Jesse Open

acdii

Would be a nice day to fly today here, but no one is at the field, and I don't fly alone. Never know when the god of inattention may strike. I had cleaned out my trailer on Friday and rearranged it. I added 3 closet poles about 6" down from the top of the wall and have my wings stored up there, and am able to fit 4 planes on the rack now, along with another 3 on the shelf, one of which is my fully assemble Something Xtra. The Rascal 168 I crashed took up a lot of room on one side, and I gained that back, but had to put it back in for storage at the moment. I found the Rascal is not my kind of plane, a bit too slow on the controls and has to be flown ahead of its path. At least that is how mine flew. It has the roll rate of a tug boat. I am used to the Something Xtra and LT-40 where I move the stick and the plane follows immediately, so it is easy to pick a point in the sky where I want the plane to e and it is there. The one and only time I did get to fully fly the Rascal, I found that driving like that the plane wound up way behind and was no where near where I wanted it to be, and the reason it wound up too far to make it back dead stick. I started turning where it should have been at the end of the runway, but by the time it did turn it was 100 yards beyond the end, and with a head wind, could not make it.

It was a nice looking plane though, Crunch can fix it and hopefully bring it back to it's full glory and make it fly the way he likes it.

Glowgeek

Yep, those SSE's are quick on the stick. My first one was quicker than I was. The second one got boned up a couple of years ago and stored "safely" in the loft of my shop, or so I thought. I pulled it down and both sheeted wings are warped. My wife had set some camping gear on top of them. Aaaaarg! The fa62 anxiosly awaits the short kit.

OK, the laser won't cut metal. No probs, I'll machine the brass fa82 cylinder shims the old fashion way, between two blocks of hardwood.

Jesse Open

acdii

It will cut plastic though. If plastic shims can work, it can make those. I don't have CAD software though, so getting dimension just right will be touch and go until I learn the CorelDraw. I don't know if Lightburn will do CAD yet, haven't found the dimension tools.

Glowgeek

Jesse Open

acdii

Well I can see that many of us had a good day. Starting to get the hang of CorelDraw as well as my decades old CAD skills. Instead of using the die crushed ribs for the Liberty Sport, I traced them for an outline, then using a ruler, the die crushed sheet and the plans, taking the measurements and creating the Vector Graphics for cutting. I did W12 and it was almost spot on, but something got lost in the translation between SAE and Metric so it is a bit short. The Speed and power though were right where it needed to be, though I am going to slow it just a touch for cutting 1/8th hard balsa. For 3/32 is it perfect. I got the first full sheet mirrored, there are 4 sheets of W-13 and W6 that I made a copy of and ready to actually cut out once I verify the parts come out correctly. I can use cardboard at a low power to make the outlines.

Next up, Gaskets for Saito! Just need to know what material to make them out of.

Rudolph Hart

Bruce, good luck with cutting the saito gaskets, hope it works out good.

I spose you guys have heard the one about the dyslexic who walks into a bra...

When it comes to test flying your precious model and saito engine i've done it many times and more importantly have watched many others do the same thing. A lot of variation in the way we all go about it. Personally i liked to pick a day and time (5am, which is called sparrow fart, it's a bird over here) so i had the field to myself, but something happened and changed my view. I'd flight prepped my brand new shiney midget mustang as the sun rose at the field and was feeling all the normal things you do before a first flight, but at least i had peace and quiet to do it. Happy with everything i fired the fa115 up, to date it had had 45 minutes on the bench, and after a brief warm up i taxi down to the airstrip. The club airstrip/pits is open to the public and while i'm giving the fa115 a final full throttle run to clear the plug after the taxi down a hand claps me on the shoulder from behind, jeezuz h i nearly jumped forward onto my plane. So now i've learned to do test flights with a mate who will back your watch

Jesse Open

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

An RCM 40 or an LT 25 can look small at the south end,front field is 750' the rear is 500'. LT 40 with Saito 62-B next time.

acdii

Here is the field I fly at, well used to, haven't flown there in two years. Last year after putting the Rascal and Something Xtra into the dirt, lost interest. This year the weather has sucked, too much rain, and if not, then windy.

