Ep 33: Tom buys an Ajusto-Jig, Ron fixes the Duellist wing, What to expect at a Fly-In, and what a spotter does.

[00:00:05] Welcome 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 rcplanelab.com 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 in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for spending time with us today.

[00:00:34] Now here are your hosts, Ron and Tom. Hello everyone and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I’m Ron.

[00:00:41] And I’m Tom. Oh how you doing, Tom good, how are you good? How was your week so far? So far since last tuesday, I guess? Yeah, no, so far, so good you, not bad you. I’m looking forward to this labor day weekend.

[00:00:54] I am too. I just found out. I’m taking a three and a half day weekend. Yes, you are. You and I have a trip to take. We do. We are going back to our favorite hobby shop, yep, and you are buying a wing jig.

[00:01:07] That I am after our conversation last week, one happened to come available from my favorite hobby shop and so I purchased it. So I’m going to use it. So you’re going to use it to build your wings are done, obviously. So yep on the dualist: the wing panels are done. I haven’t, unfortunately. I.

[00:01:26] Don’t have an update because I haven’t had any time to work on the wings, but I know the feeling, the

[00:01:30] Plan is to assemble my fuselage on this jig. Oh, with the assistance of the cool standoffs that.

[00:01:38] You’re making. Yeah, those actually turned out pretty good. I did get those printed. I’ve done 16 of them so far at like a day and a half of solid of printing. Oh, I thought you were gonna say a day and a half each, no, no, no, that’s not so bad. No, it’s like I said 11 ish hours for four of them. So, no, I guess that’s about two full days, yeah, but yeah, we, we looked at the plans because I didn’t know how many I needed to do this. Apparently I need like 10, so I think I’m just going to print another four and give them to you. Thank you. Then we have 10: a piece for your new toy, for my new.

[00:02:13] Adjusted jig. Yeah, that’s actually pretty cool because you don’t see those very often. No, you don’t like. I looked on ebay even after I got mine and I. There was nothing on there for sale so, and you got a fairly good deal on it too. I feel like I did. Yeah, 75 bucks, I don’t know if it.

[00:02:30] Comes with the smaller fuselage standoffs, I think like yours may have some. Yeah, mine has that.

[00:02:37] I honestly, I know it has the wing ones, but whatever, I don’t know if I would ever use those.

[00:02:43] Yeah, I don’t know either. I need to do some research and read the instructions, like you found. Maybe they have an application that’s handy, but for what we’re doing, I think the ones

[00:02:55] You made are going to be ideal. Yeah, it wouldn’t work for what we’re doing, because that’s only for, like, a square-sided fuselage. They’re only so tall, yeah, and you can only go so wide with them. It’s only like three and a half inches, I think, is okay. It’s about as wide as you can get, but you’re more than welcome to use mine anytime you need them. I was thinking it just.

[00:03:15] Occurred to me: would it be possible to create something that slides on the rods but is also adjustable width wise, so that if you wanted to build, say, a wider fuselage, you would have some adjustability? What I’m saying kind of like the great planes engine mounts, how they, when they fit together, they key together and then you can kind of slide them in and out a little bit to make

[00:03:39] Them wider or narrower, do what I’m saying. Yeah, that’s what comes with the adjusto jig. Oh, like, as the formers for the fuselage, all right, but, like I said, there’s no like it’s gonna, or it has to be a square fuselage for that because it’s literally, or at least flat sides, right. Does it have to be square at the bottom too? Well, that’s how it’s designed. Yeah, and from everything I’ve seen, like in the instructions and stuff, it’s all been flat bottom okay, and so it’s like two l’s that form a u, okay.

[00:04:11] And kind of like what you’re talking about, to where you can slide it. I got you to different widths and you can actually set the angle differently on the uprights too. But yeah, I mean, maybe we’ll have to play with that, but not with this airplane. No, it’s too rounded, I think, to do anything. It is, plus everything’s at different heights, right, so it’s not going to be a nice flat surface to.

[00:04:32] Begin with now, with the, the fuselage formers on the dualist plans. They have the tab at the bottom designed to sit on a flat surface. Yeah, since we’re using the rods, we won’t need those. Right, we will.

[00:04:44] Not, oh no, the construction even that much easier. Yeah, so we won’t need the need the tabs on the bottom, but what I’m gonna have to do is make the like in order to get the width right to where I can actually fit those two rods through it. They don’t all fit and line up just perfect for that, so there’s going to have to be like tabs added to the top that we’re going to have to cut off after we have it made. Well, that won’t be that big a deal? No, I don’t think so. That’s why I’m not too concerned.

[00:05:12] About it, yeah, but so anyway, yeah, I’m really excited we’ve got a plan for this weekend. Go back up to my favorite shop and we’re going to buy some more of the falcata.

[00:05:24] Yeah, I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but I figured if we’re going up there anyway, we might as well get some of it. It’s like a like a heavier balsa that’s stronger than balsa, so we won’t have to build with as much of it, right? What did he say? The? The strength was about like pine, but I don’t remember what the weight was. I mean, it’s like so when, when we got the stuff we have or already got. Yeah, it’s not all that heavy compared to balsa, but it is a little bit heavier.

[00:05:52] Yeah, what I, what I compare it to, is like a really, really dense sea grain- balsa, yeah, but it’s smoother. It’s like the finish is very, very smooth. So I don’t know if the, if the density of the grain is exactly the same as a really hard balsa, but anyway looks really strong and

[00:06:13] Promising, yeah, so we’re going to try that, for I’m going to use that for my rib or for my fuselage formers, right? I don’t know if you’re going to do we’ll see. Okay, I know for sure, like we.

[00:06:25] Had talked about it. The very first former that my nose wheel retract is going to mount to is going

[00:06:31] To be obviously aircraft plywood, because I want that to be really very strong. But I was contemplating.

[00:06:36] Building the rest of the formers out with light ply. But if this falcata- I think that’s how it’s pronounced- work out, it might be an option. Yeah, and it’s cheaper too. It’s much cheaper.

[00:06:46] It is. So it’s promising, but, like I said, we’ll we’ll know more about that once we actually get to building with it. Obviously, this is not like. This plane isn’t as important to me as it is to you, right? So I’m not as worried about. I don’t plan on flying it all the time, I don’t plan on having it be my go-to or even like a really one that I enjoy flying. God, that sounds you enjoy. Oh, I’m sorry that sounded terrible. Otherwise it’s not worth all the effort, not one that I like feel like I need to fly often. Does that sound any better? No, not really. No, yeah. So

[00:07:24] Whatever. Well, it’ll be another airplane, let’s- let’s put it that way, but it’s not like fill out the hanger, it’s not going to be like top of my list on. I love this airplane, I mean, and what? I shouldn’t say that I don’t know that yet, but I’m just assuming that this is not like. This isn’t the tri-motor, this isn’t something I really feel like passionate about building. This is more your baby, and I just kind of latched on to it and was like, oh, this could be fun, right? So I don’t have that same emotional connection to it that you do. Yeah, and I’m not saying I’m going to fly the thing every.

