Thanks much Phil.

will more than likely go ahead and mod the bell crank with tubing.

Nice! Too bad the great ARFs go away.
Hey, I have an LA .46 on the way. Excited.
Hope you find a good used plane to buy.

Well the video was from a couple different flights that day. Some laps I clocked at 5:02 (shot from my back) and some at 4.75 shot from the side. first time flying that engine so some sailing in to do and some different props to try.

KIT IS SOLD

Three things:

One: particularly in Intermediate, it's OK if your hourglass looks like crap.  It's a hard maneuver, and at that level judges expect that it'll look bad.  Instead of trying to aim for an hourglass that pulls out at 5 feet, aim for one that pulls out at 10 or 15.  That's the wrong spot to be, but a crappy hourglass followed by an overhead eight, a cloverleaf, and a landing will get you somewhere in excess of 100 additional points over a Really Good try at an hourglass that pancakes, and it has the added bonus that you get to fly again that day.

Two: In a contest, an hourglass with four turns, no matter how big, vague, badly placed, etc., will almost certainly get you over ten points, and will get you your pattern points.  An hourglass that's an obvious bail-out may not even get you your 10 for an attempt, and may not get you your pattern points.

Three:  I'm not sure how this'll work for you, but a local flyer who's climbing fast (and doing better than me) in Expert told me that you should visualize a plane (that's a geometric plane, not an airplane!) that cuts through your feet and the top of your head.  That plane defines where the plane should be flying in a wingover, where it should make the transitions in the overhead eights, where it should kiss in the vertical eight, and the line it should be flying for the top part of the hourglass.

Furthermore, if you mess up on the top part of the hourglass, it should be behind your head, not in front of it.  Putting it a bit behind your head gives you more room, it's harder for the judges to see the error, and anyway, you usually think you're flying a lot farther back than you really are.

In my opinion it's a lot better to intentionally allow some screwups if it means not crashing -- just know that you're doing them, and fix them as you can.  The very best piece of advice I ever got in my Beginner year (thank you Mark Scarborough) was to purposely fly with my bottom line at 10 or 12 feet, until I was consistently hitting that line.  Once I was consistent enough, then I could bring the line down without fear of crashing.

This has worked so well for me than now I'm getting snarky comments from judges about putting my bottoms and level flight too low, and when I mess up and come down to two feet off the deck in a maneuver I just laugh hysterically and keep going, instead of freaking out and suddenly getting ground shy.

Aw man, that sounds like a super fun day. Can Jennifer fly inverted yet? She was just getting started when we both flew in beginner last October in Stuntersville.
Rusty

I forgot to take pictures of the score boards. We will get results posted in the results section soon. The results below are from memory.

Expert PA
1. Mike Palko
2. Dan Banjock
3. John Saunders

Advanced PA
1. Price Reese
2. Rob Roberts
3. Rich Siefert

Intermediate PA
1.
2. Steve Dinnerman
3.

Beginner PA
1.
2. Jennifer Fedorick
3.

OTS Advanced/Expert
1. John Saunders
2. Dan Banjock
3.

By the way, we got both rounds in Steve!

Mike

   For the most part, they don't.

    Brett

That hourglass....I know I need to make it taller so that last turn ain't so scary! Banging those corners...me too...or too soft.
Glad you had a 1/2 A day. Need to visit mine. Got one to build this Winter. The Half Lite.

Phil makes a very good point. Cox bored all four holes in the crankcase deep enough, but frequently only tapped them for a few turns. You can almost always use a 2-56 bottoming tap and add 5 or 8 more turns to the screws. Then the ones that seemed too long are not too long any more, and the crankcase will mate more securely with less chance of developing air leaks. Some of the bottoming taps have an extension on the tip that may need to be ground off. I found one on e-bay for a couple of bucks and free shipping a few years ago. While you're at it, get yourself a 4-40 tap too.

This might be bad manners, but check out coxengineforum.com. It's a small but amazingly helpful forum. You can click a button to hide the nagging log-in pop-up.
Rusty