DBD1

Good info Tom, I didn't even think about that.
Dave, the Stratus is really looking nice!

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Really a cool looking plane, like everyone else I have never seen one before. Wish I would have seen the build earlier, don't know how I missed it?? Took me a while to catch up but I'm now on the same page as the other guys. I built the Daddy Rabbit a couple years back and the wing design looks pretty much the same but I fully sheeted it. If I had it to do over I would have left it open bay but I painted instead of covering. My bad. I used an SK .91 in it, a bit of over kill to say the least.
I'm really into the old classic class-C pattern planes so I find it odd I have never seen this one? I really like the two rudders, that separates it from the herd.

skylark-flier

Well, Sunday (and maybe several more days to come) was a total bust - the ol' "honey-do" list bit me when my other half decided that I've goofed off enough and it was time to start painting again. Kitchen's done, hallway's done, dining room is half-done (hopefully done today). Still got the living room, bedroom & stairwell to do.

The shrimp DID work out though.

I'd rather be flying or building though.

re: the Daddy Rabbit - I'd never heard of it and had to look it up. You're right, that wing is a near duplicate of the Stratus, looks like the same general thickness too. Wing's supposed to be fully sheeted, but I like the effect of the capped ribs though so I substituted interior bracing (rather heavy-grade webbing, end to end on main spar & between rear planks) for the full sheet job. I see she's from the same year the Stratus came out, 1966. Gotta tell ya, that's a nice plane. The Stratus will be the first pattern plane I'll have ever flown, so I'm going to definitely be flying her cautiously - at least for starters. The .61sf is a whole lotta engine, more power than I've ever had available before. Should be fun in the "vertical" department.

Still haven't come up with colors/scheme for the plane. Leaning toward either royal blue, white & light/medium green or maybe just go with red, white & blue. I did an old Ercoupe decades ago that I really liked - might just recreate something along those lines.

The Ercoupe:

TomCrump

I like blue and white, but find that it can become a good camo scheme on partly cloudy days. LOL

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Most of the pattern planes had the same look and air foils or close to it in that time period, most of the planes all looked the same too, form following function. Then the style changed about 1970 when Joe Bridi won the NATs with the Kaos. The reason I like your plane is it looks way different. The only thing I don't like about planes like the Rabbit and Sun Fli types is the short fuse. With the Kaos and Dirty Birdi types they fly a bit smoother and have really good ground handling. My Rabbit is the only trike geared plane I have and it doesn't care if it is windy or if you have a cross wind. When on the ground it doesn't weather vain when turning. My other pattern planes were hell when on the ground with a stiff wind blowing, not in the air but one the ground. They were all tail draggers too.
Your build is really a nice one and you will be amazed at how the pattern planes make a pilot look a lot better then they really are. I will try to post a photo of my Dirty Birdy so you can see how long it is.

skylark-flier

Right Tom! Camo pattern disappearing in the sky, precisely the problem. At 67, I find that I'm having problems occasionally with just seeing the birds, which is why my latest builds feature rather stark and dark colors and rather "straight line" patterns. My SIG Kadet Mk-II is a typical representative of the issue:
Everything that's red on top is blue on bottom - makes her easy to keep oriented in the sky. My restored CG Eaglet is kinda the same thing:
I finished her in the same exact pattern & colors she was originally but added the under-wing striping so I could see her easier in the sky. Works pretty well too. Stratus will be the same situation - bottom & top are gonna have to be different, just not sure which colors and pattern. My wife likes the black/white/red thing like Sherwoods, but she says to do it with more color and less white. Might just listen to her for a change (after nearly 47 years of being married to her, maybe that's a pretty good idea. It would shock her though, if I actually did that). First, I've got to get her built though. Final hardware parts (engine mount, fuel tank, etc) arrived today so I'm gonna try to get some more time on her tomorrow - assuming the "honey-do" list doesn't bite me again.

Gray Beard - yeah, pretty near unique, which is much of why she fascinates me so much. I like the Dirty Birdy - every one I've ever seen fly is fabulous in the air. You're right too, those long tails really do help. My Sr. Falcon's a perfect case in point with the long rear-end, and she's just an advanced trainer (or was, when I was building her some 41 years ago).

