Yeah! I like it!!

Dave

dumorian How about a photo or two of the trailer with the doors open. I need a trailer and that one looks great, I need to have a sale hear of trailers we have one A Van three Dog trailers 2 berth 4 berth and a 6 berth One horse floot and two 6X4s

Dang!!! My second roll of Pearl White covering is 51" long instead of 6' as is on the label. This won't work... no way, no how. Big delay at a time when I need no delay. My workshop is scheduled to be torn down August 1st and a new one to replace it started. I suppose I'll use this down time to move more stuff out. I was trying to get this done beforehand so as not to have 'fragile parts' moved around combined with all the bits getting spread into various boxes to find later. I suppose the latter isn't so much of a thing anymore as there aren't that many parts anymore. But dang anyway! Can't get to customer support at Tower until tomorrow. [:@]

Oh well, I do have fuse work to do. I could start that part.

Yes Quigley... I'll open the back door to the trailer and use it for a backdrop during my next photo shoot. Almost did it this last time but didn't want to appear that I might be a braggart or anything. I do like my setup and the best part is those models are out of my workshop, safe and sound. No hanger rash. I'm a bit like you though, from the looks of things. I can only fit about 1/3rd of my models into the trailer. Still a LOT of stuff hanging and sitting around. I think I have about 30 of them and maybe about 8 or 10 helis. I'm sort of proud at the moment... I have this glider in process and then there is only one other model, a quarter scale Stinson SR-10, in progress and then only two kits not started, a silly little SomethingBee that was packed in with something I bought at a flea market, and a 1/5th scale Meister P-47. No ARFs setting around and everything else is a flier.

and Skylark... I keep meaning to comment on your covering job. Very very nice! It seems I always set out to do the 'perfect' covering job. It fights me. I alway get a bubble or few and a wrinkle or few and it isn't perfect. But oddly, once at the field, maybe it is the heat/cool cycles or something, but my covering seems to be just as good as any and those tiny flaws seem to go away. I do notice that most ARFs have these little flaws as well, so I guess even the experts don't get it exactly right... or maybe the time to do it is just too pressing on them?

I did use the Monocote trim 'juice' for those large wing tip areas. A portion of those, like 6" is over balsa as a 6' roll of covering won't reach the end. But the front areas overlap the base covering and the trim juice did a good job and I managed to get it down pretty much bubble free. I was really happy about that part. That stuff is great! I've never covered a wing this big with plastic and I'm amazed at how long it takes to just run a heat gun over it!

Geez Dumorian, I thank you kindly for the complement. Actually, I'm just a simple sport-flier, not a builder - I just build them to keep planes in the air (wouldn't ever consider an ARF/RTF for my stable). I build them as best I can, cover them so they don't totally embarrass me, and hope. I almost always get a wrinkle or 2 on a wing. I just do my best not to make them too obvious. Bubbles! Yeah, not a monokoted plane in my collection DOESN'T/didn't have at least a couple. I just use a straight-pin to pop 'em and iron 'em down as best I can, then wait and watch the whole thing fix itself on the first 95 degree day I'm out at the field. Amazing, what the sun can do for a botched job.

The BoT is probably the best covering job I've done in years - monokote covering, that is. Some of my birds are actually doped materials (usually koverite for RC birds, silkspan for CL) and they ALWAYS come out right. Must be the 55+ years experience with dope that brings that out. Even with the BoT, I cheated a bit. The fuse isn't monokote - 3 coats butyrate clear, sanded once, butyrate white lightly sanded and sprayed with Lustrekote. I took one look at all those concave surfaces and decided that there was no way I was going to be able to monokote it and have it come out looking like anything more than a plastic bag with a frame inside. Gotta admit, it does look decent.

Understood about the 'juice', although I've never used it. On those occasions I have to go farther than the roll extends I usually cut it off at a rib-cap and continue a new piece at that point, then shrink the whole thing at once.

Heat gun? You have a heat gun? WOW! I used my wife's iron until she screamed loud enough about her white blouses having color streaks on 'em, then I went out and bought her a new one (iron) - keeping the old one for the planes.

Hey! Wanna screw up a perfectly good iron? I know how - just use Koverite with SIG Stix-it. Guaranteed, you're gonna go through a quart (or more) of dope thinner keeping it semi-clean. When I restored my Great Lakes biplane I did the smart thing (for a change), bought 2 quarts of thinner when I ordered all the stuff to cover it. Ended up with about a small juice glass of thinner at the end.

Ye gads, the things I've done to that poor girl, and she's stayed with me for over 42 years - she deserves a medal.

Skylark, that 'juice' goes a long long ways. I've used it now on 3 or 4 planes and it still looks like a new full bottle! A drop will cover an elephant! It leaves this really thin film that is just barely what I would call beginning to be wet. I'm amazed every time that so little activates the glue and it seems to be just as good as heat. On my Merlyn, those tip graphics having the curves to them, obviously could follow a rib. Out came the juice. This was the biggest application over and I was worried, but to no avail. I'm not sure I have any bubbles in that application.

