Yes.

Yes you could.

Wouldn't know about that sort of thing... never seen the hardware for that sort of thing. I'd be interesting in seeing it when you do though.

thanks for that reply,

i debated the 2-stroke vs 4-stroke engine choice but i think i will go 2-stroke and stick in a supertigre 61 with a slimline pitts muffler, thats good news on the cowling, i can put that off later, oooh that reminds me, ive allways wanted to do a scale cowling, you know on full scale planes a lot of cowlings opened up and were hinged, man i would live to try that on this one, i think it would work quite easily

i guess no one has flown one at all?? i have seen the d/l video and it looks good, im debating a sig lt-40 arf - i think getting some serious stick time on that then i feel i could transistion to this without having a nervous breakdown

do you think that i would be able to handle it?? - i could probably fly it right off, but man, with all the detail i want to put into this kit, i would feel much better with some trainer time and besides the trainer would be fun to fly when its to windy for this nice scale plane

now that i think about it some more (wow im fickle) maybe ill get the sig lt-25 kit and then i can practice covering it with 21'st century fabric, which is what i want to use on the tri-pacer, yeah that sounds even better for me... ok its good i had that little chat with myself

Brian, when I was planning a landing light setup I looked at a lot of old and new photos of the Tripacer. What I found was that Piper had several versions of the light depending on the year. Some early models had no light at all. The round window vwesions ,like ours, had the light about 1/2 a bay out from the strut on the pilot's side. In later models the light was moved out near the wing tip. I have even see the light on the other wing. The light box is about a half a bay wide so it would be no trouble to build a box of 1/8 th balsa and set it against a rib before you sheet the leading edge. make the cover out of the same stuff the windows are made from and make a hold down fairing from aluminum vent tape. It is very tough and sticky as heck. I plan on using it around my windshield and side windows.

We were joking around one night about the cowl and I said that I could make one from aluminum drier vent that would work instead of waiting for a fiberglass rendition. That might be the way to go if you want a scale cowl. You could use the very fine scale piano hinge from Nelson Hobby. Check out the net for TriPacer pictures, I am sure that you will find some withe the cowl details. It would make an interesting project. Keep us current with your plans and progress.

OOOH aluminum drier vent! yeah like that idea, that would be easier since it would holds its molded shape better and you could hinge it easily enough, man the more i think about that the more for sure i want to do it [8D]

thanks for the link for the hinges, will let you know when it finally arrives.

A day off from building. We went out side and they had there first lesson in flying. I have a Hangar 9 trainer and a buddy cord. I have found that they are more likely to pay attention after they have tried it once. "Left is left, right is right, don't push up and good luck". They love it. They usually say, "that is a lot harder than it looks" and then the real questions and learning begins.

I really am thankful for this thread. I went back and looked at the manual and Roger's picks. I am slowly beginning to understand this plane. I bought a Pitts for a GMS 76 by accident (darn ebay) and I have considered buying the motor to go with it. Two much power? Does anyone see a problem with choice of motor?

Mr. hill,
I once talked to Ken about engine size and he topld me that they had put some bigger engines in the plane. He can tell you how big. I would think that as long as the engine was within the dimentional limits of the plans and was not too heavy for balance that it should work. As far as power goes, you don't have to push the throttle all the way up. A little reserve power is always nice for those full flap go-arounds.

I am interested in the vent tape. I was considering building a ledge in the side windows so that I could use canopy glue. I really like canopy glue for windows. Are you saying that vent tape can form on an arc without alot of wrinkles? Do you have other planes that could show the finished project? I bet the side windows would look awesome with metallic trim. I love this idea.

No I dont have anything to show you. I have the tape leftover from the hvac installation on the new house and what I plan to do is use the template to cut the tape to the same shape but a little larger. Cut out the window area leaving an 1/8 inch in the inside and a 1/4 inch on the outside. It can be cut with sissors and a hobby knife. It does not stretch very much so it must be cut to shape much as a real fairing must be made. I will have to experiment with it, but I am pretty sure that I can get it to work. Be sure to buy the profesional grade sold by a HVAC supply house. The tape is usefull for lots of household fixes so the 8 or 10 bucks they get for it will not be wasted.

