Conference vmszoo::rc

That brightened my afternoon 8^)

Now really - Boooo hissss. 

hey, maybe we start a note stream on the dumbest construction error. This one
is going to hard to top, i think...

md

    
    >This one is going to hard to top, i think...
    
    I haven't finished the model yet........     8^)
    
    Nigel
    	
    

    This is a great topic, Nigel.  I'm sure we're going to get a lot of
    laughs out of hearing about each other's faux-pas.
    
    Here's one that came to mind when I read yours.
    
    When I built the Balsa USA Taube, which by the way is _not_ a
    beginner's kit by any stretch of the imagination, it was my third
    airplane, so I was still pretty new to the hobby.  I thought I had
    things pretty well in hand, and was rather proud of how well I had
    managed to build the fuse with very meger instructions.  Just as I had
    completely enclosed the fuse, I realized that I had forgotten to
    install the pushrod housings in the fuse!!  Now what?  It took me a
    while to make the decision about whether to do surgury on the fuse to
    install the pushrods, or to figure out a way to install them blind.
    
    I made the decision not to do major surgury.  However, during the next
    several hours of construction, while I essentially installed the
    pushrods using a technique that was similar to arthroscopic surgury, 
    I did manage to invent a few new words to add to the king's English.
    
    Yeah, we sure do get into tough situations, sometimes.
    
    OK, come on youz guys.  Let's hear the rest of the stories.
    
    -Joe 

    Well........the most recent one was about 3 weeks ago. I'm building a
    new wing for my Tippo pattern plane. Somewhat different section, more
    area, and retracts.
    
    I spent a couple of hours one evening ever so carefully cutting out one
    of the wing servo cutouts. I really took my time. Made sure everything
    was EXACT for a good servo fit. I was proud of the job I had done.
    
    Then I discovered that I had made the whole in the TOP of the wing.
    
    A couple of winters ago, several of us got together and went to the
    Gardner field to do some Gremlin flying. I tried flying without gloves
    and froze my hands so bad they HURT. Once the pain went away, I decided
    to make cutouts in the thumbs of the gloves so that I could wear them
    but still "feel" the sticks.
    
    So, I took my exacto knife out of my field box and went back to the
    car. Did one glove and then started on the second. Cut through the
    material and INTO MY THUMB. I was still wearing the damn thing.
    
    One time I built a little free flight glider and built 2 left wings.

   (You forgot the polyester resin on the Gremlin).
    
    My favorite, and I have MANY, was when I tried to put 16 hinges in with
    one batch of 5-minute, I finished up with a 1/2" gap between my ailerons
    and the wing. Seal that sucker with scotch tape if you can.
    
    
    My other building error was a Gremlin................... :-)
    
    E.
    
    Have a festive fourth! :-0

    Come on, that's not that bad.  You could have built two right side
    fuses or two left wings. :-)  (No I've not done it but it's not hard to
    do.)
    
    My first low wing plane (a Super Sportster) gave me a couple of scares. 
    I kept thinking the wing went on the top.  
    
    C
    

    You expect me to ADMIT to worse than that!!
    
    
    Gone flyin'...........
    
    E.

    a) Mixing up a batch of epoxy and putting it on the seat that accepts
       the empennage, then realizing that I had not cut the monocote on
       the bottom of said empennage.  5-minute epoxy. (Seniorita)
    
    b) Going to great pains mounting the servo tray, only to realize that
       I had mounted it backwards, with the throttle servo to the rear
       (fine for a pusher). (Eagle-2)
    
    I'll think of more.

    
    Everyone who built an Ultra Sport knows about those Spars, double at
    the inner end and thinner at the outer. Now I've only built one wing
    when the HLG-mania hit. Immagine all parts for the second half lying at
    the building board pushed beck to gain space for those HLG wings.
    
    When I've built the second HLG wing I was looking for some scrap balsa
    to put underneath the trailing edge to get the undercamber. There it
    was, one obvious scrap piece of hard balsa, ideal for my purposes. And
    the table saw was so close. 
    Some hours later I really kicked my b... when I found exactly the same
    piece of 'scrap' balsa slowly turning my memory back on.....
    
    
    Bernd 
    

    
    Re .8
    
    Eric,
    
    >    You expect me to ADMIT to worse than that!!
    
    Yes.
    
    Nigel.
    

    Obviously you folks back in Britain did not take today off and
    celebrate the American wars of independance. A.K.A. as the American
    revolution, depending upon what lernin' yuh 'ad!.
    
    It is hard to recall many major messes making model missiles merrily
    manifest magnificent renditions of what's in one's mind. My major
    blunders seem to be once I fly them..........
    
