Attached are a couple of pictures of my latest Alouette stunter. I won't go into the gory details, but it was originally designed around a .76 engine. I used 1/2" square motor mounts to give myself some room for the bigger tank, it has a 2.25 inch spinner, and it looked real nice. Then I put it on the scale....
Sometimes we just outsmart ourselves. Add a gram or two here and there and we end up with a 70 ounce tail heavy pig. Even with 710 square inches of wing area it only took a couple of flights for me to realize this wasn't going to work and it is very depressing to waste six months worth of hobby time.
I moped about it for a while, then decided to either fix it, or toss it. Looking at it again, I thought I could at least get it to balance if I performed a "Turtledectomy". I grabbed the scalpel (plus the Dremel tool) and operated. The result is a 67 ounce plane that balances great and actually flies pretty well. It's still a little heavy, but the wing seems to fly just fine. It's now powered with a PA 65 and can run a more normal sized tank. I used the grinder to remove as much of the heavy wood as possible and the new straight deck with a bubble canopy doesn't look too bad, IMHO. It's growing on me.
Anyway, the moral of the story is to never give up. I'm now trimming this plane out - while I build a lighter version for next year. But at least I have a fairly decent ship to fly right now.
Take care,
Ron
Topic: Don't Give Up (Read 1020 times)
