How many flights on a ARF?

[Paul Taylor]

I started logging flights on my planes after I found an app for flight logs for my smart phone.
I have logged 288 flights and over 11 gallons of fuel through the LA 46. It's runs and flys great. I did put fillets on the plane after a rebuild in 2012. It has a few cracks in one of the fillets that I have put CA in.

Just wondering if I should strip it and inspect controls and the air frame. Might be a winter project.

Thoughts?

[Ken Culbertson]

I started logging flights on my planes after I found an app for flight logs for my smart phone.
I have logged 288 flights and over 11 gallons of fuel through the LA 46. It's runs and flys great. I did put fillets on the plane after a rebuild in 2012. It has a few cracks in one of the fillets that I have put CA in.

Just wondering if I should strip it and inspect controls and the air frame. Might be a winter project.

Thoughts?

Let me pass on a anecdotal observation.  From what I have seen of ARF's (and I have one), the forward wing fuselage joint is poor and the forward fuselage is poorly sealed.  One of our local expert fliers used a Nobler ARF for practice and flew it alot.  One day the wing folded.  Over time it had become oil soaked with no outward signs.  I have since completely rebuilt the nose of mine for other reasons and found several places poorly sealed.  The nice thing about an ARF, especially a monokoted one, is that you can do major surgery and you would never know it from 10'.  Occasionally you get a really great wing making it worth rebuilding. I am going to build a new fuselage for mine when it gets tired and de-arf it to make it BOM legal.

Ken

[Phil Spillman]

Hi Paul, I have logged every flight on every plane I've flown for the past 20 years and keep the record in a small calendar each year! I note which engine is in which plane and any odd things such as fuel used and when. These records allow me to track my usage of all setups In my inventory. In addition I have an additional log book which records the kind of day in which flying took place, the fuel used, the company I was with and in general what kind of time/fun I had! these statistics are of no use to anyone but me but I value the history of my time and the fun I had or didn't have!

As to the half lives of ARFS that depends on how you treat them and who the vendor was and when vended! I have an original Smoothie ARF with the old not so hot covering which I flew for 6 years heavy usage and is now in its third year of degreasing with K2R! Probably should have pitched it but I liked the way it flew so I 'll clean her up!

As to the LA .46 I have one which I started to fly in 1998 which still has the original plastic back plate installed and which still runs as well as the first day I mounted it on a plane! I could determine how many official flights I put on it but haven't felt the need to go there as yet! For the most part this engine has been run with no less than 22 % total oil equally split between Castor and Synthetic. It even has an OS click type NVA installed. I use only idle bar glow plugs and mostly wooden props all balanced.

Phil
 

[Larry Fruits]

Hi  Paul,
 I have a little over one thousand flights, 1027, on a Tutor II. ST 51 with the Brian Gardner ABC conversion. I, like Phil, keep a record on each of my planes. It's pretty handy, if I haven't flown one for a little while, to refer back to the record and refresh my mind on the details for that plane.

 Larry