Shoestring flights - I brought it home! Now, can I do it again?

Awesome! Congratulations, you deserve it man!

Jim

Way to go!!! Waiting for the story.

andrew wrote:Way to go!!!  Waiting for the story.

Thanks Andrew. The story is in a thread called, https://www.coxengineforum.com/t5787-the-carolina-criterium-huntersville-nc-october-2013#72582

I am very pleased for you. I have read all your posts through trials and tribulations but your determination to succeed has been evident from the start.

This is well deserved! Congratulations.

Wow, here we are again, 7 months later and one week to go. This is a rambling late night post, so forgive my wandering prose, I'm just awash with all that's coming up soon. If I haven't been attentive to the forum lately it's because I've been preoccupied. I bonked the Skyray in late February and rather than fixing it and practicing for the May 2nd, 3rd and 4th contest, I've been playing with the Yak and Shoestring, I think I could win with the SS if conditions are right, but I've got the old Ray, Dirtybird fixed up. Removing the covering revealed a lot of hard history about this plane. The LE was cracked, the TE was cracked in several places.. all because old glued repairs had re opened. A bottle of CA and a fistful of baking soda later and the small stuff was tight and straight. Then on to microballoons and epoxy to fill loose gaps in the wing root and sheeting. Not one piece of sheeting was still attached to the center ribs,

I worked on it all Wednesday night, taking a break to chat with Roddie and chill a few minutes, then got back after it. Finally it was a plane again. Plan was to go do some serious all business pattern flying at the fort on Thursday, but an un-forecast wind was whipping and Wayne and I scrubbed the mission. I feel like if I can get it up twice before next weekend, I'll be back in tune. I was getting really good in December before the storms. Then splocked it in the soft wet muddy grass at Watt Field, and it's been idle until now.

With Thursday a scrub, there is a club meeting in Huntersville tomorrow, Saturday, so the car is loaded and I'll leave in the morning. I may be bringing the Magnum home if I can get it in the car. I'll fly it tomorrow since it's a gift, rebuilt specially for me, but My mission is to get about 5 good patterns in with the Ray, on the circle I'll be competing on. And another one at the fort one day this coming week. One good smack and this Ray might be slag, so I'd better be on.

I posted here, since the subject matter and my height of excitement and wavering confidence are similar. But starting tomorrow night, I'll begin a new thread with all that involves my runup to the contest, flight reports, successes, failures, and all that goes with it. I won't be a rookie this time, and I'll be flying two events, profile Saturday and PAMPA stunt on Sunday.
See y'all in the funny papers.
Knocking the Dusty offa Rusty

RknRusty wrote: I bonked the Skyray in late February and rather than fixing it and practicing for the May 2nd, 3rd and 4th contest, I've been playing with the Yak and Shoestring, I think I could win with the SS if conditions are right, but I've got the old Ray, Dirtybird fixed up. Removing the covering revealed a lot of hard history about this plane. The LE was cracked, the TE was cracked in several places.. all because old glued repairs had re opened. A bottle of CA and a fistful of baking soda later and the small stuff was tight and straight. Then on to microballoons and epoxy to fill loose gaps in the wing root and sheeting. Not one piece of sheeting was still attached to the center ribs,

I worked on it all Wednesday night, taking a break to chat with Roddie and chill a few minutes, then got back after it. Finally it was a plane again. One good smack and this Ray might be slag, so I'd better be on.

Knocking the Dusty offa Rusty

(above quote condensed)

Hey Rusty, You gave that Skyray more love last Wed. night.. than it's seen in a long time. I'm sure it will give it right back to you in the circle. I'll bet it flies like it's on rails!

Good luck Rusty.

roddie wrote:...Hey Rusty, You gave that Skyray more love last Wed. night.. than it's seen in a long time. I'm sure it will give it right back to you in the circle. I'll bet it flies like it's on rails!

Cribbs74 wrote:Good luck Rusty.

Thanks dudes. And it does fly tighter. Now I remember how well it flew when I first got it. It's not like I punished it. It really only hit the ground with any oomph once and that was in a soggy field. I think all the old repairs just shook loose over time. I had put a lot of flights on it between late October and February when the old rotten Monokote shredded.

I wasted enough time for three more flights today when the fuel tank malfunctioned. First crank. Funny, I thought, I had to turn the needle about three turns richer, then walking out to the lines it cut off. I thought all kinds of things until I realized the internal clunk line came off the brass feed tube. I'll re-plumb it with a longer brass and fresh silicon line this week. finally got that fixed and flew a pattern that was tight and jerky. The Boesen handle I use for the Shoestring doesn't agree with the Skyray, so I was trying a handle with wide spacing like a Hot Rock, and I was all over the place. Then it was time for the meeting. Of course that flight is on video shot by Will Davis. The lap times were good though, 5.3 seconds, and the Topflite 10x4 Power Point prop is the best I've used. Until now I'd been using a 10.5x4, but it's buried in pieces in the mud in another town. This one had a more comfortable lap time and authority in the turns, lots of thrust.

After the meeting I used a handle Watt gave me that came with the Brickhause/Morris Fanfare that he and Wayne had been building. I adjusted it narrower and knocked out a really good pattern. One I'd be happy to fly at the contest. Thing is, when it wouldn't crank and we tried an electric starter... to my protest, the prop apparently shifted and I didn't change it back. 12:00 and 6:00. It broke during landing.

I replaced the prop with a Master Airscrew 10x4. Same lap time, but the damn thing was a pussy in the turns, like it was stalling. No authority whatsoever, so I flew a so so pattern. By then it was pushing 4:30 and everyone was leaving, so I rolled up the lines and watched David Smith fly two planes at once. I'll tell about that and post pics, etc later. My back is too sore to lean over the keyboard any longer.

So, see y'all later. Maybe I'll write more tonight. Right now I need to take a break.
Rusty

Oh' here's a couple of pics. I took the one of the GlueRay after I got home:


Here's Wayne launching the Fanfare for Will. It has music all on the sides of the fuselage and rudders. Allen B. was a musician.


Sorry, I cut off the nose. And a Monokote stripe came off the stab.


Soon to be my Magnum. Not finished yet.

Once you get a hold of that Magnum you will be knocking contests out of the park!

The Magnum is a solid 700 sq"

My largest plane is the Cardinal at 579" and it corners like it's on rails. So I imagine that Magnum will be a real performer.

For fun I took a picture of the Cardinal up against the old Ringmaster for a size comparison. The Ringmaster is only slightly smaller than the SS.

The Magnum should be a crap load of awesome.

Hi Ron,
 
They are electrifying the Cardinal here. Not sure it is the same as yours. This one is only 54" wingspan.
 
Yours is 579".
 
That is 43' 9" bigger. How long are your lines?  
 

 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQCVG5TmkI
 

 
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emWaAsaCC0k

Sorry Ian I should have wrote 579 sq" as in wing area. I use 60 ft lines.

Thanks Rusty , that looked , sounded like a lot of fun , as soon as I figure out if my refrige has craped out or not looks like a good day for some flying