The Wall of Shame

Kim:

Did I not write a graphic verbal description of my "SOS" plane built from a common cedar shingle?

It wasn't built to be "pretty" but to prove a point.

SD

Guess I missed it. I was sipping Folgers early this morning, and blankly rolling this busted crank back and forth, when I was suddenly seized by the need to share my pain...with the world!

Yeah, the last pin I sheared was in a product test for Bernie involving.049 Diesel Conversions. Proves the need for the extra-strength crank !

I have a crankcase and piston/rod that seen some stupid free rpms. Sucked the spring style reed clip off the backplate and wadded it under the rod,, to thoroughly bend the rod and put a big gouge in the crankcase. The piston rod is on my keychain as a reminder as to what free rpms can do.

This was on a RC .049 GTP NISSAN car that cox produced. Still have it.

Well, my 14 year-old Polen Special finally went gopher-hunting for the last time! Flew the better part of my current sequence late yesterday, and had it leveled out, waiting for the engine to die, when the "Up" lead out snapped at the bellcrank! A jolt in my handle, and my old pal cut a hard, outside "quarter-loop" and exploded itself into the grass with an impressive BOOM from it's monokoted wing.

I was half-surprised that ground squirrels didn't pop out of the turf all around me!

Oh well...now, I've got the hardware for my Ringmaster project !

Ouch!

That was a nice looking plane? Kit? By? What engine - Fox?

Cz10 wrote:Ouch!

That was a nice looking plane? Kit? By? What engine - Fox?

loks like an extra 260 but he engine looks like a Fox.

Hey,

The plane is modeled after the "Polen Special", a one-off high performance single seater that resembles an enlarged Bushby Midget Mustang with retractable gear. I don't know the current status of the full scale plane, but it won several awards at Oshkosh over the years.

The engine on the Polen is a Fox .35 I've had since 1974 that apparently doesn't know how old it is. I've just recently gotten serious about making my stunt patterns look better, and had the plane out on a set of 60x.015's when the leadout let go. The two Ringmasters I'm building at the moment will have accessible bellcranks !

The kit was a gift from Dave Shipton, who designed the "Dewey Bird" for Sig. I don't know if he ever marketed it. I used to visit him on his farm in central Illinois, where he operated his shop and a sort of "community museum" from a barn in his back yard. His shop was on the ground floor, and the loft of the barn was packed with thousands of models and parts from full-scale aircraft that belonged to Dave and local model builders.







He hosted many Fly-Ins and Fun-Flys, and I was lucky to attend a couple. In 1997, it seemed to me that control line flying was going extinct, but you couldn't tell it by the Fun-Flys at Dave's farm...he had a large contingent of circle-turners both times I was able to attend.

Dave passed away this past year, and so, another of our beloved Old Crew has gone West.

Nice planes there Kim.

What a great display of models.

Sorry about your plane, we've all been there. At least it was mechanical and not "pilot error".

Sure! Bemoan crashes but what better excuse is there to build new models?

SuperDave wrote:Sure! Bemoan crashes but what better excuse is there to build new models?

No moaning...the Polen had a good long life...just the lesson of doing an occasional "deep dig" to check things that aren't easily accessible.

andrew wrote:What a great display of models.

Sorry about your plane, we've all been there. At least it was mechanical and not "pilot error".

Hey Andrew,

Yeah, I don't sweat the crashes, just part of the game. The only time I DO get put-out with myself is when I damage one in transit or in the shop! I like to have the destruction happen at the flying field !

nitroairplane wrote:Nice planes there Kim.

Yeah, I spent a long time there, not just looking at the planes, but checking out all of the information Dave had accumulated over a lifetime of model building flying.
He was a great guy, and I'm fortunate that our paths crossed.

Kim wrote:

nitroairplane wrote:Nice planes there Kim.

