Decided to take pictures of the planes I have

The above picture is of my airplane rack, from top to bottom are my Great Planes ultrasport 40+, my Jenson Das Ugly Stik, and the Seagull Models Yak 54. To the right hanging is the eflite Cap BP electric.


this picture is of my Lanier Fokker DVII which I crashed on maiden. the cowl and firewall got busted and i cant find a cowl for it.

Linux obstacles to acceptance

often I find that the majority of reasons Linux doesn't gain acceptance just amounts to public ignorance of what Linux is and what it can do. This post is a prime example of the battles I face when talking about Linux, Mr Stark takes a sharp tone with the teacher in his correspondence but is more gentle than most would have been in his place for the comments she makes were libelous and defamatory.

A PC is not a stereotype

OK, so this is one occasion I agree with Microsoft however not every PC runs Windows mine certainly don't. I hope to get the message out. If anyone is reading this please spread the message that a PC is not always windows even if its the majority of computers that PC means Linux or Unix. It means so much more than windows. Like the Apple Commercial stated recently only so much money Microsoft can throw at the growing discontentment. Microsoft can only stomp out competition and stifle innovation for so long before people get tired of it.

Wood projects

Have several projects I need to start soon before the design ideas slowly drive me crazy. I need to make an end table for my wife. She asked me a few weeks ago to build one. By her next birthday i promised to build her the jewelry armoire I promised to her when were first married. Also I have some maple I got because my brother drives a truck that picks up trash bins from different places. One of these places happens to be a cabinet shop which deals in maple and oak. they throw a lot of the wood away so I pick out what i need and re mill to my purpose. A friend of mine said something one time about wanting a coffee table so I plan on by next Christmas haven built one from that wood.

Flew my first SPAD

a few weeks ago I flew my first spad what a cool experience. for plane made of gutterpipe and coroplast I am impressed. need some work on the engine to get it flying just as good as the others I fly against. the streamer took the power down a notch.


EDIT: I added a picture, I switched props from the one I initially flew with. I should be able to keep up with the rest of the spads I fly against.

RC Ramblings

Ok so there are several new posts about RC scratchbuilding. They were from my other blog and boy were they a pain to get consolidated. they also don't show the correct date. The posts before now are over a 6 to 8 month period. Since I got the Yak 54, Fokker D VII and a SPAD I have not really been interested in building another plane. I have material to build templates from and that will be the next thing I do. just might take a while.

still waiting

Between work, family, and other projects this has been on the back burner for now. I still plan on getting started soon I just can't make a schedule. I bought a Fokker D VII parkflyer from Lanier and in the process of getting this airplane airborne as well as get some stuff together for the Yak 54 I was working on as well. Keep checking in from time to time to see where its going. The one thing I did was buy more servos and a motor and speed controller to power both airplanes. So maybe its not on total hold. I did buy some material I hope to use as template material for the shaped parts ie Wing ribs, fuselage formers and tail pre-shaped parts.

Balsa Purchase

Bought enough balsa hope to start on the kitting process where I cut the shaped parts. There will be alot of using a balsa stripper to rip sticks out of planks. I have a Yak 54 I am working towards getting airworthy so it may be a month or so before I can get started.

the next posting

Well a few weeks ago I looked into how much balsa it would take to build both planes and I plan on ordering balsa for both at the same time. I think I can get both built up rather quickly. Also I am still weighing my options for covering. Covering these lightweight planes is different than I am used to. My options are limited for color choices and types. I had thought it would be interesting to cover in a way that would allow me to give the look of fabric covering. I also looked into tissue coverings because they can be simple to apply. I may ask advice on some of the RC forums and see what I have available.

Lonestar Balsa

Around Thanksgiving Lonestar Balsa burnt to the ground. for scratchbuilders this is a tragedy. I hope they get back and running in the near future.

LoneStar Balsa

myopic

I missed something when i was looking over the plans there are some parts that are double the amount I originally stated. This is due to the fact that I wasn't paying attention to the fact that this model has two sides. Some parts I will need to go recalculate. Probably it will just mean I double quantities on certain stick parts. The plank pieces should be fine because they are one off parts.

1st step

Scoured over the plans for almost 2 hours on the floor last night to create a list of supplies I would need. In the way of balsa due to the size of this plane I am looking at possibly around seven dollars worth of materials. This is the most tedious part in my opinion so far. I think if I ever design my own plane either from scratch or by following a scale planes pattern I will try my best to consolidate the wood to a limited amount of sizes. The varied sizes I need were vast as many as twelve different sizes of balsa. The biggest expense of the project is in covering and plywood needed. There are three types of plywood being used. The hardwood used is a one eighth of an inch dowel to keep the elevator halves in sync. Later on I will try to calculate the amount of covering I need.