[00:07:54] Weekend or every time I go fly, either, because it will be a somewhat complicated airplane to fly- I mean mine anyway. It’s going to have two nitro engines on it. They’re going to require constant fiddling, which I love- yeah, I don’t, but it’s not. It’s probably not going to be my go-to either, but it’s certainly going to have a lot of meaning. I don’t want to say emotional attachments, but it will mean a lot to me. When it’s done, it’ll come full circle.

[00:08:20] If that’s one that you started off with a long time ago, that your friend built yeah, and then you crashed. Now you’re- now you’re replacing it. So that kind of

[00:08:29] Right, yeah, we’ll round out the stable sort: of close the chapter or close the last.

[00:08:34] Page on that and then you can get rid of the duelist pocket and then you can. Then you can get.

[00:08:40] Rid of the duelist bucket. The bucket, yeah, bucket- of duelist. Well, the bucket, I mean the bucket- has probably been in the trash for 30, well, not 30 years, but a long time, but the parts have been you.

[00:08:51] Know surviving, and either I’ve got a plastic tub that I use for what’s left of them. But yeah, I can finally.

[00:08:56] Empty that out and put those pieces back in the air. So awesome, yeah, another exciting update I did.

[00:09:05] Acquire a clarence. Lee 61.. Oh, that’s awesome. But first off I want to apologize because I was up at your house and I had walked up there because I was up at mom and dad’s for a little bit and you’re like, I just got my clearance lee today. Do you want to come in and see, I haven’t opened it yet. That thought went in one at or one ear and out the other. I don’t want you to think like I was ignoring a lot of other stuff too. So yeah, it’s okay. And so, like, when I got to mom’s house I was like, oh man, I forgot to go in and see that motor, but so I did not like purposefully blow you off.

[00:09:42] I’m sorry if it seemed like that. Honestly, the excitement of opening that box- I mean whether you were there or not- it was really, really special to me. I wish I would have been there so, but no, I scored one off of rc groups, one of my favorite hangouts- online hangouts- yeah it’s. It’s just weird how things, the timing of things- sometimes we, the past few weeks, we’ve talked about how disappointed I was, and especially how disappointed you were, which is really kind of odd, but that I

[00:10:12] Didn’t get one, it’s because I knew how important it seemed to be to you and that you, like, literally missed your mark by months. I mean, it’s not like you stopped years ago, no right, so it’s just been that close. So I feel a little responsible for not pushing hard enough when you first started talking.

[00:10:29] About it. So, okay, fair enough. Yeah, but anyway, I did score one. It’s a used one, but has it been flown and ran? Or it has been run? It’s probably been flown, which is great. Yeah, I don’t mind that at all, but I did get the original letter to its original owner, which is not my name. It’s a different name, but that’s okay. So I’m gonna start. I’m gonna start calling you george now. George, that is. That is who the previous owner, the original owner of this engine. George, if you’re listening, thank you, I’ll take. I promise I’m gonna take very good care of it, but yeah, I it’s in very, very good shape.

[00:11:03] To look at the insides of it. I took the head off of it just to kind of look at the top of the piston get an idea of how much use- and I tell you it’s shiny silver, I mean it’s- it- has not been run.

[00:11:15] Much so. Can you still get parts for those? If you need to rebuild that, yep, and there’s nothing special.

[00:11:21] About like rebuild parts then not really the clarence lee 61, it’s a ringed piston. So my friend at bjorn ball, at rmj, rmj, thank you, ring master. Jr machine works, I can get rings for them. So if I wear out the ring, there you go. The only thing that may cause trouble down the road is if I should happen to wear out the liner. I don’t foresee that happening because I’m probably

[00:11:51] Not going to fly it a lot, so do you have anything you’re planning on putting it on? I do, actually I’ve

[00:11:57] I’ve thought about it and I have a really cool 70s vintage kit downstairs. It’s a pattern plane, it’s it’s made by southern rc and it’s called the. I think it was called a compensator.

[00:12:11] I think compensator, I believe that was the name of it. That’s an odd name for an airplane. What are

[00:12:16] You compensating for I take that back. It’s not, it’s a tiger tail. Now I remember well, I’m looking, I’m trying to, I’m picturing the box in my head. Anyway, it’s a tiger tail, 60 size, pattern plane, perfect combination for a for a clearance lee 61. So that’s probably where that engine is destined. So

[00:12:34] Another airplane to build. Oh yeah, I mean we’re talking weeks down the road. I gotta find time to

[00:12:41] Build the one that we’re working on now, and then the one after that, and then the one there’s gonna be a tri-motor somewhere in there and then your biplane other stuff and then the bike. Yeah, so I mean we’re talking a long time down the road, but that’s, that’s the plan, awesome. But I’m really happy it has clarence lee’s letter in the box. I have the original box. It says lee custom. On it has the sticker. It’s really cool. Oh, that’s awesome. I’m really happy. Good for you. You’re beaming, I am, so I’m really excited about it. It’s a big ear to ear grin.

[00:13:12] Yep, I’m very happy to hear that, though that’s. Isn’t it funny how something like that can, what something like that can mean to somebody, though honestly, no, I get it. That’s just too bad, you didn’t.

[00:13:22] Find somebody with your name and then you could have been like: look, I bought this, look it’s mine.

[00:13:27] Clarence lee built this for me. Yeah, that’s okay. You want me to photoshop it? No, it’s okay. No, okay, I think you would have a hard time replicating that. I mean, that’s a. It’s actually a type written, not a word processor, but a typewriter has typed this letter. It’s not a. That would mean it’s easier than you think. Actually, all I have to create the little indents in the paper. From where the key.

[00:13:52] Struck. Are you kidding me? Oh no, I wasn’t. I said no, I was just going to like copy it and then print it. Yeah well, although I don’t know, if I get bored one day, maybe I’ll just press every letter down and make it look like a typewriter did it. But whatever, if you have that kind of time, you don’t have enough.

[00:14:09] Airplanes to build now and we have plenty. So yeah that we do. No, but congratulations, thank you very much. Thank you very much. I was really. It’s like I said, it’s really odd the timing that popped up so soon after we talked about it on the on the podcast, but I’m yeah.

[00:14:26] I’m really happy. No, that’s awesome. So I did get a chance to work on my wing a little bit. Going back to: so you’ve repaired the first crash, I have repaired the first incident that I had with it, and actually. So I was talking to somebody that was listening. I don’t know if I really did a good job of explaining what happened to it, so I want to kind of go over that again really quick, okay. So when I was using the wing bag to suction the air out of the vacuum bag- the vacuum bag, sorry.

[00:15:04] Okay, yeah, I guess you’re right. When you say wing bag, I think of the ones that, yeah, like a wing tote, but when I was using the vacuum bag to suction the air out, so I did not have one of the, the spars in on one of the edges of the wing, so that meant that balsa was able to move a lot laterally, mm-hmm. And so I think what happened is all that air was coming out and it was getting under vacuum. The wing bag slash vacuum bag was moving laterally against those, the spar or the.

