Loop gods now demand payment in advance.

Aaarggghhh! My poor brand new Flite Streak has had it's first prang.
I'd just started the engine on its 3rd ever flight and as I stepped back, one of my shoelaces was undone. I stepped on it, and overbalanced, and ended up treading right on the outboard wingtip! Rats! Totally crushed the 2 outermost ribs.

Undeterred I decided to fly it anyway, the wing is still in pretty good shape. Anyway, doing a loop I realised it wouldn't make it comfortably, so aborted to a lazy 8 halfway through. Well, it didn't make it out of that either.

Actually it survived the crash intact, except for some minor damage to the paint on the canopy. The LEO 28 however had the NVA ripped off. Another flipping OS NVA to buy then...

I can't really believe that I'm paying for my past good luck, not with my crash record

Anyway, it's not completely wrecked, I just have to decide whether I feel capable of patching the silk covering to fix the wingtip, or just leave it for now.
All this just after I repaired the silkspan on the nose where the blind nuts popped through...

Jon

Ps I was doing 5.8 sec laps, which is a little slow, and using a 10x4 prop, so that should probably be a 9x6. Balance was *just* behind the balsa planking on the L/E. Total dry weight is 30oz. Elev deflection is about 30 degs either way, and I tried it at less before. Anything else I may have overlooked?

>Ps I was doing 5.8 sec laps, which is a little slow, and
>using a 10x4 prop, so that should probably be a 9x6.
>Balance was *just* behind the balsa planking on the L/E.
>Total dry weight is 30oz. Elev deflection is about 30 degs
>either way, and I tried it at less before. Anything else I
>may have overlooked?

Jon, if you were doing 5.8 second laps with a Flite Streak on 60 foot lines or thereabouts, you were not a little slow. You were a lotta slow! 4.8 second laps would have been a lot closer and still maybe a bit slow. Just remember, these airplanes need a certain air speed in order to fly properly and turn properly, and a flapless bird needs more airspeed than one without flaps. Make sure that everything is right before you start to do something that may end up being wrong.

Anything else I
>may have overlooked?

It's significantly overweight also which would indicate that even more speed than usual would be needed to keep it flying properly. Also, didn't really understand the CG location you were describing. The further back the CG, the more capable, and more unstable, the airplane(to a point-this point is about the back of the spar-a good CG for most would be maybe 1/4" in front of the spar for maneuverability and halfway between spar and LE for a more stable ride but less sharp turning ability). 4.0 to 4.5 lap times should let it fly through all maneuvers.
As to fixing it, if I understand the outboard ribs are crushed and/or tip smashed, you have no choice-you have to fix it. Thin CA the rib parts back together, substituting new 1/16 pieces for any that are missing-overlap them if needed. If spars are broken, CA them back together and add a short 1/4 sq. overlap. Keep it straight but don't go through any elaborate proceedures to do so-eyeball straight should be good enough. Recover in a simple method, fascal being one which should stick to a doped finish pretty well if it's clean.
Having it together before the start of a flight is important also. Be sure that nothing can be sucked into the prop at start, the flight box(or anything else) is not hit on takeoff, or you don't trip and fall on the airplane-give it a wide berth.

Hmm, the balance point would be about 1 and a half inches back from the LE. I think I have too much weight up in the nose, what with the LEO muffler and my 2 wheel gear. I can fix both (as I made the gear removable for this very reason)

The wing however... I'm just not looking forward to slicing through the carefully prepared and painted silk covering.
Jon

>Aaarggghhh! My poor brand new Flite Streak has had it's first prang.
>
> ... I was doing 5.8 sec laps, which is a little slow, and using a
>10x4 prop, so that should probably be a 9x6.

Supposedly, the LEO is another clone of the old Royal 28, which was seemingly a clone of the OS FSR 28. It might prefer a 9-4, not a 9-6, but that lap speed sounds so very wrong. A Streak should be just about unflyable going that slowly. Are you sure you clocked it correctly?

>Balance was *just* behind the balsa planking on the L/E.

(WHAT balsa planking? Is it actually a Brodak Lightning Streak?)

>Total dry weight is 30oz.

Yes, that's 4 to 6 Oz more than typical for a Streak.

>Elev deflection is about 30 degs either way, and I tried it at less
>before.

That's plenty. My planes usually have less.

.
Kiwi

>A Streak should be just about unflyable going that
>slowly. Are you sure you clocked it correctly?

Yup, several laps in a row were 5.8 on 60 foot lines. The engine wasn't running great (all these reasons why I should just have flown the tank out level!)
And it was just about unflyable.

