Count - 22

Dead and Buried:
Hobby Lobby SoarEasy - Wing ripped in two mid-flight
Blu-Baby AP aka Dayglow Avenger (FFF Foamy) - Never flew well - motor too small
Printed warbird (FFF Foamy) - Never flew - battery too big
Yak 30" Profile (Plan Built Foamy) - Awesome 30 second flight until wing folded
New Power Mini Leader - Eaten by tree

Might be revived:
MountainModels Switchback Sport kit - Eaten by cell tower

Electric:
E-Flite P47 Thunderbolt - Flies great. Many repairs.
GWS E-starter - Needs minor repair
Elipstik 260 kit - To be built
RichModel Long EZ 380 - 95% repaired
New Power Fury - 90% repaired
E-Flite Tensor 4D - built - waiting on first flight

Fuel:
Hobbico SuperStar 40 - Flies great
SIG Four Star 40 kit - Complete. Flies great. Tons of power with OS46
TowerHobbies Uproar 60 kit - NIB Used - To be built
NitroPlanes Ultimate 40 - 60% built
NitroPlanes Long EZ 40 - To be built
Great Planes U-Can-Do 3D 60 - Used - To be built
Hangar 9 Sundowner 50 - Used - 75% built

Heli:
Hobby King HK450 - 75% Built
E-Flite Blade CX2 - Needs repair
E-Flite Blade mCX - Flies great

I took yesterday evening off to go flying, but got back to it tonight. Today's task was the main wing which went together with no complications. I bought a white laminated shelf from Lowes to build the wing on. The wing went together in just over an hour.

Today's accomplishments:

• Remaining sheathing glued
• Elevator and rudder pushrods bent and installed
• Elevator and rudder servos installed
• Front cowl glued on
• Front landing gear bent and assembled

Took a break from the Switchback this weekend to work on some other projects, including a new eFlight P-47D Thunderbird that my friend didn't want to build. I had enough spare parts to get it flying and it sure screams with a Park 480 motor.

Also new this weekend is a field case and airplane stand. The case was purchased from Harbor Freight Tools. There's plenty of room for my transmitter, batteries, charger, props, and, of course, the ever-necessary roll of tape. The stand is based on a design I saw at a field last year. It seems to work well for models with flat sides on the fuselage, but the P-47D rolls when it's on the stand. I think I need to rig up some sort of sling between the uprights. Ideas on that are more than welcome.

Almost had a catastrophe today while gluing on the sides of the fuselage. I got a bit careless and didn't notice that the back portion of the side piece was not lined up until after I glued it...it only has notches to line up the front 2/3. While trying to remove it to straighten it, I busted the two rear bulkheads. Nothing too bad, but enough that I needed to patch them. Luckily the kit comes with plenty of scrap balsa, so the patch job was no big deal.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Today's progress: fuselage and ailerons

Today was a bit trickier with a lot of tight fitting pieces on the fuselage, but it's together. Most just took a bit of patience, but the motor mount needed some more persuasion. I had to sand it a bit to get it to fit through the two bulkheads.

CA, Epoxy, Gorilla, oh my. I bought glue for the Switchback today and realized that I had now purchased 6 types of glue for this hobby and received another with an airplane. I'm sure I didn't need all these variations, but I'm now prepared in case there's a Great Glue Shortage of '09. My collection of glue includes:

• Gorilla
• Odorless CA
• Thin CA
• Thick CA
• 5 Minute Epoxy
• 15 Minute Epoxy
• GWS Glue

Today I completed gluing the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, the rudder and the elevator. The gluing goes quite fast, but taping down waxed paper for each piece eats up a bit of time. It's delicate work releasing the parts from the wax paper and I broke one of the cross supports on the vert stab while attempting it (my first piece). Now that I know how fragile it is, it shouldn't happen again. Sure makes me wonder how much abuse this little thing will be able to take.

This is the first post in the blog that will chronicle the build process of the Switchback Sport by Mountain Models . I initially wanted to build their newer Switchback Senior, but since this is to be my first kit build, I decided to go smaller and cheaper.

My RC flight experience thus far has been limited to the Blade CX2, a mostly failed attempt at a scratch-built foamie (based on the blu-baby trainer), the ARF SoarEasy, and most recently the GWS EStarter.

So on to the build. Today merely consisted of clearing off the workbench and unpacking the kit. The folks at Mountain Models paid attention to detail when packing the kit. All the small pieces were nicely sealed in plastic bags and the larger pieces were stacked on a piece of cardboard and taped together with painter's tape, which made separating them nice and easy.

I was amazed at how fragile some of the balsa seemed, but I'm sure when it's all together, it will be nice and sturdy. To this first timer, the laser cut job is nothing short of amazing. The pieces have very sharp edges and look like they'll go together like a precise jigsaw puzzle.

The first picture has a 9" cutting board at the back for scale.