Hey Mark! Thanks for the Twister. Uh, Flight Streak

[Tim Wescott]

Given your remarks about not knowing what engine size this was for, and the general differences in the condition of this thing and your Avenger, I assume it's either been sitting around in your shop for a very long time, or you got it from someone else.

[Tim Wescott]

At any rate, if it's your best-beloved first model of which you can admit no criticism, I'm going to have to do some serious groveling.  'Cause I'm ready for a few minor revisions:

[Air Ministry .]

it seems very ' functional ' .

[Wynn Robins]

sure looks like a flite streak more than  twister

[Tim Wescott]

sure looks like a flite streak more than  twister

D'oh.

On the bright side, no one will notice when I get senile.

[Howard Rush]

It's an Aldrichized Twister.

[Tim Wescott]

I've taken the covering off the wing, so maybe it's a Flight Streaker?

[Mark Scarborough]

Dude,
first off, you associated this with my Avenger,, now ya did it, the Avenger almost came off its hanger trying to get at you for that remark  LOL

NO I did NOT build this, it was donated to me in my "early" phase,,( read that as the time when I crashed at every contest LOL)
I simply paid forward, yes its a flight streak,, dont let the brotherhood of the ring guys know I had one, I may be disowned,, ( just for the record, you may fool them if you put an elliptical tail on it,, ya never know)
and Dude, the objective was to bolt on a motor and fly it till it fell apart,, sheesh,, now you go and hack it all up,, sigh,,
oh well, its YOUR airplane now,, I hope it gives you some good service,,

YOu see what I meant about the fuse structure though right? and if you put that fox 35 on there, I am gonna reposess it,, so there,, LOL
Enjoy man,,

[Mark Scarborough]

an additional note,, the rudder was reinforced with that trick carbon tube fillet,, pretty sharp stuff huh, it even kinda could act as a whistle,, which then would make it a FLight Shrieker

[Tim Wescott]

Tell your Avenger that, on the bright side, it no longer has to share a state with that Flight Streak, much less a hanger.

[wwwarbird]

It's an Aldrichized Twister.

 ...or a "Garfstreak"

[Tim Wescott]

On another thread I'm receiving a lot of flak from certain low-minded individuals about the advisability of doing this much work on a Flight Streak.  Well, I'm not allowing this to hold me back.  Much like doing a frame-off restoration on a Chevy Vega or a Ford Falcon, this work demands a certain amount of finesse, and all due respect for the original vehicle.

I'm about done with removing material from the wing; with the exception of some minor clearance slots in the ribs around the broken spars it's going to be all putting wood back on from here.

[Mark Scarborough]

Tell your Avenger that, on the bright side, it no longer has to share a state with that Flight Streak, much less a hanger.

Uh Tim, the flight streak lived in the garage,, ingloriously, not even in the plane rack,, the Avenger,, hangs in the living room, nice and warm dry and protected from the sun ( and the cat!)

[john e. holliday]

Yeah Tim,  if you are going to restore a plane, may as well do it right.   Now you see why most of us replaced the controls on the ARF Streak.  Keep us posted.

[Tim Wescott]

To those of you who have been wondering why I hadn't been posting to this thread, it's because I've been working through a major distraction: a lid for my pickup that'll look nicer than a canopy, be less expensive than a soft cover, and will still be functional.  Like this one.

Oh -- and I made some progress on the Flight Streak; I've traced the fuselage (somehow it ended up a bit longer in the tail, fancy that) and I've started building it up by laminating the bowed bottom side.  Progress is once again being made, so I may soon have a rejuvenated spare.

[Garf]

 ...or a "Garfstreak"

Do I hear blasphemy afoot?

[Tim Wescott]

Waiting for glue to dry...

[Tim Wescott]

This actually fits the wing too well -- it's very snug on the uncovered wing; I'm going to have to open it out somewhat or it'll bind on a covered wing.

I'm thinking of trying something I saw suggested here, I think by Ted Fancher: get everything fit with 1/64" ply wrapped around the wing.  Then glue the ply to the fuselage and make the fillets to that.  Then glue the wing in with a few dots of glue (I may even see if it makes sense to bolt it in).  Then when I crash, the disassembly process can be a bit less severe than the one I used here.

[john e. holliday]

I have seen that in the past, using plywood lining the wing slot in the fuse.   I think it extended out about 2 inches on each side of fuse.  Mainly on foam wings tho.