My list of Supplies;

Balsa
Size	Qty
3/32"x3"x24"	1
1/16"x3/16"x 24"	1
1/16" x3"x 24"	4
3/16" sq x24"	4
1/8" sq x24"	3
1/8"x 1/4"x24"	4
1/8"x 3/8"x24"	3
1/8"x 1/2"x24"	2
1/8"x3"x36"	1
1/4" sq x24"	1
3/8" sq x24"	1
3/8"x1/2"x24"	1
Plywood
Size	Qty
1/16"x12"x12"	1
1/32"x12"x12"	1
3/32"x12"x12"	1
Hardwood
Size	Qty
1/8"dowel	1

my list of Balsa distributors I am looking into;
Lone Star
National Balsa
Balsa USA

As it stands now I may have enough balsa left over from other projects to complete my list of balsa without having to buy any. My plywood unfortunately I only have the 1/16 left from another project which really works out because the bulk of the plywood is in that size. Its also the downside because I still need to buy that plywood in the other sizes and only need a small amount of it.

piper cub electric

I will start with the Piper Cub. This plane is a classic and a great flying plane. I got the Opportunity to take a ride in a real Cub last year. If anything were to attract me to the full scale aircraft the Cub would be my choice. The plans seem easier and a easy project to get started with considering all I have built are kits so far. I haven't decided what covering to use because the current planes I fly I have used plastic shrink coverings but the standard type are too heavy for this small of a plane. There are coverings that are lighter for this type of plane but they make both fabric type and plastic shrink types. Usually the plastic types are easier to work with but are limited in selection in the lighter types. I will try to find out my options to try and duplicate a yellow close to Cub Yellow. I may deviate from the plans a bit on little things. I really would like a tail wheel instead of the wheel shaped tail skid. As I progress I will document those sections that I have adapted for my own uses. I have always wanted a cub and here is my chance.

Fuselage looks simple but will be challenging to build. It has solid formers with Balsa Stringers running the length. Landing gear look strong but lightweight. I might add little scale touches along the way. The real plane this is modelled after has a 4 cylinder opposed engine. Its one of the characteristic details of the cub. I plan on also making the landing gear have little non working shock absorbers like the cub uses as well. Since this plane needs to be so light I may leave out a pilot. I will definitely cover this plane in Yellow and add the characteristic lightening bolt in black down the side which are also characteristic touches to this plane which make you automatically think of the real plane.


The wing as I mentioned before is 46 inches long. The plans are really detailed and come with a section detailing the ribs so that you do not have to cut anything from the plans. It has two different ways of mounting the wing servo. Not sure how I would go about doing it yet. Most common way that the plan recommends is using a flexible control wire that is curved though the wing until it attaches to the aileron. I am glad this wing has no dihedral. All though it is suppose to make the plane more stable its slightly more difficult to build and makes trimming the plane difficult later when flying. It also adds weight because the plane has to either be built in two halves or needs more material to create the amount dihedral required for the plane. It has two hooks in the front of the wing and a single bolt in the back to attach to it to the plane.

Most of the balsa in this plane is of one eighth inch thickness with three sixteenth thick pieces in spots that require extra strength. This plane also requires Plywood in certain areas for strength. The guy who designs these has a neat way of securing struts in which he uses clothing snaps to get then to be put together with. This not only makes it so you can detach the struts easily but also makes it come off easily in a crash to minimize damage. Most models of the piper cub the struts are non functional. In the full scale Cub the struts add strength to the wing. In this model it is no different than other models in that the struts are merely for show.

These plans are wonderful and I am eager to get started but I estimate I will not start building until after the first of the year. But I am determined to continue to document the process here.

first post about my scratchbuild project

I have flown model air planes for sometime and built a couple of kits. I have also been intrigued with building these air planes by both kit and scratch from a set of plans. Over the space of the time I build an air plane from plans that I bought from http://montanamodelworks.com/ I will document them here. My plans arrived in the mail. I am eager to build one of these but current projects and time will restrict me. It will take some time to get started on these. The first I will start on is the Piper Cub which has a 46 inch wing span and is only 16 oz in weight. The second plane is a WWI biplane called the Spad XIII. Spad's were build by the French and are neat aircraft. The plans for the Piper Cub look less daunting for a first scratchbuild

Silverlight revisited

OK so my first ramblings on silverlight came to pass. So far if you are on a Linux Machine using Firefox you really cant use a site that has silverlight. learned this through the Olympics with my wife. they had video and it was all presented through silverlight. Nothing I tried to get it to work was successful. Nice try but I think I see through Microsoft's trick to keep people locked into Windows.

