Episode 7: Updates #2

Announcer: 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. Now here are your hosts, Ron and Tom.

Ron: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. This is Ron. I’m Tom. Thank you, first off, for joining us. Before we get into it, I just wanted to thank everybody who’s signed up for our mailing list. I also want to say thanks to everyone who’s reached out to us with comments. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback, and I, for one, am happy with how well this podcast has been received. Thanks for listening, and continue to reach out to us. We love hearing from you. Do you have anything you want to add to that, Tom?

Tom: No. Certainly more listeners than I thought would have joined us on the journey. So for that, I’m thankful, and I’m glad you guys find what we talk about interesting.

Ron & Tom: Yeah.

Ron: Yeah, I agree. I’m very happy with how this is turning out. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we started. But, you know, I think with the feedback and the numbers we’ve been having, it’s worth continuing.

Tom: Yeah, I think so.

Ron: Hopefully it’ll grow from here, and we’ll continue to get more of an audience and more feedback and, you know, just have some fun with it. So, um… Sounds good to me.

Tom: Yeah. So, Ron, what’d you get done this week?

Ron: Okay. So, um… Nothing. It was… It was… Okay, so my problem was that it’s been…

Tom: Well, you shouldn’t say nothing. I mean, you may not have gotten a lot of RC stuff done, but you did get a lot of stuff done around the house.

Ron: That is true. Yeah. So I’ve been working outside pretty much every night this week. It’s been a beautiful week here. Um…

Tom: Yeah, fixing us up a nice place to fly.

Ron: Yeah, I have gotten out a couple times. Um… I got the Super Sportster out. I think I went through… I actually do think I went through two batteries on it.

Tom: Well, see, you did more than I did. I haven’t even flown yet.

Ron: Well, but that’s circumstances. You know, you’ve had a lot more time to work on stuff than I have. Um… True. But I… You know, I did get out and get a couple flights on that, so that was nice. Um… I haven’t flown that one since last year, and that’s a… I like that plane. It’s fun to fly. It’s very easy. Um… You know, well-behaved, of course. It’s just a good old plane. Um… Yeah, but other than that, I did… You know, I got some trees burnt, and we had a bunch of stuff to do outside. Just from, from, you know, fall last year, we cut down several trees around the property and finally got that burnt and taken care of this week. So for the weekend, I should be in good shape to start working on stuff. Um… Cool. Mostly because it’s going to be cold and rainy this weekend, so…

Tom: Yeah. It’ll be a good day for that for me. Yeah, the forecast doesn’t look good for this weekend.

Ron: Yeah, which is actually good news for me, so… I guess I can’t complain.

Tom: It’ll keep you inside so you can get some stuff done inside, right?

Ron: Yeah. Well, RC airplane stuff, hopefully. Well, that’s what I meant. I did actually get my batteries delivered today. The ones I told you I ordered that were supposed to take, like, four and a half years to get here. Oh, yeah.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. They showed up, huh?

Ron: Well, they did, and I was actually a little upset because I was watching, or watching the whole week. Um, Monday, they were delivered to the, the main town that’s around us. It’s, uh, well, the town you live in, it’s about 10 minutes away from me, 15, and it sat at that post office until it was delivered today.

Tom: I don’t know what took them so long.

Ron: It’s not that far away.

Tom: I know. It showed up there.

Ron: Normally what happens is it’ll show up there one day, and then it’s delivered to me the next. It gets taken to our small post office in our town, um, in the morning, and then they deliver it to us in the afternoon. But for some reason, it sat there for, uh, four days before it got delivered here. So I was a little upset about that, but you know what? I have it now. I couldn’t have used them anyway if I had them earlier. So, and that probably avoided the temptation of coming, uh, coming inside early and working on it. So I will, I will get to install those this weekend and get everything, you know, put back together and hopefully finished on this airplane. But we’ll see how that goes.

Tom: What about you? What have you been up to? Well, I mean, still working on this, uh, flying wing project. Uh, I did manage to, um, to get the left-hand panel pretty much ready for finished sanding. Got the control surfaces cut off of it and hinged. Uh, got the hinges working, which was, uh, which was a real chore. Got the flaps, uh, hinged and, and working the way they should.

Ron: Yeah.