[00:15:41] Wing ribs and because there was no spar in there, it was able to get more purchase on the edge and that’s what pulled it in at an angle and just made them shatter, mm-hmm. So hopefully I, if you, if it still doesn’t make sense, reach out to us. But I’m pretty sure that should kind of explain it and maybe when I listen to this again, it’s not going to do it justice, but that’s what I’m trying to get to. So, yeah, because of that. Well, you should have just taken a picture of the carnage and put it on the website. Well, I have a picture of some of the pieces, but I didn’t even think about doing that.

[00:16:14] Like before I put it back together like I should have. But anyway, so I did get it back together and there, like I said, there are a lot of pieces, and I’m not a puzzle guy, I don’t like doing puzzles. So my wife was downstairs and I said, hey, here’s all these pieces to this, this wing, this is kind of where they need to go figure it out. And let me know. And I told her: don’t worry about doing it now, I’m not in a hurry, but it needs to be done sometime soon. Well, she sat and did it. Well then I felt obligated to glue it back together, right, and to actually make sure I didn’t knock.

[00:16:45] It down again or lose it or something like that. So I ended up gluing it back together and I used the CA glue first off. You didn’t like me using the CA glue. You gave me a little eye roll and some attitude when you noticed that I did turn up my nose. Yes, we’ll get back to that in a second, but I just wanted to warn people. So if you don’t use CA glue for a lot, when you glue balsa and you try like okay. So I was afraid when I was gluing it back together that if I left the pieces

[00:17:17] Apart and put glue on it and then tried to put them back together. That they wouldn’t really glue back together, right, that I might not get it together before it dries enough to where it I can’t get it to fit, right. So I just like all the pieces that broke, I just put them back together and then ran a bead of glue along the side- thin CA, thin CA- and then I used the kicker on it right and I flipped it over and did the same thing. So it’s glued from both sides. I gave a little bit of time to where it would like soak in a little bit, but so okay, here’s the thing.

[00:17:54] Took me five days, by the way, to get the glue off of my fingers. And don’t forget this is- this is very important, because I don’t seem to remember this when I’m doing stuff. When you use CA and then you use the kicker, that’s a chemical reaction that creates a lot of heat and some smoke and first off, it can burn you- trust me, it gets hot- and secondly, that smoke can burn your eyes absolutely so now I don’t know what I actually did to myself. I might like go blind in 30 years because of it, but, man, that

[00:18:28] Burns your eyes really badly. It does, and it’s so like a couple of the spar or the wing ribs I was putting back together. It was actually really easy to hold because I could just like I glued it to my finger so I didn’t have to use any other finger to hold it. It just kind of stood there and didn’t move, but getting it off is a problem. So if you’re doing something stupid like that, be careful, always make sure you have some of that uncure around, because that saved me a lot, because I will also admit that I did have two fingers temporarily attached to each other, so two

[00:19:07] Fingers became one, yeah, and I was constantly making the okay sign. So just, just, okay, use that as in your, in your, in your mind, yeah, so anyway, that’s that, I got it back together. It’s not pretty because it bubbles up also when you do it. Yeah, and, as I said, it’s not pretty. I looked right over to you and you’re like, yeah, it looks terrible. I didn’t say that. You thought it out loud with your.

[00:19:34] Eyes. Well, I mean it is, it’s ugly it is. Fortunately, in this particular case, you’re going to sheet over it and then we’re going to cover it with opaque covering, because you don’t like translucent covering.

[00:19:47] Not at all. So no one’s going to see it except, right, I’ll know it’s there. Oh, you’ll forget. No, I won’t, you won’t forget. No, well, should I start over? No, no, I wasn’t going to, I just asked me if I should. I know, but no, I mean it’s okay for me because once again, this isn’t my like.

[00:20:03] Top shelf airplane. No that your repairs will be plenty strong- they really will- but just plenty ugly, just plenty ugly. And so- and I’ve said this before- we’ve talked about glues in a previous episode.

[00:20:17] I’m a huge fan of the yellow woodworking glue and okay, so I was going to use that. Here’s why I didn’t. There were two reasons. First off, I didn’t have a lot of time so I was kind of in a hurry because it was 10 o’clock at night and it was a work night and all that kind of stuff. I just wanted to get it done and put together. But secondly, I have not been able to get out of my mind. When we were talking about the different glues and stuff, you said CA glue pretty much lasts forever, but you have to worry about the wood glue breaking down over time. But what is time like? What years? How many years? I mean, this is a

[00:20:52] Plane I. I plan on keeping this airplane for many years and it depends, so it depends, right. So carpenters glue, or yellow glue, or elmer’s, whatever you want to call it. It’s an aliphatic resin, so it’s a water-based resin, right? That means nothing to me, but okay, well, it’s just a water-based resin and so it requires- I don’t know if I want to say it requires, if that’s the correct word, but it will retain moisture over time, and that’s that’s actually kind of a good thing, because that’s what allows that glue.

[00:21:26] To remain somewhat- and we’re talking minuscule amounts- but it remains somewhat flexible and that’s why it’s such a good glue for balsa, because it absorbs. It absorbs vibration and things like that, which is why I like to use it. It doesn’t shatter like CA can not, not that CA would. But I mean I know you’ve had glue joints before that were CA and that you’d you’d break.

[00:21:56] Them or whatever when you’re handling them and for whatever reason, the CA didn’t penetrate the wood or whatever the reason is, it didn’t stick. I mean, we’ve all seen those types of glue joints. When you pull them apart it’s like, oh okay, well, this didn’t stick to this, the other half of the joint. I’ve never had that issue with yellow glue. The problem with yellow glue is over time if it dries out it does become brittle, like CA can, and the problem with that is when it gets brittle. That joint where the two pieces meet, that very, very, very thin layer is what separates. It’s hard to explain, but you don’t you.

[00:22:31] Have penetration, except where you don’t like, where the two pieces are, like I said, there’s a thin layer and when that aliphatic resin or the yellow glue dries out, that’s where it’s going to fail. It’s not going to fail because, because it didn’t stick, it’s failing because the moisture is gone now out of the, out of the glue that kept it flexible and kept it doing its thing so over and

[00:22:56] We’re talking like years. I mean, well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean a lot to me, because you have airplanes that are years old. So, yeah, are you more concerned about an airplane that was put together 10 years ago, which is not a long time? No, are you more concerned about an airplane put together 10 years ago?

[00:23:14] With CA glue or put together with wood glue. Well, I mean, without inspecting them, I don’t have. I mean I would have equal amounts of concern for both. What I will say is I will probably have more issues with and not even a 10 year old airframe, like if it was constructed properly and the glue joints are at least somewhat reasonable and the fit was good and the parts and stuff. Even 10 years is no concern for either type of glue for me. Okay, I mean, we’re talking like an airframe.

