Hi Tom,

The booklet in my own Smoothie ARF says "Check the balance of your finished airplane by picking it up by the ends of the wing, 2 & 1/2 inches back from the leading edge on both sides. The airplane should be slightly nose-heavy. Then pick up the airplane by the nose and the end of the fuselage. The airplane should be heavy to the outboard side."

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, but I hit the road for Florida just after you posted your question and got back last night. I'll get this thing together some day and come fly with you. My only really decent plane right now is an ARF Flite Streak with a Fox 35 and no muffler. Will try to do something about that soon!

Bob in NEPA

Only 7,000 rpm? Don't think I've ever heard of anyone flying successfully with such a low engine speed, so that's probably the first thing to correct. More nitro, a less restrictive silencer, a leaner needle setting, etc, etc, there are many things you can change here; I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences. Was our cool weather affecting the engine? (sure was nice in Orlando the last week! Sorry, had to throw that in!) Good luck with it, now I have to get on the stick with mine....

Tom just checking but the Fox 35 is broken in Start on the ground and lean out till it goes into a 2 cycle then back off the needle till you go back to a 4 cycle. Pick the plane up securely and tilt the nose up, it should kick into a 2 cycle, level off and it should go back to a 4. If so Your set to fly.

You need much higher rpm's than 7k. Try 8.8k. Fox and Smoothie should be just fine. Brodak .40 better. Good luck with it.
Dan

We finally made it back to the field last night. With a 10 x 6 Zinger and 9000 rpm, the Smoothie flew great. The lap times were more respectable at 5.3 seconds and line pull was good. The Fox ran a little hot, (I noticed the oil on the wing was a little dark) maybe I should go back to the 10 x 5 now...  We are running Omega 10 with an extra 8 ounces of Benol castor blended in per gallon.
Tom

HI Tom,

The lap times are good, you don't want to fly much slower than that with the Smoothie.  Seems the engine is running good, so I would leave the 10-6 on the plane.  The 10-5 will slow it down as you know.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

I would add more nito 15% and enginge will run cooler.

   Until the crank breaks. It might be worth it because the starting, handling, and "power" will be A LOT more impressive but you need to understand the tradeoff.

Plus that 10/5 would most likely work for you putting a little less strain on engine. good luck.

   I think there will be less strain on the engine with a 10-6, since it won't have to spin as fast. 5" of pitch is pretty marginal on a stocker and 5%, it doesn't like turning that fast. 15% and cool air, maybe, but I had a lot better luck on Nobler with an 11-5 than a 10-5. Since it is much more efficient than a 10" prop, it doesn't have to spin as fast to get the same airspeed. I always wound up back with a 10-6 when summer rolled around.

    15%, cool air, and an 11-5 will probably fly pretty slick - until something in the engine gives up the ghost.

    The various brands of props can make a HUGE difference in the results. Just go to a hobby shop, get one or two of every likely candidate 10-6 they have, and try them.
     
   Brett

HI Tom,

The hemi head and stuffer back plate help the Fox 35.  The 10% will help, too.  All will be "better" than a stock engine on 5% nitro.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

I took a peek at this just to see what Brett was doing here.

Two observations are: 1) that Dankar lives in Arizona, where the air density is low, which favors nitro, and 2) that adding 8 oz. / gallon of fuel will only bump the oil concentration by 6.25%.  I don't know what Omega has for oil, but I'd add at least twice that much castor. 

Morgan also is making a control line fuel that has extra oil, and they claim they make it by volume instead of weight.
I contacted them about the new fuel, but they showed little to no interest in me selling or knowing about the fuel

Randy