Need fuel!

I live about 1 hour west of Detroit and no hobby shop in this small town (Jackson). All I can find within a 1/2 hour drive is R/C fuel (15% nitro, castor synth blend, not good!). Have two planes rebuilt (garage sale finds) and need fuel. Running an old Fox .35 and an older McCoy .35. Based on my readings here, I will require 5%-10% nitro, all castor, at least 25%.

I know, I know, should have gone to Toledo this past weekend, but just could not get the family schedule together. Need "local" source bad. Planes on the flight line, and no go juice!

I have heard that maybe Grand Rapids, maybe Detroit, maybe Toledo. Does anyone have names, numbers, etc. for shops within 2 hours or so. I'd like to call, verify inventory and hours. Got the weekend free so I'm up for a road trip. I'd rather spend my money driving around meeting people than paying UPS HAZMAT charges.

Thanks to all,

Clay

As to fuel, about the only commercial fuel that most hobby shops might be likely to carry with 25% castor would be SIG. Seldom do you see Fox fuel in hobby shops any more. If they don't carry the 25% all castor SIG, you might be able to entice them to order some for you the next time they order fuel.

Clay --

Forget the road trip and drop your prejudice against UPS and FEDEX. Really, ordering and shipping is a lot easier than driving for us folks in the remoter areas.

Fox is easy to deal with, and will send mixed 4 gal packages, any four you want. Call foxmanufacturing.com, and I think they have an 800 number. Quick response.

Many like Ritch's Brew (ritchsbrew.com). After multiple unanswered phone messages and multiple unanswered e-mails, I gave up. Nobody home there. I do business with people like Leonard, Brodak, Tower Hobbies, and Fox, all of whom have good business sense. I have heard from a friend in the area that you can drive by any days but Saturday or Sunday and get some fuel. Rather long drive for you.

Haven't tried Sig. Suspect they would do fine, and will probably try them.

Bottom line is that it is easier to order on the internet than to drive to a probable hobby shop, make a special request to a local hobby shop, wait for it, phone long distance to check on the status at the distant hobby shop, and then drive again to pick it up. The gas and phone call costs easily exceed the shipping costs of ordering direct.

Please do make a road trip! We'd love to meet you.

Call Pete Bergstrom of Rider's Hobby in Taylor Mich at 734-287-7405. He's a CL stunt flyer and handles lots of cool stuff including Powermaster 5%nitro-29%castor your engines will thrive on. When you decide to come out call Pete and have him give me a call. If the weather's nice he would probably bring the fuel out to our field and you could fly with us (AMA required on the field), otherwise we could just stand around and talk about all that stuff our wives can't figure out getting excited about!

Larry F.-thanks for the lead on Fox. I checked out their site and will save that one for summer. Have to go to Ft. Smith for a wedding and now I have a good reason to go . I'm with you on the mail order, a way of life in small town America.

Randy, your invite is most generous. I will give Pete B. a call tomorrow and see what's up. Probably go over on Saturday. I recently joined both AMA and PAMPA, but don't have the official documents yet. Maybe they'll get here by then. You may not want me in the circle anyway, as I have not felt the tug of the lines in many moons. I'll bring along a no-name trainer I have resurected from the dead, sort of. Still has some Frankenstein qualities. I'm over that way fairly often, as I travel some for my work. Warning: Bringing the wife along, and believe it or not she is into it! Even been to a swap with me. I'll send you an off line email after I talk to Pete.

Thanks again to all and best regards,

Clay

Great, didn't expect such a quick response, I'll have to go past the field and see if the circle's dry enough to use. Either way if I can get away I'd like to meet up with you. Great news about the wife, mine started out like that but has since lost interest.

In May there will be a CL Fun Fly north of here, while your at the Hobby Shop there's a flyer near the stockroom door. There are also a few contests in Mich and Ohio that you might like to come and have a look see. I know your just having fun, so was I when I came back from a 30 odd year layoff, but I'd a competitor at heart and I've found myself in the thick of it.

I'll look forward to hearing from you. If we can get together this time, maybe the next.

I got this formula for "adjusting" fuels off the internet. It may be worthwhile to print it out and pin it on the shop wall or whatever you do to "get organized" (Haw!). QUOTE:

"Here's a formula for deriving oil needed to boost fuel from % of oil present to % of oil wanted
Where:
C= % of oil current
X= oz. of oil added
Y= % of oil desired
all measurements in oz.
and figured for 1 gallon fuel (128 oz.)

128Y - 128C = X - XY

Solved for 20% oil to 28% oil
128(.28) - 128(.20) = X - .28X
35.84 - 25.6 = .72X
10.24 = .72X
14.222 = X

You need to add 14.222 oz. to move 20% oil to 28% oil.

Nitro reduction formula where
C = %Nitro present
X = still equals added oz. of oil
R = reduced Nitro %
R = 128 * C / 128 + X
with the 20% to 28% change and 10% nitro fuel
R = 128(.10) / (128 + 14.222)
R = 12.8 / 142.222
R = .090001sumptin or 9% nitro

These formulas work with any percentage of nitro or oil. As long as you know where you are, you can get where you want to go. I might add that if you are looking to boost nitro, just use the first formula for nitro instead of oil, be careful though, you will lower oil content when you add nitro. You could combine and solve for both of the variables, but this has gone on long enough." Steve

You obviously know your way around a spreadsheet. Teensy detail for those who don't.

> Nitro reduction formula where
>C =%Nitro present
>
> X = still equals added oz. of oil
>
> R = reduced Nitro %
>
> R = 128 * C / 128 + X
>
> with the 20% to 28% change and 10% nitro fuel
>
> R = 128(.10) / 128 + 14.222
>
> R = 12.8 / 142.222
>
> R = .090001sumptin or
>9% nitro
>
>These formulas work with any percentage
>of nitro or oil.

For the rest, you need to type in the third line from the bottom as:
R=128*.1/(128+14.222)

That is, the denominator needs parens in a spreadsheet.