Felt like I ought to send out a thanks and a status report on the latest Baby Clown in our neck of the woods.
Since we had a 1/2A Fun Fly pending, I looked over my very well flying--but now vintage--Baby Clown and realized that it had some severe hanger rash. A broken LE, split covering, and some paint damage on the nose from the high(er) nitro fuel. It had already suffered in a prior crash. The truck carrying it was demolished, but the plane was merely seriously damaged. Subsequently repaired (but not very cleanly) it flew on again for years....
Two weeks ago, a friend made an offer I could not refuse. A nearly completed Baby Clown that needed to find a new home. The woodwork on this one was done by Jim Leuken. Then he had a friend paint it. I believe he said it was car paint. Must have been some back-masking and color sanding involved because the surface is pretty smooth over the trim areas.
Since my vintage BC was needing some significant repairs, I got on the stick to finish up the new one. I installed the controls, hinged the elevator, and terminated the pushrod. Made up some landing gear, solder washers and collars. Formed and soldered the solid leadouts. Also had to put together an engine. My original BC was built around a Medallion, and this one came with the squared off end that would accommodate a Brodak radial mount for a Cox. So no quick engine swap. And it needed a large tank with stunt venting. Hmmm. I took three old Black Widow carcasses (sold to me as "runners") and proceeded to go thru them. Finally, I just combined the best parts from the set.
It needed a pretty good chunk of lead up front (lead firewall plate, not yet installed in the picture) to get the balance close, and the ready to fly weight was 8.1 oz. That should be in the range of good performance if the engine is making good power.
Come the day for the first flight, it doesn't hold a needle very well and routinely quit on lap two or three. But it flew. Sounded like fuel feed issues, with maybe the reed hanging up on the retainer. Back home, I tore the engine down and everything looked fine, except the plastic reed was slightly cupped. So I swapped out the plastic racetrack reed for a stainless version and reassembled. It is ready for another test, perhaps this weekend.
Thanks, Jim for the airplane!