Changed the Focus of my Blog

I have an RC airplane Blog where I was Documenting building an RC airplane from scratch and I have decided to combine my blogs. Shortly I shall add that as well as my woodworking hobby and from time to time talk about my family. I will still even talk about linux.

Workbench Linux

Another derivative of Ubuntu but oddly enough it actually is quite good. It has some gadgets preloaded that are pretty neat and this is a Distribution that caters to Developers. It was one I found on distrowatch.com . I liked the tools installed and it seemed rather polished more so that others that I have tried that were basically new. It requires a DVD to burn the ISO to. It was a bit Buggy in a VM. I am impressed by this distribution and will make more use of it in the future.

Dell Preinstalled Ubuntu System

My wife and I bought a laptop from Dell preinstalled with Ubuntu. I am impressed with Dell for this offering. I have only been using this system for a short couple of hours but I like it.

The specifications are a Intel Centrino dual core 1.83 mhz cpu 1 Gb of ram 15.4 inch screen. Has a green top DVD burner and even has some ports I wasnt expecting. The wireless card was an intel that was already installed and ready to go. So far I am impressed and again thanks to Dell for offering this with Ubuntu.

:update:
I have been with this laptop now for about 6 months and I tell you I couldn't be happier. Everything works as stated its a solid laptop and the best part is I didn't have to pay the Redmond Tax.


this is the sd and media slot. got to use this a few times to take pictures from our camera and put them on the notebook.

right side of the laptop has a burner and lots of USB ports.

the left side has vga out, hdmi, firewire, ethernet and more USB ports.

laptop keyboard and monitor.

Ubuntu loading for the first time

top is a pretty green for my wife.

that is the stuff that came with it

Petition...

Now i usually dont care about these because they dont really matter. however i found a petition that i think would be fun to see if it would succeed; Stop Uwe Boll

i am not the kind that is dissapointed with the guys movies so i dont share the feelings of the people on the list. I just thought it would be funny if they got the guy to quit.

Microsoft Bidding to buy Yahoo!

I for one think this is a bad thing. I rarely use the search features of Yahoo I will admit that however I use plenty of other things that Yahoo offers. For Starters Yahoo recently change their email. I have been a Yahoo Member since 1997. Their email has not only improved in since those days but its better than any service out there. I also have a Hotmail account which has been replaced by Microsoft's Windows Live service which I might add sucks. The difference in Hotmail and Yahoo is that Yahoo offers so many other things that I have come accustom to. Not only will this suck for Yahoo users but the industry and Web as a whole. If any regulators are listening please do what ever you can within reason to not allow this purchase to go through. Microsoft is more interested in Dominating than Competing which is bad for us all. I think there would be such a loss to the industry as well with as much as Yahoo does beyond search. Think of the email, flickr, and the open source project ajax email client that they developed. Plus the plethora of other services they offer that Microsoft could care less to keep or maintain under current conditions.


p.s. Edit to all those who read this Write your congressmen and impress on them that they yahoo merger will be bad for consumers. For those outside the US write the FTC and tell them how you will be effected. Lets not let this happen if we can make it stop.

New Blog I wish to Publisize

I came across a post on Slashdot about a lawyer from a firm wishing to find out the identity of a blogger at http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/ to discredit him or her based on whether they work at a company with interests in software patents. I do not really care where the work if they are willing to publish posts about the patent trolling on a whole I think we are better off. This lawyer works for a firm of a known patent troll. The thing that disgusts me is that they use the system designed to further innovation to spurn it. The patent system has been so bogged down with obvious patents or prior art that its ridiculous. It may not be illegal but its unethical to create or buy a patent for the purpose of extracting license fees from competitors based on obvious or prior art patents. the most recent expample of this is Trend Micro patent on virus protection on smtp or ftp traffic. the patent description is obvious and should have been reject for a specific method. This lawyer who is trying to find the identity of trolltracker should be ridiculed and mocked for his assertion that it matters whether the person works for a company like Microsoft, Intel or other such company that actually makes a PRODUCT! Raymond Niro of Niro Scavone Haller & Niro You should be ashamed of yourself for even trying. And Mr Niro you should be ashamed of yourself for not earning your wealth but getting lucky on a get rich scheme like patent trolling.


ps Raymond Niro for 10,000 I would give you my identity freely. Not a whole lot you can do with it but I imagine that is the case with troll tracker as well.

edit notes: not trolltech but trend micro was invloved in patent infringement law suit that is completely bogus. trolltech is a software company that made the QT environment for KDE application programming.