Hey Randy, looking good, but you are going to have to HUSTLE to have it for VSC!          

Dennis,

My VSC plane leaves for Tucson on Saturday with my buddy, Mike. I will follow a week from Sunday.

This plane is scheduled to debut at the Northwest Regionals in May.   

You're a sick puppy, Powell...........

 

Hey Randy,

I allways enjoy your building photos.

Keep up the great work

Bill, you have to admit it makes the rest of us loop pretty normal though huh?

Actually, Mark, I have built planes like that, I just won't take the time anymore!! .............  but Randy is STILL a sick puppy! LOL!!!!!!

(gotta say it, can't let the boy rest on his laurels! hahaha)

Bill, I pulled the unsheeted wing (will still get leading and trailing edge sheeting and center planking) and weighed it. I project that the all up weight of the wing with controls, flaps and wing tips will be in the 7-8oz range. So the contruction method does have SOME benefit.

Got the controls in last night and the fuse blocks partially planned down. It's coming along.

I'm sure it does, Randy.......  but..............

Where are you getting your blocks, or are they *old stock*??

Anyway, I built my USA-1 by the plans, and you did *your thing*.... Both were about the same weight, IIRC.  Mine, RTF, was 54oz.  From a time, and strength, standpoint, it just isn't worth it to me!

But, I know that the *enjoyment* of doing it your way counts for a lot.  You enjoy it, so that makes it worth it.

Got some work in tonight. Well, at least one side is sheeted and partially cap stripped.

Bill,

Nope. I played from 72 to 75. 3 years high school and one year JC. Besides, I was a safety. You line types don't even know we're there.

Yea, the original had Cadillac Gold (2002, I think) as a blocking coat under the base yellow.

Just to refresh your memory ...

Mark,

Should have the wing done tonight. Then tips and such. Finish carving the fuse blocks then I can start putting it together into one piece. That should be fun.

Ya know, it must be clean living. Had something happen tonight with the Shoestring. A senior moment I suppose. I glued the wing in to the fuse last night and it actually fit the cutout. That was weird enough (these things never fit first crack). Tonight, I made up the pushrod and glued in the stab. I went to some pains to make sure it was level and set up my jig for that purpose. Got the pushrod in and adjusted and set the stab incidence with a couple of shims (right on one degree of positive incidence in comparison to the wing center line which was balanced against the engine shaft previously). Great. Glued it all together and started setting up to hog out the top and bottom block and move on. Sudden, I realized that I had brain dumped the other measurement. The squareness of the stab to the wing as far as the trailing edges of the wing and stab being parallel. Man, what a pain. I started sorting out what I would have to cut loose to do this. I was miffed because the incidence and levelness were perfect. I figured what the heck, at least measure to see how far off you are, right. Got out my jig to set this up and about fell over. It was dead on. Exactly the same distance from trailing edge of the wing to the stab on both sides out at the tip.

Like I said, it must be clean living.

Mark,

I attribute it to God paying me back for the Huskies lousy basketball season.

Yea, not much more will get done for a couple of weeks. I hope to get the blocks on before I leave on Sunday for sunny Arizona. Won't be back until the 17th. Man, I can't wait to get out of the rain. I'm starting to grow moss. Be nice to dry out for awhile.

Randy. can you explain the positive incedence more clearly. I assume that the stab is raised at the leading edge relative to the center line? Picture would be nice. Very nice job on the shoestring.
Thanks
Wayne

Wayne,

A bit of positive incidence (a degree or so) helps to cut down on hunting and such. Has to do with the stab being above the thrust line and wing center line. Dave Fitzgerald did a great article on this in Stunt News several years ago. Also helps to equalize the turn. I used a Robart Incident meter to determine the wing and stab incidence. Put the fuse in the jig with engine in place and attached the incidence meter to the crank shaft of the engine then shimmed the fuse until the shaft was at 0-0 incidence. The put in the wing and set it also to 0-0 incidence. Then flip the fuse over and re-jigged again to 0-0 for wing. The glued in the stab and jigged it to about 1 degree of incidence. truth is, this was mostly to insure that it had no negative incidence.

You'll notice that many planes you see at contests have just a bit of down elevator dialed in to equalize turn and decrease any tendency to hunt. Same thing.

Way to go Randy.
I remember when Jose Modesto and I, sat at Bob Hunt's feet while he took Bill's original Red Shoestring throught the pattern at a contest out on Long Island New York,(Bob is really old LOL). You just can't imagine how incredibly pretty Bill's red and black pinstriped Shoestring was glistening in the sun. Bill went on to place 7th at the Nats with that plane. I have often wondered how good it would be with a modern 60 size motor.
This just could end up being your "go to" plane for serious classic duties.

