Ep 23: Our Flying Field’s Open House, and Wing Flutter

[00:00:04] To RC Plane Lab, a podcast for anyone interested in rc airplane. We’ll share tips and tricks on how to build models and talk about successful flights, epic crashes and everything in between. Visit us at rcplane labcom to sign up for our email list and to ask us questions. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please help us out by rating and reviewing us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for spending time with us today. Now here are your hosts, Ron and.

[00:00:36] Tom. Hello everyone, welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. You’re Ron and I’m Tom. I am Ron and that’s over there. I forgot my line. Oh, for a second I thought you forgot your name. It’s been one of those days. It just feels like everything is topsy-turvy, I don’t know why. Yeah, that’s the second week in a row. I did that, I. I think I brain farted the first time last week too, didn’t I sounds familiar. Maybe it’s. Maybe it’s time for you to take over and start. No, no, you’re doing fine. Oh,

[00:01:10] Am I. Yeah, hello everyone and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I am Ron and I’m Tom, so happy belated father’s day. Happy belated father’s day everybody. First off, it was last weekend was father’s day I. I saw you posted a father’s day video. I did on facebook, I did of your.

[00:01:32] What was that? A 50 cc sbock running yep, yep at the part of the package deal I got here we talked about a couple episodes ago and finally got it running and sounds good, runs good. So I hope everybody who’s following us on facebook got to see that. Thanks to my wife for posting that.

[00:01:50] Yeah that was a that was a good sounding engine so yeah I like the sound of those little twins.

[00:01:55] Yeah it’s a little it’s 50 cc it’s big to me but I don’t know what’s big and what’s not so I guess.

[00:02:02] It’s relative right, it does sound good, though I’m I’m interested to hear that actually go up in the air and see like the sound of the mufflers over the pipes, over the can or whatever you call that. Yeah, the cans are a lot quieter and I think it’s probably more of a oh, what’s the word? I’m looking for a subdued sound, I guess. But yeah, the mufflers, they just sound better and I like the look of the two little, the two stacks, two stacks coming out of the.

[00:02:33] Bottom of the cowl. So, I don’t know, my the big yak has the cans on it, but maybe it’s time to louden it up a little bit. I don’t know. Yeah, louden it up, I like it. Well, that’s it. It told you what I was trying to say. So, absolutely, to make it, whether that’s a word or not, it is now.

[00:02:51] So, yeah, I just wanted to thank my wife for setting up the facebook. If you haven’t followed us on facebook, do that. It’s RC Plane Lab. If you do a quick search you’ll it will pop up there and you’ll be able to see that video and other stuff we may or may not get to put up there. Yeah, is that?

[00:03:06] How that works. I’m, I’m so facebook not smart. Actually, I think the last thing I posted on my facebook page was: oh, I think it was picture of piper right after she was born. So that’s been three and a half years ago, so a little while ago. Obviously, I don’t get on there very often, yeah.

[00:03:23] Well, laurie- laurie is, she’s really good at it and so she posted that. But she and I both manage, or run, if you will- another facebook page. Oh, so you’re a running group, so you’re a pro. I’m not a pro, not a pro, but I’m familiar with how to post videos and pictures, so

[00:03:42] We’ll do stuff like that. You practice, there you go, yeah, nice, which that reminds me too. Speaking of pictures, I ended up finally, after how many months, posted your picture on our website. So if anybody wants to see what Tom looks like, see how ugly I am and how I have a face for radio wasn’t gonna say it, but I kind of agree, it’s okay. No, hey, I know my weaknesses, but yeah, you can see what Tom looks like. He’s holding his, his p40, and in the picture on the, the about us.

[00:04:15] Page on the rcplane lab.Com yeah we talked about we talked about what we did that day in one.

[00:04:20] Of our previous episodes, so that’s a picture of it. Yeah, the that. That was a nice looking plane. I really liked when you, when you flew, that it looked pretty good. I actually got mine out of the box and finally started putting it together. Only difference is: I don’t think I’m

[00:04:38] Going to do the retract, let’s see. It’s only been how many years actually. That’s a good question. When did we get that? That’s been a while, because there were. Mine was has been built for at least, I’m gonna say, two and a half to three years at least, and you didn’t build it right away, did you?

[00:04:53] No, no, because it was. It was way in the box for a while- it was way before piper that I did it. Yeah. Yeah, it’s probably been what six, seven years. It’s got to be in that time frame. Yeah, because there were four of us at the same time that bought it. Right, I know two of us have not put them together yet. I’m working on mine, but the other guy has not. I think the other one that bought one has already. I think he put it together first, but yeah, I think I thought he was the first one to

[00:05:23] Assemble his and get rid of it maybe oh yeah you’re right yeah assemble it and get rid of it yeah I.

[00:05:28] Don’t think ever flew it, but which is probably why it’s still able to be simple at that point. Yeah, but yeah. So there were four of us and, and that’s what ended up happening with those and we were. The plan, which never came to fruition, was for all of us to build it over that winter. Right, we’re going to get together and have a little build party and put them all together, but life just never happened. It never happened. We’re going to have our own squadron of p40s. There you go. I’ll have to put different numbers on mine, though, than what you have right? Yeah, I had the grand

[00:05:59] Grand plan. I was going to recover mine and do a completely different. Oh really, yeah, I was going to do a white-tailed p40n version, but yeah, I never. It just never, never happened. I built mine and no one else built theirs. Well, I’m doing it now so you can help me if you want.

