Slowjohn

I swore I wouldn't build another scratch built plane that had a time deadline to finish the build but I think I can build this one in the alloted time if I concentrate on just it and don't get side-tracked.
I'd like to thank pburt1975 for putting my vision to paper, a nightmare as like I said it was a vision with no real measurements or drawings to work with. It took us many weeks of emails and backtracking to finally come up with what you'll see unfold. Also thanks to another friend Smokejohnson for working with me a lot today to figure out why the drawing I was trying to attach just wouldn't save to my system so that I could post it here. Thanks a whole lot guys.
As the build comes together I'll explain how the Slick Bells-88 / Slick John came to be and maybe you all can help me settle on the final name for it.
So let the balsa dust begin to fly, the scraps pile up & I hope you all enjoy the construction of my vision, the SB-88 (?)
BTW, I will be open to suggestions during the build.

Standing By,
SJ

gramps2361

Hey SJ this is were the caffeine kicks, in nice looking plane I'll be bop in on the builds here. I think next contest I need to get in on it.

Larry3215

Thats going to be a slick looking bird!

smokejohnson

Glad I could help John, I can't wait to see it in 3D.

Slowjohn

Thanks Larry, that's where the "Slick" comes in on it's tentative name of the Slick Bells-88. The "Bells" comes in from a Twin build I saw a few years ago that was called something like Twin with Bells and all and that's when I decided to build this one but the Think Building process was lots longer than I'd anticipated. I finally found pburt1975 who agreed to do the CAD Drawings for me & those were finished up after Christmas last year. The "88" designation comes from us borrowing heavily from the fuselage of the DH-88.

Gramps,
I've done a bit of fence sitting myself on doing a build thread. I've been asked many times to do several threads but never did one until now. Get off the fence and jump in here amongst us why don't ya

Standing By,
SJ

CHELLIE

Thats going to be a Gorgeous looking bird John, just keep the caffeine flowing, and it will get done in no time LOL Take care, Chellie

Slowjohn

Thanks Chellie as well as the rest of ya'll too.
It's right at midnight here so I'm calling it a day.

Stay Safe,
SJ

starcad

That is going to be one SWEET looking plane SJ. I love this contests as it really brings out some of the best designs and designers. I tried to get something done today but wife, kid, and dogs all got in the way so I kinda gave up getting it started today. Now tomorrow is different as soon as I get the kid off to school I have the rest of the day to myself. BTY, I'll put on some good old " DIRTY SOCK FILTER" Coffee for anyone that wants a cup in the morning. It'll keep anything awake.

Guy

Slowjohn

Thanks Guy,
If you were only just a wee bit closer I'd take you up on the coffee offer as the wife doesn't like hers quite that strong
I'm having a little trouble sleeping tonight thinking about this build. Heck the truth is I don't sleep well at night as it is but now the daytime sleeping is another thing. Guess all those shutdowns & outages started that but...
Anyway I've never installed retracts before but I'm sure thinking hard about using them on this build. I'm thinking that it'd sure look a lot sleeker looking on those close in, low level, high speed passes and I just happen to have a set of mechanical retracts but only one servo for the nose wheel. Anyone have a retract servo for the mains they'd sell cheap or perhaps a good source for one? I'm also going to be in the market for a couple more sets of retracts as I have 3 more Twins to build after this one. PM me if anyone has a set or two they want to sell. All of them will be a tricycle set up as well.
With retracts I figure I'll come in somewhere around 6 lbs. though I'd rather try to keep it under 5.5 lbs. Also I only have a 6 ch. radio and it's not one of those that can't be programed for all that fancy stuff either. This will basically be an "Old School" build & will have to be flown "Old School"
Time to try that "Horizontal" thing again.

SJ

weathervane

John, That is going to look great. I will be following along.

-Andrew

Brner

Just checking in....looking forward to following your build SJ...