[00:23:47] That might be 25, 20, 25 or older. That’s when I start to get concerned about yellow glue, and even then the times that I’ve seen failure are maybe one out of every, I don’t know. One out of every 30 glue joints I inspect might have some sort of an issue because the glue has dried out and I don’t want that to be a concern in anyone’s mind, because a properly fit joint is going to fit great, no matter what type of glue you use, and it’s going to last a really long time, no matter what type of glue.

[00:24:21] You use. Okay, so, because that was a- yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t want to put a fear in anyone’s mind. It’s just that my preference is yellow glue and that’s just it. That’s just my preference. Well, and I knew you.

[00:24:34] Said that like that was what you prefer to build with. But then, when we were talking about the glues and stuff, like I ended up putting this wing together with CA glue. Because of that- well, because I was.

[00:24:44] Concerned about it. To be completely honest, my wing panels are constructed with CA also. Oh, are they up to this point? Yeah, okay, because it’s convenient, because it’s so bad? No, you shouldn’t. Because it’s convenient, I mean CA, I can set my rib on the spar. I can hold the rib in place with my gauge or my builder’s triangle that we talked about in last episode, and then I can give it a shot of CA and move right to the next rib. Now, you don’t use the kicker on all those, do you? No, no, me neither. Okay, I only use the kicker if I have to fill a gap that I’ve left because I didn’t take care to.

[00:25:18] Make the joint fit properly. Yeah, I usually only use kicker when I want to make sure I glue my fingers together and burn my eyes, so that’s my go-to. Well, actually, CA will actually off gas. Oh yeah, no.

[00:25:31] You’re right, fumes even without zip kicker. Yeah, like if you put it on some really nice a grain balsa, that really loose grain soft stuff, and you can watch it. Oh yeah, you can watch the smoke rise out of that. Yeah, don’t get your eyes anywhere near that. Nope, been there, done that. It hurts, yeah. So yeah, yeah, I don’t want you to be afraid of, I don’t want anyone to be afraid of using yellow glue, because it’s awesome and if you have a properly fitting joint you’re in your

[00:26:01] Lifetime, or that airplane’s lifetime- you’re more than likely not going to ever have any trouble.

[00:26:06] Well then, what were you like? In some of the pictures you have on the website, you have the wing weights on, rather the bag weights, whatever you want to call it. What were you using that for?

[00:26:14] Then I was just using that to hold things still, while I was trying to get the ribs to exactly, it was just like an extra set of hands. Okay, I assumed that was because you had the wood glue that you were waiting for. No, when I go to sheet the wing, yes, I will have even more weights, maybe not.

[00:26:34] Because if we can get this, the well. That’s the vacuum. That’s my plan. Still haven’t had a chance, but I definitely know I should this weekend. Well, because I have a three and a half day weekend.

[00:26:44] Okay, well, I may. It depends on what I have going on the rest of the week. I may go ahead and begin the sheeting, because I want to get the bottom half of each of those panels sheeted like asap so that I can start building, or, I’m sorry, the tops of the wings sheeted so I can start filling in the rest of the stuff, like the, the retract mount rails, servo mounts for the ailerons, things like that. So I want to get the top of the wing sheeted pretty quickly, so I may go ahead and do that without the vacuum deal.

[00:27:15] Well, that’s fine. Either way, I will absolutely use yellow glue for that. Yeah, and that’s what my

[00:27:22] Plan was too, honestly, more so because it gives us more time, or it gives me more time to work with it, yeah, so I don’t have to worry about it too much, right drying out, I guess, before I have the time to get it all placed properly. So yellow glue, use it, which, by the way, I was using the wrong yellow glue.

[00:27:40] Also you told me: it’s not. It’s not necessarily that it’s the wrong I, I so okay, so you were looking.

[00:27:47] At the, the wing sheets that I had joined, yes, and you’re like, oh, you use CA glue on that. And I said, no, I used wood glue. And I showed you the wood glue, you kind of rolled your eyes and not, and

[00:28:00] Told me I was a dummy and did. I did not tell you. I just simply said I was like, oh, but then you also.

[00:28:07] Like, but then you said don’t use that, put it away, because I had the other right stuff out. You did have.

[00:28:13] The right stuff out, which I told you to put that away, which I didn’t know, there was a difference.

[00:28:16] So what’s the difference and why do you not want to use the stuff that I was using and what was I using that was good versus what was I using that was bad. Okay, so, in the grand scheme of things, here’s.

[00:28:28] The order in which I like to use glue right. So number one on my list is yellow carpenter’s glue- either elmer’s brand or type bond, or a SIG bond, or there’s- there’s many names for it, but it’s, it’s literally a yellowish color and it’s basically elmer’s, like school glue. You remember the water-based white stuff? Yeah, the basic resin stuff. Yeah, exactly, it’s basically that. Yeah, okay, some other stuff added to it. I don’t know what it is, but that’s number one. Number two on my list would be gorilla glue’s.

[00:29:03] Version of woodworking glue. I don’t know what they call it. It’s over there on your table. Yeah, I can’t see it from here. That would be my number two choice. And then everything else under that, all right CA. And then I mean epoxy is great, but that’s not something I use all the time. Well, it has its places right. So the stuff you used is fine. I don’t like using it because it’s harder to sand than plain old aliphatic yellow carpenter’s wood glue, right, even though it’s. It looks the same though it’s yellow. It’s all that. I mean. It dries clear though. Well, if you, if you look at the bottle.

[00:29:37] It even tells you that it dries clear, and then the regular yellow wood glue doesn’t. No, it dries yellow. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah, yeah, look at me learning. Yeah. So, and like I said, the reason I don’t like the gorilla glue stuff, it’s fantastic glue. I mean it really is. It does a great job. And if it’s someplace that you don’t need to really sand, like if you’re stacking ribs on a spar, or if you’re going to be sheeting- not gluing the sheets together, but putting the sheeting on the airframe- it’s great.

[00:30:08] For that gives you a little more working time, actually, which is not a bad thing, it’s just. It’s almost like sand, like when you join sheets together with it along that joint, it becomes harder than the wood surrounding it. Yeah, so then when you sand it, the wood sands before the glue does, and then now you have this nice ridge all the way, exactly. Yeah, so that’s why I don’t like using- and that’s the only time really I don’t like using it is whenever I have to sand whatever that joint is.

[00:30:35] Okay, so that’s good to know then. So when I do finally get around to sheeting that rib or the wing,

[00:30:41] Use that glue over the regular yellow glue. You think either one. I mean, yeah, the way, the way you’re.

[00:30:46] Going to do the wing with the vacuum bag you’ll have time to use either. Okay, funsies. So there you go. Well, now I know. So I’m I’m glad you schooled. And to everyone listening, Ron does tend to over.

[00:30:59] Exaggerate my reaction to some of the stuff he does. I don’t think so. In my mind I mean it’s like wow, I mean it’s. It’s an exaggerated reaction. I never once used the word idiot. I never rolled my.