Yes, I have used the pin method on bubbles often. But I'm still amazed at how it all seems to fall into place after a day or few at the field in the sun.

I'm fairly new to this hobby... I think 4 years now. I have never done the dope method. I do have one Coverite fabric job and then there is my one project that I picked up midstream which is getting Stits covering. Now, I absolutely love that stuff! It is more expensive and more time consuming and in the end requires painting, but my covering is perfect! I'm using the stitching tapes and then the tapes over all seams. It is more steps but wow the end result is very nice and very tough. The true scale look of course is a bonus. It is a bit heavier though... for a glider... I suppose it might be right for a Minimoa or something.

As for irons, I got a couple of covering irons. The coverite iron is awesome and the variable temp dial is very accurate. I needed this to do the Stits as it is very heat sensitive. I had a Hanger 9 iron... there is no comparison. I also at the same time picked up one of those trim irons and it is fantastic. It will get into those tight corners, or into places like cutouts for servo bays. I use it in particular for the pre-covering bits I do before covering. Like inside corners around the tail, or concave areas... it has a flat and a rounded shoe with it.

I've pretty much decided that Monocote is my favorite plastic covering. It seems to hold up to higher heat/shrinkage than the others I have tried. I have not yet tried any Coverite other than the fabric type, so I can't be a fair judge on that one.

In the meantime... my Merlyn build. Having the short roll of covering and needing to get that rectified, I moved on to working on the fuse. So, motor time! I have two 4130s, one AXI and one no name. The no name having a few less options but the one option I needed with this installation, it was selected as the power source. I figure for a couple of 15 or 30 second power ups for an entire flight, it will be just fine. So, I laid out my cut around the nose and did that. Then the boring. I bought a shouldered bearing for up front. So, there was the drilling to match the diameter of the bearing and then a larger redrill so flange can set into the nose block a bit. I plan to use two screws, the heads will catch the flange, to hold the bearing into the nose block. There will be no pulling or pushing on this bearing, only torsional force. Next, I pull the shaft on the motor. I bought a piece of 6mm drill rod to match the motor shaft and of course this nose bearing is 6mm. The idea... build a long motor shaft. And in spite of not being about to measure any difference between the drill rod and the motor shaft, the drill rod was too large to slide into the motor or the nose bearing. I think we are talking like 0.0005" oversized. So, I chucked it up on my drill and just spun it up while holding sand paper around it. Back and forth, test, back and forth test... and you had to let it cool down to get a true test as we are talking a tiny amount. I used 120g and then 220G and then 600G each time to get a smooth finish. After the second 18v battery discharged and at the start of the third, it finally got to the right size. So, I have a very nice fitting shaft which a polished finish that looks pretty much like what came from the factory. This whole ordeal was a bit of a surprise, but the end result 'measures' very true.

Then sometime last night I started wondering if I had ordered a 5mm or 6mm Aeronaut prop adaptor... and sure enough I ordered a 5mm one (and it came this morning), so I ordered the 6mm one last night. Also is a this big honkin Aeronaut 17x11 folder. That's going to be just a bit scarey during a hand launch! Meanwhile, back to the motor. I built my firewall and have it all bolted up. Now I need to do the blocks inside the fuse which will be in front of this firewall. Those blocks will have at least a couple of T-nuts and maybe a pin or two. The firewall will slide into place behind these blocks and the attach with bolts to those T-nuts. The goal here is to loosen the prop adaptor and remove the prop system, take out a couple or three bolts from the firewall and be able to pull the whole motor/power system. I'll later build another firewall replacement, which will hold ballast and tow release and build a nose cone to replace the prop system and have a non-powered glider ready for tow.

Anyway, not a lot of apparent progress last night, but there was a lot of figuring, thinking and time consuming little steps. I'm pretty happy with where it seems to be headed. Yes, 'seems to be' as I know that sometimes the gremlins and unforeseen seem to haunt me.

OK!!! Towers is sending out another roll of covering and said to just keep this one. I've done thousands of dollars worth of business with them and I can only think of two times when an order or product was messed up and they have been great in dealing with them. I cut this roll with my razor saw before opening the package. Only when I then rolled it out did I find it was short. Heck, most of the time I don't unroll a roll except for the amount I need. I wouldn't have known this until I came up short and then would have been scratching my head about how that happened. Needing the full length to start with was the only way I knew.

Meanwhile.... motor mounting. Wow this is tedious work. The long shaft needs to line up with the bearing. The firewall needs to be in the same plane (as in geometry... obviously it needs to be in the same plane/glider ) as the bearing. Then you're working inside an area that has curved side and bottom. Anyway, cross my fingers... I think I have it all right. I just epoxied the blocks into place and they have the T-nuts any everything ready to go. Once dry, I should be able to bolt it up and see if I did it good enough or not.

