Weed whackers, away!

Well, almost.

Project Zero's airframe is now complete. That cowl was a definite bit of work, but it turned out great! Pardon the slightly filtered photos; it was dusk, I was being attacked by eye gnats and there was a fingerprint on the lens cover. I'll upload better pictures soon, but I was anxious to get at least something posted here.

All Project Zero needs are an engine and radio. Tower Hobbies has a .25 with remote needle valve for under $60. I have a $10 coupon which means that I'll be getting an engine for less than I've paid for some electric motors.

I scored some more freebies this past Sunday, including the old .25 homebuilt combat fighter you see in the photos. I wish that I'd taken photos before I cleaned it up...it was coated in dust! Wingspan is only 36" and the fuselage is only 24" long. This is going to be a real handful, I can tell. Friend who gave it to me knew I needed a .25, but this plane's old O.S. Max FP hadn't been run in years. It's also out of production, but there are still parts available and it has plenty of compression. The carb was totally gummed shut, but a bath in some penetrating oil did the trick. Just waiting for a new mounting gasket. Had to improvise a muffler gasket, though. So did my friend, for that matter. I removed his homemade gasket and replaced it with one of my own. Turns out O.S. is backordered for about a month on muffler gaskets. Go figure.

The DU-BRO spinner is new, but the 9x6 APC prop was the one on the engine when I got it. A new Expert servo is waiting to replace the thrashed Futaba used for the elevator as is a new Sullivan fuel tank. The Sullivan that was in it had a manufacturing date of 1995. Didn't need a receiver battery, however. The plane already had an old Sanwa in it...and a new Futaba battery was given to me as part of the package. I do want to put landing gear on it. Looking into some carbon fiber parts.