Found after 7 months

Ken Cook Sun Feb 19, 2023 5:25 pm

A few months ago, we were flying some freeflight. My buddy Frank built this terrific little plane for schoolyard flying. It was called the Truant. A perfect name actually. We did some test glides, all looked good and we launched. It went high, REAL high and it flew away. We looked and looked for weeks. We then took a drone and flew it with a camera out over the soybean field hoping to find it. Today, we did some control line flying but the winds were in excess of 20 mph. It wasn't a good day for flying so once again we walked out to where we last saw the plane. About 1 mile out from where we launched my son found the poor thing in a tree. Something ate half the propeller and one of the wheels was severely chewed. I think a squirrel got a bad taste of it. The little Pee Wee is hurtin. It's severely rusted so I currently have it soaking in a transmission fluid bath.

Here it is in it's weather beaten state. I liberally sprayed WD-40 on it to blast it off. The anodizing severely faded, it's heartbreaking. It will run again, I'm determined. I do have another piston if this one is too far gone. The rust is overwhelming.

roddie Sun Feb 19, 2023 6:17 pm

BRAVO!!!!!!!!! Clapping

Kudos to Sean for finding the little lost machine!

rsv1cox Sun Feb 19, 2023 6:27 pm

Just looking at that weatherbeaten hulk get's me going Ken. Love to find them in that condition. Got a more complete picture?

I had a fly-away some 65 years ago. I don't think there is much left of it now. Never did find it, probably tree'd like yours. Space bug jr. I got through flying, disconnected the lines and just let it go. Thought it would stay grounded. Didn't, took off in a perfect spiral gaining height drifting away.

Michpatriot Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:13 pm

Reminds me of a story about a guy stopped in a pawnshop or some flea market and found one of his birds that flew the coop..amazing find indeed!

Ken Cook Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:05 pm

Well, it took several hours of soaking and heat over and over and over. I got the piston out but it took a lot of coaxing. Once out, I spent 2 hours with Simichrome polishing the outside with a brass pad. There's pits in the one side but I managed to smooth them down. The cylinder on the low end was pretty good but on the top side the pits were so bad the piston wouldn't go in. I had to use a copper pipe brush and work the rust out. Obviously something you wouldn't do to a engine but this is a last resort. I then spent at least an hour lapping the piston into the rusted mess. I figured there would be no way this thing would even have compression. To my surprise, it feels pretty good. I know the engine is compromised but it will work, I'm sure of it. I have another piston, I don't have another cylinder.

Yabby Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:51 pm

great story Ken! Glad you found it Thumbs Up

I reckon you need little WIFI beacons on them to help find and fly aways. But that is weight I guess and the whole idea is to build, configure, setup, trim so they return and it seems like most of the time thats exactly what happens. I take my hat off to the FF flyers as I cannot trim my CL plane properly. the knowledge and skill to trim a FF plane must be huge. Clapping

GallopingGhostler Sun Feb 19, 2023 10:47 pm

Ken, glad to hear that you finally found the runaway free flight, and that you also are going to be able to run that engine again. Looks like it would make a very good potential winner for the Cox Engine of the Month Club perhaps even mounted on the old weathered fuselage. Even though the red anodizing has faded, now the engine has character.

What you are going through sort of reminds me of my restoring an Internet auction buy on a K&B .35 Stallion that you clued me in on, wasn't telling an upfront story. Someone had bead blasted the engine to masquerade the fact it had spent part of its life in damp weather or under water.

https://www.coxengineforum.com/t12115-kb-35-stallion-acquisition

In spite of the rust, I was able to restore it to a runner, now have it bench mounted, will run it soon since weather is starting to warm up.

I am glad to hear that your Pee Wee does have good compression. Except for the faded tank and prop thrust plate anodizing, a touch of gun bluing on the cylinder after derusting will have it looking good again.

Congrats on the find and in-progress restoration. Thumbs Up

getback Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:56 am

Well that is just short of a miracle , and wow you had to put a lot of Fun back into the engine . Good luck on the run ( mean old squirrels ) Very Happy

rdw777 Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:19 am

What a neat story Ken!!…. Not always do you get a flyaway back!!! I agree with Bob, Would like to see more photos of the poor plane…. Would be neat if you could coax it back to flying status but I don’t know how far down it is…If anything to hang in the shop with veteran status…

Rooting for you to get the .020 going again…. If anyone can, You will Very Happy

Robert

NEW222 Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:52 am

Nice to see you found it and are getting it on the mend! Just another reason why I am hesitant on building an engine powered free flight model....

andrew Mon Feb 20, 2023 10:18 am

I've had a similar experience when I was in my very early teens. I built a very simple all sheet freeflight called the Chipper II with a COX .020 on it and flew it a lot. It went down in one of our bean fields and, while I walked that field row by row, I never found it. The beans were thigh high and bushed out, and sometimes where you think it landed may be some distance from the actual location. One afternoon, I got home from school to find it on the back porch -- while cutting beans, my Dad found it and brought it home -- how it managed not to go through the combine is a miracle. It was well chewed up and the engine was a rusty hunk. Were I better skilled or older, I might have been able to salvage it, but it got binned.

Ken Cook Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:13 pm

I couldn't wait to reassemble the little guy today. Last night after nearly 2 hours of polishing and trying to descale the rust inside the cylinder, I left it to soak in kero/ transfluid mix. Today, I more or less wiped everything down and began to put it back together. I have little of the plane, just the broken fuse with the eye dropper, not much more than what I pictured. Frank took the wing and stated only 1 rib was broken. I just wanted to use the fuse as a test stand. I put some high castor fuel in it and it fired up in just a few flips. It took a little running to smooth out but that certainly put a smile on my face. These little gems are getting harder to find and certainly not inexpensive. I'm truly happy all was a success. I'm going to get a picture with Frank and the model. I'm certain he will be excited as I am.

rdw777 Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:27 pm

Way to go Ken!!!….Does my heart good to know you got it running…..Two good parts to this story….. Found it…. And restored it to running condition….. Perfect Very Happy

rsv1cox Mon Feb 20, 2023 6:14 pm

"Last night after nearly 2 hours of polishing and trying to descale the rust inside the cylinder,"

Good for you Ken. I find it remarkable the lengths we are willing to go through to save just one of these Cox engines. I hope that you find an airplane for it and fly it again. Maybe it will just chug along, but so what - effort rewarded.

Bob

akjgardner Tue Feb 21, 2023 1:51 pm

I lost a 40 size Sukhoi once. About 6 months later a flying buddy called and said” I got good news and bad news… the good news is I found your airplane , the bad news is … it’s in my glove box . Smile

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