Episode 7: Updates #2

[00:00:14] We'll see you next time.

[00:00:35] We're your hosts, Ron and Tom.

[00:00:38] 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.

[00:01:07] Do you have anything you want to add to that, Tom?

[00:01:10] 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.

[00:01:22] Yeah, I agree. I'm very happy with how this is turning out. I wasn't sure what to expect when we started, but I think with the feedback and the numbers we've been having, it's worth continuing. Yeah, I think so. Hopefully, it'll grow from here, and we'll continue to get more of an audience and more feedback and just have some fun with it. Sounds good to me.

[00:01:46] Yeah. So, Ron, what'd you get done this week?

[00:01:49] Okay. So, nothing. It was, it was, okay. So, my problem was that it's been.

[00:01:59] Well, you shouldn't, 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.

[00:02:06] That is true. Yeah. So, I've been working outside pretty much every night this week. It's been a beautiful week here.

[00:02:12] Yeah, fixing us up a nice place to fly.

[00:02:15] Yeah, I have gotten out a couple times. I got the Super Sportster out. I think I went through, I actually do think I went through two batteries on it.

[00:02:24] Well, see, you did more than I did. I haven't even flown yet.

[00:02:27] Well, but that's circumstances. you've had a lot more time to work on stuff than I have. True. But I, I did get out and get a couple flights on that. So, that was nice. I haven't flown that one since last year. And that's, I like that plane. It's fun to fly. It's very easy. well-behaved, of course. It's just a good old plane. Yeah, but other than that, I did, I got some trees burnt.

[00:02:57] We had a bunch of stuff to do outside just from, 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. Cool. Mostly because it's going to be cold and rainy this weekend.

[00:03:15] So, it'll be a good day for that for me. Yeah, the forecast doesn't look good for this weekend.

[00:03:20] Yeah, which is actually good news for me. So, I guess I can't complain.

[00:03:25] It'll keep you inside so you can get some stuff done inside, right?

[00:03:28] 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.

[00:03:39] Oh, yeah. Yeah. They showed up, huh?

[00:03:41] Well, they did. And I was actually a little upset because I was watching the whole week. Monday, they were delivered to the main town that's around us. It's, 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.

[00:04:01] I don't know what took them so long.

[00:04:03] It's not that far away.

[00:04:04] I know.

[00:04:05] It showed up there. 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 in the morning, and then they deliver it to us in the afternoon. But for some reason, it sat there for four days before it got delivered here. So, I was a little upset about that. But what? I have it now. I couldn't have used them anyway if I had them earlier.

[00:04:27] And that probably avoided the temptation of coming inside early and working on it. So, I will get to install those this weekend and get everything, put back together and hopefully finished on this airplane. But we'll see how that goes.

[00:04:42] What about you?

[00:04:43] What have you been up to?

[00:04:45] Well, I mean, still working on this flying wing project. I did manage to get the left-hand panel pretty much ready for finished sanding. Got the control surfaces cut off of it and hinged. Got the hinges working, which was a real chore. Got the flaps hinged and working the way they should. So, yeah, actually, I mean, it doesn't look like I got a lot done on the wing, but I really did. And these little details are the things that really consume the most amount of time,?

[00:05:17] Yeah. Well, now since you have the one pretty much finished, not finished, but pretty much finished. Right. Do you think the second one is going to go a lot easier for you?

[00:05:28] Yeah, I think so. I glued the sheets together to, to build the bottom sheeting, which I think I'm going to do a little how-to on that here, sometime soon. I took a bunch of pictures as I went.

[00:05:44] Oh, okay.

[00:05:44] Because a lot of, a lot of our airplanes today are, have balsa sheeted either foam wings or just balsa sheeted, 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 I'll make a little how-to on that. But anyway, I got the sheeting actually on the bottom of the right-hand panel now. And that's actually setting up as I speak here.

[00:06:12] Oh, that's nice.

[00:06:13] And then next, yeah, next will be to cut the control surfaces out on that one and start the hinging process on that one, too. I do anticipate it going a lot faster this time because I know there was some stuff that I could do ahead of time, some stuff that I could build ahead of time so I wouldn't have to worry about it after cutting the surfaces off. So, I did that, and I think it's going to go a lot quicker.

