Happiness is...

[Andrew Hathaway]

The other night the gusting died down fairly late but the sun was still up.  We threw my R/W/B Ringmaster in the car along with the old Twister and took to the field.  The Ringmaster hasn't been flown since last year at Topeka.   The Fox 35 fired on the second flip and ran right away.  I had to turn in the needle half-to-full turn, to get the break where I wanted it.  It flew the entire flight with no serious problems.  I was able to get in all of the old time maneuvers and a few extras for fun. 

Not too shabby for a bone stock flea market Fox 35. 

PS:  The LA 40 in the Twister was still a disappointment.  The last third of the flight was a runaway.

[Wynn Robins]

Andrew....are you running muffler pressure on your LA???  Plastic tank, sintered brass clunk....run it in a wet 2/solid 4 and it should be sweet...

if not, I will swap you a fox for the LA....I love em'

[Andrew Hathaway]

I'm pretty sure the current tank is a GRW Profile Uniflow tank.  The tank worked GREAT with the ST 46, and the Fox 40 that were on the plane before the LA.  The FP's used to run better then this LA with basically the same tank setup.  Honestly I couldn't tell you if it is running muffler pressure or not currently.  It's been tried both ways. 

The hype on the LA said it was like the FP only didn't require rework.  'They' said the LA will either 4-2-4 or run a high rpm low pitch.  No special setup required.  So far it's done none of the above.  It's suffered from FP runaway, poor hardware, leaking plastic backplate, and so on.  Worse yet is the advice suggesting it requires more special setup, break-in, and attention to detail, than a Fox 35.

I bought it new as an R/C engine and I've got a 40 size R/C trainer that's ready to fly.  I'll just put the carb and remote needle back on it and throw it on the trainer.  I probably won't ever fly it anyway and if I do I'm pretty sure it would work fine when controlled by a carb.

[Phil Coopy]

I run my Twister/LA40 with a wedge uniflow tank and a 12-4 prop. Set the tank 1/8" above the thrust line and shim the back of tank out 1/4" to create a sharp cutoff. Tune engine for a dry 4c.  I found that the 12" prop stops the runaway. I'm using a stock muffler with blocked pressure tap.


Phil