Kinner

Do note the built up spars. I had a Dumb Thumbs crash on my 1/4 Fleet and took that opportunity to completely uncover the bare frame and have a look. That bird I've been flying for 25 years plus and always worried about their strength and glue. Looked good and took the opportunity to give it a one piece lower wing. Suprising the structure was still sound and only repaired the rudder, landing gear and gear mounts. Upgraded the bird to the real RCAF 16B Finch in color and tail wheel location. An acquaintance


of mine has a real 16B at the local airport and gave me an all day photo shoot.

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Will do, The construction of the Weiss Fleet looks sound from what I am seeing on the plans. I will be taking a serious look at the construction and if there are any doubts, then I will be removing the covering, redesign or fixing any areas of concern then recovering. The most nerve racking part of making a purchase sight unseen. But the owner has been very honest with me and believes the previous owner/builder in California cartwheeled it and he has gone through it and feels the structure is sound. And it has flown many times sense.

I like the fleet so much, I definitely want to build another maybe two, but not until I redesign some of the parts and construction methodology. I prefer light ply ribs and aircraft ply at the critical areas and would like to design the brackets and have real cable bracing, but that might make it too heavy, so just a parting thought! I really want to go hyper scale with the next, just wish I could find more documentation on the real one and engineering drawings would be nice. But looking at these Weiss plans for the last couple of days, its a great design!

I am excited to have one that I can use for familiarity and proficiency training and I think the Radial will be a nice addition and since I already have it, why not. May purchase a smaller radial 100-125 if the 150 is too much. I have plenty of projects to put the 150 in down the road.

Really love the yellow scheme and how cool to have one close by to take pictures and study! I am jealous! Talk soon.

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Well, the weather was good and I made the trip this weekend. 980 miles later I have the fleet in the shop. To say I have my work cut out for me is an understatement. First, the original builder/seller certainly misrepresented it from the information I am getting. It was originally listed as eight great flights and a gentle flyer. It was obviously cartwheeled/crashed and repaired. The gentleman I purchased it from was very honest from the get go and made sure I knew about all the issues before I made the two day trip to get it. From what I can see looking into the wings, the repair looks OK and it has flown many times since. It needs to be recovered for sure and that might be a winter project. I want to go with a different scheme anyway.

The build quality looks OK and seems solid. However, not very clean and I will do my best to get it back into shape internally to start and then recover over the winter as previously stated. I have already stripped all the electronics out, check out those old quarter scale Hitec servos on the elevator and rudder! The motor has been removed and dummy radial cut off.

Guys, let me know if this is something you are interested seeing being refurbished and updated? I don't mind putting in the work to document it, but I don't want to waste my time either. I think this is a good repository of information on the model from the OP and all other contributors and builders. I think this plane is still relevant and going to be a good flyer! Is the OP and other builders OK with me tagging along my refurb in this thread? Just let me know.

Here is a little photo dump to get started. Thanks and lot of work to get done.

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Working on the Fleet and should have the motor mounted soon. Question on motor mounting. I don't see on the plans about any right and/or down thrust and don't see any on the airplane I am working on. For those who have flow it, did you put right or down thrust in or just fly it without? I just need to know before mounting the motor so I can move the motor the appropriate distances for a centerline prop hub. Thanks and here is a picture of the UMS 150, should look and sound very nice.

RICKSTUBBZ

That UMS 150 looks like a HOSS!

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Thanks, it should fly it around nicely.

Baby ace

I was so excited to see this thread active again. I came across this a few years back when I received a short kit from my father of this 1/3 scale Ron Weiss Fleet. I have been slowly building one over the last couple years and am at the stage now of sanding sanding and more sanding. I will upload a couple pics of the current progress.

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Welcome! I am looking forward to seeing some pictures of your project!

We are just getting back in town after a long weekend in Las Vegas for the first 12U Baseball tournament of the year! I will be getting back on the Fleet this week. In addition to mounting the motor, I have been working on servo mounts for the elevators and rudder. I will have some photos soon!

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

Baby Ace, I did reply to your message and sent you my phone number. Thanks.

Baby ace

I see so many pics of all these builds and almost all of them are showing a double flying wire on both front and rear. My plans just show a single for the rear. Am I missing something on the plans?

Baby ace

What size wire are you guys using for your flying wire? I was thinking of going with a rod but think a wire might be a little more forgiving and easier for setup.

Baby ace

I know it’s a 5 cylinder on the real plane but I think we are going to have a little fun and use a UMS 7 cylinder 77cc up front. Leave it open cowl and just dress up the front as much as I can.

JRSmith

My Feedback: (47)

The full scale had double flying and landing wires, I believe. I could be wrong. The Fleet used less rigging wire then most biplanes of the time though. The plans call for double flying wires and single landing wire. I have the service and erection manual for the Fleet Model 2 and will look through that and see what it says.

Ron has a note about using .055" piano wire and to not use cable and the flying wires are mandatory for safe flying. I am going to redo the flying wires on mine and plan on using this flat spring steel and I will try to source left and right hand threaded rod and clevis. Another option was to use turnbuckles and then cutting them down and brazing it to the flat wire. I am not there yet, so not focusing on it. This is all just the plan in my head. Mick Reeves makes some very nice forkends and flat wire that I might use. Also considering having Hans at Flying-Wires.CF. He made the set for my Glenn Torrance SE5a and my World Models Stearman, they are beautiful! But expensive with fairly long lead times. I sold the SE5a and still waiting on my Stearman to arrive, so I will have the flying wires for that when I get it!

Wear-Resistant 1095 Spring Steel
0.0200" Thick, 1/8" Wide



The seven cylinder would be awesome, but I would go with a little more displacement. I would go the UMS 90cc Gas – 7 Cylinder Radial at a minimum or larger. I have the UMS 150 for mine and may be selling that to put the Moki 150 radial in instead. The one I have, initially flew on a G62 and performance was OK, but could use some more power. I would have gone with a UMS 125 five cylinder if I was going to buy a new motor for the project, but I already have the 150.

I sent you a message with my phone number on the visitor message page, like you sent me, If your in Nampa, your more then welcome to stop by.

Baby ace

Oh man. I really should have listened to my wife and hung the plans on the wall instead of rolling and unrolling plans. And thank you so much for the info on the wires. I have a good direction of where to go now. I will give ya a call tomorrow and maybe we can compare some notes. Maybe even learn a thing or two from ya.