So, with the disappointment of my new plane still in my head, I needed a plane to fly for the rest of the season. Survey what I had in the stable, it was either fly the Classic plane in both events, or come up with something. I decided to replace the motor mounts in my elliptical plane. This poor thing has had more structural changes and adjustments than any plane I've every owned. The rudder has been replaced with a bigger unit, the nose block replaced, various hanger rash repairs and now, new motor mounts.

In looking in the nose, I decided to just cut the mounts out forward of the front firewall to the nose ring. I build a unit much like Al Rabe uses in his stuff. A new firewall glued and screwed to the old one, 1/2" square maple mounts cut to fit in the new slots in the new firewall. Directly attached to the fuse sided and keyed in with a slot and a biscuit to the remaining hardwood block behind the nose ring. Seems sturdy enough and will hopefully dampen the vibration a bit. New tank with hopefully better plumbing. The nose was repainted (again) and some cosmetic dings repaired and new clear shot on yesterday. Should be able to try it out tonight in the yard. If the nose doesn't shake apart and the new structure holds up OK, I'll try flying it one night this week.

This was easier than I thought it was going to be.

Thats happy news Randy, now just show us a pic of the re-worked airplane.

 
Greg

Have you ever read the story of the development of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver? Better know as the "Beast".  What you are going through is heaven compared to that POS.

A buddy of mine (an older buddy for sure...) used to fly 'em.  Said you'd put it into a dive and all the rivits would start poppin' everywhere.  To make matters worse, he flew them off a jeep carrier.

Ty,

Weirdly, each problem is different. The RO-Jett flames out no matter what plane it is in. I've thought I had it fixed several times. The Saito that was in it originally ran unevenly. I suspect it was due to the bad mounting system origianlly in the plane and now replaced. The Magnum was the victim of a crash last year and I suspect that the crank was just very slightly out of round. This caused the thing to bind and blew the bearings. So it will need a new crank and bearings. Sigh... Just some bad luck. The plane sat around a lot because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.

I'll probably try to retro fit the Saito in again. Eventually. But for now, I think I'll just try to finish the new plane.

So, right now I have two very good flying planes that I can't get an engine to run in and one plane that the engine runs like a clock in, but the plane flies like crap (too heavy). And, of course, a decent classic plane. Man, if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any.