I also hope I have enough strength in the whole thing. The motor has to be above the cockpit sides by about 1/2", so there was no way to really anchor the uppoer part of the firewall. I have screws in each side and one on the bottom. I suppose the bearing in the nose will play a big part in torsional stress on the firewall. It certainly is not going to rip out forward. I think it is 'good enough'. This motor is huge. It seems like I checked it once and got 1700 watts on a 17x10 prop. Lets see, if it will in fact do that... I'll have close to 200 watts per pound! That should do it. [8D] Or, I might have a noseless model. [X(]

So, this is all good. If this plan works, I have knocked out one of the really hard parts and tomorrow, when the epoxy is dry, I'll know for sure. I should get my other prop adapter Friday or Saturday. I can then cut the motor shaft to length, put in the set screw notches and bolt it all together. Heck, I might even have to fire it up! And, if in fact it is successful, I'll get some shots of this whole business.

I am a bit anxious about the folder and the nose. The main part of the nose is walnut. The upper part is balsa. I'm yet again thinking that I might give it a coating of thin CA to harden the balsa before covering. Maybe that will help with the bit of prop damage inherent in these folders. OH... the Aeronaut prop is gorgeous! I have a number of these but none this big. I think I have a 12" in my Cularis. 17" is beastly looking in comparison!

Sounds like, after 5+ decades in the sport, I need to "modernize" and try that juice. What, with the modern graphics programs & printers, I already do all my own graphics and decals for planes and most of them come out pretty good once I've put them on the Testors water-decal papers (ooooooooooooooo, he does his own decals.... ) .

((sorry - brain fart))

Ye gads! Four years in the hobby and you're doing something like the Merlyn - I'm way beyond being totally impressed. You're much braver than I am, I've always been quite conservative in my projects/flying.

You're right - dope finishes are definitely for the powered planes. Last time I saw dope on a glider was way back in the 1970's and I think that was something akin to a Gentle Lady that had it - regular light-weight tissue and a couple coats of 50/50-thinned clear. They don't hold up well, or very long. More substantial finishes went on the larger (larger at that time, we're talking .40-size birds here) planes and they were either silk or silkspan with a half-dozen or so coats. I've still got several CL birds (.35-.45 engines) with 1980's covering jobs on them, that fly regularly and still look pretty good. They're silk-covered. Silkspan is more of a heavy tissue paper and it doesn't hold up as long before cracking/tearing from age - 10-15 years is about it most of the time. This new (!) (only been around since Alexander crossed the mountains) Koverite-type stuff is outstandingly tough and will hold up pretty much forever - or so they say.

Presently though, monokote is definitely the best/easiest general purpose covering for most planes that I've found out about - no doubt about that. My own DeBolt Champ is monokote covered but I'm thinking about re-doing her with super coverite so she looks more like she would have in the 50's-60's, when the type first took to the air.

Hey! Never apologize for spending time thinking about what you're going to do - that's a sign of someone who knows what he's doing. I do a lot of woodworking and my dad always drummed into me that it's best to measure twice (or more) and cut once. That rule extends into these planes too. These critters are ALL rather high-tech machines, doesn't matter whether they're rubber-powered indoor duration types or something like your Merlyn. They've gotta FLY, and fly right - the first time!! Thinking, planning, re-thinking, re-drawing - that's what makes planes fly right the first time. Besides, there are enough gremlins out there already. The more planning you do, the fewer of them that ever show up.

BTW, I definitely want to be there when you take her out the first time (yeah, I'll hold the camera) - I wanna see this critter grab air and go!!

Ah, electric power - love it! Probably won't ever do it myself, would take a total re-tool of my moldy ol' mind and I don't think I'd ever really be able to get into it, but I can definitely appreciate its uses and advantages. The work you did on that shaft - very good. Very good indeed! I like your idea of CA'ing the balsa on top so the folding prop doesn't chew into it - definitely the way to go and it won't add enough weight to talk about. Pretty cool with the interchangeable noses too - I like that.

Just curiosity here, 4-40 for the firewall screws? That 17" prop's definitely going to need a bit of holding power to keep everything together - 1700 watts & 17" is a LOT of pulling power.

Hey man, press on pressing on! Can't wait to see how all this comes out.

Dave

Swish!!! Fit like a glove! I was worried about needing to do some shimming, but so far it seems that will not be needed. I'm thrilled! The big worry is over.