Tom: So, yeah, actually, I mean, it doesn’t look like I got a lot done on the, on the wing, but I, I really did. And these little details are the things that really consume the most amount of time, you know?

Ron: Yeah. Well, now, since you have the one pretty much finished, not finished, but pretty much finished. Right. Um, do you think the, the second one’s going to go a lot easier for you?

Tom: Yeah, I think so. I, I, uh, I glued the, I glued the sheets together to, you know, to make the, to build the bottom, um, sheeting, which, uh, I think I’m going to do a little how-to on that, uh, here, you know, sometime soon. I took a bunch of pictures as I went. Oh, okay. Because a lot of, you know, a lot of our airplanes today are, you know, have balsa sheeted either foam wings or just balsa sheeted, you know, open framework wings. So it’s not a bad idea to know how to sheet a wing. So you have to start by building the skins and that’s what I did. And, um, I’ll make a little how-to on that. But anyway, I got the, I got the, the sheeting actually on the bottom of the, of the right hand panel now. And that’s, uh, that’s actually setting up as I, as I speak here. Oh, that’s nice. Yeah. Next will be, uh, to cut the control surfaces out on that one and, uh, start the hinging process on that one too. I, I do anticipate it going a lot faster this time, uh, cause I know there was some stuff that I could do ahead of time, uh, some stuff that I could build ahead of time. So I wouldn’t have to worry about it after cutting the, uh, the surfaces off. So I did that. And, um, I think, I think it’s going to go a lot quicker.

Ron: Oh, that’s nice. That’ll be cool. So I’ve never sheeted like, you know, wing, like you’re talking about, and I know we’ll get into it more in depth later, but what’s a, what’s a general overview of how you do that?

Tom: Well, basically you just glue, you know, edge glue, uh, whatever thickness sheets you’re going to, uh, plan on using. You know, they, I think about the widest, uh, you can buy balsa sheets now, six inches wide, I think. So if you’re covering, you know, if you’re sheeting a wing that’s, you know, got a 12 inch cord, you’re going to need at least two pieces of sheeting, you know, and, uh, and I like to, to do it in one sheet. I don’t like to sheet, uh, the wing in sections. So I edge glue, you know, however many sheets it takes to cover the wing, uh, to build the skin. And then once that is, uh, once that’s dry, I’ll sand it smooth. And then, um, basically just apply adhesive either to the open framework, you know, the ribs and the spars and whatnot, or the foam, uh, core, uh, and, you know, lay the sheeting on there and weight it down and let it cure. That’s, that’s basically that’s, that’s all there is to it.

Ron: Oh, okay. So what kind of glue do you use then? Like on the edges, do you use a wood glue or do you use like a super glue or what?

Tom: I I’m old school. I like yellow carpenter’s glue. Uh, it sands easy. Yeah. It takes a little more time and it’s, you know, you don’t get that instant, you know, gratification of having it done as soon as you, you know, put the glue on it. But, um, it makes for a smoother joint. I think it makes for a better looking joint. It’s easier to sand. And like I said, CA, you know, if you’ve ever glued two sheets of a balsa together with CA, it creates a hard spot where the seam is. Yeah. And depending on the, on the sanding apparatus that you’re using, you know, that, that hard CA doesn’t sand as easy as the balsa around it. So usually what you’ll end up with, especially if you’re using like a, a foam sanding block or, or something that maybe your hand or whatever, you’ll actually get a raised seam where that hard CA is because it didn’t sand down as fast as the balsa around it. So that’s why I like to use wood glue.

Ron: Well, I would think too, with as hard as it would get, uh, you know, like the CA dries pretty, pretty hard. It’s not going to have any give in it that it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t make the bend as well as like a, a glued joint with wood glue.

Tom: Yeah, that’s true. Yep. That’s, that’s absolutely true. Luckily, you know, most wings, they don’t have a lot of sharp corners that you have to go around. Um, but yeah, you know, if you have that, that CA and that seam, that seam is not going to be flexible at all.

Ron: Yeah. Well, especially cause it doesn’t like when you use CA, doesn’t it like actually get into the wood a little bit and kind of wick into it.

Tom: Yeah, it wicks into the wood. Yep.

