It been just jam-packed around here. Spring has finally come, although we are still trying to shake loose old man Winter (snow last Sunday). I’ve been feverishly packing orders for all of you (all that have ordered). I took a trip over the weekend to the Prop Factory and talked to my parents – and brothers. I am heading south again this weekend. It just seems I cannot catch up!
Spring is definitely here. Daffodils have popped out locally. Wildlife is appearing – turkeys, deer, and Sandhill Cranes have been seen in the back yard, not to mention all sorts of songbirds, chipmunks, and squirrels. I love watching Mother Nature, especially those big birds.
Today, I took a little time and repaired three indoor planes before out last local indoor contest of the season coming up this Thursday. I replaced a missing strut and patched a tissue hole on the BAT Monoplane. I replaced a missing strut on the Stout 2-AT, but more importantly, replaced a section of broken leading edge and patched the tissue on that bay. And my Turbo Cessna 195 suffered several LE and TE cracks – I hope it still flies.
After that, I took a flying break. It is warm and calm enough outside that I took out some old Jet Cats. I had built a super light (for me) T-37 Tweet that never flew up to expectations – well, never flew well at all. It won’t fly ever again after today as I snapped off the tail – again – on a nose-in landing.
I took that back inside and grabbed another that had been relegated to shelf-sitting – my Fieseler Fi-103. I built this a year and a half ago as an indoor model. It has always been tricky, but it managed to win its first contest back in 2017 and I have always believed the design has potential (if not this model).
The fuselage was warped with severe bend right at the leading edge – the result of a few too many hard nose landings. In case you don’t know, there is a tremendous amount of snapping force to the side on some of these landings. As I said, the Tweet’s tail snapped off and this one had a big crack in the front. I squirted some thin CA on it and held it straight and went outside.
right after building in Oct 2017
Jet Cats are a mystery to me. But I persist. This one – as all of mine usually do – required a bit of tweaking. But by removing a touch of clay off the nose and adjusting my launch, I was starting to get some really good flights in my tight back yard. Unfortunately, the launch would be a nice right-handed climb into a transition to….straight away, with little turn. All this is on one loop of 1/8″ – half the rubber I would use in a larger space.
I took of about half the clay on the right wing tip, hoping to allow a left turn and walked upwind (up-breeze?) and launched. The thing did its very pretty arcing power flight and settled into cruise about 50 feet up. There was a little left turn, but not much. But it did come around and headed for the row of arbor vitae that lines the back yard on the north side. I know it was about 50 feet because that is the estimated height of these trees – and it flew over them. I saw and heard it hit the huge old maple tree between the arbor vitae and the house.
I walked around and found my plane – parked as pretty as you please way up in that maple. I looked at it for quite awhile as it is up higher than I can do much about. I even got out my 35′ pole and lifted it as high as I could and was at least 8 feet short. It is resting on two small branches at the nose and tail and pointing into what little breeze there is.
I am sure it will fall out sooner or later – but will that be before or after the rain comes?
I guess it is time to build a better one.
