Baby Brothers

looks nice Mark!

Nice build.

Well, for the past few evening after the wife went to bed, I stayed up past bedtime and worked on the Baby Ringmaster.  I used some white and Royal Blue Monokote I had on hand.  I don't think it came out too bad, if I do say so myself.  Since I was covering the wing with Monokote, I decided to just do the fuse and tail surfaces also instead of painting them.  As I said earlier, just going basic on these.

Now, lessons learned. First, if the plans call for 1/16 ribs and the only 1/16 sheet you have in your wood box is your Bud Nosen AAA contest grade sheet balsa, GO TO THE HOBBY SHOP FOR SOME MEDIUM HARD SHEET!  I don't know how many times I cracked the ribs handling the plane, but I think all but one of the ribs had to be fixed.  Also, I had to rip off the first Monokote panel I ironed on because it warped the rib it was tacked to and would have had irreparable wrinkles on shrinking.  I eventually ended up putting vertical doublers on the ribs.  
Second, leave a little more length on the leadouts.  The down elevator thimble just touches the wingtip when full up is applied.
Third, order more reeds from Bernie or Matt.  In all the spares I ordered a few weeks ago, I neglected to get new reeds for .049's.  I got plenty of PeeWee reeds, but no .049 reeds.  When putting the new stunt tank on the Bee, I had to put the old copper reed back in for now.
Fourth, spend more time building, and less time sitting there looking at the damn thing.

Here 'tis




And the siblings together:


Oops!  After seeing the two together, that reminds me that I left the aluminum spinner on the Baby's engine.  I need to replace it with a black rubber spinner for a little crash protection, for whatever help it might give.

The Royal Mark

Nice. Those copper reeds run pretty good.

Bashers need stout wood, but not too heavy.

Phil

Mark
Love the color scheme. You know how I paint all my RM's the same. I thought about doing your way first though, same scheme and different colors.

Thanks for the complements Guys. Lieven, I'm hoping that I can get out Wednesday morning to maiden them. I took them out on the back porch a couple of hours ago and fired up the engines. I'm getting about 18,500 on both of them with the 5X3 props. Should pull great. But, the vent tube on the Baby's stunt tank is spitting out fuel as the engine runs. Looks like the old copper reed isn't sealing on the down stroke. I ordered six reeds last night for the spares box, so I'll swap it out when they get here.

Duke, the scheme is more one of convenience, but I guess I'll stick with it now. I have some red and some black Monokote in the closet, so I guess the next two planes will be the same scheme in red and black respectively.

Der Spitzen Mark

That is great looking pair of RM's
BTW, red and black looks wicked on a RM! Years ago, I had a .35 size RM covered in red and black with a scheme similar to the Sig Somethin Extra.


Shawn

Mark
I think you have great looking RM's, go with it.

I drove over to the circle at Delta Park this morning to fly with the Fireballs. Maidened both RM's and came home without a dent, ding, or scratch in the paint! I put five flights on the Beginner, but only got one out of the Baby. The reed definitely needs to be replaced on the engine in the Baby. Hopefully my package from Bernie will get here tomorrow. Then I can replace it and have the plane ready to fly on Friday morning. I would have made a couple more flights, but I didn't want to get stuck in the horrendous traffic crossing back over to my side of town. I'll start out earlier on Friday.

The Beginner flies nice and mellow. On the second flight I got froggy and tried an ugly little loop. But, it gave me courage, so by the fifth flight I was doing wingovers and a good, circular loop every lap to every other lap. If it had a stunt tank, I would've tried some inverted laps. I figure I might be taking it a little fast as a beginner, but what the heck.

For the only flight it had, the Baby was fast! It had plenty of tension on the lines. I think I'll make up a 5 foot extension and clip it in to see how that works. Both planes are using 35 foot lines. The Baby lines were nice and tight, but the Beginner's lines were trailing a bit. I'd shorten them up a little, but I like how nice and big the loops it makes are.

The Happy Dance Mark

Order a stunt tank then! Bernie sells both sizes of stunt tank.

Phil

Make a reed out of a piece of an old picture negative or a floppy disk.

Glad the flights went well!!!

Ron

Well, I scavenged a reed out of a rebuild kit I hadn't wanted to open up, but I figured I could replace it when the new reeds come in.  So, I removed the screws and pulled the new stunt tank off the engine.  When I looked inside the bowl, the blue goop that was used to seal the fill and vent tubes had flaked off of the tubes and was loose in the bowl.  Does anyone know what that material was?  Is the tank going to leak now?  Not too happy with this situation...  

Edit with a picture of the stuff that flaked off into the fuel bowl:



The Distressed Mark

Mark
Don't sweat the little stuff. I'm really happy you are flying the RM's. Sounds like I need to come down and fly with you again.
Duke

Well, another outing for the Brothers, and another return home with no scratches! I like these things. I put about 5 flights on each, as I got a late start today. The Beginner was steady, and just what you'd expect. I'm taking my son out tomorrow and I'll start him on it. The Baby was a handful! I was doing a lap in just under 3 seconds on 35' lines. Major dizzy after the end of the flight. I did a couple of ugly loops and then I just kept it relatively level after that. I let one of the 1/2 combat guys fly it and he wrung it out for me. It did everything great, and now I know what it's capable of. After the flight, he looked at me and said, "If you can fly that, you can fly anything." I'll make up new 45' lines tonight, and maybe move the lines in one hole on the handle.

Also, I got the new mylar reeds, and replaced the bad one. After putting the engine back on the Baby for a test run last night, the engine started up on the first flip. And today it started on the first flip each time. I don't know why people trash talk Cox .049's. They've always worked like champs for me. Tonight I'll look at the Babe Bee to see what I can do to that to make it perk up some. That 5cc tank is getting replaced with an 8cc after the son does his first flights tomorrow, as 5cc is just too short a run. I also never put a fuel tube over the needle valve. I'll do that tonight.

These things are AWESOME!!!

The Dizzy Mark

Take pictures!

Diz, I recommend making a set of 40' lines too. Sometimes 45' is a little too much, unless your plane has really good pull. Longer lines can exaggerate any bad habits the plane might have. You can always add a quarter inch of prop to tame it too. besides it's nice to have 3 sets to pick from depending on flying conditions.
Rusty

"If you can fly that, you can fly anything"  

I am not sure if that was a compliment or not! I kind of get where he is coming from though as the Baby Ringmasters fly just OK in my experience. Not bad, not great just ok. I do like them though and I have 2.

Congrats on some successful flights! Hope you have many more.

Ron

Well, I finally got around to weighing them. The Beginner weighs 5.1 ounces, and the Baby weighs 6.1 ounces.

The Weighty Mark