Down to the wire now. Early this week I decided to dress up the wheel wells and was looking for something to sheet in the openings. Light balsa was too brittle, even when wet so I opted for thin cardboard sheet, (or very thick paper depending on your definition) like those separating gangs of forms at work. Once the pattern was cut I transferred that to the paper and glued them in. Thinned some epoxy and brushed that on, letting it soak in before curing. Worked out well until I wet sanded it and found the penetration was less than hoped for. Ripped it back out and went searching again. Still had some white plastic sheeting used originally to protect the bottom of the Polaris and tried that instead. Seemed to work fine so completed the other 3 sections the same way. Saved having to sand and paint, so even though it took two attempts in the end it worked out better.

I fabbed new extensions and fished them through the wings yesterday, bolting down the retracts for hopefully the final time. Now it is routing the Y-adapters for the gear and ailerons.



With the nice weather had no excuse not to take it outside, fuel and fire it up for the first time last Sunday.

I checked the CofG beforehand and with the huge stock spinner and 3-blade Graupner prop it comes remarkably close to the aft wheel well bulkhead. However, with a 2-blade and the smaller spinner it may require some lead to fall back in range. As it stands all the changes bring the plane to close to 12 lbs sans cowling. I new all those mods were adding up. The most significant change was the gear and mounts. The Saito weighs far more than the stock recommended engine, but that's power in place of lead so no complaints.

It took some fiddling to get the mixtures close and it still needs tweaking to run the way I like, but 9000 RPM with a 14/8 prop is pretty respectable, especially considering the motor is not broken in yet and the 10% fuel is left over from last season. I hope to grab a case of 15% at the Toledo show soon.

There were the inevitable bugs that cropped up. One of the switch nuts vibrated loose and the left aileron did not work. Already pulled the extension and found the ground wire had broken at the pin. Already repaired and working to relocate the connection to reduce stress.

As for vibration, even though the motor did shake enough to make fitting the allan wrench and screwdriver to the HS and LS needles entertaining, the fuse and systems did not vibrate anywhere near the level I had feared. The tail and radio tray were relatively solid.

p.s. Sorry for the ugly grass. It is supposed to be under a foot of snow this time of year.