Getting Organized

[Mitch]

Hello Everyone...

Things I dislike are cleaning up, taking notes, being organized...
Things I have a hard time with... Finishing a project when the going gets tough...

but as with any endeavor, being organized and taking notes will make your work easier and help you improve your skills.

Since WESTFAC V is just a few days away, I needed to find, correlate, and make up my data sheets for my entries this year. Although you may not need to do this, This also becomes a time I am finding my plans and reference material all over. I know successful flyers take notes on there builds and they also keep everything in a file cabinet, so they can find what they need when they need it.

So I am going to start at this time to file all my plans and references, and start taking better notes...

Here are my data sheets for my flying models this year:

Inside each folder are reference pictures 3 view line drawings of the planes, this is in the right pocket inside the folder. In the left pocket are some notes I feel are important to point out to the judge the special features or details of my model.

Mitch, Always Building, Always Improving, Always Having Fun

[NcGunny]

Mitch if you have the time can you put up a pic of your Storch? I dont remember seeing it before,what company or plan did it come from? Thxs. Hope ya get a 1st with the BF 109'S

[Mitch]

The Storch is a Dumas kit...the only non Guillows kit in my lineup:

I built this a few years ago before I found this forum and the FAC. I did not fly her until Denver, after WESTFAC IV: She had a terrible twist in one wing, but a friend helped me work that out with steam. She flew beautifully in an alfalfa field in Casper WY, But meet disaster in Denver CO. First crash crushed front...Re Built in field repair...then 2nd day she winged over in a gust and nearly broke off one wing. It stayed on as there is music wire holding the wings together (as per plans)

I used artistic license to create the way she might have looked before the outbreak of the war:



There are more details available in the instructions but I left them off, that is why I believe she belongs in the Simplified scale contest... She looks great in the air with her large 30 inch ws.

She is fully repaired, but the front end is not adjustable and she has a very small hole for the wound motor to pass though, so getting her ready for flight will be difficult. I would not mind building another Storch. The model comes with 2 versions of canopies. The second has a bubble for a defensive mg. I have a Squadron book thought my next Storch would be built with skis. (Extra bonus points in the FAC)

Mitch

PS: Thank you for you best wishes, but we will see how my Guillow creations hold up in the contest... These guys are good... uhhhh... VERY good!

[NcGunny]

I always picture the Storch busting off the landing gears,they are a very unusual design. I built a old Hasa kit that was a all metal construction, it.was designed like a balsa kit. I think my friend had put.the build on youtube on his channel or somewhere. Aerowerkes might offer a kit also Mitch if they are hard to come by.

[Mitch]

This is a very nice kit, and available. The landing gear is VERY strong as the wire goes though the fuselage (Across the top of the windshield from inside), there is also a second wire (maybe 2 more at the bottom) but I forget exactly how they all go together. Just follow the plans. I am more worried about the wing. The connection looks very fragile, but there is a thin strand of music wire in that also. Mine did a wing over in a gust of wind and I thought it was destroyed...but with a little TLC, her she sits waiting for her next flight...and competition.

PS: I thew on some exhausts from a 400 Spitfire kit. Not exactly to prototype of the Storch, But I when I looked at the 3 view I knew I was missing something. And under all that silver paper in the nose is a filled in balsa front end that was the first field repair in Denver.

[David Lewis]

Guillows used to make a Storch kit #304, which is more attractive than the Dumas. (Note this kit number has now been reassigned to the PC-6 Porter.)