I am going to go back and look at Brian's contributions later. Brian, are you totally new to these RC planes? I have two stories that relate to the woman of my life. A friend and I are self taught as many of us out there are. I believe that men will not do two things, as directions or ask another guy to teach him fly an RC plane. So when I asked this friend if he knew anything about RC planes he said something that I will never forget, "I have two, do you want one?" Now here it gets tricky. The next question should have been, "do you know how to fly it?" Surely if he owned it, he had to know how to fly it. Wrong!!! Together we killed ten planes teaching ourselves how to fly. Now back to my future wife. On the day we learned how to launch the glider and actually land it close, we were so excited that we returned from the hay field where we were teaching ourselves and we asked my future wife to come see what we could do. After a very successful demonstration of our flying skills she said the following, "I hope the farmer doesn't mind you stomping down all his hay". Not the response we were looking for. She has been a little more supportive as of late. I can build when she goes to sleep. I can fly when she takes a nap and occasionally I get an airplane related gift but it is usually more like, "for your birthday I am going to give you $50 and ten minutes in the hobby shop, GOOOOOO!!!!!!" The second item is where my friend ended up. He dates alot of women, they tend to make it longer if they show an interest in his flying. But don't be fooled by these ladies, that interest always seems to wane. Back to me, I said future wife. I knew I had married the right woman this Christmas. Her parents paid for my AMA and gave me a gift certificate to the hobby shop. I love my in-laws.

Sorry for all the family stuff. I didn't get to build today but I still wanted to contribute. Hopefully tomorrow they won't cancel school. I spent the day taking the triplets to the doctor for some shots when all I really wanted to do was try an idea I have. I own a Balsa USA Laker. I bought it on ebay and it looks great and the engine runs smooth. Unfortunately one wing tip digs in and I can't get it to get up on step before it starts to fill with water. It has worked on occasion but not consistently. When it did fly, it would glide forever and you had to not only chop the throttle but give it some elevator action. I wanted to get rid of it until I thought of just flying off the ice when there was a two inch layer of snow. That wing tip shouldn't dig in and it should fly nicely. I want be able to fly it whenever I want, but at least I won't have to look at it and be totally frustrated. Tomorrow, only Tripe talk, Have a good evening and I have enjoyed reading your comments today. Greatly appreciate it. Can't wait until there are completed pics from each of us and notes about successful maiden voyages.

not really new, ive been flying 8 yrs off and on, i usually get into it then i get burned out then sell everything and then take a year or more off then go out and repeat

thats why i want to fly an LT-40 arf - first, since...

1. it will get me flying when im building the tri-pacer and

2. it will allow me to sharpen my skills, i dont want to be "experiementing" with my tri-pacer

i figure safe then sorry

Awesome. I talk to a lot of people who say they use to fly. I can't imagine giving it up. I fly whenever it is calm. I laughed when I first joined the AMA and saw the patches for flying at least once a month. I fly at least once a week. I fly in my gym if I have no other options. I probably should be impressed that someone can walk away for a while. No glue to pick off your fingers, no trips to the hobby shop (mine is more than a half hour), and all the money you think about losing when you make a crater. [X(] I really like your choice of the LT-40. Check out the one my students built on my school website: http://wccs.k12.in.us/isms/staff/cor...activity_4.htm
I think mine is the Jr Version. It only took a 25 size motor, but I put a 40 on it anyway.
Today we were able to piece together our plane and take a look at it. I am staying after school to work on making the tail fit. Can't wait to fly this one.

yeah my problem is i just get burned out! i get tired of hauling and loading up my car and all that stuff, i get tired of the gunk and goo, etc, etc, plus i live out in the sticks so i fly by myself, no one else into it, although there is the local garage and that guy "flies" hes got about 4 planes hangin from the clg from his shop, but he allways says hes to busy, and one of his workers would "like to get into it and plans to..." but never does, talk is cheap around here

it would be tons more fun if i could get at least one other person flying with me

i might get a little park flyer or an indoor electric heli,... to keep me going when i get tired of it again, next time it happens i will hang on to my stuff this time and thats another reason why i wanted the LT-40 i figure if i burn out again and take time off then i can get back into it again easily enough

Afternoon Boys. Well the TriPacer pilot is as finished as he is going to get. See him below. I too have set this hobby aside a time or two. But I alwasy come back. I love to build them but I am such a klutz on the sticks that I give up and lay off for a while. I know the secret to flying better is practiceb but by the time I get my planes rebuilt I have a hard time reentering the game. This time I won't quit. I have a little Foam ARF that I am going to fly untill the tape on it weighs more than the original airplane.

hILLEVILLE, The horizontal stab fix is a piece of cake. The slots it fits into in the fuse sides must be carried back through the top plate. Following the instructions it takes only a few minutes make right. Mine fit very tight in the vertical stab slot so a delicate hand is required to put them together. What I am saying is don't force it. A little sanding of the vertical stab slot may be needed. I glued my tail feathers with Gorilla glue. I think it's lighter than epoxy and may be stronger when used on balsa.