You can see it is really tight in the photos. I wanted this motor/weight as close to the nose as possible. More ballast up front will be in very limited space. I have good down thrust, but almost no right thrust. I'll just have to deal with that. Maybe I'll mix some rudder or aileron or both into the throttle? While I was laying it out, the motor would have needed to go way back to get much right thrust. As it is now, I have a couple of 3700 mah 25C lipos that should do a good job just behind the firewall. I'm hoping those and the few bits more... ESC (which I will for sure set up with soft start), a couple or few more servos, receiver... and I hope my balance is really close. I'm hoping for no more needed weight up front. And I surely hope for no needed weight on the tail!

So, the photos. I have the full length of the shaft in the photos. This is because I need the prop adapter before cutting it to length. It will be cut so that the shaft collar can be installed behind the motor which should leave it close to flush with the back of the firewall. The front... I'll work out so that the spinner is close to the nose of the model. I'll grind in some flat spots where set screws go for the prop adapter and the two areas that are flat on the existing shaft.

Removal/installation of this unit is 6 screws. The spinner screw, the two prop adapter screws and the three screws that hold in the firewall. In one photo, you and see the seven screws through the firewall. The one center bottom and the two outermost screws hold the firewall to the block supports. I used 8-32 screws for these. A triangle is the key. Three screws give you a triangle. Four screws give you two triangles. Two triangles really aren't much stronger than one. All the force should be forward (unless I nose in [X(] ), so I should only be dealing with shear force on these screws. I gave the firewall a 'really' good tug and it didn't budge or flew. I think I have 'enough'.

Dave! I keep forgetting you are just up the road from here. Were you at the Harrisonburg IMAA flyin a few weeks ago? Anyway, yes, I'll let you know when it is ready and maybe we can work out your being here. We have a most wonderful runway here. It is 450' x 80' with excellent approaches. Other than Joe Nall, it's the best field I've flown from. Our grass is still a bit rough, but getting better every year. It runs parallel with Little North Mountain, just before it drops off into Goshen Pass. Most days the wind is right and we have an updraft on that mountainside, so reverse slope soaring is easy and one can always get back down to the runway, instead of needing to get back up to the mountaintop. I've also been thinking about a XC with this thing. It might be a pipe dream, but if I go about 10 miles up the road to the top of Greater North Mountain, we could glide back down the valley to our runway. If it is to be done, that would be a good first time at doing this. But, I'm jumping way ahead... first things first... get her finished and in the air.

Maybe being 'short-sheeted' by Towers is a good thing? It moved me onto the motor install. And I've been contemplating a belly wheel. Since it will likely be Monday before my new roll shows up, I suppose now is a good time to go ahead and do that. Now to decide on building a retract or doing a fixed wheel. I don't want to do a retract with 'doors'. I think this would limit the use to only those perfectly manicured airstrips or the grass would snag and damage those doors. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit of an exit air hole for heat and I can't imagine that a quarter of a wheel hanging down would have much drag effect, so I'm leaning towards a fixed wheel, but a retract would be cool. So, now off to the next bit of thinking and deciding.

Geez man, those pics look GOOD!!! As far as the right thrust goes, I really wouldn't worry a whole lot about that anyway. That critter's got a looooooooooong fuse and I'd be willing to bet that just a bit of rudder on launch will more than do the job. Your layout (radio, etc) really sounds pretty fair too and I'm sure you're not gonna need tail weight. And even if you do, all it's gonna take is moving the batteries back a bit - easy as pie!

I was truly wondering about your motor mount screws but now that I've seen them I feel a whole lot better. You can tow my van with that screw mount!!!! I know very little about the electric motor set-ups but one thing I've heard over and over is "cooling" - sometimes related to the motor, sometimes related to the ESC. As you're doing the final set-up, make sure you've got good flow all around up there.

As far as your "landing gear" goes - if it were me (and remember, I believe in SIMPLE) I'd go with fixed gear with nose & tail skids. I agree 100,000% with "no retract with doors", you're just asking for repairs every time you land on anything other than a perfectly smooth/manicured airstrip. A fixed wheel can be faired in so that practically nothing other than the bottom of the tire is actually exposed to the wind and that's going to present almost no drag that way. I mentioned "nose" skid - might be something to think about to help protect that prop, should she nose over a bit on landings. Wouldn't have to be much. Tail skid though, I'd think that would pretty much be a "gotta-have" to protect that rudder.

I learned, finally, about the value of a tail skid after tearing off enough rudders on gliders - the BoT's skid is actually nearly twice what the plans called for and it's just barely enough, the grass at the park is rarely cut short enough (for my tastes anyway) and she really drags through the grass on landings. Another thing I did with the BoT, but don't recommend with your bird, is that I built a chin under the nose - actually extended the fuse down - to protect the tow hook on landings. It's the old family gremlin showing it's ugly head, every glider I've ever flown has had at least a half dozen tow hooks broken off when she hit a rock or something while touching down. I get tired of replacing them!!!! So, the BoT's got the chin and I worry a whole lot less about those broken hooks.