Randy,

Thanks for the clarification. I really like the nice paint scheme on your 2000 photo. It reminds me of the good looking F1 pylon racers we used to fly.

Your right, that fox must have been screaming! I have a great deal of respect for Dennis, and all the other pilots that flew the Classic planes so well with these very weak .35 classic engines. I have no idea how they did it. Anything less than a PERFECT stunt run must have made it almost impossible to do a good pattern. We are very lucky today to be able to fly these beautiful classics with our modern, powerful engines. Your choice sounds perfect for this plane. :-)

Please keep the photos of your plane coming. We "builder challenged" guys need all the inspiration we can get. 

Regards, 

Rudy,

Yea, the original I built was a scale paint scheme. The Idaho owned Spud Runner. An actual Shoestring racer. I still like the paint scheme and may use it on this one. Have to think about it.

Bill,

I came up with something. I'm going to use the Ted Fancher method. Just put holes in there and put some tape over it. The elevator horn is a bit long and just (and I mean just) clears the bottom of the block that hollowed paper thin. Should be interesting.

I can say that the main airframe is about done. Just needs a cockpit and canopy. It's really, really light. (about 12oz). My guesstimate at this point is the final weight will be in the 45oz neighborhood. That would be killer with the PA 40UL.

I'll try to take some pics and post them before I leave on Sunday.

Dennis,

Not ready to cover. Just the main airframe. No flaps, elevators or rudder. But there all weigh, all together, probably 4oz. We'll have to see. But it sure feels light.

This is as far as it's going till I get back from Tucson. Be kind. It's just glued together. Not much sanding done yet. Haven't even feathered in the blocks yet.

Clint,

Uh, no. While it will look like the Shoestring on the outside, the internal construction is pretty different. Makes for a light, straight wing though.

Bill,

well, it ought to be interesting anyway. I'm still debating on the paint. May paint it like the Spud Runner again, or some variation thereof. Maybe the same scheme with different colors. Even thought about yellow silk. Hmm. Guess we'll see. Maybe candy apple red and yellow.

I'm also still debating about the canopy. I think I have one that will work. It sort of depends. When I get back, I'll die it and cut it and see where I am. Shame I'm so lousy with cockpits. Guess maybe I'll have to put some effort into this one.

Well, cockpit in (such as it is) and canopy on tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow I can fair it in. It's not too bad, I guess, though I think it would have been better with a simulated canopy. But hey, you can't have everything. It does have a cool pilot.

When I get the canopy faired in and the cowl finished carving, I'll shoot some pictures.

Bill,

And they are better at it than me. I salved myself with a tinted canopy 

Just a pilot and a dashboard. No trick controls of joysticks, though it does have a headrest. It's doesn't look too bad, I guess. But far from the super detailed jobs you see on some of the old classic planes. Wish someone that knows how to do this stuff would do an article for Stunt News. Some of the tricks involved. I have no idea how to build, say, a realistic seat or controls that don't look like what they are; push pins just stuck in. Sigh...

Two stories that might apply here:

Steve Wooley did most of the finishing construction on his Cobra in my Dad's shop.  When he got to the cockpit the detailing was sparse and he had a can of Testors plastic model candy apple paint he was using to tint the canopy.  He sprayed it then set it in place to see if you could make out detail.  Then he painted some more, and a little more.  When he was done you sould see SOMETHING was inside the canopy, but not much more than that!

2nd Story: Don Bambrick from Detroit got 39 appearance points from George Aldrich for his "Fury" at the 1966 NATs.  Later on the field some of the Navy officers were looking over the models, and of course were drawn in to Don's which had a clear (untinted) canopy.  One officer called Don over and told him the Throttle quadrant was on the wrong side!

I think the Wooley approach is much easier!

Hi Dennis,

When I was last in Muncie at the Worlds in '04, I had the nice young fella pull the Cobra out of the rafters so that I could take some detail pictures.  The canopy is now missing..........  Other than a few tears n the covering, it wasn't in too bad shape.  I still need to find out how to reproduce the FAI sticker.  i didn't get a good picture of it.

Hey Randy, try takin gsome acrylic paint the color of the floor,, and injecting it into the cockpit through the balsa side,, or maybe dye some epoxy with color and inject that, let it self level the floor,,

or heck just cut the canopy off,
or,, heck its such a mess just ship it over to me and start over

Mark,

Good idea on the injecting color. I could probably just take some paint and inject it with a siringe into the area and let it self level. It's an idea.

Bill,

Well, I may leave it alone. When you see the pilot, you'll understand. It sort of goes with the theme.

I liked mine

Man, I am never going to hear the end of that.