Roger let me know how it flies...I've been eyeballing that plane for some time..... JW

JW, will do. I was contemplating the CH Cap X, but after careful research I went with the Soucy. This was one of the easiest ARF's to assemble to date. Many many improvements. I give G.P. a solid 10 on construction and assembly. Now let's see how it flies. Too many improvements to list and off the UCD topic so please excuse guys. Let me know if you have any questions about this one and I will be glad to take off line to discuss.

Allen, way to go in helping the wife get her wings. I wish mine would take more interest. She plays tennis and I play RC. Somehow we meet in the middle and after 28 years with the same woman it's working. We have our mutual interest, but she still doesn't understand how I can enjoy putting so many hours into a project and then on occasion have it all end up in a broken wood pile, only to turn around and do it all over again. Oh, but when it all goes right it's so hard to beat.

Hope to maiden tomorrow. It's about to rain here in N. Al.

ROGER...fantastic loking thing..it realy is, you must be well pleased ..all the indecession about this or the Cap X ...you chose wisely, very.

Go's without saying good luck with the maiden ..keep us posted.......Dave.

Roger, don't try to keep up with Matt, others have tried. Keep doing what you obviously do best, build planes. Great ship, it has the lines of a Vette. Good luck, we're here on the side lines cheering you on. BTW, whats the details on the plane? Setup, etc.

Hondalan, there is another way to balance with that thing. Get a piece of wood or ply and drill two holes in it 14-1/2!QUOT! apart, center to center. Then stand the ball rods up like fence poles in the holes. That will put you directly under the spars.

I know David, will be disappointed in me, but I've been seriously researching the Extreme Flight Yak, just in case, sort of like a back up to the UCD. Not that anything is wrong with the UCD, but I couldn't find the expiration date on the box......... and that YS 110 would slide right in. OK, get your planes in the air and report back Monday. Joe

Joe

Hey no.. that Yak thingy has had some great reports about it..scale model of a Russian two seat aerobatic trainer ..i think.. yeah ..superb kit...first class..

The Sukhoi and the Yak share many " Russianesque" Quality's....the most noticeable, for me is THE UNDERCARRIAGE..[:@]....

Couldn't they make it a bit more ..er ...bent ..or something..

Just kiddin ya Joe, don't think there's any on the island yet.

I keep going back and looking at Rogers new creation...Brilliant ..just brilliant

Dave, thanks for the compliments. Much appreciated. I went to the field this morning for the maiden flight. 50% chance of rain with winds out of the SE at 3 mph. Got everything set up and then it began to rain. it didn't just rain, it poured. Arrgh! At least I got the engine running and was glad with how quickly the 160 fired up after replacing the crankshaft from the Giles midair. She came to life quickly. Question for you guys.... If you use a longer prop with less pitch should this cause your rpm's to drop off vs using a shorter prop with more pitch? I was getting 9300 rpm's with an APC 16X10. With the APC 18X6 I was able to pull 8740 rpm's while still getting good smoke. I would have thought the rpm's would have been about the same.

Anyway, the rain kept coming so I packed up and headed for the hanger. Maybe this afternoon things will clear up so I can get the maiden flight and a few more in.

Hey Joe, as you can see by the photos I went stealth on the canopy, which I really like on this model. Also used canopy glue with a good solid fit this time. I know this is not UCD related, but since Joe asked, here are the Soucy details.

Now to fly the darn thing. Maybe this afternoon if the weather clears.

You guys must be out on the town or still flying........ The rains stopped and I got the maiden and two additional DS behind me. [:@] Who was it that said I should have replaced the bearings when replacing the shaft? I owe that guy and should have listened. Plane flew great and landed three times on the runway with 3 consecutive DS. The engine would run up fine and then after she ran for a while I noticed I would lose power. Tried adjusting the carb, especially when I noticed black reside around the cowling. Not a good sign. Had good smoke to begin, but as the engine heated up the smoke would disappear. Sure enough, if you pressed on the top of the prop and pulled on the bottom there was play in the shaft. A sure sign of a bad back bearing. I am going to replace the front and back bearings with stainless steal Bocca sealed bearings. These will last beyond my lifetime. This should resolve the problem, and I should have done this when replacing the bent crankshaft. Arrgh! It's never as easy as it seems. Another lesson learned the hard way. If the plane flies this well under these circumstances then I am going to love this bird when I have the engine running right. I suspect this is why I was only getting 8740 rpms. and should have realized something was wrong. 3 DS's with zero damage. Hey, the Soucy is a great glider with no bad snap tendencies. Oh to be so happy that we live for another day.