[00:06:17] Yeah, but, like I said, I’m not doing the retracts, you did the retracts on yours. Man, I cannot justify 160 bucks. Oh yeah, two retracts. Those e-flight rotating retracts are not cheap. I mean, I’m I’m not, I’m not made of money. Well, there is a way. You bought some, huh.

[00:06:34] Well yeah back was it four years ago when I put it together five maybe even I don’t know.

[00:06:39] I said two or whatever. Yeah, it’s been a while. Well, I mean, I had the components before I put it together. Oh yeah, so, but yeah, they’re. Those retracts are not cheap. You have a sato on yours, right? I do. Yeah, I believe I went with the 72 and I ended up getting a motor off of you for mine. So what is it? It’s a SuperTigre. Okay, 45, a g45. See, you’re bringing me back into this nitro stuff. I, I, I think I need to start going a little bit more towards electric. I don’t know.

[00:07:14] Electrics are nice I like electrics too I mean I really have nothing against them I just prefer.

[00:07:19] Nitro I the noise, the smell, it’s nice. The mess doesn’t bother. The mess bothers me. Yeah, that’s the one part I don’t like, because they- oh my gosh that nitro fuel just gets everywhere and it’s hard to clean up when you’re done. I think absolutely right, but it’s a shame they discontinued that airplane. Yeah, I noticed that. Like you cannot get that anymore, you can’t get a lot of parts for it anymore. I don’t understand why they do that. I really like. Obviously I haven’t built a lot of planes. I’d like to get more into it, but when you build your own plane you have a set of plans.

[00:07:55] And if anything ever happens to that plane, no big deal, you just rebuild a wing. If you need to rebuild a wing, or if you smash the fuselage or do something like that, how to fix it right? You don’t have to worry about getting replacement parts that are no longer available. So I mean, like, why? Why do they do that? Why do they discontinue? And actually I think, if I remember right, we bought those when they were being discontinued. That’s why we bought four of them and that’s why they were so, because we didn’t pay very much for them. They were. It was sub 100 bucks, I remember right. They may have been like 99 bucks, yeah, something in there. But I mean, I mean, why do?

[00:08:29] They do. Yeah, I don’t. I don’t know. I mean, I, I have a theory. A lot of people are good pilots and they, they hold on to their airplanes for many, many years. Well, that’s not good for an airplane manufacturer. Now, is it? If you’re not crashing an airplane, why would you need to buy new ones? So if maybe they discontinue them and quit supporting them with extra parts or whatever, maybe they’re generating demand for their new products? I mean, I, I really I don’t have an answer and it’s a shame, unfortunately, because airplanes like this little p40 and lots of

[00:09:01] Planes like it and previous to it the same, have suffered the same fate: great flying airplanes that they don’t make anymore. It’s a shame, but that’s why. That’s why.

[00:09:13] We like to build them. Yeah, I, I’ve noticed there’s a lot of stuff, though, even with building them, that’s been discontinued and it’s it’s. It’s kind of disheartening, especially when somebody like me is just getting into it, as opposed to somebody that’s like you that’s been into it for the last- I don’t know- 72 years, 72 years. But you have the tools. You have everything from the heyday, I guess, of the hobby, when all this stuff was available. And now, for me,

[00:09:44] It’s. I guess the stuff that you can buy isn’t necessarily the same quality or the same. Well, yeah, pretty much same quality, as is what was out before. Like we talked about that covering iron and how the one that I bought brand new from hanger 9 just has a temperature swings that the other one doesn’t right, and kind of like that adjustable or the one. Now what’s that called the adjusto jig, the wing jig that I got from jim a couple weeks ago. I actually ended up

[00:10:15] Taking that apart completely and cleaning it, and it’s in a lot better shape now. I ended up I built a new nice base that you made for it too. Yeah, I made that with cnc machine, so it’s very cool. It fits it nicely and then I can store it up in my in my rafters in the basement, so that way when I don’t need it, it’s out of the way anyway. Yep, you don’t have to worry about it. Looks very nice, it looks like new. I mean, it looks very nice. Well, thank you. I mean, hopefully I’ll be able to use it. Oh, you’ll.

[00:10:43] Be a few times with probably gonna build a couple of dualist wings on it right well we’ll see or at.

[00:10:48] Least a couple panels anyway. I mean that’s the plan, but it’s slowly coming to. I don’t know when that’s gonna happen, but we’ll figure it out, we’ll get there. But speaking of discontinued stuff, we, the club, fly-in the open house, whatever you want to call. It was last weekend, yeah, and one of our friends was out there with one of his big airplanes that he just got I. It was a biplane of some sort. I right, I don’t know my plane, so I don’t know what it is. To be honest, I can’t.

[00:11:16] Remember what. What that biplane is either. It’s a, it’s a model of a, of a full-size biplane. It’s not an ultimate, but it’s a. It’s a big, big biplane powered by a 150. Yeah, so it’s a, da 150. He didn’t.

