ORIGINAL: Wing-Ding

Thanks for your help,

Rocketman: I'm sorry, but I didn't understand where yours is located. My stringer runs on top from the firewall to the front edge of the canopy. What did you mean "in front of the stringer"? Also, did you mean the side of the plane or to the side of the stringer but still on top? I was considering putting it off center and on top. That way, I wouldn't have to cut into the stringer, but it would still be close to its scale position. I could double up the sheeting thickness at the fuel dot. I have the DA fuel dot and it requires a BIG hole.

John: I may end up putting it in the cowl after all. Then the Tee could be in the engine area- perhaps more serviceable. Thanks for that info.

Marl

ORIGINAL: One-O-Wonder


About five weeks ago one of my flying buddies brought his GP Patty Wagstaff out to our flying field. After flying it around for awhile and doing several aerobatic maneuvers he retracted the landing gear on landing. Since he and I were the only ones at the field I carried it back to the pits for him. When I set it down he began to strip servos of the gal. When I ask him what he was doing he said "Just as soon as I can get my gear off of it , it's yours!" This wasn't the first time he had wiped the gear off on landing and he was tired of repeairing the beast. Well I loaded the ole gal in the back of my truck and took her home to survey the damage. The previous gear retractions had done significant damage that had just been patched so I decided to give the ole girl a major rebuild of the gear box area. While working on her one of my other buddies offered to swap a "brand new in the box" Fuji 64A for a surplus plane of mine he had the hots for. After checking this forum I was worried that the engine might not fly the ole gal very well (too heavy)but decided to make the swap anyway. After a few weeks more of work and some major upgrades ( 6 new JR high torque MG servos, new recv, 2700 miah nimh battery, etc) the ole gal looked pretty good. So this past weekend after checking weight & balance ( she weighs 17 lbs and has no lead weight added) and running two tanks of gas through the engine, I decided it was time to see if the ole gal still could fly. My flying filed is at 6000 ft in Colorado so flying here is no easy feat. After starting the engine and taxing out, I gave her half throttle and she flew off the runway on her own as straight as an arrow. She only needed a click of elevator trim and she flew like she was on rails. After flying her around for about 5 mins I entered the traffic pattern and watched as she flew final approach as gentle as a lamb. She touched down smoothly with several clicks of throttle and rolled to a stop. WOW! what a great plane and engine combo. Since Saturday I've logged eight flights on her doing all the basic IMAC sequence during the final flight this afternoon. Since I was given the airframe and swapped and traded for most of the rest of the stuff this is truly a "cheap & cheerful" plane that I plan to fly a lot. Who says gas has to cost a lot?