tried doing some grayscale engraving, this will take some time to perfect, have to get the speed and power settings just right, and it varies depending on the wood. I may work on reducing power to the minimum, keeping up the speed and doing multiple passes on the next round, AFTER I clean the focal lens. Dumb me forgot to turn the blower and compressor on and hit the laser on, smoked the hell out of the thing, which means there is now residue on the lens.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Well it did clean the lens!

acdii

The lens is a PITA to clean. Have t disassemble the head unit and try not to drop the lens, and not touch it since skin oils can ruin the coating. It can chip real easy if not handled properly.

ETpilot

acdii

This is the one we got, https://www.amazon.com/Winegard-HD82.../dp/B001DFS4BI

I haven't decided yet if I want to mount it on the top of our 3 section tower, which is somewhere around 30' I think, at least I think each section is 10', or put it where the original one is located on our chimney. We used to have a beat up old Wineguard on the house when we first moved in, so replaced it with the one that can be obtained anywhere, a cheap RCA. Don't do it. The beat up old Wineguard with missing elements had better reception. I think I will just put it where the existing one is for now, and move it later if I need to, but when first put up I was seeing stations from Rockford, IA, IN and WI. I have to find the control for the rotator first so I can snychronize it before installing the new one.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I have had good luck with this one.

https://www.channelmaster.com/Digita.../cm-4228hd.htm

I had the Radio Shack Archer brand similar to the Winegard in the link above. It was torn down by high winds in storms one too many times so it had to be replaced. Mine antenna is is on a mast held by a tripod on the roof.

acdii

Channel master is a good brand too. It was a toss up between CM and WG for me, and the WG was less expensive by about $30.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

If I recall correctly the Winegard is a good 6 feet long. It is a great antenna. I went with the channel Master this time because the design was a little easier to handle and erect by one person. I was hoping the change might put less stress on the tripod and mast too.

acdii

It is a long one, but very light weight. What damaged the first one were tree branches, it was mounted on one of those three pole towers I mentioned before right against the house and a maple tree is right next to it which beat the crap out of the elements. I put the replacement up on a 20 foot mast, that is secured to the brick chimney, and has been there for at least 15+ years and undamaged, but cheap crappy elements that don't do what they are supposed to. Don't buy RCA!

ETpilot

Telemaster Sales UK

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be two types of modeller?

1. Those who finish their models in the colours of the prototype or in the same colours as the model depicted on the box-lid.
2. Those who always finish their models in a different colour scheme to those of the original model.

Take the Big Guff that I am building as an example. This was one of the first model aircraft speciffically designed for radio control which first flew in the late 1930s. The model was designed by Walter Good and his twin brother William Good designed the radio. It's a large model with an 8 foot (2.4 metre) wingspan. The Good brothers finished their model in orange overall . Presumably they covered it in heavyweight tissue or silk then painted it with coloured dope.Big Guff's are fairly rare. I've only seen two in the balsa and one of these was finished in orange, the other was Peter Russell's finished in black and yellow tissue.

However, I've watched the progress of two other builds on line and they were both finished in orange, and there's at least another one in a museum somewhere in the USA, Muncie perhaps, which is also finished in orange,so that's four out of five. Here's one of them.



But it's not just Big Guffs. Most of the Kwik Flis, and other Phil Kraft models, that I've ever seen, were finished in the orange and black of Phil's original and most of the Goldberg Falcons in red, white and black.

I once had a friend, dead now these fifteen years, who always finished his models in the same colours as the box art. There's nothing wrong with this but I suppose I must belong to the awkward squad as I've always finished my models in different colours.

As an example, when I suggested that I was going to cover the fuselage of my Big Guff in Dark Green/ Olive Drab Solartex simply because that was what I had got surplus to requirements, it provoked a critical response on an American forum.I found out yesterday that I had rather more orange Solartex in stock than I thought and briefly it crossed my mind that by ordering a couple of more rolls, my Big Guff could look the same as everybody elses but I'm blowed if I'm shelling out £12 a metre plus postage for orange Solartex. Olive drab it is! The orange is ear marked for my Senior Telemaster.

It's just a thought.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I did my LT40 in the box colors because I like it. My Rascal C was the same base colors as the box but with a green interior instead of gray and gold instead of silver pen stripes. My 1/5 SIG Cub got bright yellow instead of Cub yellow and 1945 Civil Air Patrol insignia. My 182 if I ever finish it will be in modern CAP livery. Scale aircraft, my preferred media, gets something scale looking. More is civilian than military so there is a lot of flexibility but will still be counterbalanced by the Pink Pete N Poke. I guess that makes me a bit of both worlds.