[00:11:28] Know the wingspan, it’s big but the body for a biplane even it’s- yeah, it’s good size. But it was covered with a really nice looking covering that I like the color and I like the finish on it. It was not the normal like high gloss finish that you get with monocode or ultra coat and so of course I was asking you about it. It looks like painted fabric, it does, and I was asking you about what it was and stuff and where I can get it and, of course, the

[00:12:01] Same thing. Like with everything else, it’s discontinued. You said it was cover right made by cover right. Yeah, it’s called 21st century fabric. So cover right made- yes, that was the name of the company- cover right- and the line and the line of product was called 21st century and they made a film and a fabric in that line. So I thought 21st century was the company then. So was that a different company than who made the iron cover right- same company. So it’s a cover.

[00:12:32] Right 21st century iron oh okay to go along with their 21st century covering materials gotcha so is.

[00:12:38] That company then cover right out of business yes oh unfortunately that’s too bad yeah all the cool.

[00:12:44] Stuff is gone. I mean, yeah, and that’s really cool covering- because, for anyone who’s not familiar, it was a. It was a fabric, a heat shrinkable, heat activated adhesive on the backside, just like monocoat or ultra coat, but it was a painted fabric. So it looked when it was applied. It looked like painted fabric, like you had covered your airplane in fabric and then painted it. And is it fairly light too? Then it’s not particularly light. It weighs about what a painted airframe would.

[00:13:19] Weigh, so it’s a little bit. It would come out a little bit heavier than a monocoat or an ultra coat paint job or a covering job. But nice thing about it was it was iron on and it and it actually would shrink a little when it wouldn’t shrink like monocoat does. But if you paid attention, if you were careful with the application of it, you could make it look really nice, like

[00:13:38] That biplane and so it went on the same way monocoat did very similar yep so you ironed it.

[00:13:44] Yeah, the temperature range was a little different. But yeah, you just. Yeah, you cut it to fit the panel and you tack it in a few places and work it like you do monocoat. And the thing about the 21st century fabric was that it was not. I mean it would shrink, but there was definitely a limit to how much it would shrink. Monocoat: we can get it to shrink quite a bit depending on how much heat we pour onto like monocoat. I’ve done that before. Yeah, you can really get monocoat to go around a compound curve or, yeah, wingtips really put the heat to it. But the 21st century

[00:14:15] Fabric it. There was a limit once it was shrunk. That was it, so you had to be careful about how you applied it. You wanted to make sure that it was taught when you applied it. But yeah, it’s good.

[00:14:25] Looking, covering that we can’t get anymore. Yeah, whoever, whoever built that, did a great job on it. And the thing that I really liked about it, too, compared to all the other, and which one better- ultra coat or monocoat? I never keep them separate, but there was no sags in it in the heat. There was no, no bubbles, no, nothing on that. It was a quality build. And whoever built that, yeah, very good job. So, when, when it comes to covering with, like alternative methods- because, like nowadays, monocoat and ultra coat seem to be the main covering material that most people use-

[00:15:00] Not everybody, but like getting into the alternate methods, like I’ve never done a fabric airplane or anything like that, how, how hard is that to do? How heavy is that compared to monocoat? And is that something maybe I would want to look into for the yak? Okay, I’m not an expert on painted fabric.

[00:15:24] Coverings. I’ve done it in the past, in my experience depending. I mean, there’s lots of ways to achieve a painted fabric finish. Okay, you can. You can do it with silk and dope, you can do it with SIG coverall and paint. You can do it with fiberglass, even, and polyester resin or epoxy resin. There’s lots of ways to accomplish it and there’s lots of new materials on the market now also that make the application easier and less messy and smelly like there’s a lot of water-based.

[00:15:57] Stuff that we can use now, like water-based polyurethanes, things like that, and because of the new materials, they’re getting lighter and lighter and lighter. But I mean to be honest, every time I’ve, every time I’ve compared a painted fabric covering compared to an iron-on monocoat or ultra coat. It’s always heavier. The degree to which it’s heavier is going to depend on the skill.

[00:16:27] Of the of the of the person who applied it and I am not that skilled to be honest and I would.

[00:16:32] Not be either. My last go around with fabric covering was SIG coverall that I applied with SIG sticks it so that I could iron it on instead of doping it on like you do the traditional method. And then I painted it and it looked great. It really did, but it was heavy. I mean, it was very heavy on a six pound plane, 40 size, six-ish pounds. I think that airplane almost weighed nine pounds when I was done. Oh wow, so and now- granted, I’m not skilled, I don’t do that- finish often and I’m sure with experience and you develop a technique probably, and make it.

[00:17:09] Lighter but I don’t think you can compete weight wise with an iron-on film well and that makes.

[00:17:16] Sense, because those coverings are so thin. I mean, there’s nothing to them really. You’re not putting a lot of weight on there. And obviously, if you paint it, and then if you have to put any kind of adhesive on it, if you have to put any kind of like a finish, like polyurethane or something like that, before you paint it or even after you paint it, that’s all adding a lot of weight. And then if

[00:17:38] It’s a nitroplane. Don’t forget to make sure that your final code is fuelproof. I didn’t even think of that, so there’s potentially more weight if you’re not using a fuelproof finish. Yeah, and that.

