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Author Topic: Pathfinder II  (Read 6284 times)

Offline Bill Mohrbacher

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Pathfinder II
« on: February 27, 2015, 10:06:03 AM »
I'm putting my Pathfinder II ARF together.  I noticed the leadouts are a single loop around an eyelet then the end is doubled over and crimped inside a sleeve.  I am used to seeing the end passing through the eyelet, then looped back again through the eyelet and crimped.

Do I need to be concerned with the leadouts?  Redoing the ones at the wingtips is no big deal, but I hate to cut into the centersection.
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Offline bruce finley

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2015, 02:53:36 PM »
Do you trust them to last for years?  I didn't on my ARC Pathfinder and changed them all out.  The more you invest in "doing it right" the greater satisfaction you will receive from your work.  And you will always know you did it to the best of your abilities. y1 y1

At least that's the way I feel....  ymmv
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Offline Geoff Goodworth

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2015, 10:24:24 PM »
We lost an ARC Cardinal with about 60 flights on it at the Ku-ring-gai Club field in northern Sydney this morning. The up leadout pulled through the crimped sleeve and came completely free.

Given the number of reported failures, I'm wondering about that termination method in the AMA rule book.

Normally, we wouldn't have an interest in AMA rules but plenty of people over here tell others to follow the AMA rule book.

Update on the crash

The owner phoned me to say that the connection failure was caused by the crimped sleeve splitting :o :o

The inboard wing came off completely and while he was fiddling with the wing half, noticed something rattling around inside. It was the crimped sleeve—split! HB~> HB~>
« Last Edit: March 01, 2015, 03:02:34 PM by Geoff Goodworth »
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Offline rich gorrill

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2015, 07:21:49 AM »
Bill, an ounce of prevention is worth 2 lbs. of scrap balsa wood. Their are too many bad stories of leadout failure in ARF'S. I don't do crimps anymore. Use the wrap method with thin copper wire. Do a search and you'll see an illustration. I also saw a Cardinal fail last year, lucky it was during the pull test.

Rich
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Offline peabody

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2015, 07:47:46 PM »
What's a Pathfinder II ?
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Offline Geoff Goodworth

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2015, 02:55:39 PM »
Rich, the Pathfinder that Brodak sells—kit, ARC, ARF.
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Online Dan McEntee

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2015, 10:42:09 AM »
Quote from: peabody on February 28, 2015, 07:47:46 PM
What's a Pathfinder II ?

  The Pathfinder 2 is the twin Gordon and John Miller designed. I was looking at the plans just last night.
  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee
« Last Edit: March 03, 2015, 01:14:57 PM by Dan McEntee »
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AMA 28784
EAA  1038824
AMA 480405 (American Motorcyclist Association)

Offline Bill Mohrbacher

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2015, 01:02:12 PM »
Sorry to confuse everyone - I should have called it MK II - I guess no one reading this has seen or assembled one.
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Offline Phil Spillman

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Re: Pathfinder II
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2015, 08:27:18 PM »
Hi Bill, How old is this kit? Some of the newer ones were done correctly most of the originals were suspect. I have several older ones both Top Flite and Brodak and have redone all of them. Most all of mine have well over 250 flights on each. I only tried one P-40 one session and the down line let loose over macadam!!!!!!!!!!! Fortunately I had just made the inverted pull out to inverted so I actually had "Up"! This enabled me to do many outside loops while getting closer and closer to the ground! I kissed the plane onto Terra Ferma with minimal damage to the thing! I was able to fish new lead outs in through the covering 
and bush the bell crank arms for durability! It remains one of my most fun to fly planes.  The "crash" occurred in September 2010!

Insure a long and Happy Flying Life...replace, re-bush, be sure!

Phil Spillman   
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Phil Spillman

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