Well guys,

I think mother nature doesn't like me. I headed to the other field this morning. As I was getting closer I can see this dense fog ahead. Sure enough, the field and surrounding area was blanketed by a thick layer of fog that just didn't want to lift. After an hour or so, the fog had barely lifted and there was only about a 50 ft. ceiling. So instead of wasting a trip out there. I broke out the Edge, assembled her and placed her on the field. Everyone at the field was blown away by the looks and construction of these VF planes. I fueled her up and used this time to run the Saito 120 a bit more.

After another hour or so, the fog lifted more and gave a ceiling of about 150 ft. So it came down to whether or not I was up to flying in these conditions. I had already flown my buddy's Magic and knew that I could handle the current conditions. I fueled the Edge up. Just as I was getting ready to light her up, I looked her over one last time. That's when I found one of the hinges on the right aileron had broken . So my maiden flight has been pushed back yet again. I think mother nature was actually giving me a hint.... So my next project is to cut all the CA hinges from the wings and replace them with Robart Hinge Points.

I wasn't going to let this ruin my day though. I went to the car and pulled out my H9 Aresti 40 and got her ready. I fueled her up and started her. I spent a few minutes warming up the engine and checking the tuning on it. Byt this time the fog had lift a lot more and 3 of our members were already airborne. I taxied out and down the runway she went. She was up in about 50 ft. I climbed out at a decent attitude and banked left. I straightened out to check the aileron trim since I took two Futaba 9202's out of the wing and put them in the Edge. Just then the motor (O.S. 50SX) quit. Oh &$%@.... I was nowhere near in the ideal position. After my climb out and turn, I was now over the trees at the edge of the field and half way passed the field. I remained calm and called out deadstick. I leveled the wings and pushed down to maintain airspeed. I made a nice shallow left turn and was able to line up. I set her down with no futher damage (whew...).

I looked her over and couldn't see why she deadsticked. So I restarted her. Took off again and the same exact thing happened again. This time I was able to land her within a few feet from me. I took her to the pit area and placed her on my stand. As I was taking the wing off, I noticed quite a bit of fuel dripping out. I removed the wing and noticed fuel everywhere. I removed the fuel tank and fuel-soaked foam. Upon inspecting the tank, I discovered that the screw on the rubber stopper had come loose and allowed the tank to leak. Luckily I had coated the fuel compartment with thinned epoxy. I took this as another sign and decided to pack it up for the day. Oh well, there will always be next weekend.

At least I have a few things to keep me occupied this week...

Here a couple of pics of the plane at the field before I noticed the bad aileron hinge. Later guys.