[00:17:49] Reminds me you, when I, when we did the, the Telemaster, the, the struts I made, I, I didn’t, I didn’t even think about it, I sandblasted them and then I just painted them with a shaker can of krylon, something like that, and you told me that’s not going to work because apparently those are going to get nitro fuel on them. And then that I mean, what’s it do to? It does.

[00:18:11] It just it’ll soften the paint the paint will come off eventually and then it gets sticky and slimy and.

[00:18:16] Messy. So I’m gonna have to go and hard to clean off, I’m gonna have to go and I’m gonna have to sandblast all that again and then probably run them through, or if they’re not, if they’re not terribly.

[00:18:26] Coated with nitro. Now you could clean them off well and then coat them with something like a clear, I think, polyurethanes- if given enough time to cure before you go fly, I think those are somewhat fuelproof and epoxy paint would be. Would be the most ideal situation, because epoxy is nearly impervious to anything, or powder coating them- powder coating- that would be a good.

[00:18:51] Option too. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking about doing actually- is powder coating, because I can do that here at home, right out in the shop. So because they’re pretty small and I think I’m pretty sure I have some black powder coat, they’ll fit in the oven. Yeah, there you go. Maybe I’ll have to. I’ll do that then instead of anything else. It’s just, I guess, good to know, and that’s another reason why I like to stay away from nitro. And you keep bringing me in electrics. You don’t have to worry about this. There’s nothing that’s going to mess up an electric airplane. Well, I mean, in all fairness, I, I don’t.

[00:19:23] Paint a lot of things with my, with the nitros, because I somewhat stick to the 40 size and smaller and usually we don’t have ancillary structures like wing struts or landing gear or whatever that needs painted. So I don’t do a lot of painting and when I do like, for instance, a firewall or an engine area that I want to fuel proof, I’ll just mix up some epoxy, put a few drops of denatured or isopropyl alcohol in it, thin it down to brushing. Consistent consistency, say that word.

[00:19:56] And then maybe put a couple of drops of food, black food dye or whatever in it to color it, and then I’ll paint the firewall with that and it’s fuel proof forever. Then I didn’t know that was the thing you could do. Yeah, that’s a good idea. It’s a quick and dirty way to fuel proof something.

[00:20:11] And so then it just sets up like regular epoxy. Then, yep, wow, that’s kind of cool. So what do you do, like on your gear then? Like on the Telemaster, obviously, it’s just what. Well, the Telemaster.

[00:20:22] Wire landing yeah just steel gear so you don’t even have to paint that if you don’t want to.

[00:20:26] So on planes you build that are just formed a gear like that do you not paint them.

[00:20:31] I don’t. Oh, unless I’m going for like a scale, look like if it was a cub or something, I might paint it, but no like on the plane I flew this past weekend, bare steel gear. I’ve never painted them.

[00:20:44] I don’t even think I paid attention to that exactly, so didn’t even notice, I didn’t, so that’s okay. So, speaking of the plane you flew this weekend, right, we, like I said it was the, the flying out of the field. You had a little issue with that airplane with flutter.

[00:21:02] I think it was. Well, it sounded like flutter. Possible issue with flutter, right? Well, yeah, so let’s talk about flutter. Flutter is bad, okay, very undesirable, yeah, and what it is it can affect any of the control surfaces. So it can affect your ailerons, your rudder, your elevator, any control surface that’s hanging out there in the air, and what it is flutter is a rapid oscillation of that control surface, basically while you’re flying, and so it, like the wind, catches it on one side.

[00:21:39] Pushes it one way and then goes the other side gets pushed and then remember as a kid.

[00:21:44] You used to take the blade of grass and you put it between your thumbs. You used to blow through and it would make this awful screeching. No, I could never do that. I watched other people do that. I could never do that. You couldn’t really. You never took the piece of grass. And I tried, you tried, I tried and

[00:21:58] You could never get it to make it. No, really, I couldn’t put my hands in my mouth and whistle- either people do. I can’t do that either, but oh good, I’d always fake it, though, like I’d like whistle normally, but then just hold my fingers up to my mouth, so it looked like I was doing it right.

[00:22:13] Yeah, but no, I could never make the grass. Well, if you, if you can, if you can imagine, you’ve got this blade of grass and it’s vibrating very, very, very fast and making this noise. Now I want to go try it again. It’s kind of that’s kind of like what flutter is it? It’s just, like I said, a rapid oscillation, and it usually is accompanied by a noise. To me it sounds like a kind of a low-pitched humming noise, if you will, kind of like a. It sounds like when an a10 fires its guns.

[00:22:42] Yeah it kind of sounds that way what I kind of thought of when I heard it yeah and then that’s.

