[bbbair]

OK Guys;


I 'Inherited' this Airplane, the options were - "Take it or it goes in the bonfire..."


The poor little bird (40 size) had never been given a chance... put together by an amateur, she was wrinkled, the cowl was missing, there were scratches and holes all over, the controls had never been installed, and she smelled of mould... she was a mess.


So obviously - I took her.


Specifications;
Weighed in at 5 Lbs 5 Oz
Fully sheeted Foam Wing 54"
Fuse Length 45"


The fix began with a thorough cleaning and a good blast of Lysol (mould) and then I;


-Installed a tail wheel (with collars),
-Removed the wheel pants, installed wheel collars (the pants were falling apart and there was nothing holding the wheels in place except the pants),
-Reversed the Landing Gear and installed fibre bolts (trashed the steel nuts & bolts),
-Installed a wing retaining former (it had been ripped out),
-Re-glued the wing pins in place,
-Secured the servo tray,
-Fuel proofed the firewall,
-Stiffened and repaired the fuse (thin CA to the interior crush points),
-Built and installed a three line fuel tank, and had to enlarge the access hole to the engine,
-Installed a Thunder Tigre 42GP with a Vertical Muffler (Inverted),
-Installed and modified a Cowl (salvaged from a 40 sized Chipmunk),
-Made a Canopy from Balsa wood (it was an open cockpit),
-Pinned the Rudder hinges,
-Installed a Servo bracket for the Ailerons,
-Installed Servos (4),
-Installed Radio, Battery and Switch,
-Repaired a Wing Bolt Hole (it was twice the required size as he looked for the retainer),
-Removed and replaced assorted pieces of covering that were falling off,
-Added Red detailing and White pin stripes,
-Found the point of balance at 3 ½" back from the LE (11" chord - should be good). I wonder how close it is to the CG.


Still to come;
-Adding/Changing colours to top and bottom of the wings (both were BLACK with yellow trim),
-Re-tune the engine (to work inverted) and then
-weather permitting - this weekend I plan to maiden the Old Girl.


Details on the Flight/Funeral to follow.


Total cost of this restoration; $1.60
(it's amazing just exactly how much stuff I have hidden in my workshop )


So - I was wondering if anyone out there knows what it is? ??:


I THINK that it started out as a Super Sportster - now... it is a Mystery Bird

[uberjay]

Nice work! and good luck with the maiden.

The horiz stab looks a little too squared off to be a SS, but I could be wrong. It does look kinda like it fuselage wise, etc.

Cheers,
J

[cman]

Good luck with the first flight.

I like taking what would be junk and making it flyable again. it also uses up some of the parts I have kept for a just in case mement

[Jollidude]

It's a Balsa USA Smoothie.

Cheers!

Jollidude

[bbbair]

A 'Smoothie'??

Neat! I never heard of one before... A quick Google and it is an old design that has been rekitted in the last few years.

Given the damage I'll assume that this is one of the originals from a decade ago, the Smoothie has a good reputation on RCU.

Now; if I can just get the engine to run inverted I may be able to find out for myself...

Plan 'B' - rotate the engine 90 degrees and change the muffler (again).

[Dave Holmes]

Good luck with it Bruce! Nice salvage job. Keep us posted.

[bbbair]

OK; I got busy last night and tore off the Yellow trim, cleaned the
surface and then went to work adding the colours & patterns to the
wings.

This is still a low cost Re-fit so I dug around in my left over pile of
covering and added the 4" Stripes to the bottom. The Top had to be
different and a 'Lighter colour' - all that Black got HOT on a Sunny
day!

My Choices were Aluminum or Pink.

Guaranteed!!, I will be able to find this bird in the Sky and the Top
and Bottom are easily determined.

That's assuming I can get it airborne.

[Max]

Owww! My eyes! My eyes!





j/k.. its not that bad...




.

[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

Unique!

No standing in the pits wondering "Is that my plane or is it this one or..."!

I kind of like it!

[Dave Holmes]

Originally Posted by Max

Owww! My eyes! My eyes!





j/k.. its not that bad...




.

Yes it is that bad! Definitely visible, Bruce!