Hey Alan!! Geez, sorry 'bout dat. I went right to work and never even considered posting anything about her - too busy rebuilding, cussing and kicking myself for whatever really happened. Anyway, I was upset enough that anything I'd have posted would have been pretty lousy reading at that point. There were an awful lot of hours in the shop with me just sitting there, hemming and hawing over what to do and how to do it.
Anyway, yeah, she's back in the air again (June 18 2016) but with an older Fox .45 driving her right now on a 10 oz fuel tank. One day I'll find another OS.60 in good shape and I'll mount that so I can have all the power back again, but for now the Fox will have to do. I got one of the last 72MHz Futaba 4YF radios that Tower had before they were discontinued and I used Dubro 2mm control rods encased in nyrod tubes - no bend there at all.
Also, while I was at it I re-positioned the rudder belcrank in the horizontal stab AND the elevator pushrod, each to opposite sides in the tail. I wasn't super happy about the first positioning so this was a good time to re-position them so they CAN'T interfere with each other. There isn't a whole lot of room there - only 7/8" wide on the inside - so I had quite a time getting it right.
The worst part of the rebuild was actually putting the wings back together - that took awhile, and an awful lot of coffee. The entire center was toast and a whole new 3" on each side had to be fabricated, which really wasn't all that bad, now that I look back on it.
Somebody, way back, mentioned being bothered by the separation of the ailerons from the wings when it hit - and I did a bit of pondering on that. Then it hit me where I screwed up. I used SIG CA easy hinges and one of the things I learned a long time ago with any kind of material hinge is to drill a center hole in the hinge slot to allow the CA to wick all the way inside. I did that on the rudders and elevator, completely forgot on the ailerons - a dumb, newby stunt. I filled in the old slots, not trusting them anymore, and cut new ones WITH the drilling of the center - they won't come out again. I also increased the throw of the ailerons a bit - wasn't completely happy with the original 30 degree up/down and they're now 45 degrees up/down. It makes a fair amount of difference in how well she rolls and she's easier to keep stable while inverted now.
Actually, I'm not a "precision aerobatics" flyer in any way - aerobatics for me is more of a sporting proposition, so the throw increase is more for my peace of mind than anything else. I found, early on, that the Stratus is fully capable (and happy) of turns with just the rudders - she COULD be a successful 3-channel ship. Much of my flying with her is done with just rudders, which really requires a different mind-set for me to do reasonably well, but she's so graceful in rudder-only turns - I love it.
Outside, she's virtually identical to what she looked like before, except for the smaller engine. I rebuilt the engine bay so a .60 will fit right in with no mods - even used the original engine mount, which was dirty but undamaged.
She's now had something over 70 flights since the rebuild, and I'm looking to build another some time this year - but much lighter if I can manage it. I messed up on her originally - she came out at 8.25 lbs (which was a bit heavy in the first place - supposed to be 6.5-7.5 lbs) and is now running 8.6 lbs with the new wood. She was also built with cap strips over the ribs and VRCS rules say that in order to qualify in concours she needs to have the same planking as the original. I'd also increased the size of the ailerons just a bit on the original. The new one will have same-size-as-plans ailerons so she matches the plans better. My only real issue will be covering the new plane. Dope pricing has gone out of sight (for me) and I'm looking for a new paint that will get the job done and hold up as well. Don't want to monokote her - she needs to be painted. Will definitely be looking to the guys for a bit of educating on that when the time comes.
Once the weather warms up I'll try to get my other half out to the field to get some new pics of her in the air.
Last edited by skylark-flier; 04-07-2017 at 09:01 PM.
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