This past weekend I finally got the chance to fly Mike Haverly's new Oriental, powered with an equally-new Magnum 36.
It was not an entirely positive experience. Mike flies with the handle upside down, pushing for up, pulling for down. Swapping line clips at the model resulted in a handle which operated normally for me, and neutral was at least close enough. (Hey, not my airplane, don't ya know!)
The real problem is that Mike is using quite a lot of leadout offset in his "Ted Handle," and of course this worked against me from the very first. Insides were huge, outsides itty-bitty, to the point where I simply could not fly even a decent horizontal 8.
In looking back it would have been smart to grab a spare "Magnum" handle out of the van, as this is exactly the sort of situation which prompts me to carry cabled handles.
Still with negatives it was disconcerting to be flying an Oriental, a design with which I have a lot of flying experience, and not be hearing the low rumble of a Fox 35 which almost has to be forced into a two-stroke. The Magnum 36 must have been pulling an extra 3,000 revs, plus it was set to a wet two-stroke.
All of that having been said, this is a very promising combination. Mike initially had a .272 venturi, has since gone down to .256. He has an interesting selection of props, mostly Bollys, all intended to control what must be regarded as an excess of horsepower.
I liked it quite a lot, would enjoy having such a model and two or three long trimming sessions, as it just "felt" quite good, yet seemed to have a lot more in it.
Other than dumping stock carb, I believe Mike's engine is stock. PTG's word is very convincing here in the NW...
As to Rush, at one point in the proceedings I was moving leadouts forward on my Soup Combat Streaker--this powered by one of the CL model aircraft motors we can't talk about on this site dedicated to talking about CL model aircraft motors and other assorted stuff--just to see what happened when they got too far forward, hints that may or may not have been given as I approached the Whoa! Too much! position.
Well, I finally hit a leadout position which can only be described as too far forward. In talking about it with Howard, he asked what it felt like. I was momentarily stumped, as it is hard to describe. Rush, having seen this movie before, had thought about more than I. "When I get the leadouts too far forward I refer to my plane as having the flu."
And that's just about the perfect description. The model has the flu. Gotta love it. I know Derek is chuckling as he reads this.
Howard was selling FAI World Champs patches. He's not the salesman PTG is, but he got money from quite a lot of us. I paid with a $5.00 roll of dimes simply because Rush was keeping the money in a manila envelope and rolls of coins don't fit well.
Howard also took the time to explain a posting which no one seemed to understand. Look, people, if you read a one- or two-liner from Rush, it doesn't make sense, first put the comment into some sort of context, think about it for a moment. By then you will either get it or not get it, and it will be time to move on in either case.
Without guilt or apology I am not so sure I understand one of these postings, and I had it explained to me! Jeeez, Howard, do you know how many minutes, seconds maybe, I spent listening to "Hey, mon!" music each year. Gad...
It was a great day, even if I refuse to tell you why my hands had to be cleaned of fuel each time I launched Howard's Impact.
Dan