The other thing to do is to glue the windows on and use strips of covering film to fair them to the body.

Last night I added what will perhaps be the only scale detail on the plane. In the real plane the windows were non-opening fixed units except for a small wing window on the pilot's side. I used some scrap 1/8 th to install the piller for that wing window. The piller is not as wide as the windshield piller so I cut it by eye for a scale look. With the covering in place over the window opening it is easy to insert the new piece in the opening, attach the cover, and place a drop of CA at the yop and bottom of the new piller. Cut out the windo openings and finish the edges. My window won't open so all that is needed is to attach the window sheet per normal. I think it adds a lot to the overall scale look.
Three shots of the new window, different settings for contrast.

Ok, Now for something completly different! I have been looking for a 1/5 scale pilot without much luck. So I decided to clone myself for the piloting duties in the Tripe.
Presenting TRIPACER MAN!! I had my wife measure me at all the important points, Using a calculator I scaled the numbers to 1/5 th, and thru the marvels of modern hobbycraft subtracted 20 years from the critical dimensions. Below we have the preliminary stages of that cloning process. I did not have a lot of DNA laying around so I made myself from pink foam. So far I have used a keyhole saw, a surform file, a razor saw, a steak knife and some 100 grit paper. I know, he has no facial features yet but they will come tomorrow. When the process of physical construction is complete a coat of poly or two, some paint, a set of David Clark ear phones and a set of aviator shades will finish him off. My wife has volenteered to make him a little flying jacket of his own, just like mine. As you can tell I am not in the habit of making people so he may only be a prototype. Heck I have a whole sheet Dow foam (2 ft X 8 ft) so I could clone a whole company of TRIPACER men.

TRIPACER MAN is comming along. A face is starting to appear and with his shades and D/C headphones hie is begining to look like a pilot. A badeball cap and leather jaket will deck him out quite nicely. He may get arms as he really needs them finish the look. What do you think so far? Still awaiting paint for the plane and the pilot.

More later.

Nice looking pilot. I noticed your photo in the back of the original pilot introduction. That is the scheme that I found to be very popular, is it the scheme you plan on using. I have chosen insignia blue lower fuse and a cream wing and cream upper fuse. I am having a problem locating my motor. Trying to match a Pitts I already own to a motor I don't own. I bought that GMS 76 pitts and now I am trying to locate a motor. If you see any, let me know.

Roger, a gentleman has offered to help my kids when this kit is finished. He was inspired by something you wrote in a different thread. I'm not sure if he wants acknowledged but he deserves it and so do you. Great day building and photos are soon to follow. We were able to place the wings on the fuse and it looked great. Are you going to paint the inside of the fuse to cover up the bare wood?

Mr. Hill, Thanks for the comments on the pilot. He will be pretty close to being finished in another day or so. If I were any good at sculpting I would consider making pilots for a living. The money they get for them would sure feel good in my wallet. But I'm not so I won't. Oh yes ,I want to use the Piper swooch on mine too. I had planned on cream and red, but decided to go with white when I bought the paint. I have no idea how I will get that scheme on the plane. I had thought of cutting it out of vinyl as a mask but I can't get what I need around here. The local body shop may me able to help me with some wide masking tape, and who knows, they may have a way to cut stencils. I will enquire. the other way is to just mask it off and hope both sides match. I have a while before that stage so I will coninue to think about it.

I knew about the kind offer that kywoodwrkr made to you. We PM'd back and forth for a day or so. He seems like a great guy and you may thank him publicly or not, he knows that you appreciate his kindness. As a result of my original post in The Pay it Forward thread of the Beginners forum he made the effort. You may even see some more offers of help in your good work. He has posted an appeal in your behalf to complement mine. I once told you that I wished I could be of more help in your noble effort on behalf of the hobby and so I have tried to spread the word to the community at large. You deserve praise, and support and if I can offer either, you have it. Nuff said.

Boy, good luck with your engine. You might try posting a Wanted ad for it. I once found a Corvette wheel knockoff nut, and then I had to buy the car so I would have a place to keep it. I know how that goes.

Keep those Photos comming, your gang is keeping the thread alive while I am in Pre-Paint. I don't want to have to keep carving pilots just to keep the thing going.