[Tim Wescott]

I have seen that in the past, using plywood lining the wing slot in the fuse.   I think it extended out about 2 inches on each side of fuse.  Mainly on foam wings tho.

It occurred to me that if I can live without fillets (it is just a Flight Streak, after all) I could just do the 'dots -o- glue' with the existing slot.  I gotta think about that, though.

[Tim Wescott]

There's a fuselage in there, under the weights and the spreader board, but above the bench.

[Jim Fruit]

Tim:

I thought I was the only one who had a work bench that looked like a tornado had hit it. Hey, I see you have a '70 C10. I have one too, but it is sort of all ratted out.

Jim Fruit

[Tim Wescott]

It's a 69, and we lucked out with it.  The front end needed considerable work when we got it -- the previous owner had apparently been driving by braille, so it had some truly impressive damage.  The left front frame horn is still tweaked from where he hit a truck.

The problem with my bench is that I've been building planes without cleaning in between projects -- I've just kind of shoved the detritus aside, and continued on being productive.  I can't do that for much longer.

My bench has been clean in the past: here's how it looks when I'm building for publication.

[Jim Fruit]

Tim:

Now you did it. I have to go and clean up my work bench. I attached a picture of my '70. It is all new from the firewall foreward also

Jim Fruit

[Tim Wescott]

Jim:

Oh, you meant my truck was kinda ratty.  That it is.  Its in good mechanical shape, but it's a work truck.  If it looked as good as yours I wouldn't be able to haul manure and gravel and stuff.

Yesterday's progress was to get the front doublers on.  I'm using light ply.  Yes, I'm expecting that it won't be as durable -- I'm interested in finding out how much less durable it's going to be.

This is the second built-up profile fuselage I've done, and the first that looks like it's going to actually work (I screwed up on the first one and made the grain on the sides vertical.  D'oh).

[Mark Scarborough]

Tim, so let me get this straight, you are deliberatly building something into this that you know will fail, you just want to find out when it will fail,, sheesh dude, there was already lots of that stuff built into this plane before you started,, you didnt need to go to all that trouble LOL

with the lite ply, ( which I believe is not a good idea personally) make Sure you put some kind of pad under the engine mount lugs, aluminum pads work good, make them larger than the mount lug on the engine to distribute the load. You may also consider putting some short sections of tubing in the bolt holes through the wood mounts to prevent crushing of the light ply, it will crush,,

[Tim Wescott]

Tim, so let me get this straight, you are deliberatly building something into this that you know will fail, you just want to find out when it will fail,, sheesh dude, there was already lots of that stuff built into this plane before you started,, you didnt need to go to all that trouble LOL

I'm taking the Lotus Cars approach: I'm building it way light, seeing what breaks, beefing up just that area, then going on to the next thing.  After all, the British are so very good at building reliable cars, why should I not follow their lead?

I think it'll hold up to everyday flying.  It's everyday crashing that it may have problems with.

with the lite ply, ( which I believe is not a good idea personally) make Sure you put some kind of pad under the engine mount lugs, aluminum pads work good, make them larger than the mount lug on the engine to distribute the load. You may also consider putting some short sections of tubing in the bolt holes through the wood mounts to prevent crushing of the light ply, it will crush,,

I've undercut the ply in the area of the motor mounts and T nuts -- the engine and T nuts bear directly on the motor mounts, not on the lite ply at all.

[Mark Scarborough]

I'm taking the Lotus Cars approach: I'm building it way light, seeing what breaks, beefing up just that area, then going on to the next thing.  After all, the British are so very good at building reliable cars, why should I not follow their lead?

Tim I take it you have never actually owned a British car then?  Let alone a Lotus,,,

[Tim Wescott]

Tim I take it you have never actually owned a British car then?  Let alone a Lotus.

Hey!  My dad used to work on Loti.  He had a regular customer with a Lotus Elite who brought it in every 20-50 thousand miles to have the suspension stripped out and the rear mounts rebuilt from new fiberglass.

So I really don't get your point, here.

He'd store them at our house (against thievery?  I don't know) and I'd run the windows up and down until the batteries went dry.  I think the Europa with the great big star crack over the driver's head was the most impressive (particularly since I would have been about 9, and I remember seeing it by looking down at the roof of the car).

[John Stiles]

I've undercut the ply in the area of the motor mounts and T nuts -- the engine and T nuts bear directly on the motor mounts, not on the lite ply at all.

I started to do that too, but I found some real hard[heavy] 1/16" ply, and used that on my builtup clown fuse. Why didn't you cover over the t-nuts[with the plywood] on the backside?

