Nice build Alan 

Really nice Alan. You build a lot faster than I do!

The details add a lot of character. I really like the exhaust pipes, intake, and wheels. I wish my kit had a laser cut intake. I gave up making one after three or four tries.

I went flying yesterday and worked on trimming my Cougar. The CG seems about right but the plane was stalling a little. I added a bit of clay inside the nose block. I'm getting some good flights now. The Nesmith Cougar is a good little flyer. Some of my fellow club members have warned me not to fly it outside because I'm likely to lose it.

Here is a picture of me and my Cougar yesterday with the Marin Aero Club:

Hey Dave!

For the tail feathers I pre-shrank the Esaki on a frame and doped with 50% nitrate while still in the frame. The rest of the plane was covered with wet tissue (as explained by Duco Guru) and given one coat of 50% nitrate dope. I mixed in a little Sig retarder.

By the way, MAC seems to have gotten a reprieve (at least temporarily) and we will be flying indoors at St. Vincent's on the 4th Sunday of each month until further notice. Come on down! Lately, MAC has been flying outdoors at Lakeville Rd. on the 2nd Sunday of the month.

DW

On this one, I used about 6.5# wood at 1/16" cross section on the rudder and stab. They were pretty hardy so I did not pre-shrink. I use the old dope method of adhering tissue and shrink with 70% isopropol and then touch up with water where necessary. The entire model is lightly doped and I have no worries that the tail will distort.

Nice looking group and gym you have there, DW! I really want to start a local club by me...

I took the new plane out for a spin today and she caught a bit of a thermal. Just enough to throw her about 55' up into a maple tree. My 35' fiberglass pole didn't come close to reaching. I had to extend the pole 10' with fishing poles, stand on top of my 10.5' truck (while it was rockin in the breeze) and still had to extend my arms all the way. I managed to nudge it enough to knock it loose, just to discover that the prop & noseblock had wrapped around the branch. I tried pulling it but not good. I was finally able to grab the branch and rip it off. Down it came with the plane still attached. It was so tangled I had a hard time getting it loose while holding it in my hand, let alone with a 45' pole!

The good news is I got my wheels, nose and plane back. The only damage is the left wing needs rebuilding and the bottom of the fuse tissue is ripped. Might just replace the whole piece rather than trying to repair it. That's the advantage of covering with dope. Just a little thinner and the old covering comes right off. The wing will be a little trickier...

On initial inspection, I thought I was going to be able to get away with a quick repair. I only saw 4 breaks, 2 on the LE and 2 on the TE. The plan was to glue, pin, wait and then repair the tissue.

Plan B - After the glue had time to set the wing still felt shaky. On further inspection I noticed the center spar was shattered. At this point I decided removing and rebuilding the damaged area was my best bet for a good result.

This is why I glue with aliphatic resin and cover with dope. It allows me to saturate the damaged tissue with thinner and remove it easily without weakening the glue joints as it would if I used solvent glue. If I used white glue to or glue stick to cover I would use solvent glue to build the structure.

All in all its not too bad. Especially after seeing john's mishap over on http://www.smallflyingarts.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1180566079/9#9

That's just awful, John. My heart bleeds. Remind me again...why do we do this? 

New parts in place and waiting for the glue to dry.

Since I don't own a piece of carbon fiber, I think I'll have to settle for some gussets. Not to big, but I'm thinking one at the LE, one at the TE and another one under the center spar. Squaring it all up will be the hard part. We'll see...

Wing in place, glued and pinned. Fuse is pinched between 2" thick foam to keep it flat, wing tips propped up 1/2" per side and a straight edge in front to assure a nice straight wing.

Tada...