My first competition pattern airplane was a J&J Troublemaker which I flew to a 2nd place (Novice) in the 1974 AMA Nationals. I sold the Troublemaker when the USAF reassigned me somewhere where I couldn't take the airplane. When I was able to resume RC Flying, I recall a Kirkland Intruder, two Dirty Birdys, and a Mach 1. Then came the 20+ years away from RC while earning a MS in Computer Science, family issues, establishing a post USAF career, etc. Now, semi-retired (I'm an adjunct instructor at a local community college), RC is in my life again. Assembled a SIG "Somethin' Extra" to get started, built a Tsunami 40 for fun, discovered SPA and got the pattern bug once more. Scratch built a Deception which flew great but had a short expiration date, so got a WM Intruder ARF to have something to fly. Scratch built another Deception which also had a short expiration date, but is repairable (requires a new fuselage) and I'm doing that. But a member of my local flying club had a job related relocation and in the process of cleaning out a lot of stuff he didn't want to move, he offered me a partially built J&J Troublemaker that he quit working on, he said maybe 15-20 years prior, which was stashed in his garage. So I stashed it in my garage for almost two years now. But here I am finally working on it.

It had a Tatone engine mount installed, which was too wide for the OS .55AX I planned to install. Ripped out the old firewall, made a new one and reinstalled. It was also set up for the standard "fixed" trike gear, but I decided to make it into a tail dragger, so I've ripped out the wing gear blocks and reinstalled new wing gear blocks as far forward as I could. So I now have a fuselage which is pretty close to done. Still needs wing mounting blocks, bottom sheeting for the tank area, an engine cowling, a tail wheel, rudder and elevator control surfaces, some more sanding and finishing. The wing still needs fixed trailing edges, aileron fitting and hinging, and then complete the project with a fuel tank and all radio and control linkage installation, and finishing.

It was in rough shape to start with. I was thinking for a while that I'd just take the wing apart to trace the wing rib patterns. But now the project is on to bring this airplane back to life. Attached is a photo of my 1974 Troublemaker and a couple of shots of the current project airplane.

ChiefK