More later.
And yes, that is a fur trimmed leater jacket he is sporting. Ask me how I did it.

Brian--I flew for years by myself for fear of embarrassing myself by joining the club. A few guys from the club visited my school parking lot and crashed two planes and I figured I could fly with the best of them. I took second in my first fun-fly with the club. I really enjoy my club and the guys in the club. But I still spend a lot of time on my own. Would like to see pics of your LT when she is ready to go.

Roger and Ken--First off. What a scale pilot!!! The bar is pretty high. Tell me you took one of your jackets and put it in the dryer over and over until you got it to fit the pilot. I worked after school to get the tail together. Look at my pics. There are gaps underneath between the elevator and the upper fuse. I did not get my elevator to slide all the way in. Can I cover the fuse first and then install my tail set. There is space in the top. How do I finish this. More later. I like the way it all locks together. I'll tell you one thing, this is dead on straight and true.

hILLVILLE. No, the leather is glued over the pilot with 3 M type 77 spray glue on both surfaces and then stretched to shape. Easy as pie!
I found that I needed a piece of 1/8 scrap glued to the back side of the last buldhead for the horz stab to butt aginst. If the horz and vert stabs are completley locked, that is, if there is no gap in the interlocking slots then you are as far forward as you can go. When mine locked in, the tabs in the horz stab were still short of the rear bulkhead. Hence the scrap shim. You can ask Ken about it but I think the horz stab should have a glue joint at the forward end against the former/bulkhead.

From your pictures it looks like you still have to shape the leading edges. If that is so I would do that prior to installing them. It is much less difficult with them out of the plane and you lessen the risk of cuttung up the surrounding surfaces as you sand the edges.

Yours looks just like mine did at the same piont. All the gaps go away when you cover the tail unit. I have to do mine over so I will shoot some photos of how I do it.

More later.

I'd appreciate all the pics you can supply. I went back the other night and went through every pic in this thread. It was very helpful. It is funny how slow my tail guys are at building the tail. It would take you and I a couple of hours at most. THe wing is nearly done, the fuse is looking good, but the tail is taking tese guys forever. It's actually good because they seem to always be busy and have something to do. I'll do the final sanding on the tail prior to installation. I fear grooves where they might oversand. Would like to see a pic of your tail just below stab from the side. Still trying to locate an engine. Nothing is working out. I know this is going to be one of my favorite planes, but I just can't scrape up the funds for what she needs. I found a KB 65 with PItts, but the guy got it from another guy and has never started it. Fearful that it was somebody elses problem. I have a 76 Pitts for a GMS, but they are $99 new. I did find a deal on a JR MAx that has 6 channels, the door on the back has broken tabs, but it works fine. Beggers can't be choosers. We just had midterms, we have 4 1/2 weeks to finish the plane.

hILLVILLE, OK. I have not covered that section yet. I will fill that void when the the tail is covered. I hope to get that done this weekend. I will shoot enough photos to give you an idea of the work envolved. It will be easier for you as the film process is not as labor intensive as is the cloth.

Check in tomorrow evening.

Thanks. I started thinking about what you said. My guess is that those two tail pieces are not fully locked. That would explain a few things. They are pretty tight and I need to remove them and sand them so they can slide more freely. Apprecaiate the advice. I took that Balsa USA Laker out on the lake today. It's 41 degrees and the sun is shining. It slid a few feet and lifted right up. It kept lunging for some reason, I don't know if it was the servo, the radio or the wing was slightly loose. Long story short, the thing would hardly come down by cutting the throttle and then the engine died and it just hung in the breeze, and then the nose began to drop like a rock. Water absorbs crashes, ice really doesn't. Still in one piece but the wing broke at the bolts and the nose needed rebuilt. Looking forward to all pics.

Just be sure to leave that space behind the horizontal stab. The trailing edge of the horizontal stab should be forward of the vertical stab trailing edge to allow the elevator "U" shaped wire to pass through without restriction.

Hey Ken, while you are here I have a question for you. I am setting up my wing servos and came across a slight interference between the aileron and flap pushrods at the center section where they cross. Did you do anything different on your plane than is shown in the manual? I think I will shim the flap sevo up off the servo plate so the rods don't touch. Two layers of ply glued to the underside of the plate will be enoughto lift the servo arm and eliminate the interference. What do you think?

That's a very good idea. The kit changed twice since your version (thanks to many people like yourself). What I could suggest in addition would be to pull some of the nylon sleeve over the area of one servo, to give one of the rods a slight kink. ...However, if you look at the photos in the manual, you will see that the clevis setup is arranged to avoid interference. (see attached photo). In a later version, we put holes in the first few ribs to allow the flaps servo arm to sit opposite that of the aileron servo arm (pointing at the tail). This made the setup a bit easier. Later again, we developed the servo boxes that can still be retrofitted into all versions of the Tri-Pacer.

