Twisted Sticks July 2007 Newsletter

 

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July.

 

Club picnic.

Boy was it windy.  My hat blew off three times before I finally put it away, and you guys say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  Everyone was huddled in the shed to eat.  Les parked his van just outside the shed and it was used as the condiment zone.  The picnic tables were useless.  If you put potato chips on your plate they blew off before you could reach the shelter of the shed!  Les did a great job grilling and everyone brought their dish to pass.  We had a great time.  I left early trying to make it home before it rained.  I rode my bike to the event on tires that were as bald as a baby's behind.  Motorcycles get a little squirrelly in the rain riding on slicks!  Yah guys I've got new tires on it now.

 

Brotherly love.
 

I've been flying 6 years, all right you wise acres I've been attempting to fly for 6 years and I've never seen a mid air at the field.  I still haven't seen one yet but I heard that Barry was flying along minding his own business when Dale pulled up into his prop cutting the tail off from his own plane.  Barry was able to land while Dale's plane became a lawn dart.  It's hard to fly without the tail!

 

What would you think of three trainers biting the dust with in a half-hour time frame on a Thursday night?  Conclusion

 

John Shears went to get back into the air after the repair and it was discovered that his range was less than 12 feet!  Something was wrong with his transmitter.  Guess what dummy did not do a range check before he flew John's plane?  John got his transmitter fixed and Dale trimmed the aircraft out.  It was flying great when the wings came apart.  It seems no where in the instructions did it tell John to use epoxy to glue the wing halves together!  The story does have a happy ending because Russ took the fuselage home and rebuilt it using his favorite material door skin.  Russ did a great job on the repair it looked really good.  It makes you wonder why Russ doesn't repair his own planes to look as nice.  (Hey Russ I just had to get that dig in.  :)

 

Okay - onto the next.  After Al put his into the side of the hill on landing, he repaired it and it looks great!  It flew great too.  I still haven't seen his Sig 4 Star, but I might have to get to the field a little more often.  :

 

Last but not least Dale put his in after the engine died on take off.  I believe Dale told me he had his repaired too.  When I was out to the field he was flying a new Dazzler in Orange and Black livery, just a gorgeous plane!   Could be I like the orange and black scheme so much because that was the colors on my Harley Sturgis or it could be because it is so easy to see in the air.  :

 

Conclusion Three down and three back up.  Couldn't ask for better than that.

 

My John Deer stick is back flying again also.  The aluminum gear I bought at Armstrong's was too wide to fit the fuselage and too narrow to bolt on, but at $10.00 the price was right.  I took it to work and one of the guys at the test lab heli-arced it.  We took the piece left over and welded it behind the shortened center, which made the bolt on foot print as wide as the original.  I'll have to see how long it takes me to destroy this one.

 

Barney the Purple hog.

 

Over the last couple of winters Vance has been working on blowing up Sig's Hog to a 90 size air craft.  This is his second plan's build of a Hog.  His first was the original size but built from contest balsa and lightened as much as possible.  This is his second effort.  He took his original plans and blew them up on a copy machine and then taped them together to cut his parts from it.  The result is covered entirely in Purple Monokote.  It's big, it's bad and it's purple hence the Barney moniker.  He has an OS .91 FX on it.  Vance had some problems with the OS when he blew a head gasket.  The head bolts were loose.  You ask how it flies.  It fly's like a Hog, great.