I took the kids fishing today and made a little opportunity for myself to do some pond flying with the Aqua Star. My daughter was good enough to take some video too:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cSQ...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SvA...ew?usp=sharing

Too windy to fly today so I put my energy into finishing the Slow Poke's cockpit and windscreen. I always struggle with windscreens and decided to forgo glue or stripes of covering and resorted directly to the use of three small screws. The only change I made to the pattern was the addition of a tab to hold down the center section. The engine run is next and then we see about a maiden flight.

Everything is installed and connected. The only thing left to do is the cockpit combing and windscreen. The good news is that I am a full pound under weight! The recommended weight is 6-6.5lbs and I'm at 5lbs on the nose. That extra pound must have been in the rear. I'm balanced at the back of the balance range so not tail heavy, but by no means nose heavy. I consider that to be success given the tail heaviness everyone else has reported. I'll put a few sticky weights at the front of the airplane for the first flights.

It's been rather busy few days, but I managed to fly the Kadet and Brigadier at the MARKS R/C field while visiting my father. He's belonged to the club for years, but it was my first visit to their field. I've also managed a few hours in the workshop to continue covering the Poke.

The ailerons work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19U-...ew?ts=5b72d31c

The pull-pull rudder should reduce the likelihood of this airplane building tail heavy, which I understand is fairly common. Here it is in action:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmE...ew?ts=5b689d3b

The throttle servo is installed and ready to go too. I stopped working there to ready my father's old LT-40 for flying and took both the LT-40 and my Brigadier out for some flights on Sunday afternoon. The LT-40's GMS engine gave me two dead stick landings, but there are far worse things in life than that.

My daughter captured a bit of the Kadet in flight last nitght and I've posted her handywork here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NnQ...2lkMNWGKE/view

Meanwhile I took a stab at aligning the checkers on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer and elevator parts of the Poke.

I ordered a pull-pull kit for the rudder along with some new wing bolts. The flat head wing bolts that are provided with the kit are only useful for 'poking' holes in the bottom of the wing. Well played, Great Planes.

Visiting my father this week I pulled an old control line Jenny out of his garage. The Jenny was given to me by my father's coworker when I was a small boy. My father's coworker had three boys of his own and the Jenny had belonged to them, but it was stored in the attic of their home before it came to me. Going over the airplane to see what could be salvaged I pulled off two 3/32" wheel collars. A little toothpaste, an SOS pad, and some marvel mystery oil in the set screw and they are as good as new; and perfect for holding the Poke's tail wheel in place.

I also pulled out a Cox .09 and placed it in a jar of fuel to see about freeing it up.

The Poke is ready to cover, but I'm hesitating while I decide whether or not to use a pull-pull for the rudder rather than the provided push rod.

This is a really nice little item to tuck into the cockpit, away from the prop wash and oil, but easy to reach.

I hit the halfway mark on my quest to spend 10 hours in the air this year with an 11 minute flight on my Morane Saulnier Type L yesterday. It is the 12th airplane I've flown this season. Like the Jenny and Kadet before it, the Morane benefited from propping down. The Jenny went from 8x7 to an 8x4 and and the Kadet went from an 11x7 to an 11x4. I didn't have a lower pitch prop handy for the Morane so I dropped from a 9x7 to an 8x7 and found the little airplane easier to handle.

Meanwhile the Slow Poke building continues...

Post maiden flight photo. I have nothing but wonderful things to say about this airplane and the Saito engine in it.

The Aqua Start had its 'wet' maiden recently too. I'm delighted to say that it too performs just as advertised - it will ROW!

The little guy managed to solo this weekend and I managed to keep plugging away at the Slow Poke, covering the fin, rudder, and tops and bottoms of the elevator.

Half A Control Line Flying with my son. His older sister took the picture. One flight was enough for her, but the little guy just wanted to keep flying…tank after tank after tank of glow fuel.

I managed a 10 minute flight on Friday and another 20 minute flight today to put me over the one hour mark for flight time this year. That may sound modest, but flying at least once a month in 2018 is a lofty goal for me.

I also stole a few minutes away from working in the yard to finish the instrument panel for the Slow Poke. I used the little window from a pasta box to make lenses for the instruments.

The fuselage has a lot of plywood in it and I'm not surprised to read that people say the airplane builds up tail heavy. I'm trying to reduce the amount of weight in the tail by using my dremel tool to remove some of the plywood. I've also used 1/16" balsa rather than 3/32" balsa to sheet the back end of the fuselage bottom. Everything else has been by-the-book, as they say.

With both wing panels of the Slow Poke completed I've decided to put in a little time on the Fokker Triplane my son wants in his room. The tail framed up without incident, but when I began cutting out the parts for the wing I realized we're missing a full sheet...at least. So we began tracing and cutting...

The Kadet has a place in the workshop and I've resumed building the Slow Poke. My first task was to build the servo box in my completed wing panel. The plywood servo tray is far to large for the small servos I'm using and I was able to cut off a good amount of it to reduce weight. After that I started work on the other wing panel. With luck I'll have both completed by the end of week.

Another unseasonably warm day provided me with an opportunity to run few tanks of fuel though the Saito.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-IP...ew?usp=sharing

Ready to fly...

It's fitting that my next build is a Slow Poke...

I always dread this part. Most of my airplanes have an open cockpit so I've never become proficient with windshields.