Thanks for the huge vote of confidence Dave! On the right thrust, well, weight closer to the nose was way more important than needing to give it a bit of rudder during powerups. As this is a 'glider' first, hopefully there will be no more than maybe twice per flight when the motor is actually powered up... so really not that big a deal.

I just about lost the nose off my powered Cularis. I was really surprised by this. It has a pretty powerful system in it but what I learned from that was the gyrotorsionalscopic (how do you like that word?) forces must be more powerful than just the tug force. It was those up - down - left - right forces that did the damage. I reinforced the whole nose area with fiberglass/CA over the foam and no problems since. I also extended the glass back down under the belly to protect it on landings. Anyway, at this point the motor system on the Merlyn should not have more pull than 10 pounds for certain. I can tug substantially more than 10lbs forward on this mount. And there is the bonus of the power system being supported on both ends. That front bearing will eliminate any side forces on that mount. I think this method should actually allow a greatly reduce firewall mounting... it really only needs to support the tug force and the rotational torque of a powerup. Again, I'll set the ESC for soft start.

And then cooling. Back to my Cularis. I can pretty much empty a 2100mah LiPo in that bird in about 2.5 minutes. That's a LOT of power. It has I believe a 45amp ESC in it. The Merlyn will get a 80amp ESC. The Cularis has fairly smallish holes in the nose and worst exit holes under the wings. I did a lot of enlarging of those holes to try to dissipate the heat. I think they say to have at least twice the exit hole size vs. the intakes? But, the Cularis is also basically a big insulated foam box with not a lot of open space inside. I have learned to do like a 15 or 20 second launch under power... let her glide about for a bit... do some trim work... then after a minute or so do the second powerup for about the same time and then she is up as high as one normally needs. I think I can be over 1000 feet in that time. After a quick flight, the battery and ESC are very warm, but I've never had an issue using this method.

On to the Merlyn and heat ventilation. I really don't want to be reducing the bit of slick that this old design has. It really isn't all that bad. Also, I sort of accidentally went from flat bottom wings to the Selig <sp?> 3106 is it? There was an option to add another 1/8" of sheeting to the bottom from the leading edge back to the spar. I really only just now learned this was an 'option'. It was in the plans... I did it. But, doing this left a step at the spar, so the covering wouldn't have attached to the ribs on the bottom and would have been flat and maybe flapping a bit from the spar to the trailing edge. What I did is added a second stack of rib caps from the spar back and planed/sanded a gradual curve down to nothing at the trailing edge. The outcome should be a wing that is even more modern and from what I understand, more 'slick'. I really had to do this so my servo pods could be mounted flush with the covering... and those have the same curve sanded into them. Blind luck... learn later that I did really good. Crud... meanwhile back to heat....

The Merlyn fuse is pretty large and wide open front to tail. Adding a wheel will give me an 'exit hole'. That leaves the question of what to do for an intake? I really do not want to do anything. I also have been questioning this reasoning. Adding holes adds resistance. But maybe I will go ahead with my thoughts on a couple of intake holes in the nose. I would expect that a fixed wheel would create a bit of a vacuum behind it? So the exit should be fine. Oh well... I think this is my final resolve on that issue. Thanks Dave for making me think about it some more.

Skids - I will not have a belly tow hook. It will either be aerotowed or motor powered. The idea with the motor 'module' it to be able to quickly exchange that 'pod' with a nose two release 'pod'. So, no tow hook to think about. I have been a bit worried about ripping up the covering on the bottom front and have been thinking that some packing tape over the covering would be a good idea. Having the wheel is hopefully going to reduce that wear. I got a response on another thread about locating that wheel. They said it should go under the leading edge of the wing... that sounds about right. I have to decide how much wheel to expose under the belly if it is not a retract (and yes on K.I.S.S.). I'd like it not to be 1" and 1/2" is likely too little, so maybe 3/4" is about right? It will still be sliding over the top of the grass on most fields, but that shouldn't be too bad. Also, this wheel should help a bit with less friction during a tug takeoff.

The tail skid is by the plans. It extends below the rudder which actually tapers upward toward the TE. It has a piece of Heart Pine laminated into the center, so should wear really well, but again, I'll like but some packing tape over the covering to protect it. I think this will suffice for rudder protection. Good to think about this though.

Getting 'short sheeted' with my covering, put a nasty delay in the project. That and the hottest days of the year. It's now looking like I'm not going to finish this thing before my shop is destructed. I think it will take 4 to 6 weeks to reconstruct. Drag!!! At the same time, the fuse is about done... got the wheel and intake holes left to do... to be ready for covering. So maybe the short sheet was a good thing? I can do covering in the house and not upset the S.O. She didn't much care for the dust when I built my Dynaflite Decathlon in the living room!!! And me either. I couldn't believe how much sanding and how that dust traveled. But covering... If I have all my sanding done... I think I could move inside and limp along with a hodgepodge of tools spread all over the place in boxes. So, maybe I will be able to continue during this shop construction period and not get into trouble. When I'm doing a build, I have a tendency to have 'everything' right there on the bench. I bad habit. I actually zip lock bagged some groups of items this time to get them off the bench and held in groups. This is a good practice if I just take the time to actually do it. Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to continue. As I only have one week to tear down, it is time to get really serious about emptying the 'shed'. So, not much more will be done over this week.

Our airstrip! Yes, it is wonderful and I feel really lucky. It is in the middle of about a 15 acre field on the high spot. The view for the pilot is commanding. The high spot is only a few feet above the rest, but it makes a very nice difference. The runway rises slightly to one end. Maybe as much as a foot. One end has a slight tilt to one side... again maybe one foot. Otherwise it is pretty much flat. The approach from one end is forever... like 1000-1500 ft. to the tree line. The other end a bit less... maybe 600-800 feet to the tree line. Basically, you can land here with about anything (we do fly 40%ers from this field). I bet a full scale Cub could hit it! We are only about 400 feet from the tree line on the mountain side of the runway, which runs parallel. The field is mostly north south oriented with the pilot stations on the west side, so the sun is at your back for afternoon/evening flying. Again, our grass is not as good as the club fields I have been to, but the openness, flatness, commanding view and size I like better than all the nearby clubs.

As for XC... what be really awesome is to do a run from here to a club near Staunton. That however would be a real feat. The road is busy and fast traffic... I'm not sure if I could plan a route to do this. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'm enough of a pilot to do this! It is fun to think about though. Still, first get her in the air. Second, telemetry of some sort... then start thinking more about what might be outlandish ideas becoming reality! I do not have much experience in true 'themaling'. I have the cheat reverse slope soaring going. That is a lot easier. And without telemetry, I'm not sure I can 'see' if I'm going up or down. It's all mountains around here, and although I've caught a thermal or two under a big cloud... I don't feel very confident in trying a long over land journey. Time will tell.