Week 178 - 5 April 2006

Back in the sanding routine again. This time the fuse bottom side.

We also spent time figuring and discussing our cowl situation. Then I made a drawing to allow Rick to turn the mold for Dale to use as a mold.

So all in all a boring night, however progress was made!

-- Gary Himes

Week 179 - 12 April 2006

For those of you who like the pictures, Sorry, you are going to be disappointed.

We shifted gears and played with the motors tonight. What a beautiful day. weather wise. Running motors outside just seemed natural thing to do. Last time we run motors we tested a Walbro carb #148 and it worked fine. Problem is we only bought the one carb and now they are out of production. Guess these carbs are much like cars, a new model every year.

Any way tonight we tried a Walbro #55 carb which has a bigger bore. The bore is too big as a mater of fact. Runs good till half throttle then dies, just too much carb. So we put the #148 carb again and runs perfect. Tonight with this carb and a 16 x 8 prop we were turning about 7000rpm. But this carb is no longer made........DARN.

We called Carr Precision in Portland, Or and talked to them. I think they put us on the right track to find an equivalent carb to try out.

We put Greg in charge of doing so, put all the tools away and enjoyed the perfect evening weather.

-- Gary Himes

Week 180 - 19 April 2006

We started the night by trying a new Carb which Greg had picked up from Larry Blevins at his local small equipment shop. The new carb worked great, turning a 16 X 8 2 blade wooden propeller at about 6900 rpm. Exactly in the range it should be and really works well.....YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now we retire indoors to change the personality of the fuse. We started cutting out the windows for the cockpit area and the tail gunners area. Like every thing else this is a little easier said than done. Nothing to bad......just time consuming. We are using a dremel to rough out the window then trimming with a hobby knife gets you closer to the flat sanding to keep it looking good.

With a little luck we will now try to run a 3 blade prop next week. See ya then!

-- Gary Himes

Week 181 - 26 April 2006

First to answer a question from last week, the carb we are using is a Walbro WT539-1.

We started the night by running to the hobby shop and picking up a couple 3 blade props to try. One is a 14" X 7 pitch, the other a 14" X 9 pitch. We set up a motor and installed the 14 X 7 first. With a small amount of priming the motor quickly came to life. With a cool motor it turned the prop at 7700 to 7800 rpm. Although you may think the rpm is a little high, we decided it was perfect and did not test the other prop. The motor sounded , idled and run awesome.

Now back indoors to the dull drum of cutting out the check blister windows and the tail gunners windows a little more. With that done, we cleaned the shop a little and called it a night.

-- Gary Himes