[00:22:48] What led me to believe that? And flutter’s bad. I mean if you hear that noise while you’re flying and it sounds like it’s coming from your airplane, reduce the throttle, slow down a bit, come in and land and check everything, because if it, if it’s left unchecked, it, it can, it can do very, very bad things to your airplane. But it can do it very quickly, very quickly. I mean like sometimes without notice. Sometimes you hear the noise and bang, your wing disintegrates. Or you hear the noise and bang, off goes your rudder. I mean it happens, it can happen very, very fast. And what

[00:23:24] Causes the failure. It’s a looseness of some component of the of the control system. So it’s either a loose ball link or a some backlash in the gear train of the servos, or it could be a lot of things: oversized hole, clevis, pinholes in your control horns- that’s a big one. Anything that would allow that surface to move without being moved by the servo can cause it, and what so like. How do you?

[00:23:58] Check for it, so that some of the telltale signs are elongated holes in the, in this, in the control horns or the servo arms from the pin vibrating in that hole. Another telltale sign is an enlarged hinge gap. So if the, if the control surface has oscillated to the point where it’s tried to pull the hinges out, now you’re going to see this big gap. That’s, that’s one sign, but the biggest one is the noise and that’s what I thought I heard when I was flying and you

[00:24:28] Thought you didn’t even know what really flutter sounded like and you said hey that does that.

[00:24:33] Sounds strange. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from, because you were the only one flying at the time, right? But I couldn’t tell if it was coming from your airplane or if it was coming, like, from somebody behind us doing something else. Yeah it, I didn’t obviously know what it was at the time listening to it, but I think it’s one of those things. Now that I’ve heard it, I know definitely what to, what to listen to again, right, or what to listen for again. Yeah, so it did it. It did it once, and I was

[00:25:00] Like that sounded like it could have been. So I backed off and made another pass and I committed the cardinal sin. I tried to replicate the flutter, which you shouldn’t, I don’t recommend doing, but I just wanted to be sure. And the airplane was flying fine. I didn’t notice anything weird with the control. So I did another pass and I thought I heard that sound again. I think we did so. Then I was like, okay, yeah, I’m done. And then I and then I decided to go ahead and reduce the throttle and bring it in for that really awful landing. Thanks to the wind- it was very, very windy this weekend. I think that

[00:25:37] Contributed to the, to the poor turnout. Yeah, it was. So. I haven’t been to a fly-in at that field for several years now and I was a little disappointed, I guess you could say, with the, with the turnout. So we were there, oh what, four or five hours give or take, I think that’s about right, with the, with the full house there, with everybody that was still there, and I think there might have been.

[00:26:07] Eight or nine flights yeah it was it was it was not the greatest turnout I’ve seen there.

[00:26:14] Unfortunately, and it was so I guess I understand the, the, the, we’re still getting through this covid thing and things are starting to open up more so would that have? I mean like I think so you’re around there more than I am. Is that something I think? So like, have you, did you go last year? I did, and what?

[00:26:34] Was that like? And the turnout was better. I mean, I don’t, I didn’t. I don’t recall exactly what it was, but the conditions were better last year. I don’t think we got. We didn’t get the wind like we did this year and we weren’t and we weren’t trying to get through this covid situation either. So, but yeah, this is certainly the lowest turnout I’ve ever seen for this event. That hasn’t been rained out or some other reason. Yeah, well, and that was the other thing too, I guess.

[00:26:59] They were calling for there was a threat of rain so yeah but there were and that’s probably what.

[00:27:03] Kept a lot of the out of town people from coming to like in the in the previous open houses we’ve had, I mean we’ve had demonstration teams from champagne come to fly there and fly new products and demonstrate stuff. And championship- a few years ago championship imac pilot came and did a cool demonstration for us, which none of that this year and I think probably the weather, the forecasted weather, probably kept a lot of that, a lot of those people away, a lot of

[00:27:34] People from traveling too, probably because of just everything, right. But yeah, I mean, they were calling for wind and they were calling for a fairly decent chance of rain, so I guess it was good the rain stayed away. I mean it did. Yeah, we had a few clouds roll in, but nothing. Nothing that was bad, but there were a lot. Well, not a lot in general, but for the amount of flights that we had, yeah, that we saw there were a lot of crashes, right, just one guy went down on the corn.

[00:28:08] Which was unfortunate because that was. It was a 50 cc something or another plane that was flying extra. It was a. I really liked that plane sounded good too- yeah, it did. I don’t know what was on it, but it had a good sound to it. But the corn ended up coming over and poking hole in the top of one of his wings- minimal damage, but still, yeah, it’s still damage that you have to go home and fix you don’t want to do. There was another guy that had a. Actually he ended up landing it, but he had. They had to do a dead stick because his motor died. And then somebody else- I don’t

[00:28:43] Know what it was but they ended up just lawn darting it right oh the rare bear yeah a little foamy.

[00:28:49] Yeah, I think that was wind related. I really do. Actually, I think the big extra out in the corn and that and that rare bear, I believe they were both related to the really nasty wind we had. So at our field, our, we have the, we have the benefit of having an east-west runway, which is good for us because the prevailing winds for us is are usually from the west. But

[00:29:12] So but if there’s a, if there’s a component to the wind that is from the south, that’s bad for us because directly behind our pit, which is to the south are is a fairly large row of trees which affects the wind pattern. As the wind comes from the south or rolls over those trees and then rolls across the runway, you get really unpredictable wind patterns that are hard to hard to fly through, especially hard to land through. Yeah, a lot of down drafts and all that right across them. So, yeah, it’s nice that it’s nice that we have the east-west runways, but

[00:29:44] On windy days when there’s a when there’s a southerly blow if you will it’s not so great.

