LT-25 Twin Project
I friend of mine totaled an LT-25 by SIG and he was good enough to “donate” the remains for my attempt to get a twin in the air. I rebuilt the fuselage and added two nacelles to the wing. Two GMS 32 engines were installed in the wing with four ounce tanks. Now, looking at my experience in dealing with twins, little or no money was used in building this twin. Left over Monokote of any color was used to cover holes and patch where needed. Scrap balsa, left over fuel tanks, old landing gear, assorted old control rods, and whatever else I could find was used to get the twin ready. I named the creature “X-pair-a-MENTAL”. Need I say more?
The test flight!
Sunday morning was sunny, a slight breeze from the east, just a nice day. I spent about an hour and 1/2 tuning, breaking in, and setting the new GMS .32 engines before I flew it. The engines were set to have a reliable idle and accelerate at about the same rate. All seemed ready. I started both engines – the sound was great!! The first flight had a pucker factor of 10++!! I had way too much aileron, rudder, elevator, and power. What a hand full!!! After five or six aborted landing attempts due to excessive speed, I finally got the twin on the ground and started detuning control surfaces. Time for the next flight. Took off OK, did a few laps, controls better, tried a roll, lost the port side engine. OK, now which way do I turn? Left engine out – tried a right rudder turn - won't turn right. Now what? Turn left? Tried a left rudder turn and immediately got the downward spiral of death. Tried everything to bring it out - nothing. Still spiraling in - oh well, let go of the sticks and decided to watch a good crash. Darn thing immediately went into straight and level flight! What a streak of luck!! Amazing! OK, let’s start flying again. Plane is headed east just over the outhouse. No power applied – did an aileron right turn – headed down - landed the twin without a problem. Packed it in and went home. The third and fourth flights were tuning flights to get the engines broke in and the controls adjusted. On the fourth flight, controls were set to about 30% for what is recommended for the LT-25. The plane was starting to fly like a sport trainer, handled good, good take offs and landing, a real sweet plane to fly and the sound was tremendous. The fifth flight was the last. on take off, the plane lifted off and about a foot off the runway, the plane went striaght up and started rolling to the right. I had no radio control. Needless to say, the outcome was not good but the plane is on the bench awaiting a rebuild. I blame a bad crystal in the receiver. Included are some rather poor pictures, I am not a photographer. Thanks for listening.