Here is another pic with the prop and spinner on. I trimed the cowl a little more. It seems to be all in perspective with the engine.

This is another angle. The 13/8 prop will have more than enough room. Amazing as it may seem, I put the servos, battery and receiver in and even with the Saito it is almost dead on for balanace. Sometimes you step right in it and nobody knows.
AL

Looking fine. 13 X 8 is the prop size I opted for, too. Did you install your receiver ad battery as shown on the plans? I haven't tried to balance mine out yet. Hopefully tonight.

Semi-good news on the canopy. Outdoors it looks much less purple. Whew. (OK - so I'm kidding myself. That's my right isn't it?) My wife's "baltic green" car does the same thing. Blue at night under the lights at a gas station but green in sunlight.

I hope to begin covering next Saturday. I am dying to get this baby into the air! Fuel proofed the engine compartment and tank compartment with epoxy thinned with 30% alcohol. I added india ink to the epoxy for inside the cowl and it tinted the balsa gray. I think it looks better than raw balsa. I plan on doing the cockpit with balserite and a few drops of india ink.

Went out flying yesterday for the first time this year without skis. Had to hand launch (an RCM Trainer) and some of the landings were hairy as the ground was very wet. Sunk in over my hubs but did not flip. Kicked up a fine mess of mud.

Next project is pontoons.

I think the battery & receiver will be in the approximate plan position. I haven't sercured them yet, I'm waiting for everything else to be finished then do a real good final balance.

One little tip my instructor gave me on the phone Sunday is to mount the battery in front of the receiver. That way if you land a tad hard on the nose the battery rushing forward won't wipe out the receiver. That sounded like good info. In the Contender the battery mounted behind the three fuse servos will most likely not bother the receiver in a crash.

Any little tidbits are always helpful. Glad to hear your purple is toneing down a bit.

I may tackle the covering this weekend as well, if I can get enough time during the week to get the fuel proofing and the other odds and ends, like the canopy finished first.

AL

I can attest to the battery making a fine missile.

I made a pair of 3/8 x 1/4 x 3" notched "racks" that I glued about 1" above (below?) the fuselage deck to either side and the battery slides in between them. I then took a piece of 3/8 x 1/4 balsa cut as wide as the fuselage and formed on either end to engage the notches in the racks. The foam rubber lifts the cross-piece and keeps it pressed into the notches. With this set-up I can lock the battery in place anywhere ahead of F4 up to the rear servo rail. This way I can adjust the C/G a bit. The servos and control rods will catch the batteries in the event of a crash and the rack/bar system lets loose. And that might not matter because if I hit that hard I would probably replace the servos (along with the rest of the plane). I put the receiver under the cockpit floor in one of the Great Planes reveiver boxes. It fits there like it was made for this plane.

Charlie,
You mentioned pontoons. Are you going to put them on your Contender?

I have a set on my trainer, but I haven't flown it off of the water yet, for two reasons my instructor is a snowbird and the water was still a little hard up here till a few weeks ago and then the wind showed up.

You can see my trainer in my gallery if your interested.

AL

Well . . . I had intended on putting pontoons on my RCM Trainer 40, but due to a slight disfunction that plane is no more. I took off without checking my trim slides - rudder was full right trim) and tried to correct in flight, ended up looking down as I had a baggie over my transmitter (it was raining/snowing) and when I looked back up I was too late. She augered in. Luckily (?) the ground was very muddy and the motor, servos and receiver were undamaged. The plane itself was in six large and two dozen small pieces. So . . . the pontoons will either go on the Contender or the G.P. SlowPoke Sport I intend on buying to replace my trainer. (Apparantly I still need a slow aeroplane).

I set up the O.S. 70 on a test stand clamped to a saw-horse and ran through a couple tankfulls of 15% glo-fuel. I used the same saw-horse to make sure my Thunder Tiger Pro-46 was still functioning after unearthing it and hosing off pounds of mud (packed inside, too). The O.S. with 13x8 propeller actually started to pull the saw-horse across my slushy driveway!

I also ended up catching a &*%(!)$# cold and have been busy at work so I haven't made any Contender progress this week. She is ready to cover. Hopefully I'll get a start on that this weekend.

Charlie P.

Have you guys been out flying this year? I have about half a gallon on my morris knife profile hovering and playing around. It's hard to stay motivated building something thats gonna fly like a trainer, and the fact that I need to spend money on it lol. But it'll happen soon enough I guess.

hoverit, your disgusting! The weather up here has been the pits! We just had an ice storm follwed by a snow storm and now the weather genisuses (SP?) are calling for more snow and wind!:angry:

I finally have my alierons and flaps covered. They don't look too bad. The stress got to me so I had to stop and have a few beers and now hot irons are most likely not a good idea.

Patience Percilla! Will proceed forward tomorrow!

All and all things are going well. I'll post some pics once I have something worth while to look at.

P.S. I still think your disgusting. lmao!

AL

I got in 14 flights in January, 9 in February and 11 in March. All but the last one were off skis and all but a couple were below 30º. A couple were below 10º. We have winter for six months here, so if you don't fly in snow you're missing half your life.

I think Hoverit is corn-fusing aerolpanes for them eggbeater whirlybirds. Hang on your nose like that and you're a sitting duck for bandits and AA. LOL!

But then I've been told the Germans could stand the DVIIs on their tails to rake planes passing overhead.

Charlie P.

I think everyone should learn to hover, it will make you a better pilot.

"I think everyone should learn to hover, it will make you a better pilot."

No doubt. But then, every time I depart from the field I'm a better pilot than when I arrived. I've just never had a plane with enough power to weight ratio to make it possible. I was mostly just joshin' ya.

Someday I'd like to learn how to perform, or at least spell, a Lomshovak, too.

It's easier to do a lomcevek than spell it lol.

Well it is covered! All of you static modelers relax. Wrinkles are a sign of character.

All and all not bad. I still have a few trim items to add. Now I need to remount all the servos, control horns, rods and the engine. I'm leaving the pilot and canopy for last.

Charlie, where again did you get your purple canopy? I think that would make quite a statement on my red and white plane. lol

AL

P.S. That is a new solder powered engine.

The first picture was a tad dark here is another.

looks awsome!!!

Thanks for the compliment Dago Red. My instructor is back from Arkansas and he will see it for the first time on Sunday. (He has been keeping track here on RCU) I hope to have it finished by then.

AL

you were trained well.

Here are the final pics of the Contender. Maybe it will get some airtime this weekend.

AL

Here is another view.

And Another!

This is the last one. I promise.

This has been fun posting the progress and getting all of your comments.

Thanks,

AL

Looks great man, you can cover 10 times better than me, my last cover job was a waste of time for me--i thought the plane needed a recovering, turned out it meant a P-40 with a teribble fight.
I hope all goes good with you plane, looks very nice. you did a AWSOME job, want to cover mine? lol J/J

Al,

Looks great! What did you use to color the silver/blue canopy borders and bow?

I used Testors Chrome Silver and painted the inside of the canopy. I was going for a brushed aluminum effect.

AL