New Staris

[Matt Colan]

This plane has been under construction roughly for 3 years.  No, it's not mine, it's my grandfathers.  This plane was originally going to be his weapon of choice for the NATS last year, but he didn't get it finished in time.  Also, the plane was coming out heavy, so he stripped down the surface, and began refinishing it.  At some point, he decided to add some wingspan to a stock Staris to accomodate the heavier weight. Then, he put the plane on a diet, and made some modifications to the airframe.  He cut into the foam wing and pulled out the center section.  My grandfather then put in wood and geodetic half ribs to strengthen it up again.  He did the same with the stab and elevators since that was foam too.  I don't have the number handy, but he saved approximately 8-10 ounces.  I was concerned about the strength of the wing  but after it's first flights today, I am no longer concerned.

So the final weight is 68 ounces with the wingspan up to 60".  Wing area came out to 670. Grandpa made the flaps a little bit bigger as well. Power is a PA 51, that drinks gas like an old buick.  7 ounces of fuel = 5:40 second run time, so he is now making a custom tank to replace the modified plastic tank he had in there already.

I flew it on the 3rd flight, and he has a really good airplane in his hands!!  The only trim suggestion I made to Grandpa was take out half the nose weight to make it turn just a little sharper.  BTW, the only trim adjustments made so far was adjusting the trim tab to get the wing level!

[Matt Colan]

Here's three more 

[Balsa Butcher]

Really nice Matt, worth the extra work and should fly great at that weight.

[Steve Fitton]

Looks great!  Nice work.

What prop are you guys using? A Mezjlik of some sort?

[Matt Colan]

Looks great!  Nice work.

What prop are you guys using? A Mezjlik of some sort?

Majic 12-4.33

[Eric Viglione]

I believe Randy has plans for a Super Staris available... It would be fun to see how close Don came to making his "super"! 

I think the Super has stretched moments though, not just more area. Still, the proof is in the flying, and if it works, it works. Looks great! And its always better to have a good plane than a hangar queen, so it was a good call to redo the finish.

EricV

[Bill Little]

Hi Matt,

Tell Grandpa that he done well!   Very nice looking model.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

[Matt Colan]

I believe Randy has plans for a Super Staris available... It would be fun to see how close Don came to making his "super"! 

I think the Super has stretched moments though, not just more area. Still, the proof is in the flying, and if it works, it works. Looks great! And its always better to have a good plane than a hangar queen, so it was a good call to redo the finish.

EricV

Yea, he originally wanted a 40 size piped ship since he feels my Oriental Plus is a perfect size, but you can see where that went, lol.  I did measure the tail moment a couple days ago just to see what it was as a stock Staris, and it was 17", so it's still a fairly long airplane.

[Matt Colan]

Hi Matt,

Tell Grandpa that he done well!   Very nice looking model.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

Hi Bill,

I keep telling him I think this is the nicest model I've seen him build recently.  Pictures don't do it justice

[RandySmith]

"I don't have the number handy, but he saved approximately 8-10 ounces.  I was concerned about the strength of the wing  but after it's first flights today, I am no longer concerned."

8 to 10 ounces cut out? wow, my Staris foam wings weigh in at 8 ounces, complete with flaps tips crank etc, and covered with paper and dope only weighed 12.5 ounces going into the fuse, My foam stab elev. weigh between 2.75 and 3 ounces. Must be a ton of very heavy glue on the sheeting.

The plane looks terrific, I hope it  performs well for him, great color scheme too :-)

keep him flying all summer

Randy

[Matt Colan]

"I don't have the number handy, but he saved approximately 8-10 ounces.  I was concerned about the strength of the wing  but after it's first flights today, I am no longer concerned."

8 to 10 ounces cut out? wow, my Staris foam wings weigh in at 8 ounces, complete with flaps tips crank etc, and covered with paper and dope only weighed 12.5 ounces going into the fuse, My foam stab elev. weigh between 2.75 and 3 ounces. Must be a ton of very heavy glue on the sheeting.

The plane looks terrific, I hope it  performs well for him, great color scheme too :-)

keep him flying all summer

Randy

His wing weighed around a pound when it was ready to go into the fuselage, and I definitely remember his stab and elevators weighed 4 ounces, so it wasn't a lightweight

[louie klein]

Super job from gramps as usual! We are still alive and flying at Defence Hill. Good luck---LOUIE

[Matt Colan]

Super job from gramps as usual! We are still alive and flying at Defence Hill. Good luck---LOUIE

Hi Louie,

Are you flying where the RC guys fly now?

