Finally got my new Tee Dee in the air today

I had the Stuntman23 chopper all decked out with its new Tee Dee and ready to test fly. I built a bladder tank for it, one of the pressure-less tanks that consists of a pickup tube that spans the interior length of the balloon and full of holes to keep it full of fuel. In the shop when I tested it, I drew all the air out and replaced the volume with fuel. It ran until it was bone dry and it drew equally well upside down and right side up, tail down and nose down too. Only it slowed , but still ran steady with the nose down. It's mounted under the inboard wing.

So this whole Tee Dee project was to bring my heavy paint-laden(after repairs) Stuntman23 back to life. A Black Widow could only haul it around like the Spruce Goose with no real ability to do a loop-which it was a master of before the repair and subsequent heavy paint job.

Well off to the field I went. For some reason I had trouble pulling the air out, but was finally satisfied it was empty. I filled it with 20cc of fuel for a short flight since I wasn't sure of the stability of the airframe. I didn't want to be stuck for 7 minutes hanging onto a tail heavy wild pig.

So I flipped and flipped and all I could get were short bursts. What the hell was wrong. I squeezed some fuel and saw it run up to the nipple and flipped again and again. This went on for probably 300 flips and my pants had blood spray from my fingers all over them I stopped and smoked a cigarette. I thought, okay last night I started it in 3 flips with a full bladder, so 20 more ccs were added. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing... nothing for another 100 flips.

Finally, I found an hidden strap of rubber band was compressing the fuel line. So I fixed that and gave it a flip. Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... Okay got the needle speed-lean and riched it a bit and ran out to the lines. Pulled it out of the stooge, which as about 3 feet off the ground. It sunk but I recovered it and off she flew, then where the engine usually unloads and speeds up, she slowed for a half lap and then woke up and really pulled it through the air at the kind of speed I was hoping for. I flew a few flat laps to test the stability and all was good. It was kind of breezy so I got her downwind and pulled up into a pretty loop and the engine almost stalled on the downward side, but ran hard enough to stay airborne for a lap. I pulled another loop and this time it did cut off on the down side and plunged nose first into the ground under nothing but gravity power. Crap! What's up with that?

I took it back and inspected everything, sucked the air out, still had trouble with that, but filled it and launched again. This time I tried inverted flight and she flew about 10 laps just as happy as right side up. I went to flip it and it cut off and the wind slacked my lines really bad, then the engine caught again and it slammed under full power straight vertical into the ground. It was spectacular, there was a huge burst of spray as the fuel blew out on impact. Now I'm mad. No damage, the Stuntman is a tough bird, just filthy. I poured fuel over it to get the dirt off the engine. It has a screen on the venturi. That's good for me. But the bladder had a hole in it and I couldn't suck out air or add fuel, so the day was over and I was perturbed to say the least. Not only do I despise crashing, I despise it when it's because of equipment failure. And I despise burying my new engine into the dirt at full thrust.

So I loaded up the red Radio Flyer wagon and slowly pulled it home, grumbling all the way. Got back to the shop and removed the fuel tank, cut the balloon off and inspected it. Nothing really wrong. Next time I need to get a better setup for evacuating the air and getting fuel in it without bubbles, all while my hands and tools are oil slick; a better mounting method; and a better preflight. I'm sure there was air in the tank causing the engine to fail. Nothing is wrong with the plane. I'll open the engine and give it a bath.

I can't fly during the week, but weather permitting, I'll be back out next weekend and perform like I should. The more I thought about it I remembered the plane flew wonderfully, the engine is plenty strong enough, and that was the reason for the shakedown flights. I'm happier now, all is well and the Stuntman lives again.