[00:29:50] That definitely was happening that day. I mean, it was. It was gusty too, yeah, and but with that rare bear, though, that’s what you called it, right? Yeah, it was like he was just doing a simple like sweep to come in and do a run down the runway and it just flipped upside down and, instead of going down the runway like he was wanting to, it just went straight into the, into the ground and it- yeah.

[00:30:14] Kind of made it into a lot of pieces yeah there wasn’t a lot of large pieces left no well it was.

[00:30:21] Foam too so it didn’t true yeah it didn’t stand a chance from the beginning yeah although it’s not.

[00:30:27] Like it would. I watched the takeoff, I watched the, or the launch, if you will, of that airplane too, and the launch was pretty hairy. So I was expecting- no, I wasn’t expecting a crash, but I was expecting an.

[00:30:37] Interesting landing. That was an interesting landing, yeah, I yeah, that wind was pretty bad it. Maybe that should have been canceled and pushed you another weekend. The more I think about it, yeah,

[00:30:49] It’s so hard to reschedule stuff like that, though, because there’s so much that goes into it. I mean, even our little small event, I mean you still had they were. They were serving lunches, and so you had to arrange for people that they could take time off of their work schedules or whatever so that they could come and prepare the lunch. I mean there’s a lot that goes into these things. That’s hard to reschedule, especially at a on a late notice. Usually, though, isn’t there like a rain date or something that we used to do that when the, when the turnouts were huge. Okay, like when we used. So our field, where it’s located now, is not the original location. We

[00:31:23] Used to have it further east there on that well on that spot it’s the same runway yeah.

[00:31:29] It’s just a different spot on the, on the on the property right. So back when, when our event was really big, they did they would have a rain date and you could get a late notice rain date because they had all the arrangements done. But for such a small club and the small turnouts that we’ve been getting for club events, it’s just it’s not feasible to do a rain date because of all the planning that’s involved and

[00:31:57] The numbers of people that you expect we do have the advantage of having. So, like the runway is, it’s designed for a full-size airplane. It’s a private runway and so we have, like the club has, what like 600 foot runway or something I think is where they keep mode just for the rc planes, and then on either side of that grass is cut a little bit longer for the, the big plane, to actually take off right whenever he needs to take off and land. Yeah, occasionally we’ll get

[00:32:30] A 172 in there while we’re flying on. The weather is nice and he’s the owner of the property, has got a friend coming in or whatever. He has a 172 that he lands there, so you can imagine it’s a good.

[00:32:41] Size runway. So it’s, it’s a decent size. It’s it’s longer than you would want to fly your plane away, yes, absolutely, which makes it very nice for when you do have unfortunate events, I would say. And you have to land, not necessarily where you want to like. If you have an engine out or something like that, you can really land it farther away from you and not worry about hitting anything right, as opposed to some of these other fields that we’ve seen, or even that we’ve visited to, where you have this much room and if you overshoot a little bit, you got a tree on the other side. Yeah, so we’re.

[00:33:13] Fortunate in that regard we don’t we don’t have those issues yeah something else interesting we saw.

[00:33:18] There something you don’t or I don’t see very often, and words that I, that I don’t really imagine I say together very often, but we saw a turbine, powered glider. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, I wish I- I apologize, I wish I wish I could tell you what it was. It was big and I think I think the guy told me I had a king tech 120, I think is what he said. That was a turbine, yeah, powered glider. It was in red bull colors, if that maybe, maybe somebody can chime in and tell us what that.

[00:33:51] Is maybe I’ll do a google search eventually but something I never really thought I would I.

[00:33:57] Would see in our field especially. Yeah, and he said, though, that it’s made to have one mounted on top of it like that. Right, so I mean that’s what it’s built, that’s what it’s for. Yeah, he said he has a couple other gliders that would not handle the stresses that a motor like that puts on it, but I mean watching him play that thing around it, I was surprised how much like the wing tips were given. Oh yeah, they were giving flexing up and down. I mean there was a lot to it when he was doing the flips and all that kind of stuff. So obviously they’re built for it, because nothing.

[00:34:28] Broke nothing broke but there was a lot I was surprised I was surprised at how agile.

[00:34:35] That airplane was for being a glider, well, but did you see the throws on it? No, I mean, I guess I did, because I, because I watched one of his rolls and I’ve noted how far the ailerons were moving. I.

[00:34:48] Was like: yeah, that was a 3d airplane, it sure did. I mean, he was treating it like it: yeah, and point, rolls and loops and yeah, no snaps. And then it was funny though, because like the engine went out on it and then it became a glider, what it was supposed to do, and it just slowed down so nicely and came right around. He was able to land it and, yeah, it flew. I mean, it looked completely different when it

[00:35:11] Was not under power. Yeah, almost comical. A glider should not, and a traditional glider should not fly like that, but that thing was quite sprightly. Yeah, yeah it was. It was fun to watch. Yeah, did some damage to the rudder, though, so the. So the turbine is mounted atop the fuselage, directly atop in line with the vertical stabilizer. So he atop. So yeah, atop is a word.

