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"World's Fastest Fireball" - The Ryan FR-4


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Hi all,

 

It's been a tough week. After plowing my way through the painting and recalling process, I glued on the landing gear, only to discover that for the first time in over twenty years, I had built a tail-dragging tricycle aircraft! I tried knocking out the tailpipe PE fret from the tailpipe, and adding BB's through the tailpipe, but after 35 BB's, I wasn't able to get enough weight far enough forward to get her to balance.

In fact, by taping some small lead sinkers to the front of the cowl, I determined that it would have taken another 1/2 ounce to balance, and there was no room for that much lead, even if I had tried. I think the only shot I would have had was to cast the engine, front landing  gear and wheel, as well as the front gear doors in lead.  Oh well.

 

I finally took the path of least resistance and used a tailhook to support the model, even though I'm not certain a tailhook was ever installed on the FR-4!

 

Also, the decals hat I had awaited to do the "FR-4" on the vertical stabilizer arrived, the were printed on too light blue-colored paper to even see. I could only see the white printing with a 10X magnifier and a light held just so, with no free hand to cut around the tiny letters. So now, I'm trying to find some kind of USB driven magnifier that I can hook up to my computer to see the little rascals better. So far, all I've found are USB-driven microscopes, which I don't think will work. because most of them would need to be too close to the decal paper to get a blade underneath.  None of my current magnifiers, which would allow the working room, approx 5x power will do the job. Any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

Also, I was not able to determine from the photos I had access to, whether the FR-4 had a pitot tube or a radio antenna, so for now, I've left these off.

 

I finished everything else, and here is a picture:

 

2v2uqk1N3xfzdhW.jpg

 

I'll post some more over in:  R.F.I.

 

This has been a tricky build, and I'm glad I survived. Thanks to all who've tagged along...

 

Ed

Edited by TheRealMrEd
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