Naw, didn't make the fly-in - had the Sr. Falcon, BoT &Champ up in Baltimore for a fly-in of "oldies" there. Talked to several of the guys in H'burg though. They're planning on doing the same thing next Spring and I'm planning to be there then.

Your field sounds great!!!!!!!! I might just bring a couple of my birds with me when I come down there. I'm thinking Falcon, BoT, Champ & Butterfly (4-stroke .26) - fly whichever strikes my fancy at the time (or all of 'em, who knows?!). An XC run down from the mountain - CLASSIC!!!!!!!! I've never been near one of those - that sounds like an incredible way to spend a day! If you do it - I definitely want an invite. But, you're right - get her up first and THEN think about XC runs. Gotta tell ya though, if she flies just half as good as she looks, your maiden run might nearly be an XC flight. Probably gonna have time to get out the grill and do some dogs and burgers before she touches down.

Press-on man, press-on!!

Dave

((pic - shows BoT's "chin" ))

Thanks for the huge vote of confidence Dave! On the right thrust, well, weight closer to the nose was way more important than needing to give it a bit of rudder during powerups. As this is a 'glider' first, hopefully there will be no more than maybe twice per flight when the motor is actually powered up... so really not that big a deal.

I just about lost the nose off my powered Cularis. I was really surprised by this. It has a pretty powerful system in it but what I learned from that was the gyrotorsionalscopic (how do you like that word?) forces must be more powerful than just the tug force. It was those up - down - left - right forces that did the damage. I reinforced the whole nose area with fiberglass/CA over the foam and no problems since. I also extended the glass back down under the belly to protect it on landings. Anyway, at this point the motor system on the Merlyn should not have more pull than 10 pounds for certain. I can tug substantially more than 10lbs forward on this mount. And there is the bonus of the power system being supported on both ends. That front bearing will eliminate any side forces on that mount. I think this method should actually allow a greatly reduce firewall mounting... it really only needs to support the tug force and the rotational torque of a powerup. Again, I'll set the ESC for soft start.

And then cooling. Back to my Cularis. I can pretty much empty a 2100mah LiPo in that bird in about 2.5 minutes. That's a LOT of power. It has I believe a 45amp ESC in it. The Merlyn will get a 80amp ESC. The Cularis has fairly smallish holes in the nose and worst exit holes under the wings. I did a lot of enlarging of those holes to try to dissipate the heat. I think they say to have at least twice the exit hole size vs. the intakes? But, the Cularis is also basically a big insulated foam box with not a lot of open space inside. I have learned to do like a 15 or 20 second launch under power... let her glide about for a bit... do some trim work... then after a minute or so do the second powerup for about the same time and then she is up as high as one normally needs. I think I can be over 1000 feet in that time. After a quick flight, the battery and ESC are very warm, but I've never had an issue using this method.

On to the Merlyn and heat ventilation. I really don't want to be reducing the bit of slick that this old design has. It really isn't all that bad. Also, I sort of accidentally went from flat bottom wings to the Selig <sp?> 3106 is it? There was an option to add another 1/8" of sheeting to the bottom from the leading edge back to the spar. I really only just now learned this was an 'option'. It was in the plans... I did it. But, doing this left a step at the spar, so the covering wouldn't have attached to the ribs on the bottom and would have been flat and maybe flapping a bit from the spar to the trailing edge. What I did is added a second stack of rib caps from the spar back and planed/sanded a gradual curve down to nothing at the trailing edge. The outcome should be a wing that is even more modern and from what I understand, more 'slick'. I really had to do this so my servo pods could be mounted flush with the covering... and those have the same curve sanded into them. Blind luck... learn later that I did really good. Crud... meanwhile back to heat....

The Merlyn fuse is pretty large and wide open front to tail. Adding a wheel will give me an 'exit hole'. That leaves the question of what to do for an intake? I really do not want to do anything. I also have been questioning this reasoning. Adding holes adds resistance. But maybe I will go ahead with my thoughts on a couple of intake holes in the nose. I would expect that a fixed wheel would create a bit of a vacuum behind it? So the exit should be fine. Oh well... I think this is my final resolve on that issue. Thanks Dave for making me think about it some more.

Skids - I will not have a belly tow hook. It will either be aerotowed or motor powered. The idea with the motor 'module' it to be able to quickly exchange that 'pod' with a nose two release 'pod'. So, no tow hook to think about. I have been a bit worried about ripping up the covering on the bottom front and have been thinking that some packing tape over the covering would be a good idea. Having the wheel is hopefully going to reduce that wear. I got a response on another thread about locating that wheel. They said it should go under the leading edge of the wing... that sounds about right. I have to decide how much wheel to expose under the belly if it is not a retract (and yes on K.I.S.S.). I'd like it not to be 1" and 1/2" is likely too little, so maybe 3/4" is about right? It will still be sliding over the top of the grass on most fields, but that shouldn't be too bad. Also, this wheel should help a bit with less friction during a tug takeoff.

