BH Model Pitts Special

[Doozer]

I was planning on a wrapping it in a plastic tarp... I don't have to go 40mph, that's just the posted speed limit. We'll see. If I find another spot that's further away, I'll probably just take it apart.

[19000rpm]

I'm thinking: tarp rubbing against beautiful finished plane.

What about mounting the plane with the nose toward the rear? That might reduce, or eliminate, the lift from the wings. The theory being, that the trailing edge of the wing will have a negative incidence relative to the air flowing over the wing. Kind of like down elevator. Just a thought.

[akphill]

Turning that plane backwards in my opinion would be a really bad mistake
I hope you don't do this.
If you want to carry that plane on top of your car make sure it is level I have seen over the years a lot of planes carried this way with small cars.
And the plane will actually not care if your doing a 100 mph as long as it is level
as in level flight mode
Hope you get a solution to your transport soon

[Doozer]

Thanks guys,
This situation will be temporary until I can get a trailer. Once I get one... I'm thinking about bigger projects as well. For now, I don't have far to go, so I'm going to give it a go on top of my car. I'm going to pad the wings and drop the landing gear partially through my sunroof. I'll take some pics and maybe shoot some video while driving.

As for the engine, I've been pumping the fuel through. The last two days I've been in my garage while it was raining. I've dropped the oil ratio to 32:1 (4oz of oil per gallon). I think this allowed the engine to get to a solid running temp and really start to break in. I was spitting out a lot of soot @ 25:1 and the needles were really wonky. I had the low @ 1 5/8 turns + and the High @ 1 3/4 and was getting some high temps @ WOT (270 ish F). This could have been caused by any number of factors or a combination of a few, but now that I've reduced the amount of oil, I've seen some good results.

I've been able to turn the needles in some. The low is sitting at 1 3/8 and the High @ 1 5/8. This is still somewhat rich, but the WOT temp is about 230 F, and I'm not getting much soot or smoke. There's no sag at any of the transitions. It settles in to idle nicely. I could probably attribute some the early issues to the engine being new, but other people have run these engines with no issues right out of the box. I tend to think I had to much oil in the fuel and the engine hated it. I think if it runs nice next run I'll close the needles up a little more... the low @ least an 1/8 of a turn.

[Doozer]

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'm going to maiden it tomorrow (or today for you folks in the east). I've spent most of the night after work making sure my throws are correct. I'm a little worried about the split elevator. Even though I have it on one servo, there are two throws I need to worry about. I think I've got them really close, but it's hard for me to tell unless I'm in natural sunlight. I clamped and adjusted the clevises, but there's still just this tiny bit of difference after I unclamp them. Makes me think they're warped. It's not horrible.

This is why building one from a kit next might be a good Idea. So I know how to fix them when they break or do something like warp. Oh well, I've got some on the job training repairing broken Helicopters. Wood's fricking expensive at the LHS'. Eight dollars for a 6"X12" piece of ply-wood. I know why people don't use it much... they're not worried about weight, that's robbery. If someone could point me in the direction of a cheaper online wood supply, I'd be grateful.

[19000rpm]

In my experience, the difference in elevator incidence, from side to side, results in about the same thing as ailerons not being level with the wing. Which ever side is up creates a dip on that side (roll axis) and a bank in that direction. Be ready to trim in the opposite direction.

I'm checking with someone who knows more about carrying large aircraft on a vehicle.

I've got my fingers crossed for your maiden.

[Doozer]

Thanks for the well wishes. I'm hoping I don't need the luck, and all goes well, but it's nice to know it's there if I need it

I'm going to start packing it up in a few. I've been thinking a lot, and I probably shouldn't be. If it looks the least bit perilous on top of the car, I'll scratch Pitts from my plan and fly the Helibug, Stinson, and maiden my Gee Bee. Another deal breaker will be how I feel on that small road once I get there. I went and looked at it last night. The wing span is about as wide as my car. There's really not a whole lot of room for error, but its the most feasible place logistically speaking. I'm thinking I should probably get another prop just in case....... can ya feel my cold feet?

I'll take pictures of it on top of the car. Charging my cameras now.

[Doozer]

Well.... that sucked. I'll post in the "Did you Fly Today?" forum. I broke the prop, that's it, but I never got off the ground. I knew I should have bought another prop or so. I also reversed Aux 2. I accidentally turned off the ignition. So now all the way up Pos 0 is ignition on, and the other two positions, 1 and 2, are off. On a good note, the top of the car travel was flawless @ 50 mph. I didn't want to go much faster than that, but it didn't move. Everything stayed tight, but not too tight.

[19000rpm]

That's really good news. Many a maiden attempt doesn't go that well. How did you finally mount it to the roof?

[Doozer]

I'm going to eat lunch then post up some video and Pics.

[Doozer]

I know that the road is plenty wide enough, but after the Gee Bee Crash I had Zero confidence. Even after a very successful Stinson flight.

Sorry for the swearin'
Edit: changed the private setting ... sorry guys

[akphill]

AAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW the second vid is marked as private

[19000rpm]

Nice job packing up the Pitts and the gear!

[Doozer]

Fixed the private setting on the second video. I upload with video editing software and it sets it to private automatically. Sorry... but it should be all good now

[19000rpm]

I use that word often. You have to call it as it is.