Don

Slowjohn

Just a small update,
No photos yet but I do have a small stack of ribs and the fuselage sides & doublers that I've cut out and even more patterns. My fingers are so sore they don't want to move this morning from cutting out parts from some old Sig Balsa sheets I bought online (eBay) about 5 or 6 months ago. To illustrate the age of these old sheets the prices on the 3/32" X 3" X 36" is 0.25 to .31 cents. These are hard balsa sheets that almost required a scroll saw to cut the ribs & fuselage parts out. I'll almost be glad when I've used all of these sheets up. I got the doublers glued onto the fuselage sides with Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue that dried over-night, now to get them match sanded. Today I've got to order some std. size servos, the motors & ESC's from Jeff at www.headsuprc.com & I'll try & get the fuselage former patterns cut, the formers themselves cut out and sanded. I'd forgotten just how slow I am at cutting out balsa parts. I'm so darn picky & precise that I've got to be the slowest builder around Oh well, at least I don't have any big joints to worry about or fill in. I'll try to have some pictures to post this evening or tomorrow at the latest.

Back To The Build
SJ

Slowjohn

I should've gone flying this morning but...
I've spent the last hour & a half or maybe even two hours trying to figure out if I could safely install retracts since I had Paul put the spar on the speculative CG and I've already cut out all of the ribs. I was just about to give up when I snapped and started slapping my forehead over & over and calling myself names. Simple solutions have that effect on me when I suddenly realize that my glasses need a good cleaning so that I can see clearly that I've been trying to complicate the solution which was so simple my 4 yr.old grandson could've said "do it like this Paw Paw" Doohhh DUH Doh!!! That immediately follows that little guy sitting on my shoulder going "psst, listen to the kid"...and then I uncontrollably start creating star burst as I slap my forehead hard enough that I'm cross-eyed for a few minutes especially when I have my cane in that hand or something else...
Anyway I'm all right and I didn't have to undo or remake anything nor will I have to as far as the retracts go.

Cross-eyed &
Sitting Down,
SJ

smokejohnson

Golly John you shouldn't be so hard on yourself .

pd1

This should be a nice build.
Hey John are you ready for your next twin?

Paul

Wrench66

Hey now John.......I'm proud of ya dude!
From one twin scratchbuilder to another, "go for it!"

BTW....the AC-47 Spooky I built last Christmas is still one of my top favs to fly on the weekends......can't wait to see how you like your twin

be good

--Ray

Slowjohn

I wish you had of told me that before I got involved with the tree trimmer yesterday morning. That little job turned into an All Day Chore with me being the trimmer & the help for the biggest part of the afternoon so I didn't get much done inside the house working on my build. However I'd rather not have to pay for a new roof on the house from the tree branches rubbing heavily on the shingles in a heavy wind & since the ladders and stuff was already handy I also trimmed up around the mother-n-laws house & the shop. Anyway that chore is done for the next 2 yrs. or so even though the crew didn't bother to show back up after lunch break. Surprised I can even move this morning.
Note to self;
Concentrate on the build SJ, concentrate on the build...Forget everything else...concentrate...

Thanks Paul,

Sure, as soon as I finish the two builds I have working at this time. Perhaps there'll be a category in the next Build Contest that I can enter it into
For those of you who're unaware of what we're talking about, Paul has graciously agreed to draw up a plan for me, a Twin of course that'll be sort of a memorial to a friend of mine who past away a few years ago but more on that later when I start building that Twin.
Thanks Again Paul

Howdy Ray,

Thanks, I'm all about Twins but have just recently decided to get busy building all of those that I have either already started, to build all of the Twin kits that I have in waiting and to scratch build all of those that I have plans for or have them saved to my computer. The total of that is well into the count of the mid-20's
That doesn't even count all of the single power plant models I have that fall into all of the categories you can think of almost.

Very glad your still enjoying your AC-47 Spooky. A few years back I built a GWS DC-3 and then upgraded it to brushless & lipo power
Due to the lack of room in our small home, it's been regulated to the storage building for now
Below is one of my favorite grab & go Twins. I converted it from a Simple Stick kit from Hobby People. I've just finished building it a new fuselage with a little larger battery compartment & have yet to maiden it again

Now to see how much I can get done today as I have about 2 days worth to make up for. BTW, I did pick up a Bi-Fold Hollow Core 18" wide door yesterday from a flying buddy to use as a building surface. Works very well for my buddy so I thought I'd give it a try myself

Note To Self;
Concentrate, Concentrate....