[00:06:37] Oh, that's nice. That'll be cool. So, I've never sheeted, like, a wing like you're talking about. And I know we'll get into it more in depth later. But what's a general overview of how you do that?

[00:06:49] Well, basically, you just glue, edge glue whatever thickness sheets you're going to plan on using. I think about the widest you can buy balsa sheets now is six inches wide, I think. So, if you're covering, if you're sheeting a wing that's, got a 12-inch cord, you're going to need at least two pieces of sheeting,. And I like to do it in one sheet. I don't like to sheet the wing in sections.

[00:07:19] So, I edge glue, however many sheets it takes to cover the wing to build the skin. And then once that's dry, I'll sand it smooth and then basically just apply adhesive either to the open framework, the ribs and the spars and whatnot, or the foam core. And, lay the sheeting on there and weight it down and let it cure. Basically, that's all there is to it.

[00:07:47] 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?

[00:07:53] I'm old school. I like yellow carpenter's glue. It sands easy. Yeah, it takes a little more time. you don't get that instant, gratification of having it done as soon as you, put the glue on it. But it makes for a smoother joint, I think. It makes for a better looking joint. It's easier to sand. Like I said, CA, if you've ever glued two sheets of balsa together, with CA, it creates a hard spot where the seam is.

[00:08:21] Yeah.

[00:08:21] And depending on the sanding apparatus that you're using, 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 foam sanding block 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.

[00:08:50] Well, I would think, too, as hard as it would get, like the CA dries pretty hard. It's not going to have any give in it that it wouldn't make the bend as well as like a glued joint with wood glue.

[00:09:03] Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Luckily, most wings, they don't have a lot of sharp corners that you have to go around. But, yeah, if you have that CA and that seam, that seam is not going to be flexible at all.

[00:09:20] Yeah. Well, especially because 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?

[00:09:27] Yeah, it wicks into the wood.

[00:09:27] So, if you're trying to get it around a, a curve on a wing rib or something, you might not be able to get that to lay flat like you need it to. Right. So, yeah, I guess it is better than, to take your time and let it dry overnight or something and not try and rush through it.

[00:09:44] But, yeah, yeah, and I've gotten, as I get older, I get more patient. So, now I don't have to have that instant, got to get this done so I can move on to the next step. Yeah. I can let it cure overnight and it's fine.

[00:10:03] I'm not in a hurry. Well, that comes with maturity, I guess, old age.

[00:10:07] I suppose. I suppose it does.

[00:10:09] Well, then you also told me a couple days ago that you, what, you started on another project then since this one was kind of in the throes of drying and you were ready for something new?

[00:10:21] And, yeah, well, it's not a new project. It's actually a project that I had started before I took on this flying wing project and it was actually on my building table. I had to clear it off my building table to bring this one on. But it's an old Lanier. It's called the Invader. And this is probably an airplane kit from the early 70s. And it's all plastic. It's a foam wing, but it's a molded fuselage.

[00:10:55] And the foam core wing is actually covered with a product that Lanier called AeroSkin.

[00:11:01] 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.

[00:11:08] Yeah.

[00:11:08] That's a neat looking airplane.

[00:11:10] Yeah, I think so. So, I think, you give me a hard time 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 pilots here in the workshop. So, I thought, 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,. And then I'm looking through my paint.

[00:11:36] And I'm, I used to paint RC car bodies, too. And I have this color-changing paint. I thought, wow, that'd be kind of cool. I'll just, 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.

[00:11:54] Yeah, you sent me a picture. It turned out good. I like that.

[00:11:57] Yeah. So, yeah. So, when I get the electronics all installed, and I'm almost done with that, actually. I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to paint the entire airframe. And I think I'm going to go with, like, a Vietnam kind of a camo, kind of an OD green and sand color camouflage on the top. And then maybe, like, a light gray or maybe a duck egg blue, something on the bottom. Because it looks like a jet.

[00:12:26] It looks kind of like a, a Vietnam-era jet kind of thing. I think it'll look cool.

[00:12:33] 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, 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 stunt plane type vibe. But I didn't see the wings or anything either, so I don't know.