[00:31:13] Well, you did really rise, yeah, and what? I’m sorry I think I might be projecting the calling me an idiot thing for my wife, so that’s, she does that all the time and I think I just am used to that. So

[00:31:23] That’s a term of endearment from her, but anyway, yeah, I’m not a big, not a big, not a big CA fan, although I did use a lot of it on my wing panels because it was convenient. Yeah, and it is a strong joint, like all the laser cut cutouts that you made fit like perfect. Yeah, so it was a good.

[00:31:44] Fitting joint, so I didn’t mind using CA and yeah, yeah, and so when I- when I built my wing, though, I ended up sanding the joints, probably a little bit more than you did, because I ended up with a little bit more than a quarter by quarter inch, like in that. So the nice thing about that, though, I was actually able to cut the right thickness for the spars because I was using the balsa stripper, yeah, and so I was able to actually add that sixteenth of an inch or whatever, exactly what.

[00:32:16] You needed and you didn’t have to buy special balsa. No, and it’s a, or buy a bigger size at more expense.

[00:32:21] And cut it down. Yeah, and it’s a very tight joint now nice, so I was happy about that. Yeah, cool yeah.

[00:32:27] So yeah, there you go. That’s where we’re at on the dualist, so next we’re going to talk about what to

[00:32:32] Expect when you go to a fly-in, and also most of the time when you go to a fly-in, they expect you or tell you that you have to use a spotter when you’re flying. So I also want to talk about what it takes to be a spotter, what it takes to be a good spotter, and why that is something that’s important to have. Really, it’s not a bad idea to have a spotter with you at all times. Even well, if it’s just you at the field, you don’t have to do it, but obviously, if there’s five or six, you

[00:33:03] Guys out at once and you’re flying, it’s a good idea to have somebody standing next to you with an extra set of eyes, absolutely so we’ll. Let’s kind of start with all that, so what do you expect?

[00:33:14] When you go to a fly-in Tom. Well, a lot of fun, that’s what I expect, that’s why we go to them, right the end okay. So I mean a fly-in, it’s not just limited to a fly-in, right. So club, let’s just say like, maybe a club event at the field, maybe it’s a fly-in, maybe it’s a fun fly, maybe it’s a contest of some kind, maybe it’s an invitation: they invite another club over to fly at your field or whatever. So an event at the field, first thing, I mean if it’s a if.

[00:33:48] It’s an organized club event. There’s going to be some sort of registration, right. But before I

[00:33:54] Talk about that. If you’re going as a spectator, see you and I go for different reasons. Like I have never flown to the fly-in, yeah, and I don’t know if I ever actually plan on doing it- oh, there are lots of fun. Well, I enjoy watching it so much more and just taking in the sights and sounds and learning about different airplanes- yeah, because I’ve not been around it for what? 86 Years now, like you have. So it’s it’s kind of still new to me, whereas it’s old hat for you. So it’s the same thing over and over, but to me it’s just more fun watching people and interacting, like seeing how they

[00:34:29] Fly, what they bring and learning than it is to actually. Oh, I’ll be honest. I mean I can go. I can go to another club’s flying and not fly at all and have almost as much fun as if I was flying, because I

[00:34:42] Like you, I like seeing different types of airplanes. Yeah, even if I see the same airplane, maybe somebody’s covered a different color and I’m like, oh, I like that color combination or whatever. That’s transparent, right, exactly, I love transparent. I know anyone knows, but I mean I can have. I think I can have just as much fun as a spectator, as a flyer too, for the same reasons you’re talking about.

[00:35:05] Yeah. So when, like an actual sanctioned fly-in or event kind of thing, right, I like said I’m I’m not comfortable enough. I think, to actually fly well, you need to fly more well. I do, and I actually fly more than you think. I mean, I went just in this last week. I went out and ended up flying whatever that little thing is I have on the other side of the ground or the basement here, the addiction or

[00:35:32] Not the addiction. I don’t know what it’s called anymore. But yeah, you’re right, the little extra.

[00:35:36] Thing or whatever that is. Yeah, the yak looking piece of wood kind of files, that thing, whatever. No, not the profile one, the one that I don’t like. That’s transparent. Yeah, it’s not a profile. Oh, I thought.

[00:35:50] That’s fully. Oh so you did do some flying, I did. Well, that’s good. We didn’t talk about flying, no, we.

[00:35:56] Didn’t? It’s because that’s fine. We didn’t make it to the field to fly, by the way. No, it was a.

[00:36:02] Busy weekend. I had lots of stuff to do. I had to work on my car. I had to work. I had to cut the grass after you left. I had to cut the grass because you guilted me into it. Why do you leave a strip of?

[00:36:12] Grass not cut, by the way you’re talking about, right up there by the house. Yeah, I forgot see. I saw that today actually, so I was hoping nobody would. Oh no, I noticed it. It’s. I mean, one’s like.

[00:36:24] It’s like three inches taller. That might be an exaggeration, but it is. It’s yeah, so.

[00:36:33] It’s past your, your sidewalk, and it’s like you just completely. I thought like maybe it’s not past it.

[00:36:38] It’s like directly in line, right. So well, if you’re walking on your sidewalk and you would just keep walking, so it’s past that sidewalk. Yeah, that’s because, like, I have to come back and back up and then cut that and I just I usually save that for one of the last things I do, like as part of my trimming, and I just completely forgot about it. So I was like what it’ll get cut next time I cut the?

[00:37:00] Grass. I thought, like laurie might be planting flowers or something you were for some reason leaving.

[00:37:04] It to grow. No, I just forgot to go back and cut it, and sometimes I forget that little patch between the garage and the house too. Oh, that I didn’t know, so I don’t go that way. I got that one this time I.

[00:37:16] Just forgot the front, where everybody can see it. There’s several spots in our yard, though, where I was told by my wife to not cut because we had sunflowers coming up. So apparently you can’t cut those down. So, looking in our yard, we just have like odd sunflowers growing here and there and all that kind of stuff, so I thought that’s what you guys were doing too, for some odd reason. No, that’s not a bad.

[00:37:39] Idea: maybe I’ll plant some sunflowers there. There you go. Don’t they need sun, though? Apparently I mean.

[00:37:45] That’s a sunflower, but I don’t know it doesn’t get a lot of sun. At any rate, we didn’t, we didn’t.

[00:37:51] Get to go to the field to try the Telemaster, but we hope to this weekend. At some point we should have time. Yes, with four days. Well, three and a half days for me. Yeah, four for me. Hopefully we can find I.

[00:38:03] Still haven’t told work yet. I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem. Oh boy, I hope they don’t listen.

[00:38:10] To this. Well, you’ll ask them before, all right, but anyway, yeah. So I like to go to fly-ins either as a spectator or as a as a participant. I prefer to go as a participant because I like flying, I like hanging out with other guys who fly model airplanes, because they’re fun. Yeah, so what to expect? Very insightful, yeah, as a as a pilot. As a participant, you’re going to register. Usually the club will want some information from you if you’re not one of their club members, like your name.