[Tim Wescott]

Why didn't you cover over the t-nuts[with the plywood] on the backside?

Actually I did.  I just didn't mention it.

[Mark Scarborough]

Tim, Lucas electrics have a tendancy to be rather fickle, hence my comment since you were comparing british car "reliability" with your plane?

[Tim Wescott]

Of course, if I were pulling your leg I would surely put a smiley face on the post.

Really.

[Mark Scarborough]

Now Tim, its not nice to mess with the gift horse,, LOL

[John Hammonds]

Tim, Lucas electrics have a tendancy to be rather fickle, hence my comment since you were comparing british car "reliability" with your plane?

As us British have known for years LUCAS actually is an acronym for

Loose Unsoldered Connections And Splices

TTFN
John.

[John Stiles]

As us British have known for years ............

John.

That's funny, you don't sound British! 

[Tim Wescott]

It's a good thing I don't feel like I'm under any pressure to get this thing perfect.

[John Stiles]

Well....that looks fairly easy.

[Mark Scarborough]

ey Tim, I have a flight streak KIT that you could have started with, sheesh, LOL,,

[Tim Wescott]

Hey, it took me less time to build up that stab than it would have to drive into town in a futile attempt to find wood lighter than what I have here.

[john e. holliday]

Depending on the power plant, you bewishing for more tail weight.

[Russell Shaffer]

Very good point, John.  I use 3/16 for my Streak tail feathers.  Much stronger and it balances right.

[Tim Wescott]

It's starting to look like a real plane...

[Russell Shaffer]

TWO WHEELS!!! Sacrilege!!!   Probably won't have a Fox, either.  Oh, well, at least if I launch for you, you won't crash.

[John Stiles]

It's starting to look like a real plane...

Startin to look real purty!

[john e. holliday]

Best Streaks were powered with K&B .35 Greenhead and no landing gear.   The hay field was my flying area.  The Streak is looking better.

[Randy Powell]

Leave it to an engineer to get completely carried away. Dude, it's a Flight Streak. You're suppose to fly it, pound it into the ground, CA it back together and fly it again. Repeat until you can do the whole pattern. THEN build something cool.

Sheesh!

 

[Mark Scarborough]

Leave it to an engineer to get completely carried away. Dude, it's a Flight Streak. You're suppose to fly it, pound it into the ground, CA it back together and fly it again. Repeat until you can do the whole pattern. THEN build something cool.

Sheesh!

 

Randy, thats kinda what I said too, heck all it needed was a  motor and tank,, sigh,, it wasnt pretty but it would have survived long enough for training, heck its more "engineered " now than my Electrajet,, LOL,,
Tim,, dont make it so purty your afraid to crash it, that was the goal dude! LOL,,
ok so not the crashing, but the not being afraid to crash,,

oh and so there is no misconception, I intimatly know what happens when you build pretty planes before you can fly well,, Randy, how many pretty planes did I destroy in the last few years LOL,, and how many people told me exactly that, build something ugly, fly the crap out of it, and THEN build something pretty,, but NO not me,, sigh,, well live and learn, now I just need to get brave enough to really FLY the Avenger,, sigh

[Mark Scarborough]

Tim, while we are at it, ( harrasing you that is) the ONE part I didnt like, the triangular canopy, is the part you decide to keep, really? sigh, oh well,,

[Tim Wescott]

Randy, thats kinda what I said too, heck all it needed was a  motor and tank,, sigh,, it wasnt pretty but it would have survived long enough for training, heck its more "engineered " now than my Electrajet,, LOL,,
Tim,, dont make it so purty your afraid to crash it, that was the goal dude! LOL,,
ok so not the crashing, but the not being afraid to crash,,

oh and so there is no misconception, I intimatly know what happens when you build pretty planes before you can fly well,, Randy, how many pretty planes did I destroy in the last few years LOL,, and how many people told me exactly that, build something ugly, fly the crap out of it, and THEN build something pretty,, but NO not me,, sigh,, well live and learn, now I just need to get brave enough to really FLY the Avenger,, sigh

But I like building pretty planes.  Besides, this turned into a nifty experiment in building rigid, hollow fuselages.

And you still haven't seen it finished -- it may yet turn out to be ugly.

Tim, while we are at it, ( harrasing you that is) the ONE part I didnt like, the triangular canopy, is the part you decide to keep, really? sigh, oh well,,

I didn't want to be accused of replacing the fuselage, so I kept part of it.