Hi Roger,
Sorry to jump into this thread from outta nowhere but I've been told by an engineer that stainless-steel bearings are actually quite soft, you should really look at ceramic bearings for long life. Dunno how true this is as it's only one opinion, but you may want to research it a little before all that hard work

HTH,
Blue

Roger, what you want to look at when your in there is the cam gear and the tappets. With the play caused by the worn bearings, they tend to take a beating. Check for the tappet ends to see if they are peened over and look for a groove where they ride on the cam lobe. The gear is usually good, but its a one piece unit. Good luck, Joe

Blue, I thought about going with ceramic, but not enough info to feel comfortable at this point.

Joe,

The 160FX is a 2 stoke glow engine. No tappets that I'm aware of, or am I missing some parts? LOL

..Joe..Drape Duty..then clean the tropical fish out..then the dentists.

Good Morning All,

To those of you that knew about the events in my family, we thank you for the condolences rendered.

Joe, Didn't get a response from the PM I sent last week so assume that you are busy. Thank you for being a friend.

David, Thank you for your posting from the U.K. very thoughtful.

Roger, Sorry to read about your loss, but the new bird looks gorgeous good luck!!

Haven't been doing much flying due to that and for the past several days as we have been involved in a tropical rain event here. It rained pretty much all last week and we still have a flood watch in effect here until 5pm Tuesday. The good part is that means that my first UCD is finished except for the cowling, canopy, radio installation and balancing. I hope to have that all done by tomorrow. I finally broke down and bought a digital camera so I'll take some photos and post them soon as I figure out how to do that!! Tower is having a sale so I ordered another UCD .60 and a .46 size one too!! By the way does anyone know the hot engine setup for the .46 size UCD?? I'm thinking about a YS 63 or Saito 72. No one has a .46 size one at our field but alot of Funtanas can been seen. Well guys hope to be more a part of the thread now that matters are normalizing here. Hopefully the "Shooter" is back!!

Matt, Sorry I forgot about you. How did that 16 X 4 propeller work out for you??

Roger, oops....wrong engine. Thinking of the 150 4s.

David, as well, I have been catching up on my domestics when work allows. Today is the first sun to be seen in two weeks. Very tropical, humid and high winds for what seemed like forever. Tonight looks like the night.

Brian, got the PM, just couldn't get enough sit down time for a proper response. Will talk to you very soon. Looking forward to pics of the UCD. Incredible how long that ten hour plane takes to assemble. Later, Joe

Brian....nice to have you back, you have not really missed much, real quiet

Weather here a bit odd too ...were in the middle of the country BUT have had sea mists plaguing us for the last few mornings ...till about noon when the sun finally evaporated the pesky stuff...dazzling ...hot afternoons, then thunderstorms...[:-]

Took the UCD to the field yesterday ...few more flights ..need to make a bracket for the exh...other than that ..FINE

Right ..after much deliberation, pondering, angst and finally impatience.....Ive ordered it......picking IT up later...

Okay, I'll bite. What is 'IT'? Ohhhhh, you big tease. Joe

Yeah, I see you bit on that bait as well, Joe. OK, Dave, what gives? The suspense is killing us. Whats in your little bag of goodies now?

Guys,

C'mon he's just picking up that exhaust bracket and wants us to think he's getting something cool. YS100FZ maybe?? If I could get my Cline regulator in the mail I could finish my airplane!!

