Small Flying Arts

Finally getting into the home stretch with this puppy. Got the covering done - tho NOT quite to my liking . JAPICO tissue is fairly light - not much heavier than ESAKI - but has VERY little shrink and no wet strength, with yellow having next to none. After three full soak tries on the stab, the result is only mediocre. I'll have to use shrinking dope (fortunately, I have a liter) to try and get a decent finish - and then comes the wing...

Another negative to JAPICO is that it requires a LOT more dope to seal! I should have bitten the bullet and ordered some of the "new" tissue...

The color separations will be getting a pinstripe to hide irregularities and to give the joins a bit more strength. A bit of white paint on the fin/rudder, remounting of the D/T bits, and final dope coats and it's done.

I finally got all the electriky parts sorted and all the lines for the DT/rudder trimmed. I DID have to change the servo output cut-out to the top 'cause the timer had no way to reverse the servo - actually better as it moves the DT line out of the way making launching easier - one can see in the photo in the previous post that the servo arm opening is at the bottom. The model, ballasted to the plan CG is right at 160 grams.

I have not been able to get out to the field, mostly due to getting my car ship-shape for the inspection and repairing some minor niggles, but the wind has not been very co-operative either and it's getting downright cold. Two evenings ago, I was able to get in a few hand tosses in my back yard which showed a marked tendency to dive. Removed some weight out of the nose, but it still seemed nose heavy. Incidence is per plan, so I might remove a bit more lead and/or shim up the stab TE once I get to the field for more conclusive observations.

The timer from Den's works a charm and will order a few more, but I would still like to get a couple of band-burners from a site in GB that I was recently made aware of.