Another one ready for the Weekend

Just finished putting the controls on this one and mounting the tank. Ill choose the engine after ive flown a few other planes and mount the TD 049 thats going the hardest. This plane is my own design scratch build and has been slowly evolving for some time. I had a few things I wanted of the plane as it has evolved. It needed to be able to OWN 42 foot lines so as that I could have more sky from which to build up speed before I tent peg it. It needed to be able to do loops, wingovers, horizontal eights, and all of them with out needing a lap to regain speed in between. And fly inverted. That all covers my skillset and it can certainly do that. Ive increased the wing area on this one and extended the rear fuse to see if I can tighten up some of the maneuvres without mushing. Ive also increased the long centre fin, which serves two purposes. to strengthen the fuse as it gives an I beam type effect to the fuse, and to help with stability overhead. ---- yes, I could buy a laser cut kit and get a plane that does all of that and does it better. But i like doing my own in increments and see where it goes. The increased wing area will be interesting as it has little effect when flying level as it is a slab 2.5mm wing and the fuse is basically slab style 2.5mm. but after a previous wing increment I think this one may be getting around the mark I am seeking.

a friend of mine, whome I used to race bikes with, also flies CL and he is a OS 35 or whatever up man. Lol. and always says to me these planes Im slowly building, changing, flying, testing look like Half A combat-speed planes on acid as they look to be erratically twitching all through the circle. He is always at me to put one of my enya 15 glow engines back into a dominator or liquidator and re find what its like to fly something sane. but I like these little planes, the design is coming along well in respect to what I am looking for. they are starting to fly as I would want a bike to handle. they dont actually twitch. they simply go very fast, and respond very directly to control. The other thing they had to be able to do was launch from my launch table which puts some constraints on size and weight etc.




They are very quick, cheap and easy to make, unfortunately I have also now learnt that crashing them hard can result in wrecking a TD 049 which I just didnt realise could happen. when I was young I couldnt kill my enya 15 no matter how hard I tried. But I understand why some of the TD049s ive had, have not come out well from being tent pegged now that ive had a good look and think about their design. Which as with all designs is compromise. The engine weighs nothing and goes like there is no tomorrow. The results Ive had in some cases from tent pegging them is understandable.

As I build new ones and improve the design and improve my flying skills I will tent peg planes less and less. My friend will be at me again to finish and fly my enya 15 combat wing as he remembers when I was young it was extremely rare for me to crash one of my combat wings. Maybe he is right. Maybe there is room for me to do both. I just really like Half A for some reason, and unfortunately I like flying Half A planes that are built and handle as I would expect a custom built "Hills Boy racer" bike to handle.

Now I need to go cover the other plane with the modern SolarFilm equivalent. I would rather poke my eyes out with hot needles than do that job.

Just need the wind to co-operate this weekend. Half way through spring and the wind has been shocking!!! Time for it to change Me and the boy are going flying this weekend come what may. Ive got four days off, and we are going flying again!!! Ive spent all day, running engines, checking them, running them..... and Ive got spare batteries, and spare battery boces and leads, and a shed full of Methanol, Nitro and Castor M.



Yabby