Ok, No more lollygaggin. Roger is home from the hospital can't wait to start painting. My condition is much improved since last we posted. I had an occuded right coronary artery with an anurism below the blockage. The blockage was what caused me to feel bad, but the anurisum was the life thretening aspect . The Dr. told my wife that is was a good thing I did'nt cough hard or lift too much. If it had let go there is not much anyone could have done for me. They had to scope me twice. once to find it and once to fix it. One thing about the heart cathiterization is that once the blockage is cleared it is instant relief. I have to stay quiet for a week and not strain myself but I will get back to painting in a couple of days once my wife settles down. Thank you all for remembering me.

Glad your still with us! The miracle of modern medicine!.....

wow that sounded like a scary incident

i used to have WPW heart disease and i had to quit flying because of it, but i got it fixed and its like i never had it! amazing! the doctors put a cath. up me, one to find the problem and then the other to litteraly fry part of heart off! - yes, i mean like burn the bad part of my heart out! freaky! but now im able to do tons of stuff now!

glad you faired ok

Ouch! I read that one fast... I thought you said "fried".

Glad you are doing well. Not as much fun reading without you.

Mr. Hill:
The pictures tell all. Before zed-benders (as they're called in Canada) were invented this was my method of making a zed bend on a control rod. The tools are two Vise Grip 10WR's. Set the jaws to just touch while empty. My technique is to rotate each plier to start the bend and then do a "Charles Atlas" and force the two pliers together. As you can see, I overcooked it a bit, but it's easily corrected. Time required - 90 minutes, 89 to round up both Vise Grips and one to do the bend. I've also included a photo of my own TriPacer in the just precovering stage. That's a Saito .80 at the business end. Here's just a hint from my building experience. I used a brown glue. Lee Valley's 2002GF, for most of the building and it's done a beautiful job. When I did the tail feathers of my T-Rex'es I used it to join the sheeting and was faced with the difficulty that is presented by all water based adhesives - it generates a lot of warping that you must fight during the drying process. When I did the TriPacer tail feathers, I used 15 minute epoxy, then placed the part between two sheets of melamine MDF and placed a weight on top. The result was a flat-as-a-board product 15 minutes later.
BTW, I've read the entire thread and enjoyed it immensely - MegaMang is my son Mike - a chip off the old block.
Roger - I'm glad to see you back, keep up the good work. I intend to cover this with fabric and dope it. I always enjoy the reaction when I go into a fabric store and ask for some cotton and polyester that'll shrink a bit.
Stan Madore

PS - If you don't have 2 Vise Grips, you can use one Vise Grip and a bebch vise.
Stan

Great idea Stan. I will try it tonight. Flaps are complete and I will do ailerons tonight. After the triplets go to bed I get about an hour a half each night. At this pace I will be done by November.

I haven't checked in for a few days so I thought I should give you a progress report. I now have 3 coats of primeri on the entire plane. I may need one more befor it's ready for color. Man, what I thought was a good base for paint was a mess when I got it primed. Every imperfection showed once the primer was applied. I am afraid that it will not look as good as I had expected. My seams are not as clean as I had wanted. They looked OK before paint. I have sanded most of the primer off with 400 and 600 wet/dry and most of them will hide ok. As a novice using Koverall I have learned a lot and the next one should be better. One thing you must know is that this stuff does not like sandpaper. It is very easy to sand through. I knew that and tried to avoid doing it. When I primed it I found areas that had been scuffed by the paper and the paint made it fuzz. Another coat of paint and some "very light" sanding with 600 made it right.

I have been working on my swoosh graphics but I am not happy with it so far. I will have to cut out the masks from shelf paper and masking tape. I hope I have not bitten off more than I can chew. One good thing though, I can't find any two photos of the swoosh scheme that match. They are all just a little bit different. It looks like they were hand masked when the Airplanes were recovered so each one is unique. Mine will look like a recovered version too.

wascamp,

What brand of nitrate dope are you using? Was it a non-taughtening or taughtening nitrate dope?

Thanks,

Jim

I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow. Yes, teachers get excited as kids about not going to school. My dad always said that when I grew up and got a job that "there would be no such thing as a snow day". WRONG!!! I am currently covering the plane. The wing is nearly finished, I need to do the flaps and one aileron. My target is next Monday for completion. Motor is going to be that GMS 76 with a PITTS. I am taking pics as I go so that I can share once it is finished. Trying to create an unveiling process and then post all the pics which will include the builders. I'm still checking in daily to see if anything is new.

Jim,
I used good ol' Sig clear nitrate. Nitrate is used as it is nontaughtening. Buytrate comes in taughtening and nonshrinking versions. I used cornstarch as a filler and I think that was a mistake. If I use a fill coat next time I will try to find some aluminum paste ala the big planes. I have found that spraying a thin coat of primer is better than trying to build it up too quickly with thick coats. One coate caused the fabric to sag and bubble. I was afraid that I had ruined it, but when the paint dried the fabric was as good as new.

I put one more coat on the fuselage today and the color can start tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Holy! You want to really go fast? I hear MegaMang is using the size just below that ... or something just under 60.

Rog, Ken, Hill and the rest,

Here is a link to a Piper Pacer (tail dragger) project with links to more info and pictures on the Pacer (http://www.dakotacub.com/). It shows a rebuild and other inside stuff and the other links tell tale about the search for info on a Pacer and picture taken at different events.