[00:38:45] Maybe they’ll take your address, they’ll mail you maybe a newsletter once in a while and, most importantly, they’re going to want your ama number and probably an entry fee of some kind. Yeah, most of the time. And the reason that ama number is important is because if it’s at a club field, club field is going to be sponsor or not sponsored, but sanctioned by the ama. So they fly under the ama rules and to be covered under any kind of ama claim. Whoever flies there will also have to be covered by the ama.

[00:39:16] So that’s why they’re going to want that. That’s why it’s a good idea. That’s one of many reasons it’s a good idea to become a member of the ama. I don’t work for the ama folks, I’m just saying it’s a good.

[00:39:27] Idea because it’s it’s really cheap coverage. Yeah, really it is. We should get into that one episode like actually what all is covered with it and why? Yeah, why it’s a good idea. Yeah, yeah, we should. Maybe we will.

[00:39:38] Because I know through our survey submissions we have a few folks that indicated that they were not ama members. Yeah, maybe they don’t need it. I get it. You get a lot of good stuff from the ama.

[00:39:51] Yeah, honestly, if I was just flying at my house, I would not be a member of it.

[00:39:55] The magazine is pretty good, even if, even if the, even if you only join the ama for the magazine, that’s a pretty cheap subscription. What that’s a very expensive subscription for the mag, for the only magazine of its kind, really right now, 80 bucks a year for four magazines- is it four? And I thought it.

[00:40:15] Was. I thought we were up to six. Now is it okay? Even if it’s six, 12, I’d rather buy a book. Oh for that.

[00:40:21] Price. Well, I feel like it’s pretty good because in every ama magazine you’ve got a listing of events that clubs have announced that they’re going to put on, so you can sort of plan your summer, like maybe you want to go to a couple of fly-ins or maybe a manufacturer is going to put on a demonstration or something you can. You can kind of plan that in the. I mean, I guess that’s not the only place to find that information, but it’s pretty handy when it’s mailed right to your house.

[00:40:46] Okay saying yeah, mail has it. If it actually shows up, mine shows up. We’ve had stuff get lost so much it’s not even funny. Well, move to move out of the sticks. You couldn’t pay me enough, so yeah they’re.

[00:41:03] Going to want your ama number and their entry fee and the entry fee is usually to cover concessions and any expenses like the club is incurred while putting on the event. Yeah, and.

[00:41:14] Most of the time like that, when you say concessions, that will include like a meal ticket usually. So most of the time when you go they will have hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks water, sodas and that kind of stuff. Normally that’s like a fundraiser kind of thing for them too, for the club. Yeah, so if you ever go, feel free to eat, yeah, eat a lot. Help out, the club helps.

[00:41:41] Keep things up at the club. Yeah, because what a lot of people don’t think about is that it usually costs the club money to rent either the field, or maybe they lease the field or maybe- so there’s usually costs involved with even just running the club and this is one way the club can recoup.

[00:41:56] Some of the costs and put on these fun events. Well, and upkeep too, because you’ve got to keep, you’ve got to keep up with the mowing, and in the summertime that’s more than once a week, really, because it can be ours is well it’s. I wish it was more of a like a paved field, but it’s. It’s usually kept small enough or short enough to where you can fly almost anything off of the grass. Yeah, almost within reason. Yeah, not jets or anything like that, or edf jets- right, because the wheels are too.

[00:42:26] Small on that for anything but pavement, but yeah, so most of the time you can, you can deal like any.

[00:42:33] Planes I have I can take off at the field. I’m going through the list of planes in my head. I think there’s maybe just a couple that I have to either hand launch or whatever, but for those I just I go fly over at.

[00:42:44] The park? Oh, not the park, but the school there when there’s, when they’re not in session, yeah, which they.

[00:42:49] Haven’t been, but thanks to covet. Yeah, but yeah, so they’re a lot of fun and then usually at a, at a club event- if it’s like a fun fly kind of a thing, they’ll have maybe like little contests like who can land in the in the shortest amount of time or a distance, or maybe who has the shortest takeoff, and there’s lots of fun little events that they can put together. And they’re not as common as they used to be. Back in the day, back in the 80s and 90s, fun flies were really a thing and

[00:43:24] It seemed like every club, no matter where you went, was putting on two or three of.

[00:43:29] These things a year and that’s too bad, because that sounds like that would be a lot of fun to go to, actually like I would fly at something like that. Yeah, if there was a reason to actually fly and it’s not just come out here, fly your airplanes around, that would be enjoyable and there’s something.

[00:43:44] About like the, even if it’s just a friendly competition, like most landings in a minute or most touching goes in a minute or whatever it seems like if you add some sort of a competition element to it, it adds like a whole other level of interest and it really sort of gets you into improving your technique, like, for instance, in one of the events that I remember as a young one- or a younger one was the target landing. They would have this area painted on the runway that you were supposed to touch down in right and it was like it was kind.

[00:44:19] Of like a bullseye. It had rings, different sizes and you got different points based on you.

[00:44:24] Know where you landed and where you touched down or whatever in the ring and I just remember doing.

[00:44:29] That I really kind of honed my skills on airplane control and really getting comfortable with whatever airplane I was flying and learning its, its tendencies and where I should turn to base and where I should start to cut the throttle. I mean it just makes you a better pilot really. Yeah, it kind of hones those basic skills in the name of fun, right what I’m saying so. But yeah, back in the day they were really popular with the clubs. I

[00:45:02] Don’t know why they’re not anymore. It seems like a lot of the clubs that I know of they don’t do that sort of thing anymore and they do that they do other things in favor of that, like they’ll have maybe a swap meet or something like that. I really kind of miss the flying events, though you.

[00:45:19] Know, I wonder in all honesty, without sounding bad like our club is older, and I wonder if that’s because they don’t want to have like 17 different airplanes crash, trying to land twice in a minute.

[00:45:34] So I will agree with you that our- that our club membership is- is the demographic is probably in general, older, but our club officers are fairly young, actually, okay, right now our president is actually younger than I am. That’s not hard and he’s, and he’s from like, I don’t know him well, but he’s from an era where fun, flies and things like that were still popular. So I don’t know, I maybe at the next club meeting I’ll bring that up. Yeah, that’s a good idea, because I miss those events.

[00:46:05] I mean I miss, and what I really miss are the airplanes that were designed in that era to compete at events like that. A lot of them were profile with the thick wings, whatever, but a lot of them weren’t like. The midwest hots, which is like one of the icons of like fun flies, was designed in that era for that purpose, had a really thick wing, had this weird kind of triangular shaped fuselage. It was just a really cool airplane. It was actually one of my first airplanes and they flew great you.

[00:46:37] Could do loops like just really, yeah, we just almost just swap ends right in the right in the air. If you had it set up right, it was a lot of fun. Oh, that is cool. The early days of pattern maybe. Huh, yeah, it.

[00:46:48] Could be well, we should bring that back. Let’s do that next time we’re out the field just for funsies, just for.