>(WHAT balsa planking? Is it actually a Brodak Lightning
>Streak?)

It's scratch build from plans that I was given, and by the sounds of it, it may have the Lightning Streak-style L/E. It's a square spar right at the front, then 1" of planking, then a 3/32 spar abutted to that if I remember right.

>Yes, that's 4 to 6 Oz more than typical for a Streak.

I thought I was doing well The weight of the finished frame, without engine or landing gear was 15oz. The LEO has the stock muffler, and I fitted 2 wheel gear. That could explain the weight. Not sure how else I could have made it much lighter.

I kept track of the weight through the process and the convering added 1 to 2 oz. from bare wood.

>I thought I was doing well The weight of the finished frame, >without engine or landing gear was 15oz

This is a very good weight. The finished airplane should then be about 22-23 oz with a Fox 35 or FP 25 and a single Dave Brown wheel which will fly very well indeed-add 1/2-3/4 oz for a tongue muffler (if desired). The dual gear adds some weight(and drag) but the real culprit seems to be the LEO 28-it must be quite a hunk.

The CG sounds pretty good for a decent performing, stable streak though where it is. Did I miss this or did you add some tail weight also to balance? This would seem likely with that much weight up front. Might take off the muffler if you can, or get a tongue or better still, an FP 25, Thunder Tigre 25 etc. I think the K reported at one time that they will drop in the LEO mounts. They are ideal power for this weight Streak(now around 23 oz plus muffler) and supposedly do a nice controled run with the stock muffler. Some tail weight, if you used any, can also be removed.

Don't worry about the wing repair-patches add character, especially if the patched color clashes with the original color.

>1. Fly bare foot.
>2. Install a Super Tigre .35 with pressure 25% nitro.
>3. 9X7 prop.
>4. Hang on.

"HANG ON HE SAYS"
LOL !

Ty, you are really a trip

LOL !

Jon,
GMA's building style used pointed LE wing ribs that had thick balsa LE strips form a wedge, which was then rounded. He used this in most of his simpler designs. The current Brodak FS follows this I think (I don't yet have one). If you look at magazine plans for the Peacemaker (profile OR built-up fuselage version) you will see what I mean.
Top Flite substituted a solid LE that had been hogged out with a router. This was for ease of construction...and ease of kit manufacturing. This is the one most of us "grew up with".
Don't have a Lightnin' Streak.
Whatever method you used, enjoy it.

Broken needle valves are what made me go to remote needles.. ^_^;;

Of course, they work much better with bladders than with suction..

>Don't have a Lightnin' Streak
The Lightning Streak uses a 1/2" square LE, 1/4 sq. spars and capstrips from LE to TE. I have also built this version using a 3/8 LE and capstrips full length and 3/8 LE sheeted with 1/16 back to spar, capstrips spar to TE. Both methods work fine-no wing shedding so far. I like the Lightning Streak construction method as all ribs, interior and exterior are th same size.

The Brodak Flite Streak uses two 1/2 by 1/4 sticks glued at right angles to form the LE, close to, if not identical to the original GMA design.
>Don't blame me this time
Sorry about that K. Too many off brand 25's and 28's to keep up with. If the LEO is anything like the Mecoa 28 it should really haul a Streak to around 75-80 mph with best fuel and prop. Really fairly close to what an ST G21 .35 would do on suction. Actually, an FP 25 which is significantly lighter and slower, will haul a Streak faster than most would want to fly it.

I built a majority of the planes I considered to be scratchbuilt Streaks very like a Lightning Streak because the square LE was easier to work with than the Aldrich design, which I never saw a plan for. Some had a C-tube wing, a few had cap strips. With the engines that I used on them (no G21-35's for me then), built from rather ordinary balsa, covered in silk usually, mine weighed about 24 Oz ready to go.

One reason I departed from the kit was the too-short nose what with the thirstiness of my combat engines. I knew that the prototypes had 6" noses, so instead of the kit's 5 inches, mine were 5 1/2" to have more room for fuel. Incidentally, I never saw a plan for any profile that I can recall with 1" wide LE sheeting.

.
Kiwi

Here it is in a nutshell:

1. Stop stepping on your airplane.
2. Get your engine running right, lap times under 5 sec.
3. Do other things a little at a time until the airplane flys very well.
4. Until you master points 1. and 2. do not worry about point 3.

I have seen several authentic copies of George's original Flite Streak plans. So far as I can see the Brodak plans are an exact replica.