skeeter_ca
Posts: 389
Joined: 11/30/2005
From: Yucaipa,
CA, USA
Status: offline
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Ok…..And here’s more of the story…………………..
I'm flying that crappy aerobird thinking how much this thing sucks. My 12 year old son flys it some and thinks it's ok, but he has no frame of reference like i do. After awhile i start thinking about my trainer sitting up on my shelf in the garage. I look at it sitting there on the top shelf. It seems like it's going to need alot of work. But i want to fly. I want to build the planes i dream of flying (my Me-163b). What do i do? Life is getting in the way again. We moved into a house with over 1 acre of land, so my wife could get horses. That takes even more of my time. Clearing the land for the stables. Installing stables. Installing a new front irragation system and grass in the front lawn so we don't look like the dirt bags of the neighborhood. That honor belongs to someone else now thankfully. Keeping the pool clean. I finally get the nerve to pull down the trainer and give it a close inspection. Oh man....It's worse than i thought. Words cannot describe it, but i'll try. Since the crash in the early days i have moved 6 times (4 rentals and bought 2 houses), have or have had 1 ex-wife, 3 kids, my current wife, 5 dogs, 3 cats, 3 horses, 4 birds, 19 rabbits (that's a whole other story in itself), 2 turtles and a 75 gallon reef tank that i just finished. This plane barely resembles a flyable piece of wood and plastic covering. When we moved into this house we of course were unaware of the rodent infestation. Rats (large ones) lived in the attic and garage. It probably took me the better part of a year to get all of the rodents removed from the house and close up any access so they could not return. Looking at the model it was covered with rat urine and feces. I just wanted to toss the whole thing. It was gross beyond belief. Almost every corner was nibbled on and chunks missing out in random spots. The servo wires inside were chewed through. Wings and tail feathers really bad. The engine had rat feces and urine stains on it.
I decided not to toss it but to rebuild it back to original specs. I striped all the covering, removed the radio equipment and engine. I cleaned out the fuse, removed the ailerons, One of the torque rods to the ailerons was bent so I decided to go to dual servos in the wing rather then replace the torque rod. I replaced the wood that had been eaten or broken by hanger rash. I used balsa filler to fill in any place there was not any plane but should be. The old radio would not work anymore, but it was also an old wide band Futaba so I installed the Hitec radio I had bought to use in my glider but never installed. By then the batteries were over 8 years old so I bought new ones for the Tx and Rx. It was looking like a real plane now. The engine (a K&B .40) had seized and would not move so I used the crockpot cleaning method and it came out sparkling clean. It seemed to run ok when I bench tested it and just figured it needed an adjustment by someone that knew what they were doing. I picked out a scheme to go by that was half way decent looking and heated up the monokote iron. After recovering was done I installed the engine, adjusted the control throws to what is considered acceptable for a trainer and balanced the plane right on the CG by adding 1 ounce to the tail. I thought I was ready.
………………It’s getting late I’ll give some more details tomorrow, if you want.
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Skeeter
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Beginners >> Beginners Logbook? or what I learned today 
Beginners Logbook? or what I learned today - 
As listed on my previous post i flew today. For the first time in 20 yrs, flying a nitro plane. 
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