Later,

I would like to know how Ken accomplished the Tripe that is in the photos? I too will use plastic and would like to know how the stripe was carried through onto the ABS cowl? Is it painted? I saw a trick in a forum where a guy just sprays Windex on monokote and then lays the stripes on top of the existing monokote which allows a little adjustability. Use force the excess out with a credit card. Maybe this is an old trick to some, but it was new to me. I tried it and it worked great. I wondered if that would work on ABS? Ken said in the instructions that he used monokote on the nose. Since it is nearly round, I wanted to know how this was accomplished? I'll try anything once, if it looks good and is easy. I was going to thin epoxy with alcohol brush it on and then lightly sand and paint. I can't get finishing this plane out of my head. Need a lil' help.

Great response Roger. Do you think if I buy a tire cover , my wife will buy me the Jeep that goes in it. I laughed out loud at your response and I still don't know if you are talking RC car or real corvette. It is funnier to think it was the real thing. I put an offer on a K&B 65 with a Pitts already on it. I think it would work good.

Ken told me that monocoating the nose is a real challange but that it is possable. The monocoat should stick to ABS with a little heat to seal it down. I believe that the pastel accents on his plane were cut on a flojet or lazer cutter from a graphics program inhouse. We would have to cut them by hand or farm them out to one of the commercial graphics outfits.

No it was'nt an R/C version. The knockoff came from a 60 something Vette but mine was a 73 bought new. The knockoff never would fit but my wife was none the wiser. I had the car for 2 or 3 months when she announced that we were going to have a baby. We traded the Vette in when Jennifer was 6 monts old. The Vett had less than 8000 miles and was almost 2 years old. It took me 21 years to get the second Corvette. We went looking for an old one for a restoration project and found a 5 year old Roadster. My wife liked it so much she let me buy it. We had it 5 years and Put 20,000 miles on it. She drove it for over 15,000 and I got to put a little less than 5 K. But it was "my" car when it needed anything. So buy the tire cover, but make sure it is her favorite color. Good luck ever seeing it unless it needs gas or tires.


More later.

I'm busting a gut here... you guys kill me. That scale pilot is so life-like. Funny it doesn't have a terrified look of expression. [X(]

The graphics job on both Tr-Pacers are cut from monokote. I would have done it with Ultra-cote for the low heat properties, however the colour I was after was not offered in Ultra. I had to be very careful to apply it with an iron. I touched the ends of the graphic piece with the iron to secure it, then I made short contacts in a few places. You can't just iron it on there. The co-polyester will want to make a nice corner for you. So I tack it on the cowl with minimal effort (if its position is off then it can be zipped off and re-applied). Then I remove the cowl and lay it flat. There, I can iron all I like (well, I try not to catch anything on fire). True a light slip of water with a drop of soap really helps the graphics go on nice and flat, I used a spatula to squeeze out the water - less scratches then a card.

I cut one set of graphics (the black and white version having load testing done) by hand. I made a design on the computer, printed it out in tiled sections, taped the whole thing together over the monokote - on top of a foam slab, then started cutting with a knife. The process was long, but worked quite well. The second version (the one on the cover of the manual) was cut on the laser. Boy that was a lot easier!

Two hour delay today turned into a day off that will be made up in June. Delays good, don't have to make it up and activity class is still in the schedule. Day off, OK until June gets here and you want to go flying and have to go to work instead. Long story short, no pics today. I too had a Vette. My parents would not buy me a car until I got through college. Day after graduation I picked out a 76 Stingray, black. Notified my parents of my intent and they said I was on my own. I told them I figured that would be the story and the car was already in garage. They were right, not very practical. But man I loved that car. Unfortunately I found a teaching job an hour away and did not want to put that many miles on it or pay for the gas involved. Unfortunately my wife doesn't think the triplets would fit easily in that spot behind the bucket seats, my arguement is that they are still small enough to fit and we shouldn't wait any longer. Unfortunately her favorite color is a pale green and that won't work. [:'(] So monokote will work on the ABS once positioned and then flattened back out. Does it have to be a very low temp? You guys understood that the WIndex activated the monokote and no heat had to be applied? Incredible and no wrinkles.

hILLVILLE. I don't work with monocoat that much and do not know if windex activates it or not. What I have read leads me to question that. Are you sure that it was activated or is beeing held down by surface tension of the water layer. The guy to ask is Megamang. He has done a T-rex with a wild monocoat scheme.
Most times the trim piece is ironed down after it is adjusted into place. If surface tension is holding it down it will lift if the water ever evaporates. I could be wrong, I often am.

