[NSRCA-discussion] Notes to self 10

[twtaylor]

Notes to Self 10

 

Last time we visited our fearless leader (?) he and OFB were headed to the
hobby shop for some supplies.

 

As we focus in on this episode,

 

 OFB pulls up to the hobby shop after the hour and a half ride. “I’m
supposed to pick up a new airplane from a guy here today”. I look in the
back of the suburban and wonder “Where in the heck are you going to put it?”
You have to understand OFB, his truck, trailer and model work shop all look
the same. He never throws anything out, wherever he lays it down is where it
stays.  There isn’t 6 square inches of clean room in any of them. Well the
guy pulls up and I see a Focus 2 in the back of the truck, nice looking
airplane, looks brand new from top to bottom. He makes his deal as I go
inside to find only about ½ the things I wanted to get. 30% heli fuel is
$25, I’ll pass on that thank you very much. We do our shopping and head back
to the truck and I find the new airframe lying across the tops of the seats.
Well this should look good when we get home. I wonder how many dents will be
in it by then. On the way back OFB tells me what he paid for the airplane
and I’m sure glad I wasn’t driving as I sure would have wrecked us from the
shock. I figure he paid about twice what the airplane was worth. Oh well,
not my money. Next weekend OFB has the airplane ready to test fly and hands
me the transmitter, I look over the airplane and tell him the pipe isn’t
secured well enough. “It’s ok just fly it”  “Ok I’ll fly it” Take off is
smooth and very little trim is required and the airplane flies well. I start
into some maneuvers above just straight up, down, back and worth and
suddenly the airplane gets REALLY LOUD. “Well there OFB I guess the pipe
came loose” We land and sure enough the pipe has slid out of the coupler. Ok
let’s adjust a few things while the pipe cools down. Pattern King jumps into
the 9303 programming section and dials in some down trim with low throttle
to correct the slight pull in the down line and set the rates to where OFB
liked it on all rates so he doesn’t have to worry about a switch being out
of place and making him need new underwear during a flight. We fix the
header coupler and away we go. “Hmmmmmmmm there OFB looks like you really
get along fine with that airplane”. “Yeah I love it the PK it suits me just
fine” The airplane is a bit slower than what he’s been flying and his
reactions are not what they used to be so this has helped him a lot. As long
as it’s made him happy I’m happy for him. I can’t stand to see my OFB
unhappy. Money isn’t always the determining factor.

 

Fast forward 3 weeks, PK hears the phone ring, “Tim this is Gary Harris”,
“Hey buddy how you been”? “Well I thought I’d call you and inform you that
there’s a Focus 2 for sale that’s like brand new” “Really now” My interest
in this conversation goes up 10 fold. Seems Dean Wilson is selling his
backup and it only has about 6 flights on it. “Ok Gary call him and tell him
I’ll take it at the asking price” SO OFB and PK set up a time to pick up the
airplane and drive over and get it. Back at the shop they start installing
the gear only to find out PK needs Central Hobbies to be next door not in
fly over country. Ok Monday order what we need and wait. “Oh carp I forgot
this, this and that”. Ok Thursday rolls around and we seem to have
everything we need. So PK schedules a Sat morning thrash session to get the
airplane ready for a Sunday maiden flight. So Sat morning we get everything
in the airplane and start setting up the radio. “Dang there OFB I can’t
really tell if the elevators are centered or not with no fixed tips.”
Hmmmmmmm what to do. “I know OFB get my laser level and let’s try that” Well
the laser level works just dandy. PK lines up the center of the LE and the
Trailing edge and makes sure the hinge line all line up with the laser. (BTW
a small piece of tape across where the laser light shines through the case
will cut the line down to a very thin line.)  “Ok that looks good, now lets
get Jerry Budd’s magic invention out and check the throws” PK scans RC
universe for Don’s Focus 2 Build thread to get the cg and throws. “Ok looks
like Eric and Don used close to the same for throws so lets set it up that
way”.

Get the airplane all set up, cycle the batteries and wait for Sunday.

 

Sunday dawns just perfect for test/trim flights Sunny no clouds and less
than 5mph winds.

 

“Ok there OFB Help me get this together and we’ll test fly it”  OFB “Have
you ran the engine yet?” “No I have not so we need to be care full on the
idle setting” Ok after a hour of trying to get this brand new YS1.60DZ
running at all I give up and take a break. OFB is over there rolling
laughing at me and my engine troubles, OFB gets his out and puts it together
and heads to the flight line to fly a bit and guess what, his engine won’t
start either. I hold the high moral ground and don’t even snicker at him;
until I went behind the trailer then I couldn’t hold it any longer and about
broke a rib laughing so hard. “Ok OFB what’s common between both of our
airplanes?”  THE FUEL!!!!!!!!!!! So we drain mine and flush everything out
and change fuel to a new batch. Mine roars to life!!!!!!!!!!!! And we have
to adjust the idle a bit. Ok shut it down and let it cool off so I can put
the cowling back on. Mean while OFB has his refueled and started and we go
out for a flight and it goes well, about half way through the exhaust gets
really loud AGAIN. “Ok there OFB land it and lets see what’s wrong now” Pipe
came loose again and slipped back out of the coupler. “Here OFB try these
AAP spring clamps instead of those tie wraps” That fixes his for good. 

 

Now onto PK’s test flight, Engine is just purring now that we have good
fuel, Idle seems perfect and transition is very good for a new engine. Roll
out is normal and lift off is calm with a slight right roll easily corrected
with about 3-4 clicks of right aileron trim. Elev is perfect and rudder
needs about 4-5 right clicks. There now, it’s tracking well, CG seems about
right   low rate is a bit slow and high rate is a bit fast but center rate
is just about perfect. So make a mental note to adjust all the rates to the
center settings. About this time a fellow club member is taking off with his
new trainer and I hear the engine screaming and the pilot uttering
*&^)&!#_&*_(%*^)(&^_!@&$*& then the thud and dead silence. Seems he didn’t
check his ailerons and took off with them backwards. Ooops.

 

Ok time to land this thing and check it out. PK makes the turn to final and
the airplane isn’t slowing down as well as he expected, pull the throttle
trim all the way back to kill the engine but nothing happens. The engine
will not shut down but the idle isn’t too high to land it just a bit longer
than normal. No biggy.

 

OFB picks the airplane up and we walk back to the stand to check the
airplane over. “Hmmmmmmmm I swore I put 3-4 clicks of right aileron in this
thing but my trim is at neutral.” OFB “Oh I thought they were out of trim so
I moved the trim over a bit until I thought they were level” “Thanks a lot
there OFB” This isn’t a killing offense so I let it go with a stern look.
:-)

 

The front of the canopy is loose. Seems the locating pin came off during the
flight but it’s not to be found inside the airplane. So PK fixes it and
checks the rest of the airplane out, everything seems fine just have to fix
the engine idle. Next flight the dang engine won’t start AGAIN. OFB “Did you
release the fuel shut off? “Yeah I was testing you on how long it’d take you
to figure that out” Lesson for PK. New airplanes sometimes require new
sequence of events for proper operation. Ok so 3 more flights Sunday and all
go perfectly.  PK is a happy man. So is OFB.

 

We fade to Black as OFB and PK load up the trailers and head to the barn

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