    I'm sure one will come to me sooner or later :-).
    
    I guess that using old fuel proofer on a set of glider wings might
    count. The stuff never cured properly and it was alright if you
    transported them with a bit of plastic sheeting between the halves. The
    fun was after the first landing in a grass meadow. Looked like a magnet
    covered in iron filings!.
    
    
    My father in law did a good'un. He sheeted the center section of a set
    of built up wings with the sheeting at the opposite end on the bottom
    to where it was on the top. The best part was that he did the same to
    both panels!.
    
    I fixed it by sheeting all four ends!.
    
    E.

    Good start to a new note, Nigel.
    
    I nearly did the same as you a couple of years ago - remembered just in
    time - took the pins out and then put the top sheeting on.
    
    Only problem was the wing was fully sheeted both top and bottom and I
    had forgotten to put the shear webs in before gluing on the top
    sheeting :-(
    
    Brian
    

Now here is a note I can identify with.
I could probably put a meaningful entry in to this one every day.

My first scale plane was an Art Chester Jeep.  Half way into building
it I purchased a new house and moved.  Then I had to build a new workshop
and eventually I completed it.  Then I showed it to a couple folks
before the first flight.  Finally one day I was setting up the adjustments
on the radio and I noticed strange behavior of the ailerons.

When I pushed the stick to one side both ailerons went up and when
I pushed it the other way both ailerons went down.  I had not hooked
the ailerons up properly and I buried the servo and all the linkage
inside the wing.  So I had to do minor surgery to correct the error.

We all have zapped ourselves to our balsa work at one time or another.
The worst I ever did was a couple of months ago when I was sheeting
my tug boat.  I ended up with both hands zapped to tug boat and my wife
was out shopping so I couldn't yell for help.  Now you have to picture
me trying to move thru the shop with a 4 foot tug boat hull and trying
to reach the debonder with what little free movement I had with some extra
fingers that weren't zapped down.  It took me several minutes to get the
debonder and of course it never works as good as you would like anyhow.

Last night I was blowing in the exhaust/pressure line of a fuel tank
to see if it was clear - as soon as I stopped blowing it blew back and
I got a mouth full of glow fuel.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################

    should see the tears in my eyes....
    

    I knew that Kay would have a million of these. Smiles all round. I
    predict that this will be the best topic ever.
    
    E.

    
    I did it AGAIN! Same model, different cock-up.
    
    I marked the position for the throttle snake on the two formers it has
    to pass through, I measured them carefully, I centered them exactly, I
    drilled the holes accurately, I finished the holes beautifully.
    
    Then I installed BOTH formers the wrong way round in the fuselage, and
    had to dig two more holes out on the opposite side of the formers,
    working with a mini drill inside the fuse! Oh &*#)()#%*&!
    
    Maybe I should stick my planes together with Blu-Tack, it'd be easier
    to correct my mistooks!
    
    Nigel (who's beginning to wonder if the Bi-Fly ever will!).
    

    I've found it necessary to mark everything Left, Right, Up, Down, etc
    to try to prevent these screw-ups.  Don't forget Front, Back.  Since I
    end up building in short sessions lately, it's even more important to
    mark things because they sit for a day or two before installation.  I'm
    usually on the tired side when I'm building and very prone to mistakes.
    
    
    Charlie
    

    The laughing is starting to die down... there must be more bloopers..
    
    (Come on guys.. I'm hoping this is going to fill a column or two in my
    club mag..)
    
    Trev

You guys are making me feel a whole lot better!  Thanks.

    I was REMINDED of this one.
    
    My very first Gremlin was going to be a thing of beauty. I was really
    going to take my time, do a good building job, GLASS the entire wing
    (this was going to be a 32 powered version), and do a super covering
    job.
    
    While out shopping at the local hardware store, I spied a large can of
    stuff to glass the wing with that was considerably cheaper than the
    small bottles of epoxy I had been buying. Plus this stuff should last
    me about a year.
    
    So the wing is  all built and sanded nice and smooth. I take the time
    to lay the cloth out just right, cut it to size, then mix up the stuff
    and apply liberally.
    
    As I was standing there admiring my work, I start to notice that the
    glass cloth "looks" like it's beginning to sag. I looked at it a little
    closer and decided that it was just because the cloth was wet. After
    another couple of minutes, the cloth was sagging more......and more
    and more. After another couple of minutes, the foam was below the balsa
    leading and trailing edges. My Gremlin was melting away.
    
    Turns out the stuff I had bought was Polyester Resin which does an 
    excellent job of EATING FOAM. Polyester FINISHING resin would have been
    ok, but that's not what I got.
    