The tail skid is by the plans. It extends below the rudder which actually tapers upward toward the TE. It has a piece of Heart Pine laminated into the center, so should wear really well, but again, I'll like but some packing tape over the covering to protect it. I think this will suffice for rudder protection. Good to think about this though.

Getting 'short sheeted' with my covering, put a nasty delay in the project. That and the hottest days of the year. It's now looking like I'm not going to finish this thing before my shop is destructed. I think it will take 4 to 6 weeks to reconstruct. Drag!!! At the same time, the fuse is about done... got the wheel and intake holes left to do... to be ready for covering. So maybe the short sheet was a good thing? I can do covering in the house and not upset the S.O. She didn't much care for the dust when I built my Dynaflite Decathlon in the living room!!! And me either. I couldn't believe how much sanding and how that dust traveled. But covering... If I have all my sanding done... I think I could move inside and limp along with a hodgepodge of tools spread all over the place in boxes. So, maybe I will be able to continue during this shop construction period and not get into trouble. When I'm doing a build, I have a tendency to have 'everything' right there on the bench. I bad habit. I actually zip lock bagged some groups of items this time to get them off the bench and held in groups. This is a good practice if I just take the time to actually do it. Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to continue. As I only have one week to tear down, it is time to get really serious about emptying the 'shed'. So, not much more will be done over this week.

Our airstrip! Yes, it is wonderful and I feel really lucky. It is in the middle of about a 15 acre field on the high spot. The view for the pilot is commanding. The high spot is only a few feet above the rest, but it makes a very nice difference. The runway rises slightly to one end. Maybe as much as a foot. One end has a slight tilt to one side... again maybe one foot. Otherwise it is pretty much flat. The approach from one end is forever... like 1000-1500 ft. to the tree line. The other end a bit less... maybe 600-800 feet to the tree line. Basically, you can land here with about anything (we do fly 40%ers from this field). I bet a full scale Cub could hit it! We are only about 400 feet from the tree line on the mountain side of the runway, which runs parallel. The field is mostly north south oriented with the pilot stations on the west side, so the sun is at your back for afternoon/evening flying. Again, our grass is not as good as the club fields I have been to, but the openness, flatness, commanding view and size I like better than all the nearby clubs.

As for XC... what be really awesome is to do a run from here to a club near Staunton. That however would be a real feat. The road is busy and fast traffic... I'm not sure if I could plan a route to do this. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'm enough of a pilot to do this! It is fun to think about though. Still, first get her in the air. Second, telemetry of some sort... then start thinking more about what might be outlandish ideas becoming reality! I do not have much experience in true 'themaling'. I have the cheat reverse slope soaring going. That is a lot easier. And without telemetry, I'm not sure I can 'see' if I'm going up or down. It's all mountains around here, and although I've caught a thermal or two under a big cloud... I don't feel very confident in trying a long over land journey. Time will tell.

Just between you and me (yeah, right) getting short-sheeted wasn't all that bad a thing, really. It's given you time to think things out a bit, which, in the end, is usually a pretty good thing.

Total agreement with "moments". Thrust is well taken care of with your firewall/nose set-up, rotational torque is the big thing and a "soft-start" on the ESC will keep that whittled down pretty well.

Yeah, it's true. Everything I've ever heard is that air-exit should be twice air-intake, so you won't need much intake at all. From what little tiny bit I understand about the electric set-ups, air for the battery &amp; ESC is far more important than air for the motor, especially for the way you're going to be running the system. If you leave enough gap around the wheel (especially at the rear of the wheel - or so I've heard) you'll be OK. There will be a vacuum at the rear of the wheel, simply by virtue of the shape of the wheel - the gap behind it will simply put that vacuum to work.

Might be the required method on the Merlyn too.

Thoughts keep running round and round in my noggin - ways to get air IN and not mess up the beautiful lines of that front end. The one that sticks with me most is simple angled drill holes on the fuse sides in front of the battery &amp; ESC, something like a 1/4" hole on each side, scalloped into the fuse. If you did it "square", I would think maybe 1/2" high on each side. Quick, lousy drawing below.

Wing sheeting, and what you've done, is GREAT! My Spirit-100 had the option of flat-bottom or "sport" wing - not much difference between the two except for control surfaces (spoilers &amp; flaps) and caps on the wing bottom, in addition to the top. I went half-way in between, no spoilers/flaps but capped both sides - love it. Also, my years in CL tell me your wing's now got just a tiny bit more "body" - those extra caps will definitely make her slicker and, if she was a powered bird all the time she'd be more maneuverable too - you've not only eliminated the "flap" of the covering on the bottom rear of the wing, you've eliminated an edge in the covering that creates drag too.

