The Super Sporster 20 -- R.I.P.

I built the SS20 back in high school and flew it for one summer after graduation. From that point on, it was stored up north, back home, for eight years while I spent time flying sailplanes.

But, when Carrie's work picnic brought us to Badger Prairie Park in Verona, we stopped by the aeromodeling field and watched some guys flying powered again. She thought it was cool, and liked the Zagis that were flying. (More on this later.) I got the urge to get back into flying powered.

So, I brought it back from up north and had a few things to do -- like reinstall a radio and deal with my flight box which had a hi-start strapped in place where you'd normally find a fuel bottle.

Quite a few things have changed between me being in high school and now. Like money. Back then, I pressed some C-cells and an old TV alligator clip into service for a glow plug clip. I used a 6-inch piece of plastic pipe or a gloved hand to prop the engine. There were just certain things that you could do without when faced with a lack of funds and opportunity to purchase. This time, however, I was no less excited buying a power panel, starter, field box battery, and glow plug clip then I was wishing I had these items then. Delayed, and well-remembered gratification, I guess.

So, with those items in place, I put the radio back in the plane. With my old Futaba 4-channel dead and out of the 1991 spec, I programmed another model into my Hitec Prism 7x. I installed two servos in for the ailerons to effect some flaperon mixing just because I can. I set up some flap/elevator mixing, some dual rates -- fun stuff like that.

With hardware installed, it was time for the shakedown. I took it out to the flying field and immediately found that my fuel bulb had a leak. There was fuel all over my hands, and leaking out of the pump, sucking air, etc. Well -- still good enough to get fuel in the plane if I was patient. But jeepers -- a 1-ounce fuel bulb should fill a 4-ounce tank faster than this. At this point, I realized my plane either had too much coffee and was inconsiderately releiving itself on my shoe -- or I had a leak in the tank.

What a mess. The foam was fuel-soaked, the Sullivan tank had a crack in the front. Damn. Well, a trip to the hobby store, some more fuel tubing and a fuel pump and some foam later -- I had a new GP 4-oz tank in the plane.

So, I did some taxiing around for 2-tanks worth -- the engine seemed to work fine. Next time, I'd fly.

So, next time (two days later?) I go fly. First flight I go up, and for some reason, I'm very surprised I can still fly this thing. I was up for about two turns, and then land, because the engine seems to be a bit goofy, and I want to add some trim.

Next flight, I get it up a couple mistakes high, make some figure 8's, pull a nice slow loop (hell, if it's going to break, do it now) and the engine dies. This might be alarming if I hadn't spent the last 8 years flying sailplanes. The silent flight phenomena was strangely comfortable -- except for the sink rate. That's a new one.

So I bring it in just like you're supposed to -- but the sink rate outwits me and I come in 20 feet short of the field and break one of the internal mounts of the landing gear in the snarly weeds. Not what I had hoped for, but oh well. Not the first time this stupid design has borken.

So, I pump out the fuel -- um, what fuel. Did I run out of fuel in 5 minutes? Guess so ... but I don't seem to remember this from before. So, I buy a new 6-ounce Sullivan tank, and go home and fix it.

Would you believe the new tank leaked on me too? It explained the air bubbles in the fuel line, and the 5-minutes to out-of-fuel.

Well, the new tank doesn't leak, the leanding gear has been fixed -- at least one side has -- and the engine runs great. Runs great. Flies pretty good. Now I just have to burn up the rest of the fuel before winter gets the best of the flying season.

I crashed the plane end of August. I was doing a lot of flying relatively low, very slow, and with minimal throttle. It went downwind a bit too far, and the degree of bank to go back into the wind may have been appropriate for full throttle, but physics said that falling from the air was the proper thing to do. It fell from maybe 30 feet with low throttle into high grass. I may have recovered had the stall started several feet higher up. As it stands, just the nose came apart where it was put together. It's a good excuse to get the camera installed.

November 4th, 2000, and it's back together. The nose is now red from having stubbed it on the ground once. Provisions are in place for installing the digital camera.

01 September 2001: I crashed the plane again, almost a year later. I have been spoiled by the Tsunami. A 3-second idle to vertical takeoff is really easy to get used to. My first takeoff, well, didn't. I ran the entire length of the field and never got off the ground. I think I held too much up elevator to keep the tail down and never went fast enough. Second attempt got me off the ground, around the field once when I think I stalled and just never was able to recover. The plane is in two pieces. It wouldn't be too bad to fix but some of the 10-year-old glue in the laminations is giving out, and it's probably unsafe now. I guess you actually need to have air flowing over wings for some planes to fly.

I'm building another Zagi. Someone at the field suggested I should put my .25 engine in it. We'll see...