As the cold weather begins, the fun doesn't have to end

Today in the northeast, the flight gods allowed a beautiful day of no wind and fairly mild temps. It did get cold at times and now that I'm home, I'm truly enjoying the thawing out. We've all had those days where nothing goes right and nothing works. I had one of those days two weeks ago. After careful examination, and some minor changes, were once again back on track with our equipment. Today was trying out our fast combat stuff. The highlight of today was the JR Satan that I just overhauled. What a neat little plane. I'm into all aspects of this hobby, I have a real appreciation for building and the simple things. Sometimes, certain hobbies get carried away and this one allows enjoyment just standing there watching. All my work I put into fixing that old bird really paid off. After Thanksgiving dinner I took the Medallion .15 all apart cleaning and polishing and making sure all was good. I found an older Robbe prop which was a red nylon. This was a wider bladed prop which was a 7x4. The Master Airscrew is way too thin for my liking and the other prop of choice was the black 7x6 Grish Tornado Magnum prop I had. I fed the Jr my favorite brew of choice Powermaster GMA 10-22 and off she went like clockwork. THe plane was quite maneuverable, fast and I was very satisfied with my tank work which just gave terrific runs throughout the day. One thing I noted with the Jr. The controls are far too sensitive and this was with the pushrod in the closest hole to centerling of pivot and the highest hole on my control horn. I was flying with a handle spacing of 3". I could've used my 1/2A handle which has a handle spacing of 1 7/8" .

The next flights will be with my 1/2A handle. All in all, plane flew remarkably well aside from just a bit tip high which I will resolve before next flight. I highly recommend the plane although I certainly would try installing a larger bellcrank if it's at all possible. The rest of the day was flying some severely frightening fast stuff which was my Fox Mk engines and the Fora .36. I truly believe the Fora today on 40% nitro was in the 125+ range. No matches today as I left the streamers on the table but we still had a ball flying. More than likely we won't see these milder temps until March. I had my cell phone and took some pretty horrible pictures as the quality isn't so hot. I tried capturing my son flying the Jr Satan but I couldn't time it correctly. I just got a shot of him in the circle. Ken