Hey Blue, I wish I had now ordered Ceramic bearings. I have researched this a bit more and learned a few things. Apparently they are using the same standard chrome steel balls and then coating them with Ceramic. They are lighter and produce less friction thus generate less heat, and get this, 15% more RPM's. Engine runs cooler and performs better. But, they cost about 30.00 more form what I can tell.

I went on ahead and ordered the Stainless Steal bearings, which as you say, the SS is a bit softer than the chrome steel they use in stock bearings, but they are less likely to rust as quickly. Boca uses 440c stainless which still has carbon so it will still rust , but not as quickly as chrome steal. The stainless bearings cost 50.00 and had been shipped already, but for 15% more rpm's I would have purchased these. I was in a hurry to get the engine back in the Soucy so got impatient. Maybe next time, but I hope I never need to order bearings again.

..69" w/span.....I'm playing hard to get here.....( Did this for 7 years with wifey.......she didnt notice..[:@].. )

Well it's either the G.P. Stearman, Pitts or CE BIPE, but it's a BIPE for sure. [8D]

Ok, what did I win?

Funtana 90?

The F 90 seems to be getting more bad press than good as far as the posts go. Still you must consider the publics penchant for bashing products as they somehow overlook the good in anything. 69 inches........could it be Q S's Yak? Come on, save the mystery for wifey, we're not on a date here. Spew! Joe

the Yak was too easy after he posted comments about it. Ole Lordy is too smart to give this one away that easily. After all, he has hand much practice on the wifey.

Good one, Joe. LOL

I still say it's a BIPEer!!!

On a side note, the poor Funtana has been getting a lot of bad press lately, but Horizon seems to be standing by their product. It is a good looking airplane that looks like it would be as much fun as the UCD. What's interesting is that the UCD seems to be holding up better. You don't hear about wings folding, shearing etc. Wonder if it's really a matter of people not following directions, or if there is a problem with the airplane. Guys sure get hammered if they speak up about it. No plane should be so fragile that if you don't follow the directions to the letter that it comes a part. If you don't and it does, well, it seems to me that the design should be made to be more forgiving. Otherwise, bad press, because you know people are going to push the limits on the directions thing. I don't know how many guys I know who say they don't even look at the directions. They feel they know more about airplanes than the person doing the writing. These pilots aren't rookies either.

David, What's up with being so quiet??

Well guys the hurricane is up off the Carolina coast, but it is still raining here. Has not let up since last week except for brief periods. Ooops, mailman just came maybe my Cline regulator is in the box gotta go!!

Joe, If in fact it is here how should I mount it?? Mr. Cline said to just let it dangle. I really don't want it just vibrating around between the motor mounts. LHS got a YS 100FZ in this morning it's impressive, but heavy compared to the Saito. I bet it would sure but the buzz on a .60 sized warbird (FW190). Any comments??

Roger, I think a lot of the gripes are from people with these as only their 2nd or 3rd plane and being first time flyers with big 3D controls and slow flying frames. Faulty under carriage reads as still trying to land like a sport plane or trainer. Control flutter = bad design, without giving a thought to the way they scream all over @ full bore. First big question is, how fast will it roll? Strange, all IMAC maneuvers are performed on low rates and a roll isn't even considered in 3D. It is a beautiful craft, with looks all over the UCD. What it comes down to is the UCD is proven, not perfect, but continues to bring satisfaction.

David, don't play coy with us. Inquiring minds want to know.

Brian, with a 6 oz. penalty over the S 100, the YS 110 turns the UCD into a whole different animal. A beast!
Just hang the Cline off the carb on the fuel line. The closer the better, but you still have the option of placement within 1-1/2 inches. There is a trick to fueling. If using dots, fill the tank to overflow, cap the pressure line, add about 5 additional pumps or cranks on the fuel pump, pinch off the fuel line and cap. The system is now pressurized. If you don't pressurize the system, it is said that when trying to start, the low pressure from the exhaust takes forever to build up. You will find that now your high end needle requires to be turned out at least 2-1/2 turns, compared to the normal 1-1/2. Also the needle will seem less sensitive. What used to be 3 or 4 clicks to richen is now around a half turn. Keep it rich as the regulator will only meter out the fuel needed. Good luck, Joe