This didn't go too well.

Ken Cook wrote:                      That's actually a great picture. Amazing that it didn't break. A real testament to that plane. I built one a few months ago and have yet to fly it. Your posts inspired me to build the one I had. I probably had it for 35+ years.

I'm also amazed it isn't in 1000 pieces. The lines went slack right after launch and the plane went straight up. When the slack came out of the lines, I lost the handle. The plane came down from about as high as it could get. Bounced about five feet high after impact.

I'd be interested in seeing pics of your plane.

That's great stuff TL. I admire you for getting out there and doing it!!!!!!!

Bob

           Nothing exotic here, just built as is. Midwest offered a radial mount front end or a beam mount for a TD. I did add the triangular gussets on the center sheeting to add more surface area for the covering.  I just beefed up the bellcrank with a allen socket head and better plywood mount. Power will be Cox TD .049 but a Norvel or others will fit. Bladder tube installed in the outboard wing, I just haven't cut out the Monokote. When I do cut this, I melt the hole using a piece of heated tubing. This prevents the covering from tearing in any given direction. It makes the edges hard. The tube in the wing was stock from the kit and in my opinion is very small. My standard bladder material will not work in this tube. I need to source some skinny latex. MBS model supply used to sell a pink reinforced bladder tubing that would not inflate width wise but length. They no longer carry this. I can't wait to give this a flight.

Ken Cook wrote: Power will be Cox TD .049 but a Norvel or others will fit.

Nice. A TD should make it haul the mail.

Wow TL that plane took a whopping good bounce , glad it came through it with out a break .You built her good i would say . What engine do you have on it ? Good looking plane Ken it should bee a performer !

I would say it was a success.

Glad it’s in one piece, what do you think caused the problem? Might want to make a thong in case you lose the handle again.

Great, but unfortunate video. That's the one thing I hate about control line is the slack lines. Maybe try some extra tip weight and engine offset. I had one with a TD when I was a kid with a hard tank and used 42' .009" lines. Got tired of it and sold it to a friend. Lasted one flight and turned to toothpicks. You got off OK. I got my bladder material for 1/2A planes from a local well stocked drugstore. It is thin wall 1/16" ID surgical/latex tubing. It pumps up to about a fat thumb size. We used it for the little 1/2A speed planes back in the day. It would fit in the aluminum cigar tubes or a syringe housing.

Ken Cook wrote:

Interesting mount. I've always done the other side.

The Traditional Mark

getback wrote:Wow TL that plane took a whopping good bounce , glad it came through it with out a break .You built her good i would say . What engine do you have on it ? Good looking plane Ken it should bee a performer !  

It's got a Black Widow on it. I didn't build it, I bought it from a hobby shop that was going out of business. I think it bounced like that because I have an experimental aluminum engine mount on it that's held on by rubber bands. I got tired of the wooden engine mount breaking off every time it landed hard. I don't have any pics of the engine mount on the plane yet.

The old Lil Wizards used to have the rubber bands on the motor mount. Great feature. I still saw a lot of those break.  They were pretty heavy though, and came in pretty hard sometimes.  I am moving and was packing up some magazines (maybe 1,000) and came across the Lil Snip article from Feb. 1974 model builder.  Timely coincidence.  I think the Lil Snip or the "George" is the one I made as a kid at about that time in the mid 1970s as I may have mentioned before.  Pretty much the same design. https://www.vintagemodelplans.com/collections/model-combat-airplanes-plans/products/full-size-printed-plan-building-notes-half-a-combat-george-wingspan-22-inch-engine-1-2a  Think I had a stabilator, not the two piece one with the cloth hinge as shown here.  It may be a bit stronger this way when doing cartwheels?  The way mine was with the one piece stabilator worked well, any loop would scrub off a lot of speed and made it easier to control the shapes of the loops and 8s.  I had a lot of throw.  When I moved the horn for less throw, it did not slow down at all when stunting and was quite hard to control because of the speed.  Bit more exciting that way.

Great video!... You build them good! that took a hard bounce and survived. Yea, maybe more right thrust might help.

I have a MIDWEST "lil snip" mostly still in the box. I have the wing leading edge glued to the engine pod, not bad progress for just 35 some years!

That's a pretty impressive bounce

If I were sitting on a judges panel, I would give you a perfect 10!