It Worked !!!

Before metal construction took over full-sized planes and balsa models were built about the same way.

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins
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Thanks to everyone who replied to my slightly hare-brained idea. I also posted the same message to the basic electronics group. I didn't cross post it because I never cross post anything. Anyway, a person there who replied to my post caused me to remember about water valves for solar systems and the like that are thermostatically controlled. These valves are purely mechanical and turn on the flow when the temperature drops too low. So if the power goes out they will still work. See this link for one particular type:

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If the power goes out the well will stop pumping but the valves will be at the lowest spot in the plumbing and so will drain the pipes anyway. And they will also be above the sink drain, because the wall stops are above the sink drain and so will be able to drain into the sink plumbind. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Even the old type of classic fabric covering like Stitts etc uses heat - but google oratex and get an education on the NEW way to fabric cover a plane!!!. No dope, no sealer, no aluminum to sheild against ultra-violet. No stink and no overspray - no explosion or fire danger while installing.

About twice the price, and worth every nickle!!!

Reply to
Clare Snyder

The old unshrunk cotton fabric was replaced with polyesterf fabric - again unshrunk - which was heated to do the initial shrink, then shrunk further by applying nitrocellulous dope - terribly nasty and flammable stuff - then usually covered with a butyrate dope for durability and protection - with several coats of aluminum filled dope to fill the weave and protect against ultraviolet. before the final color coats.

Youcould make the fabric glass smooth.

The oratex is a single step covering - precolored - no extra coating required - but does not give the mirrorlike show finish of a doped fabric.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

I'd seen the old kits with fabric and dope back in the '60s, but never shrinking fabric, at least for kits.

Wow!

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yeah, linen is the stuff I saw 50+ years ago.

Costly stuff. I've seen machines laying down carbon fiber tape, but is sheet fabric available in carbon now?

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Oh, the dope shrunk it? I'll have to file that, too. Friends' dads did larger models and doped them. Stee-inky. "Get out of here, kids. This stuff will make you lightheaded."

To me, dat's mo betta, 'cuz the less glare, the better.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yeah, a whole lot less work, too, I'd imagine.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

And that is why higher-grade meters (like my Fluke 8840As) have 4-wire resi stance measurements. Google Kelvin Connection for an explanation. How it wo rks is one pair of leads provides a current through the item under test whi le the other pair measures the voltage across the item. The resistance of t he supply leads is inconsequential as it is a constant current supply, and the resistance of the measurement leads is inconsequential as there is virt ually zero current through them.

Reply to
rangerssuck

Of course "lab grade" resistance testers accurate to less then 1% at one ohm ARE out there - but the average guy asking questions on this list has a hard time figuring out where to plug in the 2 wires on his harbour frieght meter, and wouldn't even own THAT if it wasn't a freebie.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 22:01:53 -0800, Larry Jaques wrote: snippp

But your "hangar queen " HAS to glow!!!!

On a bush plane as long as it keeps the wind and blackflies out, you're gold!

Reply to
Clare Snyder

Try AT&T: who nearly lost the major CO/POP in Akron to same:

Reply to
David Lesher

So wax your ego, already.

Perzactly. Well, that and land on a dime and take off on a quarter. I'd love to get my hands on a well prepped SuperCub with the B17esque tires and flexi landing gear, etc. But I'd hate to traverse any long distances at a cruise speed of 60mph.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

You win. ;)

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Check out the Pegazair 100. stall speed under 30, cruise over 100 knots. Take off and land in the same football field without turning around. No such thing as a crosswind landing - cross runway solves that problem!!

I'm into year 17 building - hopefully we will finish it this summer.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

It's interesting that WW1-level aircraft performance is still acceptable.

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" James McCudden, an ace pilot, was famous for his prolific fine-tuning of his aircraft in order to produce improved performance from it; McCudden was able to increase the top speed by 9 mph and to raise the service ceiling from the standard 17,000 ft to 20,000 ft. His adaptions included replacing the standard pistons with high compression versions, shortening the exhaust (saving weight and improving exhaust scavenging), and changes to mixture, ignition and other engine settings as well as fitting a scavenged propeller spinner (which he himself credited as gaining 3 mph alone) ."

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-jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I've always enjoyed that little chat between the pilot and tower: "Wow, that's a wide runway, but it's so =short=!" "Turn 90, pilot."

30? Have you seen the heavily-modded planes in the Valdez STOL FlyIns? Frank Knapp's beauty flies unimaginably short.
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10'4" landing? That may be a tad less than 30mph and a football field.

Do you have flaperons and slats? I hope you've been flying others in the interim. As a USAF brat, I probably would have been an aircraft mechanic if I hadn't graduated from high school cum laude into alcoholism, so autos it was. Never got a license after sobering up, either.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

After half a dozen more-or-less crashes I timed the hang glider landing flare just right and made a zero-length standup landing atop a boulder. Then I switched to the safer, saner sport of dirt biking.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

So, they do have slats, and I could see the massive flaps at the back. What engine? (Was it your Subaru we discussed a short while back?)

Now I'll finish watching this review at Oshkosh.

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

We have a Corvair set up to go in. It has automatic leading edge slats and fullspan flapperons - on 150 square feet of wing.

The "hot" ones are running 235s and 320s

Reply to
Clare Snyder

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