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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Ty Marcucci on July 21, 2006, 09:08:46 AM
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y1
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Ty,
That's one of the nice things about electrics. There is no fuel soaking to worry about, so I have tested my last two planes before finishing. Should have tested the latest one a lot more than I did. The doggone thing still needed surgery. %^
But even that is not as daunting a task as before. I cut the back end open, moved the controls around, flew it a few times, moved the controls around some more, flew it more - then decided it was okay and buttoned it back up. Now it's flying much better and I still haven't had to worry about any fuel messes. #^
We could probably do the same thing with the pipe ships, but I don't know about a regular muffled engine. My old ones created too much mess.
My two cents worth,
Ron
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Several in the old Flying Eagles of KCK used to do this. When they were satisfied the plane was worth it, it was thoroughly cleaned with alcohol, then finished. DOC Holliday
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Have some confidence in your building abilities.
Other wise finish with plastic films untill you do.
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Have some confidence in your building abilities.
Other wise finish with plastic films untill you do.
That's a little harsh. Bob Hunt told me he likes to test his planes before he finishes them and I still have a lot of respect for his designing, building, finishing, and flying abilities.
My last project was a new electric power design. These have balance and inertia issues and behave differently. Even though I did test it before I finished it, I still had to perform surgery on it afterwards. Sometimes, things just work out that way.
Ron
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The Flushing Meadows "boys" used to test their planes in "silver" before final finishing. That is, all finish work up to and including the butyrate silver substrate;fly'decide then toss or final finish.
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Unless it's some oddball experimental design, this is a very, very strange idea. You aren't going to tell much about the airplane in silver or clear that will usefully translate to the same airplane 4-10 oz. heavier. And not only is it abnormally light, it's also abnormally flexible. Paint adds significant rigidity, and that will very signficantly change the characteristics.
Also presumably, you aren't going to fly it for long with clear or silver and then be able to finish it. You'll get a lot of oil and that will screw up the paint. So, you can only fly it for a little while, and that means the chances of finding something subtle is negligible. If it's a gross problem you should be able to find it by inspection - shouldn't have to fly it to find it. I have seen airplanes that took the better part of a decade to diagnose.
And, the entire concept is based on the idea that you don't want to find something and have to cut into the paint job later to fix it. I hardly see an advantage to cutting into 3/4 of a paint job (i.e tissue, clear, silver) over a full paint job.
I'd be very curious to know if 1, someone actually did this and 2, found something, how much time or effort they think it saved. And how *often* this works out positively.
Brett
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Unless it's some oddball experimental design, this is a very, very strange idea. You aren't going to tell much about the airplane in silver or clear that will usefully translate to the same airplane 4-10 oz. heavier. And not only is it abnormally light, it's also abnormally flexible. Paint adds significant rigidity, and that will very signficantly change the characteristics.
Brett
Yes, and the unpainted version also will balance different than the finished version.
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I am not proposing anyone do this, I just asked, does anyone "still do this????" I fully understand all the arguments,both pro and con. Now, Brett, I am sorry I even asked. sheesh.
What's the problem? I just thought it was a very strange idea with a very high cost/benefit ratio.
Brett
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Me, Ed Culver, Al Lennon, and several others in our club. We may have just followed the lead of a more experienced flyer, not even realizing what we were doing, but I don't like to be called a liar.
Under no circumstances did I mean to imply I thought you were making anything up. If that's what it seemed like I am very, very sorry.
Brett
Addendum - I am still not sure what the issue is, but I think I punctuated it poorly. The point I was trying to make was that
if (someone actually did it and found something) Then
how much time and effort did it save?
endif
and
How often was something found that was worth the cost?
I don't think that this implies anyone was lying about anything, and that was certainly not the intent if it does.
Brett
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For what its worth Ty, I don't think Brett was trying to light you up with his comment. Oddly enough, back in the day, finishing to clear and then test flying must have been somewhat common. One of my flying partners always does this. If anything, I think its a holdover from the days of building a Nobler,etc, on the kitchen table-some of them might have flown good, and some might have been disasters. If the plane was a dud in clear, it went into the bonfire and a new one constructed. An outdated practice by today's standards, and the benefits might certainly be arguable, but some people still do it.
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Brett kindly emailed me and we have cleared up a misunderstanding. No harm. :-*
Great, I'm not surprised. Your both are good guys. Hope you guys are back to square one.