See the building with the red circle? Thats where I bounced the P-47 off the edge of the roof, I was standing somewhere in the lower red circle. The blue is the actual strip we take off and land from.



To the right of the blue used to be semi trailers and a flatbed with machines on it, right at the end of the runway, and a line of trees to the right of the road. So to land from the east, you had to thread between the building and the trees, and being so used to a small plane, I thought the P-47 was past the building, when in fact it was just behind it, caught the wingtip 2" in on the edge of the roof, flipped it over and plopped it next to it. The first time I flew the Rascal 168 it dead sticked, and it touched down right at the left edge of the lower red circle, and didn't stop until it was past that squiggle in the road and into the hay field.

I'm the only one that flies a Saito of any kind there, the other guys either have wee planes or 2 stroke gassers.

Glowgeek

Well since we're posting pics of our flying fields. I graded this 120 ft. Dia flight pad in my pature two years ago. The grass filled in pretty good this year. Plenty of room to huck my 3D birds around without hearing negativity from grumpy old men in lawn chairs.

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

man, my JR XG8 has the updated programming that is not in the manual, and I can not find the info on the Net..
my problem is that I can not get my TX&RX to recognize my XBus 4 Port Converter Cable, I have tried everything, no luck.

sometimes I think life it trying to tell me something, remember I told you that the Worlds Model's P-40 fuel tank split and they sent me a 2nd tank, well this 2nd tank as a hole on it side.. but I found that I had a 3rd tank that fit,, so I have the tank in, so now I just have to mount the RX and get the XBus to work, then balance it,,,

hey, maybe it will crash on the first flight, maybe you guys should bet on it LOL

Jim

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Jim, maybe you should change your signature to this?

"If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all!"

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

well that would fit LOL

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

It does for the Worlds Model's P-40!

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

you could just leave out "the P-40"

Glowgeek

Jim, the way I figure it is you've had 3 years of bad luck in 3 months. Odds are you'll be trouble free for 2 yrs and 9 months. Betting on maiden crashes is just bad juju my friend. Could give you 3 more months of bad luck. If I were you I wouldn't try to hang any mirrors either.

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

thank god I didn't mess with fireworks



Jim

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

well I got the XBus problem solved, but I brought myself into another problem,,****n unbelievable,,

I guess I will be setting the hobby aside for a while, just stay away from the planes the forums and everything in between,,

I knocked my brand new JR XG8 off the shelf and broke the flap switch, it only had 3 flights on it, it's $60 an hour to fix it, I figure 2 hours and a new switch, and I have to wonder who would be doing the soldering and how well they do it,,
I have the money to fix it that is no problem, but the thing is I know for sure my wife will make the offer to buy a new one, it's just the way she is, there is no one else that can replace her.

later

Jim

acdii

What material is used for gaskets in these? I picked up a pack of card stock to test cuts with, figured cheaper than balsa, and would also be a good test bed for gasket making even if it isn't correct material, at least it would be good enough to test with. I do need gaskets for the rocker covers on two engines.

Glowgeek

Bruce, IIRC cam housing, rear cover and rocker cover gaskets for small and medium case Saito singles are .008"-.0085" thick but I have no idea what the factory material is. I use the card stock from Saito parts packages to make my gaskets. Even though they work fine they get fuel soaked and peel apart when attempting to remove them later on. I'll see what I can find online.

Update: search the net for "1/128 gasket" There's a seller on ebay.

Maybe one of the others here know more about sourcing super thin gasket sheeting.

Jesse Open

Glowgeek

Same here Jim, at one time I was milspec soldering certified for pcb repair. A comparable switch is probably less than $4 at Mouser Electronics. I'm sure Gary would do a bang up job on the repair too.