The search goeth poorly.

when you cut the wingtip covering next time and a Sharpe single edge blade is a must i use probably three to four blades when I'm doin edge trimming is to lay the blade flat on the bottom surface as you can and slide the blade along,for me normally i get a pretty straight line still get a jag or two sometimes but for the most part they look good enough if you slightly squint............do the same thing when you cover the bottom with the razor blade as flat as you can to the surface.the airplane wont know it has slight imperfections though looks like it is built true and straight

Alright Guys,

We're in the final stretch on this bird! (It's about time!!) I've got lots of pics for you, too.

We're held up waiting for some angle hold down parts from Tower. No one locally had them in stock, and because I had to place a stand alone order for them, they ended up costing me $1 each. [:@] So, when you see the misalignment on the top of the fuselage where it blends with the rear of the cowl, that is why. It is sprung slightly and will be perfectly lined up once our parts are installed.

I've tried to give you some close ups of key areas on the plane... servos, clevises, etc. I also wanted you to get a feel for the lines of the plane, and what it looks like over all. We have yet to put accent striping on it, but so far, I think it has turned out fairly well.

Problems that we encountered along the way:

The mistake on the dihedral brace that we told you about previously. Had a gap in the top of the wing to fill after they were joined.

Having to drill two engine mounts because I dorked up the first one!

Having no experience with fiberglass, my work on the wrap of the wing joint is fairly messy (in my opinion). I wasn't able to get a baby's butt finish to the surface. Ended up rougher than the wood surface around it.

Difficulties soldering the wire wrapping the gear down near each axle. I'll have one of the guys at the field check this out for us. Not sure I got it done solidly. It would be a shame to have it fail. This is a priority check item!

Here are some pics. I'll continue with more pics and the challenges we encountered in a bit.

Challenges continued..

We got our servos installed and then I foolishly laid the control rods out parallel to each other. We could have gotten a better path to the control horns by crossing them in the fuse.

I installed the control rods and had the exit points built before I put in the control horns. Had one end up not lined up and had to rip out the exit point on one side so that it could be moved forward. OOOOPS!

Got the covering installed on the fuselage and then realized that we had worked forward to aft on the fuse instead of aft to forward. Doh!

Had a wonderful time fighting bubble build up on the panel surfaces that we covered. Got a woodpecker and after using that, things went much better.[8D]

Ran out of covering material and went down to the local shop to get more. Word of advice... Buy More Than You Need! We got the same color for the second roll (Insignia Blue) but it didn't match! Must have been a different lot. That's a sore point for me![:@]

Here's some more pics:

Our Challenges Continued:

Had a tough time getting a smooth cut along the wingtips when we covered the wings. After getting lots of great tips on making these a little better looking, we decided to stick with what we had. Thanks for the advice guys.[sm=thumbup.gif]

Sliced the hell out of my finger with the hinge slotting tool. Be wary of wild #11 razor tips! You DON'T want to encounter one! (I feel that this tool may be downright dangerous!)

Here's some detailed shots of our Black Baron Special:

Now that we're almost finished, I have a new project which is to figure out how to use all of the radio gear and the field equipment that we picked up. We've got a couple of JR XP6102's that we're going to hook up via the cord. The club didn't have any JR's, so that was a perfect excuse to go buy another!!

Got the batteries cycling for break-in on the Triton. Wanted to make sure we knew what we had for battery power out there. Red Scholfield was a great help in getting me familiar with how to set up and use the Triton. Thanks Red!

Built a "Field Box From Hell" by following the post here on RCU. If you need to build a new field box, that is a "must read". I'll post some pics of it later.

Tomorrow, if those parts show up, I'd like to fire up the Irvine and see if we can get it started on break in. We'll keep you posted on it.

Thank you very much for ALL of the help, advice and suggestions you have given us along the way. It is GREATLY appreciated!

Here's one shot of our 1st Black Baron Special and our new radio before I go:

YEA!!! Your finnially done, I am almost there with the 4 star. It is starting to feel awsome...

Watch your engine temp, MIGHT be cowled a little tight but might also be fine. Just keep an eye on it. Otherwise looks great. Looking forward to flight reports.

nice dude.......

i only hope my first ones turn out that well

a word of advice if i were you,i would put a nylon tie on your muffler my irvine 53 had problems with the screw coming loose a few other fellas at the field had them come apart and fall off we never found the pieces.the cylinders head is exposed to the air i doubt you will have overheating problems,one of mine is in a Giles 202 with a cutout for the head in the cowl.never hurts to check though,good flying.

Dave,

your build looks great and thanks for sharing the photos. I'm really impressed with how well you've done with the engine / cowl fit it looks superb! The lines of this plane are really appealing, I love the 30's type racer as well and I think you've captured the look. I've got about a week left with my current build and then I'm hoping to start my Peashooter, can't wait. Good luck and keep us up to date.

Regards
Mike

This is for those of you who have not noticed the new thread. Unfortunately the plane has been flown and due to an accident has been totaled. We all mourn the loss of a great project but the builders have moved on and are flying an LT-40 now.

BTW - the plane flew great and the radio/engine survived. Please find the other thread for further details.

Edit to add link: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3149806/tm.htm

For those not knowing it, CFIT means: Controlled Flight Into Terrain. Gives a hint as to nature of the new thread.