The wing sheeting on my Escapade is 1/16" thick.

Gary

Vinegar works better than either bleach or ammonia. Remember the chicken leg bones you softened in science glass as a child? Use a small spray bottle to dampen (not soak) the side that will be the outside of the curve.

AAA balsa is simply one manufacturer's way of convincing you their balsa is best. LOL! AAA balsa will possibly be cut more accurately, and will not have any grain defects. Don't be ffraid to make the hobby shop manager mad by sitting down on the floor and going through every piece of whatever size balsa you need until you find just the right piece. For the price they charge in hobby shops, you can do this.

Sorry to read about the crash of your escapade. The escapade is the newest addition to my hangar and I just maidened it last Saturday and have put about 6 flights on it. I really like it so far and I think I will be taking it with me to the field every time I go flying. I put a Saito 56 in mine and with the receiver battery right over the tank it balances perfectly and flys nicely. I'm not sure if they are all this way, but mine does seem to have a tendency to stall? Wondering if you noticed that too during previous flights before the crash? I find that I have to land it a little "hotter" than I'd like. But this could be because of the weight. I haven't weighed it, but it flies like it is too heavy if that makes any sense. As long as it has enough air speed it will do almost any thing but get it too slow and it will fall like a lawn dart. I have my control throws tamed down quite a bit and have only just toyed with high rates but I get the impression that it would fly a lot better if it were lighter. What are you using for an engine and receiver battery? I'm using a 6 volt nmh battery which just barely fits under the canopy. I'm thinking a smaller tank and lighter battery might be a good addition to reduce the weight and still balance ok.

I wish you luck getting on the rebuild
Shaggy

1/16"? It probably is - I put a 3/32" next to the old wing sheeting and it seems to be pretty close. I'll go get a piece of 1/16" and see how it measures.

Can I just use windex?

The escapade is actually my 1st plane I ever flown and then I got an Avistar (I converted it to a tail dragger) to teach me alignment with runway. I got dozens and dozens of flights on the escapade and just as many on the Avistar. I played with stall high up with the escapade and the plane wants to drop its right wing. On some of the not so smooth landings the plane (when i get a bounce) the planes right wing drops. All my wing tip scuffs are on the right wing.

I learned my lesson. don't gun the throttle when one of the wing stalls - especially when I'm 3 feet off the ground.

This afternoon I'm gonna go maiden my Seagull Decathlon 40 size. I'm really nervous about flying it. I checked over everything and bench tested the engine. Everything looks good. I'm more nervous now since I crashed the escapade.

I'll disagree with Jaka in that a model is difinitely NOT too small to torque roll, however, a torque roll will be to the left, not the right, so you did, indeed, not torque roll in this instance. What you did was bounce to the right, which caused a stall.

What should you have done? Well, we can "armchair quarterback" all day long, but my guess is that in the attitude your plane was in, not only was the wing stalled, but probably the tail was stalled too. And with 3 feet of altitude and no airspeed to speak of the best thing to do is watch the really cool crash that is about to happen

But it's fixable. This article might help:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=998

I think this might be the heart of your problem. Treating the landing as an aerobatic manoeuvre is best left to people with lots of experience and recent practice on their model type. I don't ever do it.

Once you've fixed the model and hopefully got it flying again, you might like to try practicing recovery from incipient spins (at altitude). Basically it's Ailerons neutral, top rudder, throttle up, nose down gently if altitude permits and FINALLY, wings level with aileron and rudder once speed has built. Most models have a thrust to weight ratio approaching 1:1 (from either direction) so throttling up and getting the nose pointed up seems to work for most people and the whole evolution takes maybe 1.5 seconds.

There is one technique for recovering a bouncy landing of a tail dragger without pilot induced oscillation, but it's not for the faint hearted or those with limited experience on their model type. It's to "catch" the model with throttle at the top of the first bounce. Leaving the ailerons neutral, power up with the nose high so that the model mushes to the ground in the landing attitude. But this will not work with a cross-wind as the wings are in a semi-stalled condition and that would be a recipe for turning downwind onto its back............................

Well, now I know - when the plane bounces - don't gun the throttle to redo the landing because it looks ugly. Anyway, the repairs are going smoothly. I have all the wood I need. Just waiting for the Canopy to come "in stock" at Towers. can't finish crafting the top of the fuse without it. some have said to just buy a new plane or buy a new wing set - that's no fun. the fun part is building and a reason to buy new tools.