I wish my folks had bought me a car for graduation, unfortunatly I would have had to wait untill I was 41. After leaving the service in 79 I worked until 86 when I went back to school full time. I graduated in 88 and had to start from scratch. Retired in 02 at 55 for health reasons, and moved to Starvation Ridge.
That baby thing and Corvettes is a commom complaint. The Corvette must be a second, or even third car for the family man. In my case the first one was not, and the later one came in after all our kids had left home. My red 1973 coupe was traded in on a 75 AMC Pacer. What a let down. We sold the 90 roadster in 02 when we moved up into the mountians. No place to park it out of the weather. And besides all of our 2 wheel drive rigs must stay parked from Oct. to March. Heck I have to lock the hubs to get up the driveway. My snow plow truck is chained at all four corners just to plow up and down the driveway.
OK, no more car talk.

I have thought of having the side view plan sheet reproduced and use the outboard profile view as a layout tool for my paint mask. One of the contributors suggested that I cutout masks from contact paper placed back to back so as to get mirror images of the scheme. You peel the paper backing off and lay the masks down, paint, and remove the masks. That is what I plan to do. Contact shelving paper is available locally and we have a printer in town who can duplicate the plans full size. Or I can trace them and save 3 bucks.

More later.

hey my kit tri-pacer came today !

im excited, can hardly wait to get working on this, i did order an arf, a sig lt-40, i figure i will feel much better if i can warm up on something first

Brian, To paraphrase an old commecial... Bet you can't.... I was going to wait and start mine later this winter, you know what happened there. First you will open it up. You know, just to do "a quick inventory". Then you will start taking the parts out of the sheets, to "better organise the parts" What the heck? It might not hurt to do the Pre-assembly "for the practice" I predict you will have yours finished before my paint is dry! Any help we can offer or tips you might need please let us know. There are a few more builders here than just me. Have fun. She goes to gether faster than you can imagine. You may even call in sick a couple of days ( tell them it's an alegric reaction to something ) to work on the ship. I expect to see photos of her as you progress and would sure like to see her when you finish.

roger.

thats the worse part! I WORK OUT OF MY HOME!! (i live in colorado and am a roof truss designer for a company in Florida) so its tough to stay disciplined and work and knowing that just pass the living room is my shop !!![:-]

Brian, working at home is a two edged sword as you discribed. But think of it this way, you can work on the trusses while the wood glue dries, then work on the plane while they are checking your drawings. I have always found that work will always be waiting for you. Sometimes play won't stick around and wait for the work to get finished. Plus you have a two hour time difference - work to boss. Get up and work while the factory is open and play when the shop closes. Lots of daylight left at 2:00 pm even in the winter. You forgot to mention if you have a family or not, they demand a lot of time and some of them don't like airplane smells. If you are a single guy and cant find time to build, well you either work too hard or play too hard.
Wink,Wink, Nudge, Nudge. Know what I mean? Know what I mean?

later, Roger.

no im a single dude, but im into everything!

bowling, bongo drums, quad line stunt kites, model rr club, miniature wargamming, flight simulation

whew, somethings gotta go there

Brian, You did'nt mention women, that's a start. Perhaps you should cut down on your work week. That would make more time for R/C'ing. I tried it once, not working and just playing, but I found that when I had the time I did'nt have the money. Of course when we have the money sometimes we dont have the time. I would suggest that you tie up with a woman of means who can keep you in a style you are not accostomed to. Remember, One income is better than two if one of them is HUGE!!!

Get back to work, or build your model instead of wasting your valuable time talking to me. You will be a better man for it if you go to bed tonight covered in balsa dust. Trust me, I know.

Gotta run, I have dope drying and need to get a second coat on before my wife's pain pill wears off.