Ron: So if you’re trying to get it around a, you know, a curve on a wing rib or something, you might not be able to get that to lay, uh, to lay flat like you need it to. Right. So, yeah, I guess it is better than, um, you know, to take your time and, and let it dry overnight or something and not try and rush through it.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, I, I’ve gotten, as I get older, I get, I get more patient. So now I don’t, I don’t have to have that, uh, that instant, you know, got to get this done so I can move on to the next step. I, you know, I can let it, I can let it cure overnight and it’s fine. I’m not in a hurry.

Ron: That comes with maturity, I guess. Old age.

Tom: I suppose. I suppose it does.

Ron: Well, then you also told me a couple of days ago that you, uh, you, what, you started on another, another project then since this one was kind of in the, in the throes of drying and you, you were, well, so ready for something new.

Tom: Yeah. Well, not, not, it’s not a new project. It’s, uh, it’s actually a project that I had started before I took on this flying wing project. Uh, and it was actually on my building table. I had to clear it off my building table to bring this one on. Uh, but it’s a, it’s an old, uh, Lanier, uh, it’s an, it’s called the invader. And this is probably a, an airplane kit from the early seventies and, uh, it’s all plastic. It’s a, it’s a foam wing, but it’s, it’s a, it’s a molded fuselage and the foam core wing is actually covered with a product that, uh, Lanier called AeroSkin.

Ron: I know what you’re talking about now. You showed that to me before when I was over at your house. I didn’t realize that’s the one you were talking about until now. Okay.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah.

Ron: That’s a neat looking airplane.

Tom: Yeah, I think so. I think, uh, I, uh, I, you know, you give me a hard time about, about pilot figures and airplanes and the crazy things I put into the canopy. So this time I kind of looked around, I didn’t find any, any pilots here in the, in the workshop. So I thought, you know, I’ll just tint the canopy and not put a pilot in there. And I thought, well, instead of tinting the canopy, maybe I’ll just black it out, you know, and then I’m looking through my paint and I’m, you know, I used to paint RC car bodies too. And I have this, uh, color changing paint. I thought, wow, that’d be kind of cool. I’ll just, you know, paint the inside of the canopy with this color changing paint. And that way I don’t have to put a pilot in there. So I did that and I was really, really tickled with how it turned out. So yeah, you sent me a picture.

Ron: It turned out good. I like that.

Tom: So, um, yeah, so I’ll, you know, when I get the, uh, electronics all installed and, um, I’m almost done with that. Actually, I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to paint the entire airframe. Um, and I think I’m going to go with like a Vietnam kind of a camo, you know, kind of a OD green and sand color camouflage on the top. And then maybe a, like a lot of light gray or maybe a duck egg blue, something on the bottom. Cause it looks like a jet. It looks kind of like a, you know, a Vietnam era jet kind of thing. I think it’ll look cool.

Ron: Yeah, that’ll be neat. I don’t, I guess I don’t remember exactly what that looked like. I’ll have to look it up because it was, uh, I remember it looked kind of sleek, but I didn’t get the, I didn’t get like the jet vibe. I got more of like a, a stunt plane type vibe, but I didn’t see the wings or anything either.

Tom: It really reminds me of, of, uh, of a pattern plane, like a Phoenix seven. Um, it has a double tapered wing and it’s a very slender fuselage and, um, but it has some molded in details. Like it has these jet exhaust back, like where an F4 would have jet exhausts and these weird kind of jet intake looking things. And I don’t know, it’s something different. And if you, anybody listen, just Google Lanier invader and, uh, there’s not, you probably won’t get too many hits. It’s, it’s an old airplane. There’s not too many of them around anymore, I think. But, uh, yeah, it’s kind of cool looking. I think it’ll look cool when it’s done.

Ron: Yeah. I can’t wait to see that one too. So actually for everybody that that’s listening, they probably don’t realize whenever you put pilots in an airplane, most of the ones that I’ve seen you do have been stuffed animals. So usually, because I, so I guess the only thing I can figure is, you know, your kids are older now, so I guess they don’t have any stuffed animals you can steal anymore to put in them. So you, you just have to black them out.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, pilot figures are kind of expensive, you know, I mean, geez, to go to the hobby shop, they’re 12, 15 bucks for a, you know, a 40 size pilot figure. So I just go up to the kid’s room and, you know, whatever stuffed animal they’re not playing with anymore, I, you know, chop the head off and stuff it in underneath the canopy.