I'll pass the good words along to him! 

[Dennis Adamisin]

Tell Gramps CONGRATS for another good looking bird.  Sounds like it is going to fly well too.

[louie klein]

Matt, We are flying at the RC field when they are not around and lately it has been empty.---LOUIE

[john e. holliday]

Matt, tell grandpa he has outdone his self on his one.      And Louie you just might be onto another control line site.  The new RC field at the park I now fly at is under lock and key.   If you don't have a key you don't fly.   My circle is across the road from the old RC site.

[Matt Colan]

Matt, We are flying at the RC field when they are not around and lately it has been empty.---LOUIE

That's great! I haven't been there since 2006, and I think that was a year or two before they started ripping up the CL site.

[John Lindberg]

My stock Staris with a PA 51/header muffler came out about 61 ounces, foam wing. Havn't flown it yet, we are in the middle of a heat wave here in West Virginia, around 100 degrees today.  Don't handle heat as well as I used to, so it will have to wait! Curt Contrata built a Satona at 48 ounces I read. That's light! 

[Allen Brickhaus]

Very nice.

Allen

[Claudio Chacon]

Absolutely wonderful plane, Matt!
Send my congratulations to your Grandpa

[Matt Colan]

Just thought it might be a good idea to pass this on.  We tried some new paint on this plane, and it's called plastikote.  It's an acrylic lacquer paint that is a touch up paint for cars, so you can get just about any color you want with it.  Everything we had done with it up to this point made us really impressed with this paint, it covers in two coats, an dries with a shine on it, so you have to knock it down with some 1200 before masking over it.  The clear brought the color to life, which was also plastikote clear.

Here's the problem that we've encountered.  Wherever oil has touched the surface of the plane has become sticky.  It became sticky on the rear of the fuselage and around the nose a little bit where our fingers have been.  We read the directions on the clear and it says to wait a week before polishing.  The clear was sprayed on three or four days ago.  Could it be the paint wasn't dry yet and the oil penetrated the clear and now making it sticky?

My suggestion was to wet sand the area where it was sticky, and spray on a coat of urethane only where it's sticky to get the stickiness to end and try to keep whatever damage happened to the paint be kept to a minimum.  Sound logical?

[ChrisSarnowski]

Hi Matt,

Well, the sticky paint is unfortunate. Grandpa did a great job on the Staris and it looks really nice. I hope you can get some good advice here on fixing it up.

-Chris

[Matt Colan]

Hi Matt,

Well, the sticky paint is unfortunate. Grandpa did a great job on the Staris and it looks really nice. I hope you can get some good advice here on fixing it up.

-Chris

Hi Chris,

The sticky paint was much worse than we thought because we rubbed it with out bare fingers and the paint started coming off.  I was able to get most of the paint off the rear of the fuselage yesterday by wiping it down with prep solv.  It would go down to the Brodak clear and the primer underneath it and there was nothing wrong with the surface underneath the paint.  Grandpa stripped all the paint off the cowling already with acetone.  We don't know whether to strip the entire airplane down or just strip it down where there is sticky paint.  What we are concerned with is if somebody touches the wing with oily hands and that paint would then become sticky as well, and that paint could come off.

[john e. holliday]

Strip it and go back to what you know works.   

[Matt Colan]

Strip it and go back to what you know works.   

That's what he's going to do.  It's a shame because it was such a great looking airplane!  At least we know it already flies well!  We're even thinking of trying urethane paint for painting it.  Scott Condon has used it with great success, and he has a lot of paint from painting cars.  Or maybe we'll just stick with the Brodak

[RandySmith]

Matt

I had the exact same problem with urethane paint and 1 other type, the answer was to let it dry completely , and use the sun, or put the plane inside of a parked car. I put mine on the porch outside deck and rotated it in the sun, it was hard in 1 week, after a few trips outside, if I did not let it dry this way, the fuel or oil would make it soft and sticky.

Randy

[Matt Colan]

Matt

I had the exact same problem with urethane paint and 1 other type, the answer was to let it dry completely , and use the sun, or put the plane inside of a parked car. I put mine on the porch outside deck and rotated it in the sun, it was hard in 1 week, after a few trips outside, if I did not let it dry this way, the fuel or oil would make it soft and sticky.

Randy

Hi Randy,

That's what we think happened.  The clear was dry for about three or four days before we bench ran it and then flew it the next day.  I read on the can it said to allow a week to dry, and this was after we bench ran it.

The good news is that Grandpa's wheels are turning for another paint scheme, which as usual should turn out great!