Is erans still following this thread?? I have had a similar problem with my landing gear breaking off as he did a couple of years ago. I was wondering if his repair has held up over time, as I am going to be digging into it pretty soon. Ha, I say problem, but it was a pretty hard landing that caused the damage .

Hi Sandyt, I am still following this thread :-)
The fix held for more then 100 flights until last week, when I landed directly into a rabbit hole in the grass and ripped it all out again...
I fixed it again now, and hope to test it this Sunday (if weather permits).

Eran

Thank you for the quick response, erans! I will probably do something similar to what you did, but maybe with an additional brace from the rear of the gear mount up to either the wing mount fuselage former or the wood piece that supports the upper wing mounting nuts. I have landed my Waco dozens of times with no issues, but I think I caught the edge of a crossing runway just at the wrong time. However, it is too nice of a plane to not fix!

I am going to use a OS 1.20AX that I already had. Looks like I have to use 4 of the spacers behind the mount. Then in order for the prop washer to measure out to 6 11/16 the front bolt holes for the engine mounting flange will go throught the angled portion of the mount on the bottom. Will this be ok to mount the engine as such? Thanks for the help.

Gene

Gene, you have to figure that GP meant for customers to use any or all of the plates. I wouldn't worry one bit about it. BTW, I have 2 120 AX's, and they are great engines. Your plane will have a lot more power than mine!!

SandyT

Thanks for the reply. Went and purchased longer bolts for being able to use all 6 spacers. Hope to finish it up today and be ready to fly next weekend. Anything tricky to flying the Waco? 1st time flying a bi-plane.
Gene

Mine is my first biplane bigger than a .15, so I was a little nervous the first time I flew it. However, the WACO flies very predictably. I don't know your history, but you have been on RCU for almost a decade so I gather you know how to fly . Just keep a little throttle on until your plane is just above the ground. The WACO will glide pretty well, but don't run out of airspeed when you are 4 feet above the runway!

SandyT

Been flying for some time, but with that said I'm no stranger to having a senior moment Thanks for the tip. Looking forward to seeing this one in the air. Even my wife wants to come out to see it fly. I'll believe that when she is in the truck with me on the way out to the field!

Gene

My old yellow Waco is still flying with my Zen 23, but I added the B & B straight pipe to her. God, I love the loud racket that she makes! Really cool sounds at half throttle and the sounds you get when she does an aileron roll are neat. I also could bolt the fake motor to the front of the Zen. I just mounted the plastic on a thin sheet of ply and cut her out to fit and cool. Only the bottom plug hangs out and the pipe. Everything else is enclosed. A little detailing on the plastic motor, looks cool. The only problem that I have had with the landing gear is the splitting of the covers. I filled in the cracks with canopy glue, same as I keep those pesky fairing in place. Bye and large, my favorite and most dependable flyer of my fleet.

I'm going to put the DLE 35R in mine and see how things go. I think I will really like it.

It will be way over powered. We had a guy with the DLE 30 on his and it was way too fast but that was the way he liked it. I use a DLE 20 on my GP Stearman and it has plenty of power when needed and flys very scale at 1/2 throttle

Mounting the cowl and followed the procedure. The one thing I didn't do is add any fiberglass to the epoxy. (Don't have any). I did add some micro balloons. Let everything dry for several hours. I was having a tough time removing the cowl and when it finally came off the cowl ring cme out of the cowl. Was using the micro balloons a mistake? Any ideas or help is appreciated. Thanks

Gene

Gene - I used epoxy, but mixed it with milled fibreglass and had no problems so far (over 130 flights with 30cc petrol engine).
If I was doing it again, I will be using Hysol epoxy instead of the "normal" 30 minutes epoxy, just due to the fact that it bonds even better with the fibreglass.

Microbaloons form very stiff contact surface which will not be suitable in the high vibration environment as is next to the engine.
Saying that, the bond should have hold at time of construction unless you applied force in direction that the bond didn't hold.

Cheers,
Eran

Gene, On mine, the fixed ring (the one on the fuse) was a little too large for the cowl to easily slip over it. I sanded it down a bit until the cowl was an easy fit. You might try that.

SandyT

Mine is a fairly tight fit as well. So I'll sand it down a little. I couldn't fine any milled fiberglass locally so I order it. Now I'll have to wait until next weekend to maiden it. Thanks for the help as it is greatly appreciated.

Gene

Hi all ! I got mine in the last days of December and I'm planning to start the build.
I have 2 questions for you:
1) since the head rest in mine is badly crack and a replacement is out of the question what do you suggest ? Trying to repair it or rebuild it out from balsa ?
2) what will be the ailerons servo set-up on a Futaba R617FS 7-Channel receiver ? Two Y cables on channel 1 and 6 ?

Thanks !

Coded, If the headrest is only cracked, I would reinforce it inside with some balsa or fiberglass. As for the receiver, with 7 channels you could have one channel for each aileron . What I did was use Y cables on a right/left basis, not a top/bottom basis so I could more easily add aileron differential.

I hope I get to visit your country and city one day!

SandyT

I had bought "scratch and dent" Waco with headrest missing. Made one from balsa using the photos for a guide and covered with black Ultracote. Looks just like the photos.
Used the hookup Sandyt used on the ailerons.

Hei SandyT, just drop a line when you are ready to visit. For sure there are load of things to be seen and an important RC community ready to welcome guests !
Regarding the head rest I will try a repair. About the RX I'm not sure if 7 channels are to much because I install on all my gassers an ignition cut off switch on channel 5: throttle + ignition + rudder + 2 x elevator + 2 x ailerons = 7.

Talking about gassers I'm still undecided what engine to use on my Waco: I have available a DLA 32 and a ZP Zenoah 38cc. What will be your choice between this two ?

Go for the DLA 32. I use 30cc engine in my WACO and it is too much power for it.
It is really a 20cc aeroplane...
The Zeboah will not add any benefit, with even more power, but also weight.

Cheers,
Eran

Second attempt at putting the cowl on I used milled fiberglass with 30 min epoxy. Cowl came right off of the ring. Sanded, cleaned and still no good. Any suggestion?? Thanks for any help!

Gene

chopper man - I must admit that I cannot see why you have these issues.
I had to glue two of these cowls (I changed engine and needed different cut-out) without issue following the instructions.
I just remembered that I didn't used "milled" fibreglass (as I didn't have any at the time), but instead I chopped light fibreglass cloth to small pieces and had them mixed with the Epoxy.

The photo show my first cowl two sides of the "ring". The side that had the bag is clean from glue, and the other side is "lumpy" with the epoxy mixed with cloth.

Eran

I finally got it. Think I just wasn't using enough epoxy. Used a lot more and it finally worked out. Thanks or the reply and pictures. Hope to maiden it this weekend.

Gene

All finished Just waiting for a day off and nice weather. What a good looking plane.

Good luck with the maiden, it is a great flying aeroplane, you will enjoy it.

Eran