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

All but one of my planes is Yellow, even my old Bipe has a green fuse with yellow wings.
Several years ago a buddy and I bought all the modeling stuff at an estate sale. We took what we wanted and sold the rest giving out some great deals to the other flyers.
My buddy kept an ARF Stick that had shipping damage and I forgot about it. Today he gave it to me, the damage is really not too bad, just a bit of time needed to do it all.
Funny thing is it's yellow!!!!! Have I mentioned how sick of yellow planes I am?? Of course my old eyes and being color blind yellow is one of the only colors that really stand out for me. I'm just really tired of yellow!!!

skylark-flier

Guys, it seems I might have an airplane on my hands.



I love that composite motor mount. Several (maybe most) of my planes have them but I've never just drilled and dropped the screw in like this (amazement of amazements, I actually followed the directions ... and it worked!!) . First, where's my brain been all these years? And second, why didn't someone whack me over the noggin to wake me up?

Landing gear fit perfectly, first time. No adjustment needed. Still need to get the "real" wheels (3") for her but she's sitting on 2.25" right now. Plans show 2.5" but with the rough ground I fly from I usually go to the biggest a plane can reasonably take. Who knows? By the time I go to get them I might end up with 3.5" wheels. The plane sure wouldn't notice the difference.

That OS.61sf is huge, and the 12x6 prop fits it wonderfully. Good thing I got that 12 oz. tank - gonna need it. It took a fair amount of foam to block it in properly but she sits quite comfortably and securely up front. One thing I finally woke up to (after it was too late, of course) is that the plans are apparently drawn around a .45 engine and I had an original cowl all framed up BEFORE I found out that it was nearly an inch short. So, cowl #2 has the sides cut and I'll start fitting that today, along with the top decking over the fuel tank.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Dave, you do have a an airplane on your hands and she is beautiful but a tad under dressed.

skylark-flier

No doubt about being under dressed.

That nose area's also kinda turning into a "two steps forward, one step back" proposition. The good news is that I still have options - just have to decide which direction to go. The fuse is designed "tall" and the engine's set rather high on the nose. I never considered it (until it was too late and the fuel tank area was closed in, of course) but that means a whole lot of cutting into the bottom right of the front of the fuel tank area so the muffler can fit in - or a muffler extension, which is still available, thankfully. Haven't quite decided which way to go on this one. If I use the extension I'll have a whole lot less cutting but it'll kinda mess up the clean lines of the nose bottom. If I go with cutting, well...

Also learned that there are reasons some things AREN'T designed into planes. That fuse bulkhead at the rear of the wing, bottom third of it had to go - it blocked the aileron control movement. Of course, took about 30 seconds to cut it off with the dremel - no problem.

Still, it's progressing.

soarrich

My Feedback: (98)

Dave
You have one of the octagon backed motor mounts, have you tried rotating the motor down 45° so that the muffler is on the bottom of the fuse?
Rich

skylark-flier

Geez Rich, wish I'd seen your post earlier - that's a great idea. However, I bit the bullet and just did the cut-out for the muffler - and it worked fairly well. There wasn't nearly as much had to go as I thought there would be - about 3" long and just over 1/2" on side & bottom. Tomorrow I'm going to cut out a bit more, this time with STRAIGHT lines, then I'll build new siding into the cut.

Got the nose rough sanded today. Still have to shave the front to receive the nose ring. I'm surprising myself - she looks better than I thought she'd be looking at this point. Musta done sumpin' right somewhere.

The pilot came from a plane I built 100 years ago, but he fits into the cockpit like he was meant for this plane - just sitting there, he barely touches the inside walls. He needs a new paint job but that's no big deal. Also still have to do the tapered headrest (whatever it's really called) for him and I want to do some cockpit work (seating back, instrument panel, etc) but the major building work is practically done. Gonna order some Koverall & clear dope on payday.

Can't believe it's gone this fast.

Michaelj2k

That picture screams "electrify me".

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Now that it is too late to do it I had a thought about the engine exhaust system you could have used. If you could have sat the firewall back a bit and used a longer engine mount or built a box to mount the engine to so as to bring the engine out a little you could have inverted it and use the a Top Flite manifold and in cowling muffler to hide the exhaust 20/20 hindsight strikes again!

skylark-flier

Michael - I agree 100% that this lady would be awesome with electric, but I'm not the guy to do it. Just over a year ago I thought I was building my last plane (silly boy that I am), then over this winter I did 2 near total recreations and 2 rather extensive rejuvenations, and now the Stratus. But, at near 70 I'm not about to go learning the whole new world of electrics. Gotta say though, that fuel tank area could nearly handle a motorcycle battery so power wouldn't be much of a problem.

