Weekend - November 19/20, 2022

[bdg]

Saturday was great! Mostly light winds. I was a little concerned with temperatures given the heavy frost and the -3 deg C on the outdoor thermometer at 7:00am.... but wow. Good turnout at SP. Lots of flying. Great times for sure.

Tomorrow is looking a little windier but I am not sure that we can trust the forecast... I guess that we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings!

Brian

[JohnOSullivan]

Was in a bit of a dilemma this morning. 1) to go to Shannon 2) To go to my Maritime Model Ship Guilders Guild meeting or 3) go indoors at Shearwater.

Well not too many octogenarians have that wonderful choice. I decided to head for Shearwater with my new Feather 18" elliptical indoor model. This weighs 1.2 oz (36 gm) with a 2 gm Brushless motor. It flew very well but needs a bit more power ( possibly a 5 gm motor)
A small but keen group out and a welcome return to the indoor sessions we have appreciated in the past.

[the-mailman]

Just Rick and I this morning. Got a flight in before the wind was picking up and the rain returned.

[bdg]

It seemed windy and wet to me this morning.... but I was otherwise ready with charged batteries.... hope that you had fun...!

Brian

[DoverSail]

I am using some of the time I have around the house with my newborn to do much needed maintenance on my Introduction F5J sailplane.
Today I removed he Hacker motor, which had developed a rasping sound for a few degrees of each rotation. I was worried that my summer crash as a result of a seized rudder servo at 150m (!!!) had dislodged or fractured a magnet, but happily upon removing the motor from its VERY snug fit in the nose, I realised that the outer rotor was just rubbing on the balsa nose.

Some realignment and that problem is fixed.

Next up, stripping the covering off of the central wing panel so that I can re-hinge the flaps to allow for better upward movement. I applied the hinges too tightly, which has resulted in my plane always having a slight amount of undesired camber.

John, do you think I should re-cover the entire wing-hinge-in-one-piece thing, or just carefully cut the flaps off, and re-attach them with some clear packing tape hinges or something like that?

Joshua

[JohnOSullivan]

I don't think that your Introduction needs a full strip of covering on the centre panels. Carefully cut along the covering along the hinge and then seal the excess covering material to each of the wing and flap.
Lay up two 1/2" overlapped covering strips with sticky sides together with an overlap equal to the thickness of the flap joint (say 3/16 or 1/4"). cut into about 3/4 or 1" sections and attach in alternating sequence along wing. Mate up the flap and pass the individual pieces through the gap. then iron on the pieces to the flap.
I have used this system for years and found it to be the most solid and free moving hinge with no air leakage through the wing. with white Ultracote lite you will not be able to see the hinges.
I'm posting some MAyfly rudder hinges, but they may or may not show up in proper sequence