I took a trip to Tucson to meet my birth mother for the first time (who lives in Benson). I took three planes with me on the trip - my original Swizzle Stick (that I built about 20 years ago, around Labor Day), my Stick 30, and my Eagle II. The whole time I was in Tucson, I didn't fly. UGH!

But on my way back home, I stopped to see a friend in Bakersfield, and went flying on Wednesday, September 10. I flew my Stick 30 through two tanks of fuel. It has only a 4-ounce tank, but the O.S. 26 4-stroke diesel engine on the plane can fly for 30 minutes or more on 4 ounces. But it was running a bit rich, so I didn't get quite that much time on it, but what time I did get was a blast as usual.

I love to fly that little airplane! The wing is tweaked, so it can do maneuvers that I just don't see any other plane do (at least not any 3-channel airplanes). I like to do tail slides with it, and basically a lot of wild stalls. Especially when the breeze is blowing.

We had a nice steady breeze that day, so I was having a good time. I was a bit rusty, but it came back to me quickly. It wasn't long before I was greasing on the landings again. I have done so many touch-and-goes on that plane, that the prop was getting pretty badly worn. Just this week, I took the engine off the Stick 30 and put it on the Eagle II, and replaced the prop. I didn't realize I was flying with a 10x6 on that thing. No wonder the prop was so chewed up! There's not much ground clearance.

As the sun began to dip near the horizon, I cleaned up the Stick 30 and put it away and prepared the Eagle II for flight. As usual, there were problems with this plane, but I finally managed to get one night flight in after it was completely dark. It took that long to iron out the problems enough to fly.

There was a long-standing problem with the generator on this plane, that was accentuated after I rebuilt the generator and replaced some LEDs on the plane. It was so bad before, that when all the lights were plugged in, there was basically no R/C signal getting through to the receiver. There was a ton of interference from somewhere.

After some troubleshooting, I just decided to replace three other LEDs on the plane that were left-over from a previous lighting configuration. The radio problem seemed to go away at that time. However, on this trip to Bakersfield, the problem appeared again. And it appeared mostly when the wing lights were attached (to complete the lighting circuit).

Another problem was discovered with the wing lights. The connecter wires had chafed and shorted. In hindsight, this could have been contributing to the receiver problem, although the problem still persisted (i.e. a radio ground check failed). We fixed the wiring problem (Dave had his power inverter and soldering iron with him), so that problem was solved. We also put his radio in my plane. My radio is on channel 38, and his is on channel 50. The interference problem was far worse with my radio than it was with his. I couldn't get more than a few steps away before my radio dropped out, but we could go about 25 feet with the channel 50 radio.

The lighting system looked solid now, so we decided to disconnect the troublesome generator. Once we did that, the radio passed the ground (distance) check. So, we decided to get one flight in on battery, alone.

I flew for probably 15 or 20 minutes. It was a good flight. I had been flying all afternoon (not only did I fly my Stick 30, but I also flew Steven's Kadet), so I was a bit fatigued by this point, but I made some landings that were so smooth that the only way we could tell the plane was down was when the wheels started making noise. For some reason, I always seem to do better at night than I do during the day. Perhaps it is because the air is so smooth.

We packed up and left after I got tired of flying and the batteries were starting to drop (i.e. the lights were getting dim). My concentration was spent, and my feet were aching.

I left Bakersfield and got home Friday afternoon (at 2:00 sharp). A couple of days later, I took the O.S. 26 4-stroke out of the Stick 30 and put it in the Eagle II. I want to eventually replace the generator mounting and filter network for the generator on the O.S. 40 2-stroke that I removed from the Eagle. Then I can put that engine on another plane. I have one Stick 40 that is waiting for an engine and generator (my second-oldest, a genuine "Swizzle Stick"). I will be putting an O.S. 25 2-stroke on the Stick 30 (no generator) once I feel I can justify spending $53 for a diesel conversion head for it. That means I have two O.S. 40 2-stroke engines available (dieselized!), so I can pick which one I want to put on the Stick 40.

Now I just need to fly my Eagle II with the O.S. 26 4-stroke engine. It is all bolted up and ready to test. Hopefully, I'll get to do that, soon. I just wish I could fly at night out here somewhere! I really can't wait to get off the peninsula!

- posted by Bill @ 1:23 PM 0 comments