Flying and Repairs  (Oct, 2009)

I've flown regularly since resuming activity in Feb.  

Changes have not been numerous, but here are those made made. 

1. An MLD 28 was ordered in Feb or march but was back ordered until some ignition problems were solved.  It finally arrived in early Sept. and looks good but has not been run as of yet as it awaits clearing out some earlier projects.
2. The Ultra Stick Lite repairs were done during winter hours and will be chronicled separately.  After waiting six months for repairs, it then waited several months for covering.  It has been recovered and is awaiting good weather for test flying.
3.  On the bench once again is the Hanger 9 Taylor Craft.  Renewed interest in its rebuild came about by the reintroduction of another release of the model.  Horizon has stocked a few of the parts for it in preparation for its release dated late this month.  The plane is slightly different in that it has a two piece wing instead of single but otherwise looks quite similar.  The similarity gave confidence to order the cowl and windscreen.  Even if they aren't perfectly the same, as the whole front end needs rebuilding it can be done to suit the new items.  The wind screen was totally destroyed and the cowl was savable but in bad shape.  Cowl was about $25 and windscreen $6.  A roll of the 2" red & white check ultracoat was the same price as the cowl.  It is needed for the wing repair and though the wing has relatively light damage, a few small sections will need recovered.  I'd like to get the Taylorcraft rebuilt prior to building up the Yak 54.  One reason is that most of my planes are floaters and a look at the Taylorcraft specs betrays the possible cause of the crash with nearly 29 in oz of loading it is not a floater and must have power on or adequate speed during approach and landing.  This will certainly be true for the Yak 54 so mentally I must come to accept the parameters of the air craft I'm flying.
4. A change was made to the LT-25 in that the old Enya .29 was replaced with a Saito .30 four stroker taken off the New Bee that had been acquired a couple of years ago.  The match up is wonderful.  It is considerably quieter, adequately powered, flies slower but has more vertical torque.  Because it uses far less fuel, clean up is also much easier.
5. A few other planes have required some repairs.  The Hanger 9 PT-19 required the other landing strut mounting reinforced as was done previously.  This time there was however light ply false ribs holding the landing gear block.  The other side didn't even have them, the hardwood mount was simply glued to balsa ribs leaving the mount wholly inadequate.  
   
6. The Akrobat required a cowl mount replacement and valve unstuck.  Apparently a loose valve lash allowed the push rod to slip the socket and ride on the edge of the socket and in doing opened and stuck on carbon covered area of the valve.
   
7.  Several planes have suffered failing batteries.  This is one of the liabilities of a larger hanger.  I attempt to rotate the planes but even so a plane may get flown only once a month or less.

Yesterday the rain stopped after four days giving opportunity to test the Ultra Stick Lite 120 and it flew fairly well.  It needed leaned slightly and the flaps needed adjusted down slightly as it showed a bit of down elevator but otherwise did fine.  The wing rebuild didn't produce any turn roll moments and while in close, wing integrity with spliced spars was tested by diving with a hard pull out and survived.

Also, the cowl and windscreen arrived for the Talorcraft.  As somewhat suspected, they are not exact fits for the earlier version and are a little smaller.  The cowl about 1/2 inch in width and length and the windscreen about 1 1/4 inches narrower but as was mentioned above, because of a total new front end build, they will work.  The windscreen width is the same as the aft cockpit bulkhead typical to many model builds so it will work fine though it will require a little more effort with the wing as the leading edge offsets will need filling in 5/8 inch on each side and the overhead window will need brought in slightly on the bottom surface of the wing.  Neither are much problem.  The G-23 was on fairly long standouts so that shouldn't be a problem.  Intentions are to rebuild without the footwell windows to beef up the midsection strength a bit as it was very vulnerable.  I will try to chronicle the rebuild.