daven

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I got a surprise mailman visit this morning, straight from Austrailia. I ordered this a few weeks ago, and its here already, its a naca 66-012 Two piece quickie wing from www.supertrc.com that looks like it will fit perfect on my Seeker Kit.

This will be the first seeker with this wing and my composite tail. I sure hope that 3 3/4 lb rule passed, I think I'm going to be right around that when done, maybe even 3lbs 13-14 oz.

Looking good though. You may notice only 1 elevator servo, I am trying Airtronics 94761 servos and one of them doesn't appear to be working and its going back.

diggs_74

That looks great Dave.. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.. If you're up at 3lbs 14oz you'll be even with the Seeker I raced a couple weeks ago with the Bird of Prey wing on it..

BUDMAN27

Oh so now your on board on the 3.75 Lbs, rule. Well if you can,t beat em than it,s best to join em. Just giving you a hard time davin.

garys

I believe Dave's always been in favor of the 3.75lb rule.

daven

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Yes I have been for it since the beggining..

Although I'm not really sure how it helps anything. Personally, it will help as most of my planes are 2-3 oz heavy, but its not really fair to those who have done the hard work in getting down to the minimum.

Still haven't heard how the vote went.

garys

I haven't heard either, but I'd really be surprised if it didn't pass.

BUDMAN27

Sorry to bust your bubble Dave but if anyone is interested. Go back to the general race discussion and look at the my thoughts on revitalizing racing and you will plainly see dave is a lier he said and I quote" I am against it". I don,t care much for people how lie.

BUDMAN27

My bad I just reread it. and I,m wrong. He did say he was for it . God I feel like an idiot. Sorry Dave.

daven

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No problem Budman.

daven

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I've been scrambling on this thing since the wing arrived Saturday. Started glassing Sunday, finished Monday morning, put down the Primer on tail Monday night. Put down the white Tuesday morning, came home tonight and put down the Green and Black. I had a small part of the green peal when pulling away the mask, but I saved a little just in case and touched up. Not perfect, but perfect from 10 feet.

Just looking for a little wet sanding and a layer of clearcote epoxy tommorrow night to cover the paint and the majority of the fuse that I left "al natural".

First time doing checkerboards, and it wasn't that bad, even for picaso.

Looking on schedule for Friday or Saturday Test flight.

BUDMAN27

My four year old said it looks great. Green is his fav. color.

diggs_74

Looks good Dave..

daven

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Now that the 3 3/4 lb rule passed, this thing will be in business

Randy Etken

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Top of the wing looks like a nice target for the R-200 to hit!!!!!!!!

daven

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I knew you'd like that.

Randy Etken

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I knew you would try someting different after the R-200 had fastest time in Emery and the R-200 finished FIRST, Third, and Forth at Jerrys big race in July. [:@]

DonStegall

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Looks great Dave. [sm=thumbup.gif]

Will this be the first flight of the composite tail we produced? Looking forward to hearing how the tail does.

daven

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Yes, this will be the first with the composite tail that I laid up. It will also be the first with Bruce's wing, so I don't believe I will have any idea if its in improvement, or if its the wing. It is also the first with using the bubble jig for setting the tail.

Either way, its turning out nice and I can't wait to fly it.

DonStegall

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I agree that there are a lot of variables in play.

The main thing I want to know is if the tail has any "habits".

A neutral and fast plane is the best that can be hoped for. If there are any issues with the tail, the plane will have a "personality". V-tails tend to show that a lot more than conventional tails. The tail aerodynamics as well as mounting seem to be more of a factor with V-tails.

daven

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Plane is done.

Got everything on the charger and if the weather holds should be able to test fly tommorrow. I thought for sure that I would be heavy with this, but it came in at 3 lbs 11.5 oz, perfect for the new rule after it gets a little tip weight.

Not sure if the Epoxy Catalyst I'm using is old, or whats going on, but the clear basically turned a light shade of yellow overnight. Not sure what happened there, I've had epoxy paints yellow over time before, but this was quick. Definately not a perfect paint job, but it does look nice at about 5 foot.

I forgot to clear my servo hatch last night, but its fiberglassed, and will wait till I have clear in the gun again.

Here are some final pictures in the garage.

luv to race

My Feedback: (1)

Looks nice Dave. Not sure about the yellowing issue. Dad really likes the Z-poxy finishing resin for applying the 3/4oz glass, he loves that stuff.

I'd say the V-tail looks fine. Size is the obvious factor between tails. Airfoil is hit and miss on tails. We tried different airfoils, and never could tell a thing. The only reason we use a full symetrical tail airfoil...is because it "makes" us feel faster. We never could find a test pilot with enough skill (not saying you don't have the skill) to be able to tell the differences. Like Don first said, as long as it is mounted correctly... it should work great.

have fun dude.
smoke

BUDMAN27

For the life of me I can never figure out why you guys spend so much time making beautiful airplanes just to go out and pos. run them in to each other. Wouldn,t it make more sens to just get an ARF. Oh well what do I know.

daven

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Randy,

The airfoil of this tail is the same as your Dad's Vortex. The shape is pretty close too, but its slightly narrower and taller. Vargas cut me some blue foam tails and I glassed them for the plug. I doubt I will notice a difference also, but its much easier to lay one of these up, then to hand sand a slab and install skinned hinges and enclosed linkage.

I normally use EZ Lam 60 for glasswork as I buy it by the gallon, but since I was in a hurry I used zpoxy finishing resin, and I agree it worked pretty darn good and was dry in a few hours.

Budman, the object of racing is to race, not run into each other. The more you race, the less you will midair or crash. Also, I personally do not care for ARFs and do like to build for myself. Building for others is another story.

daven

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Budman,

Also, all I built and painted was the fuse. My seeker fuse kit can be built in a couple hours, the tail took about 4 hours to lay up, radio gear about another hour, glassing about an hour total, painting was a couple evenings. Still probably less than 15 hours to do a fuse.

I would have at least 10 hours into an ARF after I redid the covering and made mods to make sure it was structually sound.

Plus, the cheap ARFS don't come in Green!

diggs_74

I would say that the worst time to do nice planes is about your second year of racing.. That's when you start to get on the course but still don't have a lot of experience in traffic.. My second year was tough, I think I went through 6 planes.. I must be getting a little better this year, only wrecked 2 and one was the #3 pylon..

I don't think the weather is going to help you out today Dave.. You may have to test it out on Heat #1.. 3lbs 12oz is still 3 oz lighter than mine.. You should give me a head start