Mr Hill, I can't think of a better way of getting younger people involved in R/C Aircraft. Just the pictures of the kids with their smiles, concentration and interest is rewarding. Even when they make a mistake, they are learning. Good job.

Even though I am not building a Tri-Pacer, but a Super Cub from RCM plans, I have read this post with some interest. The Creve Coeur Airport in St louis County, MO, has a pair of Tri-Pacers hangered there. If my memory serves my correctly, one is painted white with red and the other is cream with red. I don't have the owners address, reg numbers or any pictures, but may be able to get some info on Saturday if you would like.

Skylark, If you could post a couple of pictures that would be great. I am always looking for shots or the old tripacers out there. I may even build this plane again as a pacer. It might be a real handfull on takeoff as short as she is. Sort of like a bearcat without the torque. Or the horse power.

Thanks for checking in. You might think about adding a tripacer to your Piper collection. I am thinking of adding a 1/5 th Cub to mine. A guy just cant" have too many rag-wing airplanes, can he?

Wascamp,

Nitrate dope comes in taughtening and non-taughtening. Builders of full size aircraft use products from Randolph Products, Certified Coating Products, and Classic Aero. These products can be seen at www.aircraftspruce.com. This company is also a good source for sitka spruce. Check out http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...tratedopes.php for Randolph Products line of taughtening and non-taughtening nitrate dopes.

Jim

Regarding the 76. I hope that it isn't too much power. I bought that Pitts a year ago on ebay and it wasn't for the 45 size. Auction fever on my part. I figure that I can take off at 3/4 throttle. I have a couple GMS engines and the kids love that Gold Head, they want me to "Pimp the Plane". Hopefully it works out. NO building today, I only got a two-hour delay.

Jim,
Thanks for the comments about the kids. They are growing impatient watching videos waiting for me to cover their plane. I too love bipes. I use to think that I had to build bipes with kids because I could make two groups for the wings. In reality it took twice as long to get the wings done and I went crazy explaining everything twice. I had an Aeromaster fall off of the ceiling when the room was empty. Broke my heart and the plane. But it is the example I use when I talk about loving this hobby. You can build a plane, put it hundreds of feet in the air and do incredible stunts and then land it safely to do all over. Yet that same plane can not survive a fall from 7 feet from the ground without destroying it. That is why I love this hobby. It is surprising how one Bipe can fly like a trainer and the next can fly like a manhole cover. I have an old Ace 4-40 that glided in every time, then I built the Ultimate similar to your pic under your name and that thing would drop out of the sky from about 6 feet up. I now understand drag a lot more than I did. Sorry to go on the tangent, saw your username and wondered how much of a bipe addict you really were. I'm sure ever guy in this thread owns one. Best I can tell, every guy has a bipe and warbird. Am I wrong???

Hey, how do you put that little picture under your name?

The picture is known as a avatar. You can go to Settings and you should then see Your Profile.

Scoll down until you see My Avatar. Then click on Upload My Picture. Here is the catch. The picture needs to be 85X85 pixels and no larger than 7KB. If you have a favorite photo and don't know how to resize it then send it to me. I will resize and send it back.

Most of my airplanes are 98% are biplanes. Biplanes I have on the building bench are an Ace All star bipe and a Aerolock Pitts M12. Biplanes on the building backlog are the Pica Jungmeister, Krier 1/3 scale great lakes, Krier .40 great lakes. Sig Hog Bipe, CG Ultimate bipe, , Bel Air .60 biplane, and a SIG Sun Dancer waiting for me at the Hobby Shop. Flying bipes are a Bel Air .40 Biplane and a Sig Mini-plane. Does that answer your question? I hope my wife doesn't see this message.

Rog,

Left a message with the Airport Manager to have the owners of the Tri-Pacers to contact me. If they do, I will arange to meet them to get some pictures. It may take awhile. Cross your fingers.

Funny comment about the wife. I bought one recently off a guy and sat it amongst the others on the garage floor. Wife did not notice for two weeks until my 3 year old ratted me out. She said,"Daddy has a new pane (not real good with her l's)". She still hasn't noticed a new 65" wingspan SeaMaster. Finished the Tripes wing tonight, we have blowing and drifting snow and a two-hour delay already. Maybe we will get the day off and I can get prepared to cover the fuse. I'm going to attempt to upload a picture of the twins. The red one died in a school parking lot when I was showing a student how the switch for the high and low rates work. Did not switch back to to high rates and turned the plane into confetti as it pasted through a small tree. I was furious on the inside but laughed when the student said, "Was that bad, can you fix that?" The answer was no, but I saved the pieces anyway.

this message is no longer applicable

what a great kit. There hasnt been a good tri pacer kit on the market since sterling went under. I'll have to invest in one!

Hey guys, I'm back up on line and it looks like I missed some interesting interplay. Brian, that's tough luck haveing to be responsable, sorry to hear that you have to sell out and put off building the Tripacer. Maybe later.

I have been painting mine but it is going very slowly. I am using Rustolium and it takes 24 hours to dry when sprayed. I have the top of the wing finished and one light coat of white on the fuselage. It will take at least another coat to cover it. At that point the red will go on. Paint a coat, wait a day, paint a coat, wait a day.........

At least it's shiny. I dont' thik I will have to rub it out or clearcoat it like auto paint. I just hope I can reproduce the Piper swoosh. Lots of the originals were painted with less demanding schemes when they got recovered. There is a reason for that, this is tough reproduce without pre-cut masks.

More when it happens.