Tiger is on hold, been flying. Off up to Cocklebarrow this coming weekend and doing a bit of fettling.
Cocklebarrow is mostly vintage but up to 1975, it's about a 350 mile round trip and this time I've booked a hotel room as, as I approach 80 I find that this kind of trip stretches my stamina to the limit if I try to do it in a day.
I decided to take three planes, an enlarged version of the Kei lKraft Southerner up by 1.4 times to 84" wingspan, this old plane was built in about 1985 -6 can't remember for sure and has been through the wars, I've recovered it once and it was looking decidedly tatty so I thought a bit of a spruce up was on the cards especially round the cowl.
That's nearly finished but hasn't been helped by the fact that several decades of flying have soaked the area in oil, last couple of retaining screws go in tomorrow, not perfect but serviceable. I also changed the engine from an OS 52 Surpass to an OS 48 Surpass which fits in the same holes.
Second model is a Keil Kraft Super Scorpion built from a Ben Buckle kit, it was the first one I built, covered in Solartex and far too heavy, so I built another one using the patterns I'd traced from the kit and carefully selected the wood and covered it in world models lighttex, much lighter and flew so well. I gave the original, less engine, to my mate and bugger me later that day wrote my second super scorpion off. A real downer about 6 years on my mate is quitting the hobby and gave me it back, complete...Continue Reading

Just a quick update, I've been slacking as one of the longerons took a different bend from the other three and I had to cut it free and remake it.
They are back together but I don't think it was a good idea to try to build the rear of the fuselage off of the front bit but I'm stuck with it now and, if there's a slight warp I'll have to live with it. Another update with images shortly.

All my bits came from modelfixings.co.uk ; including a tapping drill for 4mm metric threads.
Spent an hour or so drilling and tapping then fitting the bits to the front of the fuselage. Now the engine mount is finished I can turn to rebuilding the back end as I won't bash it around when trying to markup and drill the components for the mount.
Few images which I hope will be worth 3000 words.
Well I screwed that up, thought I had 3 images and one is a duplicate.

I finally decided on my engine of choice, I'm going to be fitting a Turnigy 26S gasser over the Laser 100 nitro.
Couple of reasons, first being the turnigy has more grunt than the Laser and the second reason I have loads of props to suit the turnigy but only 2 or 3 that may suit the Laser.
The downside is the turnigy is more complex to install but I have thought it out and I can install a base mounting system that can suit both motors.
Basically the turnigy is 20mm too short to get a spinner on and the Laser, with its alloy mount, is 17mm too short.
I have some aluminium bar 10mmx20mm and I have cut 4 lengths of 82mm each.
In two of these lengths I have drilled 6mm holes so the first two will bolt into the steel mounting points in the firewall as per the attached image.
The second two will be drilled with a 4mm metric sized hole to suit the 4 stand offs for the engine.Once I've done that I will drill and tap 4 holes to bolt the alloy spacers together.
If the Turnigy turns out to be too powerful, I can whip it off and drill the top spacer to suit the Laser mount and it can then be used.
There's an image nearby that shows the firewall of the tiger, hope this proves self explanatory.
The tapping drill and the machine screws will arrive in the next day or so and I'll update the pix then.

Finally got my butt into gear to start reassembling the fuselage with the upgraded longerons.
I decided to epoxy the 4 main longerons into their respective slots and to ensure they remained in place whilst the glue dried I made some jigs that were held in place by two strong rubber bands as shown in the pics, I hope they are self explanatory.
This is just a dry run, I'll glue them together tomorrow after I've made another jig to ensure the rear fuselage is central to the front part.

Here's a pic of a bag of gussets I made up to reinforce the joints betwixt longerons and spacers etc. I have yet to cut 1/4 square slots to accommodate the framework but that's the work of a moment and can be done on individual gussets.

Bit of a timelapse whilst I explored using carbon fiber longerons but decided against it.
Few pix to show the reverse engineering that's been going on. I'm stuck now as I'm expecting a call to go pick up my car from the car hospital.
Next step is to glue the longerons into the slots in the fuselage then set it up centrally then cut and glue the uprights and cross pieces from 1/4" strip wood, either hard balsa or basswood.

Just a pic I missed from 2 posts ago, showing how I squeezed those laminations tight.

