Lost a week on the Polaris due to that whole work thing.  But I got back to town Friday and made the big push to get this project into the air.  Well, that happened tonight just as the sun was going down.  Pretty tough lighting for our little camcorder, but here is a little video of the first flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HyO8qfxtMg

I ran a 3S 1350mAh to minimize the wing loading for the maiden.  Probably wasn't necessary as she turned out to be very floaty.  Maybe the easiest maiden I've done.  My only gripe was that she needs some downthrust.  Might be due to the fact that I flew her with the upper fuselage uncovered.

Drew has slowed down on his due to competing interests, but now that he's seen mine fly he will probably get moving again soon. 
Paul

Thanks Adam! 

Patrick and Phil did the lion's share of the work, including the genius of putting the Events Calendar on there.  I'm liking that alot, too.

Koh

What's the matter with black?  It goes with everything.

Hi Tony,

Put me down for 2 XL's.  Drew said he wants one but I've got to check what size they are.

Thanks!

Koh

Just got back from the field for a night flight.  Gorgeous evening but man my thumbs got cold!

Spent alot of time on the tail today.  That's about half of the build--seriously!  It starts with a sandwich of a slotted centerpiece with two sideplates.  The idea is that the slot forms a channel for the Motor/ESC and elevator servo wiring.  The top of the sideplates also form a platform for the bottom of the nacelle to perch on.

Once the sandwich was cured, the LE and TE were shaped a pocket was cut for the elevator servo.  The nacelle sideplates were dipped in boiling water and then shaped to fit the nacelle bottom.  The rest of the nacelle is pretty much of a box with reinforced inner corners. 

Couldn't help but put mine all together for a photo.  Drew is just a couple of steps behind.

Paul and Drew

Drew and I have been getting very small sessions in during the week but we're making progress nonetheless. 

We got our wings caught up by gluing the CF stiffeners into their respective slots.  Jake got plenty of .210" rod in for the main spar.  We used a 3mm flat stock that was on the rack for the angled stiffeners and they fit perfectly.

We are sticking with the plan for the most part, but I couldn't help but add a couple of mods.  The first was to add support rails and a half former under the battery tray.  A significant increase in durability in what I have found to be a problem area in other desigs for a very small gain in weight.

Once the wing is on it starts to look like it might amount to something.  In fact, it passed the glide test and it thinks that it is a Vulcan bomber!

Paul and Drew

I got an email yesterday from Steve Elliot of HobbyTown thanking the Club for participating in the Hobby Expo last Saturday.  This was their 4th one and it was by far the largest.  Steve provided pictures from the event in the webpage below.  There is a link on that page to a PressDemo article stating that there were over 2000 attendees from all over the state!
http://www.htupetaluma.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=614&Itemid=57

We had quite a few members present including Merle, Larry Gustafson, Phil, Patrick, Steve Koll, Adam, and John Reade to name a few.  A great range of aircraft were there as well as Jeff's flight sim.  Several guys got some real flying in, although the answer to Adam's question is no the area is still covered with Goose p***.  In fact, in the morning the seagulls swarmed Merle's icon forcing him to recover his aircraft!  The gulls moved on and things improved later.

About the only mishap that I'm aware of is that yours truly forgot to bring flyers to hand out.  Even so, we met quite a few people including a gentlemen who had flown P40's during the war and worked as a test pilot on the Convair Pogo project, and a prospective member who plans to crash our next Member Meeting on Feb 19th. 

Paul

Looks like Patrick got the file upload squared away.  He increased the allowable file size by a bunch.

Thanks Patrick!

Paul

Here's Drew getting us out of the blocks with the balsa stripper.

Sorry to hear that you are under the weather, Paul.  That's no fun.

Drew and I got started tonight.  The instructions begin with the wing, but Jake only had one CF rod for the wing spar when we dropped by the shop after the Hobby Expo.  I let him know that there might be a run on 'em and he told me that more will be in tomorrow. 

We cut strips of foam from the edges of the sheets to be used for reinforcing the inside corners of the fuselage.  The balsa stripper came in handy, although Drew has not quite mastered this yet;)

Next we glued the strips to the edges of the fuselage sides.  We used Gorilla Glue spread thin and activated with water.  Once these were dry we installed the fuse formers and called it a night.

Not a tremendous amount of progress, but we're moving!

I'll post some pics, but the site is acting up right now.

Paul and Drew

Ok, all of the kits that have been spoken for have been delivered except the one for Mr. Eason.  Paul, I'll be at the Hobby Expo Saturday and may be working Sunday.  I'd like to get you your kit Sunday am, though, so let me know if you will be around.

Red cut extras so there are two kits left if anybody wants one.  As usual, Red's work looks great.

Paul

Nice!  Dude, you are a bona fide celeb now!

Love the way that thing sounds.

Paul

Thanks for jumping on this, Red!  I'll pick everything up tomorrow.

Hi Paul--yes, I can bring the kits up to the field next weekend.  I probably won't get started before next weekend, so everyone has a fair shot out of the blocks. Probably;)

I'll print up an assembly drawing to go with the kits for each builder.  I'm also attaching the parts templates that show the position of the formers and such.  Shumate put together an excellent instruction guide that is found at the beginning of the original build thread.  The file for this is too large to post here, but here is the link again:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=922465&highlight=jetset44

Paul

Great minds, Paul.  I understand completely what you are getting at.  I think its a good idea.  Attached is a Polaris with the same scheme.  Don't hold it against the guy that he put the US insignia on upside down.

Drew and I run the same 30A setup in our T38's.  The fuse is open from the inlets to the jet nozzles on those so heat isn't a problem.  I'm pretty sure that the Talons would go China Syndrome if the flow stopped, though.  Its just too much fun firewalling those things.

Paul

To be honest I didn't go through the 1500 posts.  Wow is right!  I converted the earlier drawing.  The mod isn't a big change, though.  I'm going to let it ride--day job is cutting into my modeling time

Paul