Follow The World's Smallest Traveling Engine!

Fred,

Take all the time you need. Hope you feel better.

Jason

Agreed! Take your time, Fred. Enjoy it!

Hi All!
I'm checking in here to see what the status of the engine's travels is. It seems as though the engine is purring right along!

There may still be some good flying weather by the time it arrives in Kansas. Let's hope! It will be fun, no matter what!

I am shipping it to TeeBee I think....soon.....next ten days


if you are next TeeBee, PM your address please

Will do, Fred!

Nice! I'll get the list updated.

The WSTE arrived safe yesterday evening from Fred. I’m excited to open the box and play but the next few days look to be more than interesting for us in other ways. It looks like we’re going to luck out on TropicaL Storm/Hurricane Marco but now Laura is forecast to turn more westerly and head for this area as a possible Category 2 or 3 hurricane. I have to secure/board up our house and my mom’s house possibly tomorrow. I work in Water Distribution at a major chemical plant complex on the coast in Freeport and serve on the Hurricane Duty crew during these storms. Looks like things will be a little complicated until this all passes or misses us entirely. Wish us well!

Wishing you a complete miss in the hurricane and happy to hear the engine made it just fine !!

Be careful and stay safe out there.

I’ve been able to take just a little time to play with the WSTE between other priorities.  I really enjoyed looking through the journal entries!  The tiny machine posed briefly on my Cox display shelf before “work” began.  In anticipation of flying the engine on one of my .010-powered models, I carefully removed the fuel tank and replaced it with the backplate mount.   All of my current .010 planes have fuselage tanks.  Hopefully Hurricane Laura will go ashore to our east with little or no local damage.  We’ll know soon.  Once all that passes, the storm shutters have been removed and stored away, and life allows, I look forward to bringing the little engine to life.  A few pics of the engine during it’s first few days here:

Mounted!

Nice! Awesome to the see the little engine getting some attention. Great pictures

Oh, I've been stoked to see this little gem!

Charging some batteries in anticipation of the weekend. It’s almost time to see if the WSTE can be brought to life!

Sorry for taking this off topic, but I have to ask Tee Bee. What is that nice little plane beside the WSTE with orange nose ansd white main fuselage.

Let er rip, tater chip!

Run it like you stole it. I have spares available

NEW222, the orange/white plane is a Stu Richmond Corkscrew I built from plans 9 years ago. It has been shelved for a couple of years in need of some minor repairs. Powered by an OS .25FX. Planning to get it back in the air this weekend, hopefully.

“Let er rip, tater chip!” “Run it like you stole it.” Will do!

I took the WSTE .010 out to the field this morning with high hopes of flying it.  It wasn’t to be today.  Despite all my efforts, I could never get the engine to run beyond a few mere seconds of low RPMs.  I swapped out the Venturi and needle valve assembly with one off of a known good performer with the same results.  I ended up draining both of my glow drivers without any success.  The head  glows hot.  It draws fuel.  Compression feels very weak compared to the .010s I usually run from my own collection.  I was using Sig Champion 25 fuel that has been spiked with a little extra castor.  It runs great in all my Cox engines.  This partial bottle of fuel has been in use for some time.  It ran great in my .010s and .049s a few weeks ago.  I am charging my glow batteries back up and will open a fresh bottle of fuel tomorrow morning, hoping for better results.  If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll probably try some 35% nitro fuel.  Beyond that, I’m not sure.  I’m curious about the piston cup clearance but don’t want to be “the guy” who ruins it while trying to disassemble the cylinder.  Crossing fingers that this little engine still has enough pop in it to fire up and pull a plane around the sky.  Stay tuned....

It wasn’t a wasted trip to the field as I was still able to get some flying in with my old Corkscrew. A few of us also knocked out some pre-work for a little club get-together out there tomorrow. If I can get it to run and fly, there just might be a captive audience!

If you feel the piston and cylinder are bad I can send you another set. It might be time for a reset on the piston but that never fixes bad compression.

Today’s update: I spent the day attending an unofficial fun-fly with the fine folks of the Brazoria County Modelers Association at our club field in Oyster Creek, TX. I wasn’t able to get the engine to run today, even with fresh fuel and hot glow batteries. It will run with very little power for just a few seconds at the most. I’m no expert but I’m also not new to running TD .010s. I finally threw in the towel and bolted up one of my engines to the Tee Stik and proceeded to fly. There was a celebratory roar from the pits when it started up because most of them were unaware that I had switched engines. Throughout the day, other flyers stopped by and asked to see the tiny traveling Cox engine as word spread about it. I made sure to take time for some photo ops. I flew my RR1-powered Sharkface(ran great!)as well as some larger glow powered planes as the day went on. A friend had me perform the trim out flights on several of his electric models. A fun day!

Once things are packed away from the weekend of flying, I’ll spend some more time at the desk looking at the TD .010. Currently, I’m suspecting that it simply lacks enough compression to run with authority. I’m not giving up just yet. Per Jason, another piston/cylinder may be the ticket. I’ll stay on it. For now, some pics of the WSTE having a fine day on the Texas coast: