OK cats and kiddies, I just got in from the backyard flying the ShedDoor in its new configuration. Balance is good, still grooves but capable of turning smaller loops. I flew it a few times with the prop backward, it definitely slows it down. After I was pretty comfortable with loops and lazy eights I turned the prop frontward again to get the speed into a better range for the plane (it is a flat-plate wing, after all). It makes it a little fast if you just go around in circles (remember,15' lines) but perfect for inside/outside loops, eights, etc. where you can stand still and watch it. I even got an overhead eight out of it, sort of accidentally and actually backward--went up really high to do an outside loop, which turned tighter than I expected and back at the top of the loop it was nearly overhead, so I says to myself, "well, shoot, go for it", and pulled "up" into it and made the inside half on the other side. Stayed up there OK. I also get a very satisfying echo off the garage wall as the plane passes within 2 feet of it.
Last flight, I even managed to glide it to the patio and make a nice landing on the concrete. Figured at that point I better quit while I was ahead. So I walked the dozen feet back to my back door, put up the stuff, sat down here and started typing this msg. I love it--any time I have 15 or 20 minutes I can run out there and get in a flight!
The engine gave me a little more trouble this time, insisted on being set rich each time before it would start, didn't run as steadily as it had before, didn't want to hold an exact needle setting. I had taken the tank off to turn it to its present sidewinder configuration, so I suspect the gasket isn't sealing up as well. A crankcase leak would cause all that I think. Anyhow, guess I'll try the silicone bead trick.
Now I've got a head full of designs I want to try on this scale...Somebody stop me!
--Ray