Hey Mike! Yeah, I actually considered something similar to your idea of inverting the engine and putting near everything inside. This worked out just fine though. Took a pic this morning - today's "fibreglassing the nose" day so I had to remove the whole mount. Also, I WILL finally get the radio installed, or I'll jump off the nearest cliff. Funny thing, I've gone down there 4 days in a row with the intention of getting the radio in - hasn't worked yet and I end up doing something else.

Anyway, here's how the bottom corner worked out: Muffler sits comfortably in that little notch with about 1/8" or so to spare on both sides. I was going to close in the side of the compartment a bit more but I like being able to reach around inside without doing the contortion bit, so she's a bit more open than most. The engine fills it up pretty well though.

Also playing with colors & dope today - gonna cost nearly as much to cover her as it did to build her. Combination of SIG & Brodak dopes, being that they're both the same thing. SIG's got half of the colors I want (miami blue & white), Brodak's got the other half (lime green & a rather wild "red"), but SIG will supply the koverall, stixit, clear & thinner (they're cheaper). Here's the general idea of colors that I'm playing with at the moment:

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nose looks good Dave and I like the color scheme. I know how that goes with planning the next building step and having something else creep up and steal the time. Done it, got the t-shirt, and wore it out already on that one.

Suggestion? How about adding a little insurance behind the muffler and adding a layer of fiberglass and/or a small piece of foil tape to protect from heat build up?

Pork Chop

My Feedback: (5)

I like the colors too Dave, I've never seen that combination before. Can't wait to see it all dressed out.

skylark-flier

Thanks Alan, I'm kinda a fan of wild and crazy colors sometimes and this just seems to be the plane to do something like that with. That "red" is actually the old SIG metallic maroon (got about a half-pint, should be enough) and the green is Brodak lime green. I was originally thinking of the Brodak Blaze Red Pearl but my wife thought it would be a bit much. She's probably right. One thing's FOR SURE, it'll be unique at the flying field.

I'm still playing with those double white stripes too - thinking maybe light yellow or sky blue. I dunno. Still got time for those though.

Just for giggles, here's the plane (Sterling Skylark, C/L-type) that got that maroon originally, 2001. Plane's still in the air today, with not even one patch in her (yet).


Mike, I took your advice and glassed that notch while I was glassing the engine compartment - good idea, no doubt.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I love that maroon Dave!

Pork Chop

My Feedback: (5)

Yah me too, it's a great color and will contrast the Miami blue and Lime green nicely!

TomCrump

Back in my CL Stunt days, mettalic maroon was my favorite color. My old Veco Smoothie was metallic maroon and white.

I should revisit the maroon scheme on a future build.

Michaelj2k

The color combination is good but contrast the underside of the wing so you can tell from which perspective you are looking at. On my Kaos, the majority of the wing upper surface is white with red trim while the lower surface is all red.

You may also want to test the Sig and Brodak dopes together. I had problems spraying Sig over Brodak(Randolph) where the Sig ran all over the place. Had a PIA time wet sanding it all off and going back with the Brodak/Randolph. See if you can put Sig over Brodak and vice versa. It's like trying to put dope over enamel - it just ain't gonna work (don't ask me how I know!!).

skylark-flier

Yeah Michael, you're right about contrasting it. I'm still playing with the "design" of the colors and I'm leaning seriously to much more blue on the bottom of the wings, as opposed to the amount of green.

Aha, I didn't know that about SIG vs Brodak. The only real Brodak dope will be the green, all the rest will be SIG anyway. I tried to call Brodak about another question today and just got ringing phones. Will try again tomorrow, and will ask about the coverage thing. Shoot, if they're not compatible I can always go back to my red/white/blue idea, but it won't be as much fun.

Something more like this maybe:

skylark-flier

Michael, I owe you! Just got Brodak on the phone, neither Brodak nor SIG dopes are compatible in either direction.

Thank you!!

Being that the lime green (it was a Brodak color) is out, I'm gonna think again about going with my original backup idea:

Should be able to see that in the sky... and yes, it's the Bird of Time all over again - but I like it, so that's OK.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I like it!