A drawing error - oops! conrods

Its about time I blogged some engineering, so I've done the following:-
Some how I cocked up. Its not the first time, nor will it be the last. Getting down to it, I designed, drew and made the conrods too short. The piston was unable to pass bottom dead centre. Oh! dear, how sad, never mind. But now I have two new conrods of the correct (longer) length. This also means I'll have to remove some more metal from inside the cylinder heads to maintain the correct compression ratio.

Ahh! Bottom dead centre

Conrods increased in length by 0.5mm

I went flying today, and it was a sad day. I lost an old friend. Yes the red Sunbeam met its match or rather terra firma. It was pilot error, I heaved in too much elevator and the wings folded and it went down into the bean field. Engine and radio are OK but the airframe has had it. At least I know it was my own fault.

Cornwall - The Show

The two day event at North Cliffs near Camborne was a total success all round. We ('erin doors and I) trundled our way down the A30 to Camborne and arrived on site at around 09:00hrs on the Friday. First things first, set up the caravan and put up the awning. Geoff and Mary arrived shortly afterwards and did likewise, only theirs is a motor home, and then Terry arrived and erected his tents. Yes plural, the other one is his dunny. I won't go into details. After a spot of lunch we chilled in the afternoon and enjoyed a couple of flights with the Pico-Jet and Geoff flew his very pretty looking Bae Hawk. Evening, and we went into Portreath and paid a visit to the Bassett Arms for a jar of Cornish Knocker and a bite to eat. After a stroll down to the sea front to watch the Sun set we made our way back to the site and crashed 'till morning.

Saturday, and up with the (bleary eyed) lark, took all the models and equipment down to the flight line and made ready for the days' flying.

Early Saturday Morning

Terry watches Geoff contemplating his "Ork"

Getting to grips with the Laser 200

Spotted at the show. I just had to take this photo.

Apparently they're called Truck Nuts

Sunday wasn't quite as good as Saturday weatherwise, although it didn't rain it was cloudy all day. In fact it rained most of the day on the South Coast, so prospective spectators were probably put off attending and as a result there were fewer spectators on Sunday. But it was still a great day.

In preparation for Cornwall

Flew all the usual suspects today and gave the Pico-Jet a particular airing to test all four li-po batteries. Everything performed well.

Ian flew his F16 Fighting Falcon Fitted with a smoke system. Boy did we have some fun with that. After landing Ian taxied back to the pits, and as he got close to Geoff, who was working on his plane, switched on the smoke and Geoff completely disappeared in a huge cloud of white vaporised diesel.

Pete brought along this nice example of a Comet. It crashed on its first take-off but there was little to no damage, just a few scratches, and the second attempt was a success. Sounded nice in flight for an electric job.

deHavilland Comet "Grosvenor House"

Next weekend, its a trip to Cornwall to fly in the Annual Two Day Model Airshow hosted by Redruth and District MFG at their site on North Cliffs West of Portreath. This has coincided nicely with the NSA who are having Westonzoyland Airfield for the weekend for their "flying" event. (NSA is the National Sprint Association. They ride motorcycles).