I have to now decide what power plant for this model.
I have 4 potential engines all ic as I have absolutely no interest in electric.
1st is a trusty OS 91Fx two stroke glow, the main problem is weight or lack of it I'd probably end up with about a pound of lead to make it balance and the muffler would stick out like a sore thumb.
2nd is a really old laser 100, at first I thought this might be marginal but the authority with which it pulled my 1/4 scale Cub through loops is very reassuring.
3rd is a nice new OS 120 Ax two stroke, with the 90 degree exhaust adaptor this keeps it neater than the 91 and it is heavy enough and the power is prodigous.
4th, and favourite , is a turnigy 26S gasser this is a cracking engine so smooth and powerful, bit light and also a bit flimsy but it spins an 18x8 well and I have a muffler that actually works on it.
Any advice readers can give would be gratefully received.
Plane comes out at about 11 lbs.

First attempt at laminating longerons, not a great problem except the wood is 1/4" whilst the carbon strip is 6mm. Not a great deal and I can spackle it.

Having slept on it I came up with a plan B for the construction of the longerons.
I wanted a greater cross sectional area (csa) and also wanted to be able to contain the whiplash forces that frequently arise when landing on our not so smooth strip.
I've attached a pic which kinda shows my plan .
Building the longerons like this also gives the advantage of having outward facing wood for the solartex to adhere to.
I also changed the adhesive from gorilla glue pu to cyano as gorilla glue is dissolved by cyano in my experience so this choice allows me to use thick cyano to glue the longerons, braces, formers and stringers in without having to worry about contamination.
There'll be more shortly.

It's been over two years since I wrote here, tbh with all that's been going on I haven't done much modelling wise.
Now I have several airframes to repair, a sig 1/5 scale cub, a hangar 9 1/5 scale cub, a modeltech 1/4 scale cub ( I like cubs!) and an airframe I bought of a scaled up Ruhig Tiger.
This is the plane I'm hoping to repair.
The original design was published as a plan in one of the UK magazines in the 70s I think, a 60" span sport aerobat, low, thick wing fixed u/c for a 45 two stroke.
The designer made some rough drawings of the scaled up version at 72" span but regrettably died before he could build it. His widow gave the drawings to one of his friends who copied them and gave them to one of his friends who built the airframe.
He got about 90% of it built when he decided enough was enough and I bought the whole kit and caboodle off him.
I finished the airframe without the benefit of plans though I had some reservations about some of the timber. I covered it as an american trainer very much like the PT 19 and it had a royal blue fuselage, yellow wings and stab and candy striped rudder.
The reservations I had were with regard to the longerons which were very soft balsa but I persevered and had several flights until one day it ground looped and the subsequent whiplash effect shattered the rear fuselage which was a box like structure of longerons, cross braces and stringers.
I made several plans over the years for the repair including buying some 6mm square carbon fibre tube but today I sliced some 1/8 x 1/4 from a sheet of 1/8 ribstock balsa and have 6mm x 0.8mm by 750mm carbon strip that I intend to laminate together the form the main longerons.
I've started this blog so it will encourage me to get on and do it as it's my 77th birthday in a week or so and I want to fly it on that day.
I've added a pic of the components for one of the longerons so it'll give you an idea

Brief story, this man was a small boy in WW2, he was on a playing field in 1944 when a B 17 came over, all shot up. He, Tony, was standing in the field and saw the pilot waving at him so he waved back the pilot did several passes and Tony didn't move. The B 17 crashed nearby.
A memorial was built as all the crew died in the crash and Tony has maintained it, daily, since it was built.
He told a stranger that he would like to get a flypast on the 75th anniversary, the stranger was a national tv reporter.
The rest is here

TONY FOULDS Flypast 75 years ago today to Honour the Ten US Airmen 22/02/2019 (6 min 28 sec)

Thanks America.

Sold off three of my saitos, just fed up with the conrod seizing on them.
Got real good money for them too.
I bought an OS 61 Fx off the BMFA website that was listed as in excellent condition, when I got it there was no prop nut and washer and no muffler bolts, worst of all it was jammed solid. I freed it up but it was clear the bearings were gummed up so I pulled it to bits, knocked the front bearing out and popped the rest in the oven at 200 C 3 hard knocks on the work bench and the rear bearing popped out, solid with castor I dunno why people still use it. $10 worth of bearings from my local industrial supplier and she now feels like an OS should.