[00:12:48] It really reminds me of a pattern plane, like a Phoenix 7. It has a double tapered wing, and it's a very slender fuselage. But it has some molded-in details, like it has these jet exhausts back, like where an F-4 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 listening, just Google Lanier Invader. And there's not, you probably won't get too many hits. It's an old airplane.

[00:13:22] There's not too many of them around anymore, I think. But, yeah, it's kind of cool looking. I think it'll look cool when it's done.

[00:13:28] Yeah. I can't wait to see that one, too. So, actually, for everybody 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. Yeah, usually. So, I guess the only thing I can figure is, 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 just have to black them out.

[00:13:52] Yeah.

[00:13:53] Yeah.

[00:13:54] So, pilot figures are kind of expensive,. I mean, geez, to go to the hobby shop, they're $12, $15 for, a 40-size pilot figure. So, I just go up to the kids' room and, whatever stuffed animal they're not playing with anymore, I, chop the head off and stuff it underneath the canopy.

[00:14:12] Well, come over here sometime. You can go through Piper's stuff. I'm sure she's got a whole bunch of stuffed animals that she will never miss. And it'll be good to get them to fly around a little bit.

[00:14:22] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:24] But don't forget, too, we have the 3D printer. So, if you ever want to print something, you can find something and print.

[00:14:31] That's true. Yep.

[00:14:32] So, yeah. I don't know. So, what else? I mean, have you had time to do anything else then? Or is that about all?

[00:14:39] Well, that's pretty much it. I mean, I took our own advice, off of our episode about pre-flights. And I've been doing some aircraft maintenance. I've been kind of going through all my airplanes and, cycling batteries, things like that. And going over, airframes, cleaning them and checking all the hardware, stuff like that. Just trying to get everything ready to fly for the season.

[00:15:04] Yeah. That's a good idea. I mean, this is a perfect time to do it.

[00:15:08] Right.

[00:15:08] Yeah. That's a good thing to do. I've gone through a couple of the ones I have. not nearly all of them, because I know I'm not going to get to flying all of them this year. it's just not going to happen. Well, it's still not a bad idea to maintain them.

[00:15:24] Well, I guess.

[00:15:27] But it's not like I'm swimming in a whole bunch of extra time right now.

[00:15:32] No, I understand.

[00:15:32] If, if I, if I had the time and all that, that would be awesome. And then I probably would fly them this year, actually. But, I, I, I'm, I don't want to say disappointed, but I'm surprised by, when all this started, the lockdown and all that, I really expected to have more time than I have now. 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.

[00:15:56] 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.

[00:16:08] No, I understand what you're saying.

[00:16:09] It's okay. Well, and you're, you're going to be.

[00:16:12] The warm weather kind of took me by surprise too.

[00:16:14] Yeah. Well, and it's probably not here for good yet, but we'll see. but you're going to be going back to work too, I heard. So.

[00:16:21] Yeah, I gotta start tomorrow. and it'll be, 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, for the duration that this particular operation is going on. So, but it'll be regular hours, 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.

[00:16:47] Yeah. Just unfortunate that includes the weekends and all that. So.

[00:16:51] Yeah. Yeah. It is what it is. I, I've had a pretty good run. I can't complain.

[00:16:56] Yeah. We, we, we should have recorded more of these then before, before, you had to go back to work. I, I regret not having any extra done. Like we, we originally planned on having two, three, four, maybe even five of these, in the bank, if you will, before we, before we released them.

[00:17:12] And we have not stuck to that, but I, it's more important, I think, to get some of these out and, and kind of get going, even if they're not as long, as some of the other ones are, I'd, I'd rather get something out every week than, than not. So.

[00:17:25] So, right. No, I agree. We'll, we'll get, we'll get some done. Like, like I said, my, 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.

[00:17:41] Okay. Well, good deal. well, anything else you want to talk about that, or you just want to kind of call it quits for today and start over tomorrow?

[00:17:49] I think I've, given a pretty good, pretty good update. I think, everybody's up to speed with where I'm at in the shop right now.

[00:17:57] All right. Well then, until next time I'm Ron. I'm Tom. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.

[00:18:03] We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC plane lab podcast for topic suggestions, to ask questions or to give anything back, 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.