Standing By,
SJ

LipoPilot

Nice one Im following.

wilmracer

Looking forward to seeing this one. It is reminiscent of a Burt Rutan design, and that's a compliment.

Slowjohn

Yes, that is a compliment and I Thank You. Just after getting out of the USAF back in 1975 I drove over to the Midland/Odessa Regional Air Terminal 30 miles or so away from Odessa, TX. where I was raised and I started putting in applications. One of those that I got an immediate interview with was Burt Rutan. He was then building his 1st (IIRC) composite aircraft. If I could've hung on w/o regular paychecks he would've hired me on the spot. However I had a wife and a 3 month old son to support & we were staying with my parents which I couldn't wait to get out from under their roof. Dad & I never did get along more than a few minutes at a time so...Anyway I've often wondered where I would've wound up at if I had of gone to work with Burt and stayed with it?

UPDATE;
The gluing has started
More details later.

SJ

Wrench66

Oh hey I like that idea........I have the brother to your Stick..a Wasp (hobby people) that I enjoy quite a bit....but a twin is always interesting
Hmmmm, yet another project I need...LOL hehe

(walks away talking to himself)


OK John...concentrate! hehe

--Ray

wilmracer

Wow. It would be great to work with Rutan and Scaled Composites today... I don't blame you about needing the paycheck though. I'd give almost anything to be helping push the private space industry right now. IMHO it will be the one of the two most important industries of the next 100 years.

Think about how quickly the golden age of flight came about after the Wright brothers flew for the first time. I love NASA and am well aware of how quickly they were able to go from nothing to the moon, but can you imagine how much faster space travel will grow as more companies join the race... At the moment NASA doesn't have that level of competition driving it. Private industry will have that drive.

Oh well... I'll stop rambling off topic...

Good luck with the build! I'm watching.

38 Lightning

I'll ramble on this a while......

I was at the Mojave Airport the morning Mike Melville became the first civilian astronaut. I stayed up the night before, sloshing down beer, in a giant Winnebago, filled with NASA people. All we talked about all night was "How NASA could never do this in the time and for the 20 million that Scaled Composites did". With NASA every system has to have 2-3 backup systems, exhaustive over the top testing, reams of empirical reliability data......red tape jacketed with red tape. Because one accident and there is 1000 bureaucrats who all want to yank their funding so they can spend it on pork barrel social programs and slush funds. Years of Congressional testimony .....redesign and testing loops that need to be signed off by more bureaucrats .....and on and on they went.

Although the folks at NASA do miracles every single day. We will never get off this rock, until space exploration gets into the private industry. Until then, humanity will be forever held back by the heads in Washington

So SJ, when are we going to see some pics?

Slowjohn

Not only does NASA need to be concerned about the Congressional powers that be but the uninformed loudly outspoken general public is a very big concern as well. The reason is that group will raise the most noise to those Congressional ears and if they want to be re-elected they're going to go with the flow of the most noise from the public regardless of the benefits.
My younger brother worked for a couple of big companies that were/are heavily involved with the shuttle program and eventually worked for NASA itself until he up big time in his private life and NASA was forced to let him go due to public pressure and the news media. He was well thought of and all but...I'd have fired him myself and more if it'd of been up to me but let's get back OT here.

It seems I'll have to buy another camera. While I was away the other day the wife let the last remaining 18 yr. old at home take my camera on a trip. She can't keep up with anything of her own much less someone else's...
You've guessed right if you think she came back w/o my camera ... so I'll have to go buy another one on the first
The thing is that I had been looking at some new cameras to replace it with a better one and had planned on giving her the one she lost
Oh Well...

Standing By,
SJ

BTW, I forgot to mention that I have to work nights the next 3 nights plus supervise some other goings on during the mornings. I've got to get this build going and forget most everything else or I'm not going to be able to finish it in time
sj

pd1

Don't worry John, you can do it.
Sleep is overrated anyway,

Paul