January 20, 2003

Sold the E-3d at auction. It's just too big to cart around in my Mustang, and having to borrow my wife's SUV meant I only flew it once last year.

January 1, 2003

New wing flys great. Got 3 flights at the club 'numb thumbs' fly-in with no troubles.

November 29, 2002

The E-3D has a freshly rebuilt wing and nose. It's covered and the servos are re-installed. Next trip to the field I try out my repair work to see if it passes muster.

September 18, 2002

Sunset flight and I got into a spin due to low speed and lots of control surface deflection. Since the light was bad I lost my orientation and couldn't pull out, even though I had plenty of power. Trees and E-3Ds don't mix....

Repairs have begun. The fuselage nose went together well with a new firewall which should be a little stiffer than the original. I reinforced the repaired areas with 2-ounce fiberglass and epoxy which will add a lot of strength and less than 0.1 ounce of weight. Wing repairs haven't started.

September 16, 2002

Bought a proper receiver. I replaced the FMA Extreme 5 with a Hitec Super 8 receiver, so I no longer have to mix channel 5 with channel 6 to get the left aileron to work properly. Plus I now have full flap control on one of my transmitter's knobs. Harrier landings here I come!

September 4, 2002

WOW!

That's about all I can say. Flew great right off the bat. I was doing all sorts of wild acrobatics on the first flight and flight #2 was like I've been flying it for years. Tracks great - can hover and basicly do any acrobatic maneuver I'm able to throw at it.

My prop is a little out of balance and shook one of the screws loose on the gearbox mount, but I fixed that by replacing the screw with one that had larger threads with a little more 'bite' and adding a couple more on the mount.

September 1, 2002

I traded Jim Sweeney a built gambler for his E-3D kit in the box. Here's what I made of it. Power is Jeti 30-3 geared 2:1 with 11 cells and a 15x8 or 15x10 prop. About 100 watts/lb. I built it stock with the exception that I reinforced the longerons with 1/4" CF ribbon and I added extra reinforcement for the landing gear ply plate like the new kits have (this was an older kit).

Awaiting maiden flight.