[00:35:40] That’s true, I was it not mounted on top of the fuselage? On top? Yes, it was mounted on top of it. So, okay, okay, my choice of words is funny. Yes, it’s 1892. Okay, it was mounted atop of it.

[00:35:56] Let me tilt my hat to you. Good day, sir. Oh geez, so anyway, he landed after the, after the, the injure quit and he glided into a landing is glided, is that he glid? He glided, he glid into it, glid into a landing. I noticed that there was a fair amount of covering missing from his rudder.

[00:36:18] Yeah, I don’t think he had much on there anymore. It was. It was pretty much bare and what was left looked like it was melted. Yeah, he, he had some heat. Oh, what was it? Some heat shielding on the front of the rear stab, some kind of tape that he’s put on there? Yeah, but when the rudder moves out to each side, obviously with the grade of throws that he had on there, because the throws on that were huge, yeah, it got a little warm right, so you can’t shrink that anymore, right. So by the

[00:36:51] Way, I did. I did take a lot of pictures and I have my wife help me post those onto the site so you guys can see him. But yeah, you’ll see the. You’ll see the on the facebook. Yeah, sorry on that, I meant that’s what. I meant: facebook. Well, I mean you can put them on the site too, if

[00:37:07] You want to no you can put them on the facebook I’ll put them on the book of faces on the on the.

[00:37:11] Facebook but anyway yeah there’ll be pictures of that and you’ll see the turbine powered glider.

[00:37:17] I still those three words should not go together. No, they shouldn’t, but they did and it worked pretty good on that one. So I don’t know. I’m about finished. Do you have anything else you want to?

[00:37:30] Talk about? I don’t know, did you want to talk about, maybe, what we had planned for this weekend? Yeah, we’ll try, try to accomplish. Maybe give them something to give us something to update on our.

[00:37:40] Next episode. Yeah, we can do that. I think we’re gonna try to get out to the field, probably on friday. You’re gonna that s-box that you posted the video of. You’re gonna try and fly that right.

[00:37:53] Yeah I got a few things I want to finish up I have to find some bolts for the wing and then.

[00:37:57] Fix that little patch on the turtle deck, but actually so you have another plane that size. I do that you can no longer right fit in the car you have. Is this one? Is this one gonna fit in it?

[00:38:10] Or have you checked? I haven’t tried yet. It’s the same. It’s a 50 cc airplane, so I’m I’m assuming that I will probably run into the same issue now. Can you take the horizontal stabs off on that one? I can, yeah, so that should help. It will, yeah, and because then I can take the, the rudder and stick it directly between the two front seats and get the room I need. So what, what you?

[00:38:33] Have to have a plan coming up for something else because well the plan the plan right now is to.

[00:38:39] Fix the other 50 so the other one is a card and yak no I mean you have to have a plan.

[00:38:45] Of finding a way to get these to the field other than that small car you have now or the small suv.

[00:38:53] Well, I wish I could say I had a plan, but I don’t. I tell you what, though? What I would love to hear from, from anyone who has run into this issue and how they’ve solved it in the past. I know, don’t get big airplanes, but no. Aside from that, no, no, no, no. That’s never the solution. Aside from that, if you have a good idea for a plane, transportation vehicle or some other alternate means for getting your big airplanes to the field, I’m all ears. Hit us up, put a, put a.

[00:39:26] Post on our facebook page or you can text us or message us or, I’m sorry, email us and or send pictures, pictures. I like pictures, yeah. So but I do have a plan, okay, in the interim, to get at least one of the big airplanes to the field and I can take the stabs off the new one, and then I’m developing a plan to make it so that I can take the stabs off the yak, which originally you could, but the previous owner, what’s the yak? Which one is that? So that’s the big card. In addition, the, the white, yellow.

[00:39:58] Purple thing that kind of sits up in the back of my shop that never moves but what yak what is it a.

[00:40:03] 54 Or 55? It’s a 54, I’m sorry, it’s a yak 54. Well, I have an idea. I’m listening. You should just give it to me. I should, you should. Then you don’t have to worry about it. I mean, I would never have to worry.

[00:40:14] About it again. Who needs two big planes? Well then, you would have two big planes. That’s not a big plane. Who needs two medium-sized planes, I guess. Okay, all right, I see where this is going. No, because

[00:40:28] Then you wouldn’t have to worry, though, about transporting or storing. I mean, that’s true, you don’t have a lot of room to store both of those big planes, do you? Well, I mean, they’re being stored.

[00:40:36] Right now point taken although I’m not sitting out in the yard or anything like that although I.

[00:40:43] Have no room to store anything else either so I guess that’s okay never mind yeah I might still.

[00:40:49] Try and work on that later, but for now I’m done. Yeah, so I’m. I’m all ears. If somebody has a has a great solution that they’ve found for getting big airplanes to their flying location, I’m all.

[00:40:58] Ears. Yeah and okay. So I don’t want to complain much because I don’t like that vibe. But seriously, I have a little airplane trailer. It used to be 18 a year. Oh boy, for a license plate. Do how.