Ron: Well, come over here sometime and you can go through Piper’s stuff. I’m sure she’s got a whole bunch of, uh, of stuffed animals that she will never miss. And, uh, it’ll be good to get them to fly around a little bit.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah.

Ron: But don’t forget too, we have, we have the 3D printer. So if you ever want to print something, you can find something and, and print.

Tom: That’s true. Yep.

Ron: So, yeah, I don’t know. Um, so what else? I mean, have you hadn’t had time to do anything else then or is that about all?

Tom: Well, that’s, that’s pretty much it. I mean, I, I took our own advice, you know, off of our, uh, our episode about, uh, pre-flights and I’ve been doing some air aircraft maintenance. Uh, you know, I’ve been, uh, kind of going through all my airplanes and, you know, cycling batteries, things like that, and going over, you know, airframes, cleaning them and checking all the hardware and stuff like that. Just trying to get everything ready to, to fly for the season.

Ron: Um, yeah, that’s a good idea. I mean, this is a perfect time to do it. So.

Tom: Right.

Ron: Yep. That’s a, that’s a, that’s a good thing to do. I’ve gone through a couple of the ones I have, um, not nearly all of them. Cause I know I’m not going to get to flying all of them this year. Um, it’s just, it’s not a bad idea to maintain them. Well, I, I guess, but I, it’s not like I’m swimming in a whole bunch of extra time right now. So no, I understand if, if I, if I had the time and all that, that would be awesome. And then I probably would fly him this year actually. But you know, I, I, I’m, I don’t want to say disappointed, but I’m surprised by, you know, when all this started, the lockdown and all that, I really expected to have more time than I have now. So, you know, work is still full time. So I’m, I don’t get any time there, but by the time we get home, it’s, it’s just time to go outside, work on stuff. And I don’t think I was expecting the, the warmup, even though obviously this time of year it always happens, but I don’t think I was quite thinking through all the way to what it was going to be like. So. No, I understand what you’re saying. It’s okay. Well, and you’re, you’re going to be.

Tom: The warm weather kind of took me by surprise too.

Ron: Yeah. One, it’s probably not here for a good yet, but we’ll see. Um, but you’re going to be going back to work too, I heard. So.

Tom: Yeah, I gotta start tomorrow. Um, and it’ll be, uh, uh, the, the job I’ll be doing is, is probably going to keep me, it’ll be every day. Probably I won’t get any days off, you know, for the duration that this particular operation is going on. So, um, but it’ll be regular hours, you know, go in at seven and I think we’ll be done by five every day. So at least there’ll be some kind of normalcy to it.

Ron: Yeah. Just unfortunate that includes the weekends and all that. So.

Tom: Yeah. Yeah. It is what it is. I, I’ve had a pretty good run. I can’t complain.

Ron: Yeah. We, we should have recorded more of these then before, before, uh, you had to go back to work. I, I regret not having any extra done. Like we, you know, we originally planned on having two, three, four, maybe even five of these, you know, in the bank, if you will, before we, before we released them. And we have not stuck to that, but you know, I, it’s more important, I think, to get some of these out and kind of get going, even if they’re not as long, you know, as some of the other ones are, I’d, I’d rather get something out every week than, than not. So.

Tom: Right. No, I agree. We’ll, we’ll get, we’ll get some done. Like, like I said, my, uh, I’ll be done by probably at the latest five 30, six o’clock every day. So, and where I’ll be working is pretty close to home. So I’ll still be able to record in the evenings.

Ron: Okay. Well, good deal. Um, well, anything else you want to talk about then, or you just want to kind of call it quits for today and start over tomorrow?

Tom: I think I’ve, uh, given a pretty good, uh, pretty good update. I think, uh, everybody’s up to speed with where I’m at in the shop right now.

Ron: All right. Well then, um, until next time I’m Ron. I’m Tom. Thanks for listening. I’ll see you next time. Bye.

Announcer: We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC plane lab podcast for topics, 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 landings be gentle.

Ron & Tom: Bye. Bye. Bye.