Sterling Mustangs

LAST EDITED ON Feb-24-04 AT 03:30 PM (CDT)
 
Here are a couple of nice Sterling Mustangs, courtesy of a couple of club members. Phil Spillman has the Tuskegee plane with the red rudder. Gil has the other. Both use the LA 25 CL. Phil is using a 9/4 APC, Gil uses a 9/4 Zinger. 7.5% nitro, 25 oil(with castor). The engines run great and the planes fly well. They are Sterling Mustangs, so don't expext Impact or Cardinal type performance. Phil's is just a few ounces heavier at 34 oz. and that makes a noticeable difference in the flying. But he doesn't mind. The plane is complete resurrection. The leading edge was in four pieces, the fuse in three, half the ribs were broken or gone, and the stab chewed up. He did a great job rehabbing it and saving it from the burn barrel!

Talking about flaps. Both planes have flaps and they work. Gil flew his last year flapless. It did not fly nearly as well and crashed as a result. He made the flaps work in the rebuild. This is a small, relatively heavy plane and it needs the flaps.

I had one with an Enya 29. Good windy weather warrior, but that was about all. Mine was too heavy (swap meet resto). It did have a nice, vibration damping tripler on it.

Never had much luck with it, or its cousin, the Yak. Maybe, with lighter wood, and an FP 15...or 20...

Talk about a barrell of fun on a beautiful February afternoon this was it! One of those magic moments! Gil Reedy and I flew 9 and 10 patterns respectively with great joy. My plane was originally built in 1974, smashed and rebuilt twice before the last bashing having occurrred in 1994. It's spent the past 10 years in many pieces in a brown paper bag. Reedy's plane was rekitted in August and it's resurection commenced over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Getting him and his P-51 on the way to flying again stimulated me to do the same. I used Bob Zambelli's method to suck out the residual oil; to wit mixing talcum powder with alcohol and painting the soiled areas liberally and then brushing it all off. The covering on mine is flat MonoCoat which has turned out better than I ever expected. What a fun thing these two planes have turned, or should I say..returned, out to be!