Wheel/nose skid; many/most full-size gliders with fixed wheels show that most of the time the only bit of the wheel that's exposed to air is actually the tire itself. I shouldn't think anything more than that's really necessary. Placement under the wing LE is just about perfect too.

Yeah, been regretting that nose skid idea ever since I came up with it. Why not just wax the crap out of the nose bottom once in awhile? Taping of any kind is going to create drag on the edges of the tape, not look good (unless you're REALLY a whole lot better at that sort of thing than I am) and generally be a pain in the rump. Wax will hang onto any paint I've ever heard of, and I understand it can be used on MK too but have never tried it.

Most assuredly!!

Finally checked out the Merlyn's tail - should have done that before I said anything about extending the tail skid. Yeah, you're definitely OK on that. I was going with the BoT's lines, where the rudder actually continues extending down under the fuse and that's where my thinking went wrong.

Hehe, your shop tear-down's really getting to you - don't let it! All will work out just fine in the end. As is stated in Desiderata; "the universe will unfold as it should". Keep the faith, my friend. And besides, my 42 married years have always told me that if I screw up the house, all it usually takes is a nice night out with my wife (who really needs a medal for putting up with me this long) and all's well again (for awhile - until I screw up again - - - usually the very next day).

((oh, the stories I could tell about that))

Your airstrip! Geez man, that thing's not much short of a full-size airport. Even I could land a plane in that amount of space!!!! I've got my Butterfly on the table (see? house is a repair shop AGAIN - and she's not yelling too much, yet) right now with a damaged wing. Idiot me, trying to set up final landing approach and after 10 years of flying at that field - - I flew her right into the far tree line (maybe 25 deep line with an open field on the other side) from the far side. Couldn't believe it! Got her down easy enough but have a bit of stringer repair to do and re-monokoting. Sheesh!

XC - something to think about, maybe, for next year ... after you know what the bird can really do and how she acts.

Telemetry - I know absolutely nothing about it, but sure wish sometimes I had an altimeter available on my birds, if only for curiosity's sake. I'm in the same boat as you, only way I can tell if she's going up is when it visibly gets smaller. And now that I'm 60++, that's even harder (hence, running into the trees).

Hey, did you know that to a tree, balsa tastes just like chicken?

I haven't died or anything, but it did become time to clear the old shop. What a task. 26 years of accumulated 'stuff'. Many pickup loads went to the dump. So, my shop is empty, ready for destruction and I'm not sure I can do much in the meantime other than 'think' about the model and hope that I can replicate what I did on the covering of that first wing. There were a good many steps. I hate putting stuff like that off. My tools are spread all over the place which might be too difficult to find until what's left goes back into the new shop. I hope I can find my battery chargers box! I can fly during this downtime. LOL!!!!

Just as a reminder, one of our club members lost radio control of an Ollie this week. The last sighting seemed to have it slowly circling and drifting down wind... still some power to the prop. Who knows where it landed... or maybe it hasn't yet? I have had the same thing happen. It's a really good idea to make sure all of your models have your name and contact info inside of them. I don't know if he did or not but I sure didn't when I lost mine. Other things could be 'thought about'. Such as a chase car ready and mobile phones or some other method to talk it back or down. And, setting up failsafe isn't a bad idea either... perhaps throttle down... maybe a bit of rudder to force a circle and maybe some braking to bring it down before it is miles away? I know first hand it is a rather helpless and empty hearted feeling.

In this age there is only one method, fit the GPS system, I had the butterfly go on a short walkabout last Sunday and yes I had the exact position on the Tx, now we never used it as one of the club members saw it come back to earth. but I did have the exact location if it was needed. Best money I ever spent. Hitec you have the answers. Yours Paul T

That's awesome Quigley. Does it do pretty good on knowing quickly when you hit a thermal? Is there any audible for thermals? I'm thinking of selling my 12FGA to pick up one of these. I really liked how Hitec did their glider setups on the Optic 6 and Eclipse 7... Would be fun to get into the modern world with an Aurora.

Meanwhile, the new shop project is 'creeping' along. I've taken the time to look at lots of plans for the next glider build. LOL!!! Ain't finished this one.... So, after many hours and not finding just exactly what I want to do, I dove into my CAD program and started tuning up in 3d mode. I'm getting close! It seems to me that doing a plan in 3d would be good on many fronts. First, a good representation of the model. Then putting it all together 'on screen' before getting to the build table to realize something doesn't exactly work. Anyway, I'm going through a huge batch of tutorials and picking up on some things I didn't have in my arsenal of tools and about to come out of the other side to actually start drawing. What am I going to draw?

Well, my name is John Hinton, so I think I'll do the Von Hinten.... yes you heard it here first. Von Hinten is German for something like "out of rear" or "from the rear" and as I'll be pulling this one out of my.... it seems rather appropriate! What will it be?

