Getting a Plane Off . . .

Getting a new plane off the ground is an effort. First of course you have to assemble it from the box.  And I made a few modifications to it, that adds a little time.  Then I had to balance it.  That took a little lead to do but it is now done.

Charged it up and took it to the field fully knowing I would not fly it that day.  There were sure to be little things wrong and there were.  First, I had a bit of trouble switching the transmitter to the correct model.  I thought I had it but did not.  Later figured that out.  Got that straightened out and tried to start the engine again.  I had it running under the incorrect model and in trying to get it to idle, I fiddled with the trim - on the wrong airplane setting of course.

Once I got the correct model installed, all was okay in the control surfaces but the engine would not start.  Then I noticed two of the engine mount bolts had backed off, one almost all the way out.  The engine, a Saito four stroke .65 has quite a power stroke and that causes the bolts to come loose.  So I had to fix that.  To top that off when tightening up the bolt I pushed the blind nut out of the wooden firewall.  The blind nut is inside the fuselage, so I knew I needed to treat with that at home.

When installing the wing I also pushed out a blind nut and that too had to be take care of at home.  Once I got home in pressed the wing blind nut back in to its hole and added epoxy cement to hold it in place.  Once the bolt is installed it holds it in place, so the cement is just to keep the blind nut in place.

Then I took off the cover plate on top of the fuselage.  The fuel tank is under the place.  So I had easy access to the blind nuts.  Got the loose one back in place and then epoxied all four of the blind nuts so they would not be pushed out.  I also added "Loc-Tight" to the bolts and reinstalled them.  Vibration will not shake them out now.

So all the little issues are taken care off for the moment.  I noted I probably needed to change the main wheels.  That had sat so long they were distorted.  New bigger wheels will do better on the grass field anyway.  So I will check my spares box or go to the local hobby shop and get a couple of wheels.

I used the heat gun to take out a couple of wrinkles.  The covering is cheap, not high grade like MonoKote but it will do.  It does mean temperature changes will cause it to wrinkle up.  Heat gun takes care of that.  A nice taut covering adds to the over all strength of the wings and structure.

So the plane is not closer to be ready for its maiden flight.  We will see how she does.  I really like the Saito engines, they are powerful and really do the job.  This engine is a tad big for the model but more power is better.  But one can assume because of the Saito a lot of shaking is going on.  It is not a new engine but certainly a great engine.

I know the engine runs but threw in a new glow plug to the field box just in case.  Will charge up every thing and go after it again.  This time it should make it off the ground.