Yeah, I spent a long time there, not just looking at the planes, but checking out all of the information Dave had accumulated over a lifetime of model building flying.
He was a great guy, and I'm fortunate that our paths crossed.

it seems there are lot of that type in this hobby.
they are really like what they do and do what they really like.

Yes,
Aviation in general has brought more great (and colorful) folks into my life than I can count or remember. It may be the same in other pursuits, but it's difficult for me to imagine a wilder range of characters more totally ate up and possessed with their addiction than flyers and their flying machines.

Kim wrote:Yes,
Aviation in general has brought more great (and colorful) folks into my life than I can count or remember. It may be the same in other pursuits, but it's difficult for me to imagine a wilder range of characters more totally ate up and possessed with their addiction than flyers and their flying machines.

special jobs need special people with special characters

Kim wrote:Yes,
Aviation in general has brought more great (and colorful) folks into my life than I can count or remember. It may be the same in other pursuits, but it's difficult for me to imagine a wilder range of characters more totally ate up and possessed with their addiction than flyers and their flying machines.

hi/jack

As to obcessed people, you can count on fly fishers too. The sport is as complex as you care to make it drifting of into entomolgy, fly tying, rod building etc. Conservation
oriented fly fishers also "release" what they catch rather than hoard it for display and distribution to their neighbors.

I know this because I am one.

Tight lines!

1956 Babe Bee tank and crankcase.




While removing the tank, all were tight but after working out 3 of them the 4th didn't let go. The 4th eventually came loose. Well after getting the tank apart, I noticed the screw actually broke off just 1 thread out of the crankcase. After trying many different procedures and ways to remove it, I noticed it cracking around the screw and it eventually broke off... I've had people telling me that it isn't corrosion but just some old engine "liquid gasket" that gotten hard but if you look closely and even shave some off, it is corrosion! The tank may be still usable but for now its going to hang out in the misc parts drawer...

Admin wrote:1956 Babe Bee tank and crankcase.




While removing the tank, all were tight but after working out 3 of them the 4th didn't let go. The 4th eventually came loose. Well after getting the tank apart, I noticed the screw actually broke off just 1 thread out of the crankcase. After trying many different procedures and ways to remove it, I noticed it cracking around the screw and it eventually broke off... I've had people telling me that it isn't corrosion but just some old engine "liquid gasket" that gotten hard but if you look closely and even shave some off, it is corrosion! The tank may be still usable but for now its going to hang out in the misc parts drawer...

What happened to that i dont think ive ever seen an aluminium tank do that.

nitroairplane wrote:

What happened to that i dont think ive ever seen an aluminium tank do that.

Salt, other corrosive chemicals. The cylinder had NO rust at all so the whole engine wasn't submerged in anything. It very well could have been some form of liquid gasket that has corroded the tank and crankcase but by lightly filing it and or looking close, you can see it is corrosion. I also know it is corrosion because I had an electric fence with aluminum wire that over time would get like this.

Admin wrote:

nitroairplane wrote:

What happened to that i dont think ive ever seen an aluminium tank do that.

Salt, other corrosive chemicals. The cylinder had NO rust at all so the whole engine wasn't submerged in anything. It very well could have been some form of liquid gasket that has corroded the tank but by lightly filing it and or looking close, you can see it is corrosion. I also know it is corrosion because I had an electric fence with aluminum wire that over time would get like this.

i am sure it is corrosion but i think it was caused by an acid it looks a lot like a badly rotten tooth.

Actually I could add that the backplate also has a little corrosion near the spot where the tank was corroded. It is only a little spot so the backplate is still OK! It must have been an acid...

Admin wrote:Actually I could add that the backplate also has a little corrosion near the spot where the tank was corroded. It is only a little spot so the backplate is still OK! It must have been an acid...

Maybe something as simple as the citric acid in lemonade i know i used to do silly stuff like that when i was a kid once when i was about 9 i thought i would put an apple in some vinegar to dissolve it but instead i ended up up pickling it