I'm thinking this could be a 'open source' plan. I hope to just put it up somewhere for anyone that wants it. I'm aiming for something sort of retro and 'scalish'. Maybe from the late 30s to pre-glass era. I'll start a thread on this somewhere along the line. I have lots of questions about some basics. First, most sailplanes from that time had gull wings, whereas it seems dihedral has sort of taken over. I have never flown a gull wing glider, so don't know much about that. They are pretty! What I want to end up with is a very light wing loading... duration in mind... nothing really aerobatic... just an easy flier that can ride along for a long time on light lift on light to medium wind days. I'm also thinking of doing plans in multiple spans... same model just rescaled a bit with fewer bulkheads and ribs... or more. I'd like to have the largest one at around 20ft and the smallest at maybe 6 or 8 feet and maybe one in the middle between these two sizes. The basic design might be something like the Slingsby Dart or maybe just a bit more fuse belly than that.

Meanwhile there are lots of decisions to make. Airfoils, wing design, which method for tail feathers... something with modern know how but a model that can be stick built without going into fiberglass work and 'look' at least a bit like something that may have been a real model. I really don't want to be limited by starting out replicating a real plane and get stuck in the 'scale' box. I might however want some suggestions on size, just in case anybody wants to be able to fly in some contests. I really don't know anything about that either.

So.... there you have it.... what I've been working on... mostly in my head... but the thing is getting more real all the time. Now, if I can just do everything I want without having to dump a lot more money into the Pro version of my CAD package.

Hello everyone. I had to relive the piece o cake build. I pulled the cake out of the closet today to get it flight ready. I noticed that the rudder hinges had lost their glue gripp. I will have to remove the plastic hinges and replace with ca hinges. I probably didnt use epoxy on them. looks like I used ca. Since the build, I have had just 2 or 3 flights on the cake. I am wanting to do another big wing build, another butteryfly or piece o cake. I wont be ready to do the build for a few months, but it is on my mind.

Nice to see this old thread get revived! Piece O Cake and the Butterfly are classics for sure.

I thought I lost my 82 inch wing last week. Ran out of fuel over the approach end of the runway and even though I could have done a couple of 360's, my brain become disengaged and I dove and slipped for the runway. Hit it fast on the wheels but it ran off the end and the side hitting a Delonix sapling. I thought the wing was toast after seeing the 6 foot tree come down. Picking up the plane, the 1/2 inch leading edge dowel has a 1/8 inch dent in it and the 3/4 inch thick sapling is sheered right off. Hard to believe the balsa D tube wing can be that strong. Have some minor repairs I should do today.

That is the second Delonix to get whacked as the first one got cut by our gardener. Must not be a good location for a tree there!

Sorry to hear about the run in with the tree. I have been out of the hobby for about 2 years, but I had to get back in. There is something about seeing your work of art take flight and float around gracefully! I am a slow flying type of guy, but also will fly a trainer and some bind-n-fly models, but my true love is motor gliding. I may even get into non motor gliding. As of now, I do not have means to build, but in the next few months, I hope to change that. I have a Dynaflite skeeter kit, and a craft air stepp 2 kit, but what I really want to do is another butterfly or piece o cake build and build it as light as I can.

Earl I looked on the emails today and there was the old big wing build along thread that started so long ago. I did have a Butterfly kit in the stock side of the Kit pile marked to be built when desperate. However I gave it to my oldest son. He now has it on his list(much shorter than mine) to be built. Both the other Butterflys need some work on them to get them to fly again.One is just an hour away from ready the other is a week or so.If you boys keep talking Butterflys I might be forced to get the two going plus get the Cake in the air,its on the too be flown stack. Its complete but needs the servos and switches replaced.I think its Elec powered.
I had a mad idea about 6 weeks ago.I would love to equip one of the butterflys with the old single challel gear.I went and aquired an escapment(rubber powered rudder actuator) the old way to fly trim the model to perfection use low power and launch into the very light wind. one click of the butten is left two clicks is Right. or the other way around. O to be back in the sixtys again. Now Earl you need to look up Bonner varie comp and you will see all. I will do it using the transmitter and reciever I have using the snap roll function on Hitec TX
At this point there is no need to get all the vintage equipment I just want to beat the challenge of how we did fly way back then with the one butten. All for now Earl its great to have you back on line.

Yo Ejam! Glad to see the thread back in action. Yeah, I had the same situation a couple weeks ago with my Spirit-100 - rudder hinges (monokote, of course) had let go, so I took ALL the hinges off and re-did them with good ol' pinned-nylon types. Those WON'T let go.

Thailazer, glad to hear that the tree didn't get more than a piece of your critter. I learned a long time ago that - to a tree, balsa tastes like chicken.

(sorry guys, my POOR idea of humor)