Rats.....and I was just starting to get it dialed in.

What a great flyer you have there, looks very stable in the air. Bad luck with the prop cover. Would like to see some nice loops next time, look forward to your next flight and video.

Brent,

Very nice plane beautiful with all of the detail. The plane is either not balanced from left to right or you need to trim it. It looked like it wanted to keep turning left while in flight. Bad luck on the cowling being shredded was it from a misbalance propeller or the cowling not seated all the way?

TFS

John

John,
I'm some what a rookie so thanks for the tip. I just checked and the plane is heavy on the left (I held the back at the tip of the fuse and held the tip of the prop adapter, sound right?). I put .2 oz as a test at the right wing strut and she leveled.
It does seem like I need a lot of right trim. Also the main wing looks like it may be twisted a slight bit with the back of the right side being lower which would contribute to the left turn. But also I am trying to feel it out and am guilty of bank and yanking this one. It really need lots of rudder to get around the turn and my instinct (jets lately) is to bank even more. I set up a rudder to aileron mix for the 5th flight but never got the chance to try it.

I should have reserved my flight report till after a dozen flights as the glee from the maiden "it flys and came home in one piece" wheres off. There are issues to fix. It does fly heavy and if I can't get the weight down a bit and get it to the floater end of things, it may end up mostly a hanger queen as I like to float the skys not rocket ship them.

The spinner exploded....my take is...there is a ply disk epoxied in the inside of the spinner tip. I believe this came unglued, there is a gap between the ply and the prop adapter tip so if it came loose it would move back and then the spinner would only be held in alignment by the ABS it is made from. So it could move side to side. I think that is what happened, it move off centre or balance and exploded.

BTW I think it came unglued because the area it attached to at the tip was smooth as a babies bottom as was the epoxy where it mated.

I will order a new spinner and reinforce that gluing job. I will also make a spacer to fill the gap between the ply and the prop adapter, this will take some trial and error to get the spacer length right.

I'm green, but I have a metal lathe. I could probably get through turning a spinner, but I think cutting out the prop slots accurate would be the biggest prob. I could also consider turning a foam spinner and glassing it.

Anyways I hope it will iron out after I get the new spinner, I hate hanger queens LOL.

Brent

Brent,

I am pleased you did not take what I said personally, many ppl do. My first biplane without ailerons was the E-Flight Jenny and she needed huge amount of rudder throw to control her. The plane leans (wing tips) when trying to turn her so of course more elevator during the turn then most planes. Jenny would almost seem like she was tipping during a turn but she was a floater.

I'm just glad when that cowling was damaged you didn't lose an eye. I have had props fly apart and stick into my ceiling of my workshop before. Now when I run up a damaged motor, prop or something I am unsure of I wear safety glasses. My wife laughs at me but I do not want lose an eye over it.

Do you balance your props? "I will order a new spinner and reinforce that gluing job. I will also make a spacer to fill the gap between the ply and the prop adapter, this will take some trial and error to get the spacer length right." Sounds like it will work well. The cowlings do not hold very good on some planes so I use clear packing tape to assist in holding it in place.

I have never tried to glass a spinner before, if you do this can you possibly post pictures of each step?

Thanks for the communication and happy flying.

John

Hey Brent, I read your threads about the nose cone. Make sure you watch the DVD, showing the proper way to install.

You indicate that the nose cone is epoxied on the wooden plywood backing.
This is not the case. The nose cone is just stuck together over the wooden plywood. This must be pulled apart in order to install the prop shaft, and put the prop washer and nut that holds the propeller on.

Then you must assemble the nose cone as a last step, and put the bolt in place through the nose cone. A very tiny drop of loctite would not be bad.

This should take care of your situation. From what you decribed, you put the prop through the nose cone and did not place a nut and washer on the prop. Because if you thought nose cone was glued, then you certainly did not take it apart to do this....so you had the nose cone only holding on the propeller in place. Not good!

I hope this helps you!

Wingman45

You can clearly see in the video that he has the prop installed correctly. It's a large spinner, and anyone thats tried to balance a large spinner knows how difficult it can be.

The ply disk I mentioned that is glued to the inside of the spinner is not refering to the ply backing plate. There is a small dime size ply disk epoxied to the inside tip of the spinner. I suspect this came loose and caused the spinner to explode.

Cheers