    My first Gremlin ended up in the trash bin.

    Oh ....  Steve's note just reminded me of another one...

    A few years ago, I bought a Ninja slope glider from Steve that he
    built - a nice building and covering job.  After my first time at
    the slope, the nose breaks off (incompetent pilot doesn't have
    enough wind).  "No problem!" says I, I'll just peel back some of the
    covering, CA it back together, and iron the covering back down.

    When I peel back the covering, I notice that it hasn't stuck very
    well.  Then I notice that the builder (I won't mention Steve's name)
    forgot to remove the backing from the covering!!!  :-)

    Most slope soaring is done around water. Leaving the plastic backing
    on was extra WATER PROOFING should you have an accident. 8^)
    
    Steve

    
    I just remembered one from my free flight days. I was building a rubber
    powered ROG job, it was a New Zealand design, whose name escapes me.
    
    The fuselage was the usual two frames, joined by something like 1/8th
    square balsa strips. The fuselage was say 1.5 inches wide.
    
    I cut the strips 1.5 inches long, and glued them all firmly in place,
    then joined the tail, cut the remaining strips to length, fitted them,
    and sat back to admire my handiwork.
    
    It looked kinda, ummmm, fat? Well, you probably spotted the deliberate
    mistake, I cut the strips to the total width of the fuse, forgetting
    the width of each fuselage side! Groan........
    
    I think this fuse still sits in my cupboard at home, I never had the
    energy to finish the model after that!
    
    Nigel.
    

    I'm not sure if this realy belongs here, but this amusing piece was a
    contribution for the forth coming  MVSA News Letter (my local Soaring
    Club).
    
    The author Liz is a mature single lady who was new to the hobby about a
    two years ago and has had a number of problems not least coming to
    grips with building and the crafts involved.
     
    
    
    
    
    
Exceptional Glider Builder

by Liz Douglas				

Aug 93

I flatter myself that some of you may have noticed my absence from the flying
field this summer. In practice, I suspect, you will only have been aware that
"Henry" and "Jim" have not been in their usual place lazing about the sky a
good 1000 metres higher than anyone else!

The rumour that I have given up is totally unfounded. My absence has been due
to a crash landing in early May, of my left foot. Three months later the nature
of the damage is still uncertain, sprained ankle - yes, other damage still being
ascertained, amputation unlikely.

Well, I here you say, be positive, if you're not flying you have all that time 
for building. That thought occured to me too. "Algernon" and "Bertrum" were 
waiting patiently in their boxes and by July, I thought, I could be burst back
onto the scene with double the fleet.

"Bertum" is a 1.5m Czech chuck glider that I am converting to radio control.
Built up wing with plastic ribs, glass tube fuz and comprehensive instrutions 
in Czech, German and English. "Algernon" is a 3m Algebra, foam wing and 
glass fuz.

Well I don't know how many of you have tried building two gliders at the same   
time...or...tried building with an injured foot on the building board (the 
foot had to be kept raised). Its an interesting experience.

It required a confusingly large range of glues - cyano and kicker for the 
plastic ribs, PVA for the wooden parts, two-part epoxy resin for the foam 
wings,Balsaloc for the Fibafilm covering and, two-part glass resin for the 
glasscloth covering. I don't know if you've tried using kicker and Balsaloc 
together or mixing PVA with hardner? The sole of my injured foot seemed to 
have a mangetic attraction for the non-drying mixes and, weeks later I'm 
still finding the sticky foot prints in places I never knew I'd been.

Then ther was the mass of parts. I decided to make it easy for myself and 
build the various stages at the same time. With hindsight, this may have 
been a mistake. It proved only too easy when I glued "Bertrum's" wings to 
the joiners and boxes (1.5m span) to then pick up the entire wing and glue 
it against the port (that's the left) Algebra wing (also 1.5m). Clearly I 
got the glue mixed right for once because none of the joiners now came 
apart. I believe the technical term for this is polyhedral.

Putting the ballast tubes in was a bit of a problem as the metal tubing 
supplied with "Algernon" was too great in diameterfor "bertrum's" wing but 
his glass tube fuz works just as well. This left me with two elevators. No 
problem here, the Algebra elevator works as normal while the chuck 
glider elevator, designed for quick descent, mounted in front of the fin 
takes the place of brakes.

The sad part of this tale is that I have only increased my fleet by one. 
But, on a happier note I should have a real competition winner. "Algertrum" 
has taken the best from two excellent design sources. All I need now is to 
separate my foot from the building board - talk about flat feet.

[I'm not sure if this is a case of two into one won't go or perhaps Liz's 
last hobby involved telling tall stories... Ed]