Plenty has happened in my life since my last entry. My tame builder has completed our bathroom makeover also demolished the wall and fireplace between the dining area and living room so we now have a walk through room.
Originally the structural engineer wanted steel joists to replace the loadbearing wall between the two areas, but as most of the weight was the chimney running up through the loft and out through the roof I decided to have that removed as our heating now is provided by a boiler in a utility room. The builder took 6 cubic yards of rubble out, this included the chimney breast on the gound floor, the lined firebrick structure up to the loft and a huge offset to get the chimney out at the top of the roof.
The net result was the structural engineer agreed we could use two 8"x 4" joists bolted together which prevented having a return to cover up the steel joists, the wooden ones being in the space between the ceiling and the floor above.
While he was at it the builder re-plastered, rewired and painted the the "new" room too.
It wasn't easy as where the chimney breast mounted on the floor we had to re-screed an area 8'x4' and recarpet.
It's done now and me and old mama are happy as pigs in crap. We were that happy we got him to redecorate the entrance hall, stairs and landing which he managed in about four days.
Anyway that's behind us, we have two more bedrooms to decorate in the spring but before then I have to tidy up my workbench and build...Continue Reading

Following my last post, I decided to have a few drinks to celebrate ny freedom from mesothelioma, so I've had a couple of beers and read all my blogs, God it takes me back.
Today I'd gone to the flying field taking a couple of windy weather planes plus I also took my engine test bed and a couple of engines I'd been experiencing difficulty in setting up. Not because I can't hack it but because so many people used to try to help and, one thing |I've found, they don't know eff all, or so I thought.
Set my saito 82a up, I converted this to a partial B spec by buying and fitting the alloy backplate to replace the nylon original. This engine had been in a minor crash and the intake tube was damaged, I straightened it and refitted it but it still needed several O rings and some Hylomar to seal it.
Ran it up and was inundated with helpers, eventually after half a tank of fuel hit the sweet spot, she runs to 9200 which includes 300rpm backed off by enriching it and throttles nicely down to 2200, all this on a 14x6 apc which my hp calculator tells me needs 1.23 horse power to do.
Next up was a 61 SC 2 stroke, I'd crashed this through pilot error and broken the carb so a new one had been acquired and fitted; refilled the tank spun it up and 20 seconds later it's idling at 2100 and peaking at 9850 on a 13x8 apc which my hp calculator says needs 1.53 horse power to do so I'm well please.
Fuel was 10% nitro, 17% synthetic and 3% castor for both engines. Don't normally use castor but this was all that was obtainable.
Well pleased with the result, now have another saito 82, an sc 91 and a 91 Fx OS to trouble shoot look forward to doing that on saturday.
I joined a new club a few weeks ago and will have my first visit this weekend, it's a 130 mile round trip but they have great facilities with NO TREES really looking forward to it.

52 years ago I was a watch engineer on a BP tankship. She was old when I joined her and every time the engines were manoeuvred the engine room was hit by a snow storm of asbestos. It got everywhere.
Two weeks ago I saw a heart specialist as I was having trouble breathing, he said your lungs are amost certainly contaminated with asbestos and it's probably starting to do what it does.
Tonight I saw my GP after several x rays and was given the all clear no asbestos visible.
To say there's a weight off of my mind is 2015's biggest understatement, I mean we all have to go but asbestos related death is not a good way to shuffle out of this mortal coil. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in the money, phase two of our house makeover started yesterday.
Our tame jobbing builder is redoing our main bathroom, I am really looking forward to the completion.
He is then moving on to our main living area which is separated from a dining alcove by a massive chimney breast; he is going to remove this for us as we now tend to eat in our new kitchen area which is the success story of the makeover.
Finally he will move out into the garden and build us an elevated patio where we will be able to soak up the sun and ease our aching old bones, also have barbecues etc.

I needed some O rings for the carburettor on my OS 91 Fx, as I have an OS 160 FX too that is a similar age I thought I'd buy two sets (they share the parts).
Unobtainable here in the UK, so I bought them from Tower Hobbies.
As it happens there were two of each in each pack so I ended up with 4 of each, never mind.
$15 or just under, shipped air mail and with me 4 days after ordering!
Amazing.

Edited on the advice of my solicitor.