Bought a flying wing from Mel over the weekend. It was so nice looking, I had to at least get it, even if just for show.

It is powered by a Cox Conquest 0.15, mounted on a combination muffler/mount. The engine felt loose and rattled when I turned it over with my finger. After some work on the bench, I got the crankshaft out, and found the rear bearing obliterated. I put in a call to Ron Young, a Cox Conquest specialist out in California, and quickly sent the engine to him for rebuilding. He can get these things spinning fast.

Last night I spent my time with some Novus Plastic Polish #2 and lots of rags to take the tarnished look from the upper surfaces. Novus is magical stuff - the plane looks new and freshly waxed. What you don't see in the photo is the covering for the fuse cavity. It is yellow with a canopy bubble and a tiny Snoopy figure. They look silly, so I'm going to take this oppotunity to build myself a new cover and making it plain and smooth - with that, this plane is going to look like a UFO.

I'm not qualified to fly this machine. It is a bit on the heavy side, with a fast engine (turns props >23krpm). Also, no landing gear - just skids applied to the bottom of the body. Do you just kill the engine and land this deadstick? Once this plane is ready for flight, I need to find somebody experienced enough to take it for a spin. Perhaps you?

I'm going to do my part and replace some of the heavy hardware with some lighter components.

I have the most fun on the workbench on a late night.