[00:41:13] Much I pay now oh I guess I do know right because I have a little trailer as well just a little utility.

[00:41:19] $18. It went from $18 to $118. Not only that, we have four trailers. Yeah, you guys have a lot of trailers out here, four freaking trailers: $118 for one, $118 for another, $154 for the other, $154 for the fourth one, for the big one. Yeah, I mean just, it’s crazy and it used to be $54 and $18 a piece. Right, they all went up by $400 extra dollars a year just for trailers that we pull once or twice a year, or twice.

[00:41:51] A year I know anyway I know get off your soapbox sorry you’re right I didn’t mean to go into that.

[00:41:57] But that better stop bringing everybody down Ron that’s just so annoying yeah we’re talking about.

[00:42:02] Airplanes not the cost of well getting them to the field you’re gonna deal with that then if you if.

[00:42:07] You’re gonna buy a trailer or something. That’s absolutely true and, to be honest, lori actually suggested the trailer issue, or the or the trailer. Oh, did she the idea? And I’m? I’m still not I, and not just for the $118 for the plates. Then I have to have a place to put the trailer right. It’s got to sit somewhere. I don’t want to sit in my yard, I don’t want to sit down on the street people. No, definitely not on the street. Yeah, so I don’t know. I mean, maybe, maybe I

[00:42:39] Just need a different vehicle, like. So I’ll get into the backstory a little bit. So I used to own a suburban full-size, full-size suv- that’s the biggest one that chevy makes, right, and it was an older one but I mean still ran and drive and it was like the perfect airplane transportation vehicle, even a 50 cc, the back end of that thing. I could probably fit two of them in there side by side and have room for the wing bags and everything and all the other ancillary stuff that you take to the field- and through no fault of my wife I know she takes.

[00:43:15] The blame for this and she shouldn’t, because it was a decision we both made. No, it’s her fault. She’s listening. I’m sure it’s your fault, laurie. That exp that vehicle was more expensive really to keep than the suv that I have now, which actually was hers, that she gave to me when she got a new suv that’s smaller even so. Yeah, right now the biggest vehicle we own is this suv and we sold the suburban because it was ultimately more expensive to keep the suburban. So I kind of

[00:43:48] Not ultimately not in the grand scheme of things now that you’re talking about buying something else.

[00:43:54] That’s bigger. But I mean, I’m only, I’m only in the, in the idea phase. I haven’t committed to buying anything yet. So, yeah, and I, and I imagine, if I can get the work around with my yak, if I can get those stabs to where they come off like they were originally intended, yeah, then I think my problem is solved and then it’ll be a, it’ll be a moot point and those are the best kind of points to be.

[00:44:17] Are they so I mean are you are you leaning more towards the trailer or more towards.

[00:44:24] Like buying another vehicle. No, I’m leaning towards fixing the yak so that I can put it in the vehicle I so I don’t have to buy anything else. Okay, I, I guess I can see that, yeah. But I mean ultimately like way, way late, way down the road, I mean, and it’s going to depend on really what, what the future holds for me and the hobby, right, I mean 50 cc, that’s about the biggest I’m I’m willing.

[00:44:50] Honestly to bring into the hangar, because so big airplanes are great. I love them, like your, your big yak is awesome- I love that thing. But I would literally have there’d be no way to get that in my house, because I have a small house and everything I have- airplane wise- is in the basement. So not only would I have to get it in the house, then I have to make the turn to go down the stairs, and then I have to make the turn to get it in the shop and then, once it’s in my little shop, there’s, physically, I would have to get rid of a lot of other airplanes that I really, really like.

[00:45:23] Yeah, so 50 cc is kind of the cutoff and if I can make it work with the vehicle I own, then I’m I don’t need anything else. I mean it would be nice to put a 50 cc in the in the car.

[00:45:36] And then also maybe a little 40 size or a couple of electric planes or whatever.

[00:45:40] Because I like to have kind of a multitude of things forward, if you will. Yeah, I hate that I say that too much. Oh, I will, if you mind my willing. Okay, thank you. Thank you for.

[00:45:54] Accommodating there you go if you will I sorry hopefully he takes this out but if he doesn’t I.

[00:46:02] Apologize. No, it’s funny, I catch myself saying that if you will, and I’ll pause so we can maybe edit it out later. And I didn’t catch it that time, so I apologize and it happens. I mean Tom’s idiosyncrasies, okay, so anyway, yeah, anything else you want to talk about? No, I think that. I think that pretty much covers, and I’m serious. If you guys have a great idea for a plane transportation system, yeah.

[00:46:32] Hit me up, I’m all ears. Better, yet if you have a bad idea, oh yeah, it doesn’t have to be a good idea- make it a bad idea. Bad ideas are great ideas. I told him. Bungee cords on the roof.

[00:46:45] Yeah, probably not going to do that, and that’s that would make for an interesting picture, though maybe I’ll take a picture of it and just tell everybody I did that, all right, well, if you don’t.

[00:46:55] Have anything else then I think I’m finished too so everybody until next time I’m Ron and I’m Tom.

[00:47:01] Goodbye, good night. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplane labcom or email us direct at either Ron at rcplane labcom or Tom at rcplane labcom. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.