[00:46:54] Us. Okay, all right, maybe we’ll start a start a trend or revive a trend. Maybe there you go, yeah.

[00:47:00] I don’t know for that popular, but whatever. Another fun event back in the day was the airplane limbo.

[00:47:05] So they would. They would take two big posts and they would run like one of those cheap paper streamers or whatever. That was really easy to cut. Yeah, I think you get them at like party stores or whatever, yeah, and you would literally fly. You would gradually lower it and then, as people broke the streamer, they were disqualified or if they couldn’t fly under it or whatever, and then you would do a twist on that, like, once that was over, then it was like inverted limbo. No, no, no. And that’s when it got fun to watch, because, man, there was some pilots that were not afraid to drag the tail in the grass. I mean, I was just. I mean I’m smiling, just remembering how.

[00:47:40] When I was younger, going to those events and watching some of the skill of those guys and the

[00:47:45] And the nerve of some of those guys. Yeah, I, I couldn’t do that. Yeah, right side up, sure, because if I get too low I’m landing, but upside down, nope, that’s. That’s back in a time where guys

[00:47:58] Would experiment and they would put landing gear on both sides of the airplane. I’m sure you’ve seen.

[00:48:02] Them. Yeah, for that reason, just in case. Yeah, yeah, I, I think I’d get confused on what’s up and down, so landing gear wouldn’t help. Right, nose dive is still a nose dive. Yeah, yeah, but, Tom, what else do you expect when you go to a flying? Sorry, oh, that’s a little off topic. That’s right. I mean, that’s that’s.

[00:48:20] Really kind of. I mean the basics, what, what do you think? Well, I know, a lot of times you’ll have

[00:48:27] Like the 50, 50s. Oh, the raffles, like they’ll do raffles, and that kind of stuff sometimes, sometimes.

[00:48:33] Manufacturers or distributors will like donate stuff to the club, to raffle office, to help with the club. Don’t, or fundraising. So yeah, so yeah. Sometimes they’ll.

[00:48:46] Get that kind of stuff, but also, like a lot of times, you will have like flight demonstrations and stuff too. You’ll have either sponsored pilots or just somebody that has something unique right that you don’t see all the time and that’s always fun to go see, because I mean, I’m trying to think what it was last time at our, our big flying- we had. Who was that? That came in, jace, yeah, he came in and put on a heck of a show, right, jace ducia, and it was a very if you’ve never seen somebody that.

[00:49:22] Knows how to fly. Well, incredible that is. I mean, that’s just like your jaw hits the floor. Yeah, if, if you guys don’t know who we’re talking about, get online, look it up on youtube and you’ll be very impressed. Well, and not just jade, I mean. There’s lots of, lots of really talented pilots out there, but, yeah, the stuff that they can do with an airplane is- he was one that was at our place, so that’s why- yeah, that’s why I brought him up. Yeah, and yeah, he could do things with an.

[00:49:49] Airplane, that an airplane just doesn’t look like it should be able to do well, and any other airplane?

[00:49:54] Than what he is flying. But just if you could get it to go in some of those angles and stuff, it would just split in half because they are built, obviously, to handle that many g’s. Yeah, oh, it’s. It’s pretty impressive if anybody is at a flying field like that and they’re doing their demonstration. Just land. If you’re flying, don’t. Don’t be up in the air at the same time as them, mostly because it’s fun to watch. Yeah, you probably want to watch it. Yeah, you don’t want to miss something like that. So, yeah, always come in and land and give them the airspace. Yeah, sometimes the club will announce.

[00:50:27] They’re going to be doing it and make you come in. Yeah, but if not, still just come in. Give them some.

[00:50:32] Room and usually they’ll, they’ll the there will be a, an mc or a pa there and they’ll announce that they’re going to do that and that’s your cue: to go ahead and wrap it up that, wrap up that flight and so you can watch it. If you’re a participant at one of these events, that event is not a.

[00:50:52] Good time to maiden an airplane and actually most of the time they tell you not to right, I mean.

[00:50:59] That kind of falls into the etiquette at the field that we sort of talked about quite a few episodes ago. But yeah, if you’re, if you’re going to one of these club events or a fly-in or a demonstration, whatever- not a good time to maiden your airplane- you either get it done before that or take something that.

[00:51:15] You’ve already comfortable with, yeah, and if, if you do want to bring it with you to show it off, that’s fine. No, that’s one thing. Don’t fly it, yeah, right. And if you’re not familiar with the people that are there, they should all should be nice and not too much of a jerk. But sometimes you’ll get those people. But just remember: hands off airplanes, yeah, if it’s not yours, right, don’t touch it, yeah, unless they ask you to. That’s different, but most of the time I’m not going to ask anybody, that’s that. I don’t know to do anything with my airplanes. Yeah, I don’t think you would.

[00:51:50] Either no. So yeah, just kind of keep that in mind. Just be polite, keep your distance. A lot of times, too, if you’re not actually registered as a pilot, they will have a line that you can’t cross exactly. They’ll have the flight line that you, the pilots, go before or go in front of, and then

[00:52:05] You have to stay behind. So, yeah, yeah. So let’s talk about spotters. Yeah, what is your, what is your thought on spotters? Spotters are cool. Spotters serve a very, very important role. They do.

[00:52:21] It’s an extra set of eyes and because when you’re flying your airplane, seriously don’t take your eyes off your airplane. Reggie, I wasn’t gonna say that, but yeah, no, I did. So you always want to have and, like I said, this is required at some fields when they’re doing fly-ins. If you’re just flying with a bunch of people, it’s always good to have a friend next to you to kind of keep an eye on what’s going on. So a spotter can keep an eye out for planes taking off and landing. They can keep an eye out for planes that are kind of flying in the same pattern as you and let if somebody’s

[00:52:53] Coming up, if you’re coming up on somebody that you don’t see, if somebody’s going the wrong way, and they can also kind of keep an extra ear out for your airplane if you’re having any problems. Because it’s when there’s a lot of airplanes in the air it’s hard to hear your airplane over some of the other ones, so you don’t know if you’re having any engine problems. Flutter can get hard to hear if that ever happens. But it’s also good because they can be an extra ear for hearing if somebody’s landing or somebody’s taking off or if somebody’s on the field when you’re trying to go out or trying

[00:53:26] To come in for a landing. It’s just an extra level of safety that people can kind of kind of watch over and make sure that nothing happens. Yeah, and a good spotter will usually be.

[00:53:37] Communicating with the other spotters, conveying what your intention or what your pilot’s intentions are like. If the pilot should be concentrating on his airplane and be talking to his spotters and, hey, listen, this next time I go by I’m gonna, I’m gonna shoot an approach or I’m gonna go ahead and land or whatever, and then that spotter can sort of communicate with the other spotters, say, hey, listen, he’s gonna land. That way everybody’s kind of on the same page and they know where, where you’re at in your, in your airspace. Yeah, so that.

