The tail feathers are glued in place, the control horns are installed, and the pushrods are hooked up. The windshield is next. In the meantime, the new field box is stained, sealed, and loaded for spring.

Unseasonably warm temperatures provided me with an opportunity to finish painting the Kadet's fuselage. After framing the Poke's left wing and aileron, I gathered the remaining cans of Lustercote and took the Kadet outside. I finished it off with some 1/8" and 1/16" black striping.

Cutting the windows out was far easier than I imagined it would be. I hesitated to glue window and frame in place, cover, dope, and paint over them before removing the covering with a #11 blade without damaging the clear plastic, but it worked well and didn't take long at all.

Now I'll clean the Poke off the workbench and resume assembling them Kadet.

Continued work on the left wing panel from last night...

A few pictures from the workbench this weekend. I didn't get much time to work on the Poke, but I did manage to compete the center section of the wing and start one of the panels. The hand plane and balsa stripper have come in handy.

Balsa gliders for the kids and R/C flying took up much of my free time at the close of summer. I doubled the flight time in my Cox 0.49 powered Brigadier with a 1 oz. plastic slant tank from Sullivan Products, replacing the half ounce metal tank from Perfect. This prompted me to fly the airplane more often. I also flew the Aqua Star a few times, but not from the water (yet). I bench tested the Saito too and came away happy with the results.

The wing and tail feathers of the Kadet are covered and painted, but I didn’t get a chance to finish painting the fuselage before the cold weather set in. Now it will have to wait until spring.

After cleaning up the shop I set the Kadet aside and started work on a Sig field box. Staining and sealing it will also have to wait for warmer weather. I had been carting around the field box my father made for me when I started flying half A control line in third grade, but after some restoration work I've reassigned it to model rocket duty for the kids. It's no stranger to rocket stuff.

All that cleared the workbench for the Slow Poke Sport 40 kit. I have a new OS 35 that needs a home and thought the Slow Poke might be a good choice given how well and how often my Lil’ Poke flies – and after 13 years, two radios and four motors! The Slow Poke box felt heavy to me and I can see why when I look at the amount of plywood in it. We'll see how much of that big stack of plywood actually goes into the airplane and how much ends up...Continue Reading