A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine had an accident with my ARFreakiNobler. Tomorrow, it should fly again! Same pilot figure, wing and tail-but an entirely new profile fuselage, landing gear and engine. The same fuel tank is used, because it had no damage.

This one is 3 sheets of 1/4" balsa, with some flat carbon fiber strips laminated in-between, and some plywood for the engine mount and doubler. The original wire gear was too weak, so this one gets an aluminum set, with fiberglass wheelpants. I erroneously believed the primer was cured on the balsa fuselage, when I painted the Monocote Blue on it, and during the process of mounting the gear, tank and engine, smudged the color layer, everywhere I held it. Dang! It was looking pretty sharp, before that-except for the splotches of non-uniform color, out of the spray can. Dang, again! So...I set it in the sun this morning, to help finish the cure, and the darn thing blistered! I guess the primer was out-gassing when it became warm, and the blue color held the gas under it, and raised a bubble. Triple dang!

This ARFreakiNobler has been a real pill, since I opened the box! Sure does fly nice, though!
If I can get the pictures to stick here, you'll see the results of my efforts. I HAD to go ahead and put the Star and Bars, and NAVY on it, because it just didn't look right without it. Since it is a Re-Built Nobler, I'm naming it Re-Nob.  

Yep. I was kind of "iffy" on that when I put the stickers on, originally-both of my sons are in the Air Force-but I stayed with the layout that TopFlite had on their packaging. Authenticity, you know! Here is the instruction's cover, to show their placement. Things have been wonkey with this plane, from the second the box was opened.


REPORT AFTER RE-MAIDEN OF THE RE-NOB:

I remember why I made-up a set of 72 foot lines- This thing pulls like you're swinging an anvil! It has a Royal .40 R/C engine on it, but it definitely does not need that much oompf! Might swap it for an old K&B .40, and see if that puts it in the "pleasure-to-fly" column. The lines tonight were about 62' to 65 feet long. The balance was 2-1/4 inches back, from the L.E. at the wing root, like the instructions indicate, but, from the overly-smooth response to elevator, I think the C.G. needs moved aft, or the elevator throw increased. Tomorrow is another day!

What does that thing weigh now?