I look in Tower's scratch and dent section a couple times a week. I often see planes that are missing a wing, fuse, tail feathers, etc. I've always suspected they canabilized them for warranty purposes. Maybe they'll do this if you send in your fuse.

Well, I was hoping to salvage the fuse without returning it, first they offered to send me a tank, then I said that the fuse is soaked and likely no good...they've never asked me to send anything back before?..dont get me wrong, I'mn not trying to get over on them,,if the powder trick works, I just put in a new tank and try again...but I wont know until the first landing if its any good or the gear rips out on impact...Rog

Forget the powder. Get some kitty litter. Fill the fuselage and then put the litter around the outside of the fuselage. Let it sit like that for a few hours. Take out the fuse and brush it off. Now use a heat gun and hit the heat soaked area, as you heat it you will see oil start to seap out. Now put it back into the kitty litter. Keep this up until you get little or none of the oil coming out as you heat it. After you're through doing this paint the area with epoxy to seal it up. Recover and put the plane back together.

Ken

rog use some denatured alcohol in a spray bottle and some paper towels to soak up the exess fuel the alcohol evaporates fast and breaks the fuel down for easy clean up it will help remove the fuel from the balsa then check your glue joints and if you find some loose ones use some thin CA glue to make sure the fuse is sound and all the joints are solid after finding a leak in my tank in my NEXTAR this method worked great for me. the covering was fine after my leak and clean up the alcohol the plane still lives to fly today.

Ken, I dont have a kitty or its corresponding litter nor do I own a heat gun, but I appreciate the advice..
Bigtim..Denatured alcohol and paper towels I got!,,will try that method and then just hit toweer up for the tank....thanks ..Rog

Rog, this all works well. I'm sure that you have now learned to fuel proof your tank area of your next plane with epoxy or equivelent??? Sorry for the problems you are having. There is also a product used to clean suede shoes called K2R that sprays on that absorbs oil very well. Spray on, let it soak up the oil and brush off. Repeat until done. Then seal area with epoxy.

http://www.k2rbrands.com/products/original.htm

Thanks Bruce, I have heard of most of these before but never had to use them,,most of my planes tanks are 8cc to 1 oz so I dont bother fuel proofing the compartments for the tank..I will thin down some epoxy with the denatured alcohol and slather the inside of this one though...It is drying in the morning sun as we speak...thanks again guys.....Rog...the entire area is ply so that should help too, I dont think I'd even try to fix balsa

Rog, don't thin the epoxy, that weakens it and it cures porous. Instead, mix it and then warm up the wood with a hair drier (hopefully you've got one of them ). Pour in the epoxy and use a disposable brush to spread it around. If necessary, give the epoxy another blast with the hot air. The warm wood will soak up the epoxy.

Use 30 min epoxy and your monokote gun. You should have one of those from your 1/2A stuff too.

Rog ain't got much hair,probally no dryer either!
Roger,stop by and get my heat gun if you need it.

Well now your gettin personal[&o]..na Rog aint got much hair..no hair dryer...no heat gun...thanks BA, I may take you up on that....Rog

Ok its cleaned up, dried out , and I gotta put it back together but I made a tank out of a 4 oz bottle of nail polish remover..dont know how long it will fly,probably 5 minutes or so with the .40LA but it doesnt matter, one of my favorite flying feats is to deadstick in....no choice, gotta get it right,,[&:]..theres no LHS here that I can get to with my schedule, I did get my dad to pick up a regular 4oz tank for me it was the biggest they had ....Rog

Finally get the thing in the air today..flew fine...4 oz tank doesnt run very long , maybe 5 minutes and then....Deadstick....I flew (glided) it twice around the field and brought it straight down the runway..perfect...this is like the second time that I ever flew a plane with wheels..the glow driver died on me so I only got in 1 flight with it and one with my 1/2a plane, I gotta get better organized[&o], but it was my fault...so anyway,,next week,,many more flights...Rog

Well, at least it flew. I hear tell there is a place that will sell you a bigger tank. I think they call it a "Hobby Shop".
Specs say it comes with a 9 oz (270cc) fuel tank so you got about half of a normal flight.

I looks like the Hobbico Superstar. If built the same it's a great flying trainer and strong as heck.

Well, another turn..I meet a new guy at the gate to let him in to see the field...very quickly, it is an old landfill so it is gated and must be close at all times..so we cant have visitors unless someone brings them in..any how I am taxiing the TT and I should have aborted, but its jumping around the field and I figure if I jam the stick and straighten it out it should jump into the air...oops it cartwheels into the tall grass, hits the prop, but it doesnt break the prop it breaks the engine mount!! No other one around to fit it, not even shown as an accessory, and you can see air bubbles in the casting (metal mount) so I vise it up, drill, tap, and pin it back in place,..oh it did break up the tail feathers some, so I am putting it back together now..hope the mount holds while I call Tower about it...I plan to fly it monday...had a spad at the field that had never flown before..it didnt go well,,engine died and guess what? spads DON'T glide well, I had my friend throw it and it went straight up which was fine until about 40 feet when the engine died...did I mention spad's dont glide well..straight down ,broke the prop and all the zip strips that held the servos in place......Rog

Glad to hear you had a good weekend [:@]

Thanks Bruce, the new guy joined the club and we're going flying thursday morning again,,was going today, but when I started my plane the other day the cone spun out of my starter motor and I forgot about it, I emailed a friend and it turns out he picked it up that afternoon, but apparently I left my glow starter out there too[&o]...I guess I needed a new one anyway[:@]..I guess after the crash, I was just ready to get out of there...Rog

Well, had 2 great flights this morning, I swear I got 10+ minutes of flight on that 4 oz tank, I was waiting for it to die, it wouldnt fly hands off for me but it was close to it, may have been windy up there....it was the 4th flight on the .40LA maybe its broken in already, I fill with a syringe and the 2nd flight I only put in one tube full and it still flew around 5 or 6 minutes, I couldnt believe it..out of dozens of flights (1/2a) this was the 5th time I landed a plane with wheels on it, looking forward to many more flights,,...Rog

Rog, Glad to hear things are working out for ya. Sounds like your having a good times with wheels I'm not quite sure why you limiting yourself to a 4 ounce tank, but that's your call. Keep it up.

If it won't fly hands off then I think you still have some trim issues. Mine will do it even in a fairly stiff wind, of course big gusts will knock it off track but it will fly hands off at half throttle most of the time. Especially on the downwind leg which is where I usually try to trim my planes at. You might want to check your linkages. The straighter you can get everything set up mechanically, the better it will fly & the easier it will be to trim for hands off flight imo.
Good luck & have fun!!

Something may be binding up and not letting the surfaces go back to neutral every time.

I think the culprit was about a 2 inch flap of covering just under the engine that has come unstuck from the wood,,I guess from when it got fuel soaked...the motor mount held up ok though....Rog