1960 Scientific P-40 Profile kit

I flew a little this morning. Got in a ground hop, and two flights. The ground hop was due to hooking lines up backwards...I checked three times from the handle before fueling. My eyes must be getting bad. I thought I was beyond that stupidness!
While the plane skidded around grinding a Cox rubber duckie, the outboard wheel popped off. Then the plane pogoed upside down and stopped. It took over thirty minutes to find the roll-away wheel.
Once found, the wheel got wire-tied back in place for the two flights. Wind was excessive, so I wrapped it up until I can solder retainers on. Some how I blew.getting flight video again!
I didn't want to clutter up the Sanye .09 thread. This engine has a venturi similar to what Ken Cook mentions in the .09 thread. While I don't have Ken's experience with this engine, I will say I like it so far. On the Cox rubber duckie I get 19400 rpms:

That prop looks like it's flexing like Silly Putty.

Last week I wanted to fly...I mean really had to! Monday's weather was OK, but as the week wore on, the wind built up! And there was also all sorts of drama at the house. So I made up my mind to fly before skipping out on a Labor Day trip starting at 8:30 AM Saturday.

Movie will follow once I YouTube it. I did make it home in time to clean the model and skip out of town with wife, sans kids. It is a toss up which was best...the flying or the long weekend with wife only. Well, time with the wife won...but look at that sunrise!

Dawn patrol...on the ramp at 0615 for engine spin up and control check:

I got video! Now I need figure out how far back the camera needs to be to catch the whole circle!

Way to go!!!! That sucker was hauling !!!!

That, looked like fun! Just the way it should be, thanks for sharing.

So the lines got laid-out in under 2 minutes, even the stooge line!

Checked controls in the disappearing natural lighting...the glint of the remaining daylight moving across the elevator as expected as I pulled up-line.



Fueled up, started, and adjusted after 10 seconds of running...Go to the handle, quickly!
Pick up handle, and stooge line, pull, LAUNCH...Nose down hard, what the!! Again?

The handle ran out of throw "flying inverted." I almost had it except for the second skip:


.

And a broken, dislocated jaw. Well, we, um, missing:

And bent landing gear.
And bent the tank mounting tabs.
I hope the tank doesn't leak.

Jim, your luck is going to change. I know it looks bad to you but I have pics of bad. Bad is when nothing is no longer recognizeable. I have had crashes so bad you don't even know what parts your looking at. You will get her fixed up I'm certain. Ken

Thanks, Ken. I need to cut paper, not wood. Up under the skin looks like a jigsaw puzzle made for Ambroi, um, Sig-ment. I'll need time to reset the broken parts. Once I've moved the hard parts together, I'll replace the legs. Then work bracing the wing. I think I'll need to use some 1/32" balsa to shape the right side wing joint. The paper will need something to hold right next to the fuselage.
Getting a new nose might be kinda tough.

Jim, stuff happens, definitely repairable. Back when Scientific was making the kit, one could order a new cowling from the factory. Dave at Aero-werkes in Farmington, NM http://www.aerowerkes.com/ might already have a cowl available.

Otherwise, Walt Musciano sometimes resorted to sheet aluminum and bent one. It was open at the bottom, but looking from the side covered the engine and looked respectable.

Yup...and his buck is from this very kit.
He's my next outbound email.

Who makes water-slide decals here? I have a good, full size scan.

Jim, here is one of my better ones. I was given this Sterling P-38 from a friend. Seeing you like twins as much as I do, this isn't a good choice to build. It's very heavy, the design from a structural point is very poorly designed. The fuse glues directly to the silkspan. The fuse only glues to the leading and trailing edge. There's no center ribs under them or sheeting. After some reinforcing and extensive amount of rework I had what was going to be a decent flyer.The night before I rolled it on the basement floor noting that the plane was tracking inboard. This has 3/32" gear legs which are a bit funky as to the way they connect to the fuse. They go up, bend at a 90 and return back up the side of the fuse which has a additional piece glued over it. I tweaked the gear leg and it popped through the additional piece inside the wing. I didn't notice this but the pieces protruded into the bellcrank. I noticed it on take off when the controls jammed.

Conveniently there was a trash can at the end of the circle

Such a clean pile. You must have needed a dustpan and whisk, or a shovel. Ouch! Now I don't feel so bad.

Hey, if I'm not flying hard, I'll have too many planes hanging around the house.

I do plan on looking hard at flying this one again.
Thanks!

Here's my P-38 replacement given to me from Mike Londke, same powerplants 2 Max-s 10's. It just keeps vibrating to the point I can't get a decent needle setting. I did get 4 decent flights out of it last month. I tried everything in terms of stopping vibration, the fuel keeps foaming so I resorted to the Armor All in the fuel which worked quite well despite what many say. It got me 4 good flights so that was a big reward. I have noticed that if any of the engine is touching the bearers other than the lugs themselves that this can induce bad vibrations. I might use some thicker engine pads to help offer a slightly larger footprint.

Wing all cleaned up:

Fuselage all cleaned up:

All that is left is some wing strengthening, paper and paint:

And all back in one piece:

And last one until the wing is closed, and all parts hung.
I still don't know how the paintjob will look:

Harbor Freight 99 cent clamps to the rescue!!