P51-B,

Laugh at me when I fly...she'll look better now!!

By the way, if you have a video camera, I'll even let you know ahead of time when I'll be flying if you will agree to film me "commiting aviation."

Cannister muffler and trial header enroute. Moving stabs back to rear mounting holes for first set-up.

Alrighty then... - ahem - Decided to use up some vacation time so I could actually make some progress...mounted control horns, servos (reinforce the mounts with thin CA ) made the pushrods, sealed the hinges, set up the servos, installed the pull-pull, installed the tail wheel, drilled the prop (first multi-bolt hub for me...interesting process), installed the fuel tank, installed choke and throttle servos and pushrods, threw everything else in there and hauled out the homemade GS balancer...thin plywood bits get taped on the desired CG (using center of the wing tube for the first flight)...sure makes the job easy for the do-it-yourselfer.

Got the moveable bits all fastened down...charge the batteries and set the throws tonight.

Looking really good - very clean interior as well. Looks like you are almost there - maiden should be any day now at this rate... Looks like placement of batts in front of fuel tank whould help with CG and help prevent adding dead weight. I added 6oz. to the engine box to get my CG at the aft part of the wing tube..

It's a great flier (my maiden was this last weekend) and I've got plenty of gas mixed up for this weekend

Jason

Stupid, stupid, stupid....

Agree last night to help friend build speaker boxes for his bass boat (yah, right...200hp Evinrude on the back...good for very fast bass, I guess!)...night before...rush to load all the airplane gear up in the truck bed...load all the speaker box stuff in the front of the truck...arrive at friend's house at 8 AM...finish helping buddy build and install speaker boxes in boat at 1 PM (sounds awesome BTW)...he offers to buy lunch...too good a deal to pass up...finish lunch at 1:30...on the road to flying field (40 minute drive!! [:'(] )...temperature a cool 94 in the shade... get plane out...assemble...double check charge, throws...fuel up...take 'glamour shots'...remove wheel pants (man does this gear flex!!)....reset wheels to max inboard position...better...engine starts sooo easy....conduct taxi tests...all looking good...small landing strip...power poles at one end...should be no problem....lots of wing area...landings will need to be very accurate...okay, ground handling good...man is this field rough...okay taxi tests done...go back to pits, top off charge on ignition, check things over...battery on field box is dead.

You have got to be kidding me.

Really?

Really.

Ignition battery is reading in the green on the ESV, but it is the lower 1/3...

Aaaargh.

No flying today. More engine testing (and "high speed" taxi testing...).

Back home...

Guess what is on charge? Field box AND ignition battery.

Early start tomorrow.

Man that's a bummer - much better to play it safe though... If anything - glamour shots look good!

Best of luck on tomorrow's flight - perhaps the battery issue was a sign - could have been much, much worse...

Jason

We've all done that.

Looks nice.

Thank you...Tom sure designs a fine machine...makes even a scrub like me look good! Thunderstorms and low clouds today; tomorrow looks promising...

Happiness is a successful maiden and even better during the next two follow-ons; hotter than blazes today with plenty of humidity...no shade (thunderstorms yesterday tore up the shade canopy); anyway... muffler system passed the 94 dB sound check with ease.
I guess I had too much coffee...couldn't get my fingers to stop shaking during the maiden

Plane flew nice and gentle...flying it a tad nose heavy as recommended for the first couple of flights. Engine sputtering a bit; instructions accompanying the engine were straightforward...leaned out the low end a tad...good transition...better in-flight engine characteristics...plane handles very well...stalls are very predictable and plane handles suprisingly well at low speeds. Spent most of the first two flights flying approaches to get used to the field again and to judging landing speeds. Third flight I took it up to altitude and tried some Y&B (yankin & bankin)...what a hoot! Does more than I know how to do.

Very satisfied and looking forward to tomorrow - weather should be cooler, too!

Man that is one good looking ARF TOM!!

Savin my money for the ARF/Engine deal. THis may make the best every day flyer ever.

GooseF22,

Thanks!

As I said, Tom makes it easy for a scrub like me to look good (on the ground at least!)

up left down right, up left down right..........until you either crash the rolling circle or you dont.....

Welll...we all get smarter, I guess...I had a deadstick into the tall grass (pilot stupidity); tore up both landing gear legs (the right gear leg; a lot; the left, not so bad), and even bent the wing tube some.

Apparently my dead stick was caused by the clunk getting bent around inside the tank (series of downline snap rolls apparently; should have put a bit of brass tube on the zygon tubing insde the tank so it wouldn't bend forward...lesson learned)...I landed the first deadstick fine (had plenty of altitude). Checked ignition, battery, gas, servos...all okay...test ran engine, all okay...took it up again, touch and go... okay, downwind leg it cut out again, not enough altitude...had to put it down in the rough. Right gear took most of the brunt...snapped the landing gear ply plate in half...right wing took some impact and bent the wing tube and shattered some ply as well. Left wheel aluminium bent some...wings are okay as is most of the fuse.

Looks like I can fix it okay...

Some more pics...right wing pushed back into the wing pockt and busted some ply there.

Interesting effect on the landing gear aluminium angle brackets and the ply...on similar aircraft that I have had, the gear often rips away and takes out large amounts of airframe as it goes...fairly localized damage on this one...going to be a hoot engineering a suitable replacement.

Starting work to assess the extent of the repairs required...

A couple more...very impressive design in the airframe...lots of mutually supporting parts...held up pretty well to my abuse...many interlocking, lightweight frame members.

This happened on one of the large Sukhois recently during an "awkward" landing. The trick here is to get as much of the original structure back in place as flat as possible. The fit will not have to be perfect, but flat and in the right places will be important for the next part.

After all the flat work is done locate either some 8 ounce fiberglass cloth, or better still, 9 to 12 ounce carbon fiber cloth. All the work with the composite material will for the most part take place inside the tunnel. Be prepared to get a little frustrated with working in tight spaces. Carbon is a lot more work but much stronger.

Cut strips of cloth that will fit pretty close to the size of the sides and deck. Lay them up using a laminating epoxy. You want to apply the fiberglass dry and press the epoxy through the cloth. You have to apply carbon wet. Try to pull as much excess epoxy as possible out of the cloth using a squeegee of some type and a paper towel to wipe away the excess after the "pull". Get either of the composite materials to adhere as tight and as flat as possible to the base wood.

Let it all dry, and cut some 1" wide strips of glass or carbon that will be used to reinforce and tie in the corners of the top and sides. After that dries laminate the top of the plate inside the fuselage with some light weight glass cloth to finish tying the structure together.

You can do the same thing as above using ply plates cut to fit as a "strong back" or doubler but it's comes out a lot heavier and not nearly as strong as the composite methods. Any way you go about it is a lot of time and effort but you save the plane.

Was the baffling that you installed for the motor? is it necessary if you are running a DA50 and if so can you show some pictures of the baffling?

Thanks
Pupmeister

also

I hope you can get it back in the air again soon.

Tom
We have all been there....You are in pretty good shape looksl like. I bet you get er fixed up in no time. It will fly better even because you have more Love invested...

good luck.
g

Poor Bunny! And just when I had a weekend to use the video camera.

On the Yak which is simmilar, it has been sugested to me that the prop needs to be up too 1" in front of the cowl to increase efficiency, how far in front is yours? mind you if it isn't broke why fix it.

Mike

Pat,

Thank you - just what the doctor ordered.

Tom

Doug,

Missed a great day on Saturday....keep your video camera handy!