My Redoutable first lake run

[SubDude]

Seals underway to your address, Steve. Should be there by the end of the week.

David

Huge appreciation sir. Thank you very much!

[redboat219]

Have you ever considered covering the PLA in epoxy or fiberglass to reinforce it?

[SubDude]

Send a million bucks in un-marked bills.

Seriously, I make these seals like popcorn. I'll get a few off to you tomorrow first thing. Anything else I can slip into the mailer?



David

You remind me of my friend Darrell Sprayberry. He can make just about anything. He is currently building a 152" wingspan Stuka Dive Bomber. Made the plugs and molds. Fuselage is layed up in epoxy resin and fiberglass. He is also making a huge OV-10. With his lathe and milling machine he helped me add a fixed radome/hollow main shaft mod on my Apache. He even builds his own helicopter mechanics. The last time I visited him I was able to trade an EDF jet for a Typhoon hull layup from a mold he has. I learned a lot about molding on that trip.

[SubDude]

Let me know how much. My info. is Steve Hodges, 55 Locust Meadow Ln, Weaverville, NC 28787. Thank you very much!

[SubDude]

OK, Put some water back in that ballast tank, stand it on its after end, blow into the antenna conduit and observe where the bubbles are coming from.

Where are the bubbles originating? From around the seal body, or around the pushrod?

If you have a leak somewhere in the bead of RTV that mounts and makes watertight the pushrod seal body, dry things and dab on some RTV over the offending spot and draw a slight vacuum through the antenna conduit flexible hose to drive the RTV patch into the offending void.

If the leak is around the pushrod, replace the pushrod seal. You received a spare with your MSD package. If you can't find it, hit me and I'll get a few off to you in a flash.

David

They were coming from around the pushrod itself. The extra seal that came with my cylinder I used for the fairwater planes. Thank you sir.

[SubDude]

Good video. I appreciate the running narrative. Informative. Tell me more about that leak!

David

It looks like the leak is at the seal where the pushrod for the vent arm goes through the bukhead between the radio compartment and ballast tank.

[trout]

Well documented run! Very solid running submarine. Congratulations captain!

[Sinksalot]

It looks like its running great. Nice work!

[MFR1964]

Steve,

Congratulations on your drive, she looks to be a stable runner, nice to see it running the way she does.

Manfred.

[SubDude]

Thanks Rob. It was great to finally see what it could do. I never throttled it all the way up and didn't need to. It will turn in about 30' circles and the fairwater planes are more than enough to control depth. I have a slight leak in the radio compartment that I need to sort out and she will be complete. The big Nautilus is next.

[SubDude]

I finally got my Redoutable to the lake where I could open it up. I couldn't be more pleased with how it performs.