For those who might be interested, I've collected several pictures taken during the finishing stages, while building my version of Dave Gierke's All American Eagle.

My version is finished in the Navy Blue Angels trim. Gordan has decided not to do the Air Force Thunderbirds scheme, instead, he has chosen a rather an attractive trim of his own. When I get back over to take some pictures of his plane, I'll post them as well.


The first picture shows the plane with silkspan on the fyling surfaces.

Number 2 shows the flying surfaces after Monokote has been applied.

Number 3 shows the prep work for the painted finish on the fuselage.

Number 4 shows the finished color coats. At this point, she weighs in at 31.5 oz's.

Numbers 5 and 6, show the off shade of blue used for the lettering on the top of the wing. Since the Navy doesn't use any lettering on the top of the Blue Angles wings, I didn't want to draw too much attention to the top of my models wing. I still wanted to include the name of the plane, and the required AMA identification, so decided to use this method, I stole from another great modelor.

Number 7 shows the bottom of the plane. A helpful neighbor came by to do the holding duties.

So far, after weighing the rest of the parts to be added, it appears that finishe weight will be about 48 oz's. It will be powered by a Stalker .40RE. and use a plastic RC tank, set up for uniflow.

John Miller

Looks good John.  In picture 2 where your putting on the fillets, do you have the Monokote run up to or underneath the fuse?  It looks like it ends before the fillets.  the plane in grey with the glazing putty all over looks very familiar!  Good luck with it.

The Monokote is cut with a pinking shear, and runs right up to the fuselage sides. I believe it was Allen Brickhaus who gave me that tip. I use epoxy and micro ballons to build the fillet, so the pinked edge allows a good glue joint and holds the edge of the 'Kote. I've never had a problem with the monokote next to the fuse using this method.

You see the blue masking tape I used to control where the epoxy ends on the wing. After the epoxy-micro ballons have cured, I move the tapeline out about 1/8", and sand the edge downhis maked for an almost seamless joint out onto the monokote, when using Lusterkote paint.

John. T

HI John,

That is one SHARP looking airplane!  Fantastic job.

Now, lets hear a flight report soon!

Nice job, John.

Film to the fuse is a part of my keepin' momma happy at home.

Allen Brickhaus

John,

Yea, me too. I'll look forward to seeing both your plane and Gordan's.

Gordan's plane looks gorgeous!

John, the two of you have done some great looking work!  I hope they both fly great.

Bill <><

Gordon,

Looks really good. The two of them should look cool together. Should fly well for you.

Gordan,

Even if it were to fly like crapola (not very likely), it would look cool doing it.

At least yours doesn't look like a lime popcicle.

Randy Smith,
We are staying at the Klapinski Hostel Motel. A place to sleep,but bring your own food.
HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Gordy

PS. I hope you`re kidding about the Motel room.I`m sure you already did that.

Jim,
Yes, the rudder would be a good place to have one. I`ve been trying to find acouple of eagles to put on the rudder but haven`t found one yet..

Gordy
PS. if anyone has one let me know. Thanks

Try the following location.  There are a couple of pretty good images of eagles there.


       http://www.fireflightphoto.com/album/Birds%20of%20Prey/Bald%20Eagles/slides/BEIF004.html

Jim Pollock 

Gordan,

Here's one I thought might do the trick.

Jim Pollock

The Eagles fly!

John and Gordan both took their new All American Eagles out for their first test hops today.  The park where we usually fly on a nice grass Soccer field had several inches of unmelted snow on it so they had to settle for an asphalt Park and Ride lot little used on a Sunday afternoon.

John tried first but wasn't getting any fuel flow and pulled the cowl to check things out.  Needle valve was shut off!  Meanwhile Gordan put his up with a slightly leaner run than he really wanted.  The outboard wing was slightly high in upright flight and the engine quit early presumably due to the lean setting.  It looked good otherwise and Gordan was pleased with the feel of the new ship.

John put his up and immediately began flying fairly high and yelling that something wasn't right.  The engine ran well and seemed to be just about right for power.  The landing approach looked like he was trying to trace the ups and downs of the Wasatch Mountain skyline, ending in a rather bouncy landing.  The controls were sticking badly and as a result the model refused to fly level.  After some fiddling around with it another flight was tried with the same result.  The consensus was that the problem lies in the guide tubes in the adjustable leadout guide being misaligned.  Hopefully a fairly easy fix by going in through the bottom of the monocoted wing tip.

Gordan tweaked the flaps slightly and put up another flight a bit richer this time.  The wings were dead on level and the engine running well other than needing the tank raised a bit as it went a bit rich on outsides and inverted.  He went through the full pattern with no problems.  He said it won't be the models fault if he doesn't do well with it.  The control response seemed a little slow for him so he'll work on that to get it to suit him.  He said that His Vum 18 didn't fly as well as the AA Eagle even when it was trimmed and it was a pretty good flying model.  He's pleased.

I think both Eagles will do their owners proud.  I'll bet Dave Gierke gets a phone call soon if he hasn't already.

Jim Rhoades