Hi JPEE,
I forgot how important balancing is for the sailplanes both nose/tail and wing/wing. Glad you were able to get it worked out. How do the flaps work for the upgrades Bixler verses the old version? Some of my older nitro aerobatic planes I used to set up my flaps so they doubled as spoilers so I could flip them and do an inverted float when I ran out of fuel and deadsticked the plane then flip to a landing. It was fun and would freak out many of the members and I would hear them in the background saying is he deadstick and inverted?? lol. Glad you got that rudder to aerilon mix sorted out too - nothing like fighting your plane back to the field and not figuring out why!
My dad is coming to visit again this week. He'll be arriving early Sunday morning. We are going to visit a warbird museum in Titusville as he's been wanting to go there for some time. Last time he was here he helped me put floorboards down in the attic so to make a makeshift walkway up there - better then trying to play leapfrog from rafter to rafter! This trip he wants to help me put insulation on the garage door - this morning I stopped by Lowe's to pick up several sheets of insulation foam boards. I think keeping busy helps him. I'll see if I can talk him into having me change his oil while he's here this time around. I'm going to see if I can fit a morning of launching rockets and do some heli and plane flying - I know my son will have a great time doing that with his papa!
I've also started to do a bit more work on my car this year. In March my water pump went so I took about a month to replace it. What should have been a simple afternoon job turned out to be much more involved - thanks Ford engineers! I eventually had to take out the intake manifold and pop loose the fuel rail with injectors just to get to this metal heater by-pass pipe that connected the water pump to the heater core. Took my dremel and cut it out as it wouldn't budge. But got it all sorted out and everything running again. Even got a bit more power as I replaced the intake manifold gasket - guess I had a bit of air leakage from the old gasket. It was nice doing all the work in my garage!
Last month I replaced the tranny fluid and filter - I also finally got the c-clip off and removed the 1-2 accumulator springs so the transmission hits much harder with the 1-2 shift. I also used Royal Purple fluid this time around just to see how it performs.
My next project is the tail - specifically the open differential. I want to change to a LSD and increase my gears from my stock 3.27 to 4.1. Right now I'm just researching on the actual job involved (usual labor would run between $200-$500) as I would like to do the work myself. I would have to check around to make sure I can get all the specialized tools I would need, including a bearing press. But I wouldn't be doing anything until this fall, so I have plenty of time...
Mark