Building with animal hair conjures up images I don't even want to think about, especially given the connotations of beaver fur in other context
We had a good fly-in today; not a lot of out-of-towners, maybe due to gas prices, but a great turnout of spectators and local flyers. A couple of guys did come over from Sevierville Tenn, a long haul just to spectate, they didn't fly. The weather was perfect, just a slight breeze which started picking up about 2:30, and mostly overcast, which kept the sun's glare down.
I got two great flights on the UMF, even got comfortable enough to do a roll. The changes I made to the control throws took out the twitchiness, and the changes to the tailwheel alignment with the rudder and allowing some free caster was just what I needed to make the takeoff roll more controllable. I did have one little, uh, incident, though. Not with the Waco, no, no, no.
We had a bunch of WWI stuff there today, and somebody suggested a gaggle flight of all Fokker airplanes. We fired up two BUSA 1/4 scale D-VII's , an SR Batteries 1/4 scale Eindecker, a BUSA 1/4 scale D-VIII, and my GP DR-1. We were all buzzing around in a big melee, and I came up behind the D-VIII. I thought I was outside him in the turn, but not far enough and the right wingtips on my top and middle wing went through his prop. I went into a right hand spin from about 250 feet with most of the right wings gone, and totally trashed the DR-1. The D-VIII on the other hand kept flying and he made the runway and did a perfect landing, engine still running, but with half of one prop blade gone. The only other damage he sustained was a tiny ding to his cowl.
He said he was going to paint a small Maltese cross on the side for an air-to-air victory. I hate losing the plane, but I'm not the least upset about it, well...... The way I look at it, now I have an available .91 Saito, a Rx and 5 servos for another plane. I do need to send the engine in, there's a small dent on one pushrod tube and the needle body on the carb got bent; I want to make sure the crank isn't damaged. The whole front of the engine was buried in the dirt.
heck, it was just an ARF
If I had to crash a plane today, I'm real glad it was that one. I got three good flights on it today before the crash.