Repairs . . .

We had the Weatherford AeroModelers Society's (aka WAMS) swap meet last weekend.  As usual I was a participant in set and take down of the facilities.  I judged it to be successful though maybe in the moderate category since participation is down.  We think it is an a economy thing, folks do not have the extra money to spend on their hobbies.

I purchased a complete looking airplane from a friend.  After getting it home, I discovered in was incomplete so to speak.  That is it need a battery but that was kind of expected.  It did not have a fuel tank installed and I can do that easily.  It was also missing a servo and the other servos were a motley crew so to speak, three different kinds and models.  I had to replace two of them.  I had to make a little deck for the missing servo and of course install it too.  I also had to make a deck for the fuel tank to sit on and glue that in place.  Got most of that done.

I found the two installed servos were not properly set up.  So I have to rework those areas too.  I had to remove the engine, a suspect MDS engine, to set up the fuel tank.  In doing so, I discoverer the throat where the carburettor sits is cracked.  I had to remove the carb and do a seal job on that area or I would be doomed with engine problems.  Then I discovered the engine, the MDS, was not a .48 but a .40, a little anemic for the model.

MDS is a Russian engine that is no longer imported, it has such a bad reputation.  It is plagued with carb problems though once fixed turned out to be good engines.  Some say MDS stands for "many dead stick" landings meaning the engine would quit in mid air.  So I have reached the conclusion to replace the engine.  Not to worry, I have lots of engines, and now must make a decision on which one to use.

The airplane is quite a good looking machine.  It has never been flown.  So I have to do the weight and balance on it, program the transmitter to operate it (no big deal).  But all those no big deals and easily fixed areas take time and effort to correct.

Fortunately, Spring winds, March winds, have put flying on standby until things calm down.  We have had days with winds that get up to 20 to 25 miles per hour, just to much to handle.  It is easy to fly in the high winds but landing is very difficult.  Wind close to the ground is bumpy, inconsistent and rough.  That does not leave much room to correct the flight and often results in a bad or no landing.  Bad things happen.  So one restrains one's desires to fly and goes to fixing and repairing.  We call build days.