[00:54:07] No one else will get in your airspace. Yeah, and if you’re ever flying and you hear somebody say I have to land now or something happened, give them as much room as you can, just to make sure they don’t have to worry about another airplane being in the way. If they have an engine out, you.

[00:54:22] Know if they’re doing a dead stick landing because their focus is not going to be on your airplane. No,

[00:54:25] Not at all. Yeah, and I think we’ve both seen it to where people have been landing while somebody else has been taken off and had some on runway accidents. Yeah, yeah, it happens more frequently than you think it should really. Really, it shouldn’t happen ever. For as much as for as close as we are all together when we’re flying right, I mean in all honesty, there’s not a lot of distance, it’s not like you’re actually in the airplane, you’re within earshot of everybody.

[00:54:56] It’s hard to hear sometimes when somebody’s spooling up their motor on the on the test stand or when they’re doing some tuning before they’re getting ready to take off. So if something’s going on, listen and yell loud just to make sure everybody can hear you that something’s going on. You need the runway or something like that, so, and then your spotter is usually going to be the guy to go out and retrieve your airplane or put it out after the takeoff. That way you’re always in.

[00:55:21] Control of it with the, the controller, exactly. So have a spotter, even when it’s not a bad idea when you’re just at the field with a few, a few other guys or girls, but it’s, it’s usually always.

[00:55:35] Required at a fly-in spotters are also the ones that will throw your airplanes if you don’t have landing gear- and well, most spotters will. Yeah, I won’t do that for you anymore. The one time you convinced me to throw your airplane, it lawn darts right into the ground.

[00:55:50] And just disintegrates. It didn’t disintegrate, did it? It did. Which airplane was that? It was some.

[00:55:57] Foam? Was it a mig? What was the? I don’t remember which one. It was the old t38. There you go, yeah.

[00:56:03] Yeah, so it was not pretty, but what it’s? It’s in one piece again and ready to go. I still felt.

[00:56:10] Bad about that. Even though you said it wasn’t my fault, I still feel as though it was my fault. Well,

[00:56:14] Anyway, you would make a terrible spotter because you won’t launch somebody’s plane for.

[00:56:20] I will set it out on the runaway for them and they can handle it. But right, so yeah, just don’t fly.

[00:56:25] A foamy, I’ll be fine. No worries, that’s not true. You have some I do, but I’ve just I’ve developed a technique where most of my foamies I can, I can usually handle myself. I don’t like doing it that way, but since, since I can’t find anyone to launch it for me, I’ve, sort of out of necessity, developed a technique by which I can launch my own airplanes. Well good, I’m glad to hear that most of the time makes me feel better. I have. I have a few failed attempts, but you’ve lawn darted them yourself. I have.

[00:57:00] Yeah, and it unfortunately it happens. I mean, I’ve done it myself too on foamies out here in the backyard. It just, it just happens it’s. It’s hard when you can’t get your fingers on the transmitter as soon as you get it out of your, out of your hand. So anyway, yeah, that’s another topic, so that’s.

[00:57:21] Why spotters are important. It’s time for rc plane labs. Tool of the week. Tool of the week.

[00:57:35] This week’s tool is the drill index. Tommy, why don’t you tell us a little bit about it?

[00:57:39] So I mean I thought maybe the tool of the week should be the drill bit, but there are so many different sizes, right, I mean eighth inch, six. I mean we use so many different sizes of drill bits.

[00:57:50] Different sizes, different types, different lengths, different compositions. What’s it made of? Is it a?

[00:57:56] Paddle bit. Yeah right, so I thought: instead of a drill bit, what about a drill index and the drill?

[00:58:02] Index is basically the box which I actually didn’t know what a drill index was. I mean, like I have a couple of them, yes, and I didn’t know that’s what they were called. I just thought it was a fancy.

[00:58:11] Holder for my drill bits? No, no, there’s it is. It has a name and it’s called a drill index and it and it sorts- if you will- I hate, and I will say that if I will- and it sorts for you your drill bits. So a drill index is a big box or a little box, depending on what size drill index you bought, depending on how.

[00:58:30] Many drill and how many drill bits you have, and they have different sized holes. Yeah, but the

[00:58:36] Like an indexed hole, the, the thing that folds out. They kind of leaves maybe they fold out and then they have the holes in them that are graduated to fit your drill bit perfectly. So, for instance, my drill index that I have at home is a. It’s a wire gauge drill index. So okay, so my drill bits are arranged in this drill index by wire gauge size. So number 40, number 41, 42, so on and so forth.

[00:59:06] And I think they start at, I think mine starts at 60 and goes all the way up to one which is counterintuitive, one being the biggest, 60 being the smallest. Yeah, because wire gauges are backwards, right, right. And then I also have a handy dandy reference that the cross references the wire gauge size as into thousands. So I know exactly, a quarter inch bit is 250 thousandths, which is very close to, I think, a letter g or whatever it is. But anyway, a drill index, the drill bit for that.

[00:59:39] Particular size will only fit, or will fit down to, I should say, its specific size. So a lot of these drill bits are so small you can’t read the numbers on them, or the letters or the fractional size or whatever. So, having the nice drill index, I can put this drill bit into progressively smaller holes until it doesn’t go into the next one, and I know the first hole it goes into. But that’s what size it is. Yeah, I mean you.

[01:00:04] Can also measure them with a dial caliper or whatever, but or just take one out at a time.

[01:00:08] Well, sometimes in the thrash of building man you gotta, you got drill bits everywhere. Yeah, I got one mounted in my cordless drill, I got one mounted in my dremel, I got one mounted in my pen vise, I got. They’re just everywhere, so you got a point. So sometimes it’s handy to have a drill index so you can store them safely, so they’re not getting bent or shattered or left on the concrete floor to be run over my bank by my chair.

[01:00:39] Okay, well, good deal. So yeah, drill index. You can find them. Just about anywhere you can find drill bits.

[01:00:45] Yeah, cool, like I get mine, I think from harbor freight. I think my last set of drill- the index thing- came from lowe’s. Oh, you got a good one. I didn’t say that, I just said it came from lowe’s. They have their cheap line too, that’s true. But I mean we’re only going into balsa, so I don’t need an extremely hardened bit or anything like that. Occasionally I do drill aluminum for

[01:01:10] An aluminum motor mount or an aluminum landing gear. Sometimes I’ll maybe need to drill something into brass or whatever, so I tend to buy the, the better harbor freight ones, if there is such a, which is probably the same rating as the, not better as the low-end, yeah. But yeah, the, the drill index, very handy to keep your drill bits organized and out of harm’s way and, like I said, it keeps you from running over them with your chair down on your concrete floor.

[01:01:42] All right, good deal. Well, thanks, you’re welcome, anything else? No, that’s all. I got all right, good deal. Well, everybody. Thanks for listening, until next time. I’m Ron and I’m Tom.

[01:01:51] Good night. 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 rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either Ron at rcplanelab.com or Tom at rcplanelab.com. 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 landing be gentle.