Ken, When I said they interfered I ment that the rods rubbed as they went back and forth. With both arms in the same plane there is a lot of stufff in close proximity. The flap rods actually rode on top of the aileron servo arm just along side the aileron clevises. I shotened the flap servo arm and moved it closer to the servo tray. Hopefully this will clear up any fricton or binding. If I were doing this again I would move the flap bellcrank plates about 1 inch toward the trailing edge so the rods would fit away from the aileron rods IE. on the back side of the servo rather than on the forward side as it is now. I am sure it will work out the way I have it now. Let me pass on a hint for working with the clevises once the wing is covered. I use a bent screwdriver blade (offset type) to open the clevises . A sideways twist will pop them open so the can be removed from the servo arm if the need fine adjustment.

Thanks for getting back to me. I might like to look at the trays you mentioned if I ever need to rebuild or repair the plane.

Ya, that's why we moved the orientation of the flap servo arm back 180Ëš. then we opened up a channel through the ribs to the bellcrank plates. You can still do this for yourself if you haven't covered the wing yet.

re: another mosquitobite tri-pacer build ........ hi guys, ireceived my tri-pacer kit two months ago and am finally ready to begin building. However after opening the box i was very surprized and disappointed to see that there is no preformed engine cowling but instead it is built up the old way of layering balsa rings etc. i wonder if anyone out there has or is going to produce a formed cowl to fit this model? i tried contacting FIBERGLASS SPECIALTIES who run an add in M A NEWS but so far haven't been able to connect with them. Does anyone have any information in regards to this or ideas on who may be producing a preformed cowl for the tri-pacer? would greatly appreciate any help on this.thanks....dave. [email protected]

Ken, do you have a pic of this that I could get before the end of the weekend. I assigned a kid to the bellcranks for Monday. He couldn't find the nuts in the hardware and his job was put on hold. I decided not to put those servos in the wing.

Welcome to the build radioflyer. I think I asked the same questions when I entered the thread. This issue is addressed earlier. I haven't found an engine yet but we are working on the sanding. Roger is further along and you should look at his pics. Ken is the man who produced the kit and has reassured us that this will work fine.

Ken, Too late for that as I am ready to paint. I will have to wait until I build a Pacer version.

Radioflyer, As you read thru the build thread you will see several references to the nose and cowl. I can tell you that i builds quite nicely. I was leery of it at first, but after building it I can say that it works pretty good. Once it's put together you can take the cowl off by removing 3 screws to access the engine. With a fiberglass cowl you would need to remove the spinner and the prop to get to the engine. We have had the F/G cowel discussion several times here and non of the Glass suppliers has joined in. There may be something in the pipeline but we have not heard of any, yet. As Norm says "Read and follow all the directions" and you will love the way she goes together.

More later,

You want just a photo of the nose?

HILLVILLE and ROGER....THANKS ALOT FOR ALL THE INPUT AND INSPIRATION. I WENT BACK AND read all of your progressive notes since you's have started along with the accompaning photos and i have to say.....i am truely impressed ,excited to start building,andfeel alot better and more confident about the cowling construction now. you guys make it look so easy and your pics show it...plus i like your point about easy eng axcess. Thanks again for all the info and quick response to me....i'll be visiting you 's here often to follow your progress and gleen any tips on the build. i should be starting my kit in a day or so and i'll let you know how its going. thanks again....dave

Ken, I think hILLVILLE needs to see the new ail & flap servo installation. That's the impression I got from his last post. Something about the servos. He originally thought about mounting the ail servos outboard but I talked him into the stock location, I think he wants to see the new setup with the boxes you talked about..

Ok, here are some images of the servo box. It hooks onto the lower rear spar and pivots up into place. Then servo are drops down to connect to the control surface. There is a spot to use a metal screw for securing the box. For safe operation, this was designed so that if the screw came lose, the box would not fall out - thanks to the control rod that would prevent the end of the box from falling out. The 1/16 ply panel will sit at the same level as the wing sheeting. Once covered, it will be flush and clean.

The holes on each side of the box are for alignment of your typical skinny screwdriver/hex wrench that would be used to install the servo. The mounting screws for the servo are easily installed with the aid of small pre-tapping holes. This design will allow a servo to be changed at the field in just a few minutes.

It's very light, and very strong. I suggest using light servos to those who want to use this. There is some talk about putting this up as a kit for use in any plane. It's been patented so this can take place.

With this setup, will the trailing edge be closed in? I love those servo boxes. They look great. ANd if something terrible happens to a single servo in flight, all may not be lost.

Ken, are you still using just two servis to operate the flaps and ailerons, or does the new setup use one servo per control surface. Are the surfaces directly driven or do you still use the bellcranks. I see the bellcrank mounting plate in the photos but do you still need them?

Roger