27 minute read
Construction: Standard J-1 Biplane Build a 1/4-scale park flier
STANDARD J-1 BIPLANE
Build a 1/4-scale park flier
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The Standard J-1 was a primary trainer used by the Army Air Service from 1917 to 1918. The J-1 was developed from the earlier Sloan and Standard H series, designed by Charles Healey Day. A total of 1,601 J-1s were built. The J-1 was a large airplane with a wingspan of 43 feet, 10 inches and a flying weight of 2,100 pounds. The majority of the J-1s built were equipped with the Hall-Scott 4-cylinder 90hp inline engine.
Though similar in appearance to the Curtiss Jenny, the J-1 was an entirely different airplane. It’s been said that the Jenny was easier to fly than the J-1, and due to the unreliable Hall-Scott engine and a propensity to catch fire while airborne, the J-1 never caught on. But after the War, many J-1s were refitted with the Hispana-Suiza and Curtiss OX-5 engines and became the first choice of barnstormers and other early aviation pioneers.
THE MODEL This Standard J-1 model is a 1/4-scale park flier with a 60-inch wingspan and a flying weight of only 23.3 ounces. With a wing loading of less than 5 ounces per square foot, the model can easily be flown in smaller areas, but is large enough for a club flying site. Power is provided by the low-cost TowerPro outrunner motor with a 2-cell LiPo battery. It uses four servos to control the rudder, elevator, and ailerons. The wings are removable in pairs for easy transport and quick assembly at the field. The fuselage assembly allows the elevator to be a scale-like cable drive system, or for the sake of simplicity, with a typical pushrod arrangement.
BUILDING THE J-1 Full-size part templates are provided on the plans, but to save time, Manzanolaser.com offers a short kit containing all of the cut parts. A set of plastic parts containing the upper cockpit fairing, louvered fuselage side panels, and the Hall-Scott engine is also available to enhance the model. A materials list is also provided on the plans.
AT A GLANCE
MODEL: Standard J-1 TYPE: Lightweight RC biplane WINGSPAN: 60 in. WING AREA: 810 sq.in. WEIGHT: 23.3 oz. WING LOADING: 4.2 oz./sq. ft. RADIO REQ’D: 4-CHANNEL (RUDDER, THROTTLE, ELEVATOR & AILERONS) POWER REQ’D: Brushless outrunner
TAIL SECTION Construction begins by making the rudder, elevator, and wingtip forming patterns from 3⁄16-inch artist foam board. The bows are made using the wood sizes shown. Build the vertical and horizontal stabilizers directly over the plans. When the frames have been assembled, remove them from the plans and sand the edges round. Cut the 5⁄32-inch-wide hinges from light CA hinge material and slot the frames as shown. Don’t glue the hinges in place until after the parts are covered.
THE WINGS The bottom wing halves are built first, and are framed directly over the plans. Begin by pinning the spars in place, using a couple of ribs to ensure proper spacing. Glue all the ribs in place, followed by the leading and trailing edges and the wingtip bow. Add the strut and wingtip skid hard points to finish the basic structure. Remove the wing panels from the board and sand to shape. Next, cut the 3⁄16-inch O. D. aluminum receiver tubes to length and glue in place in ribs R1 and R2, followed by the brass wing-retention brackets. The top wing is built in the same fashion. Begin by pinning A4 and A5 in place over the plans. Assemble the front spars by gluing A1 and A1A together. Assemble the rear spar by gluing A2 and A2A together followed by A3. Assemble the spars and ribs over the plan and glue together. Add the leading edge, trailing edge, and wingtip bows and build the aileron assemblies directly on the wing. When the basic wing is finished, add the rigging hard points and fit the aluminum receiver tubes and glue in place. Remove the wings from the board and sand to shape. Remove the ailerons from the wing and sand to final shape. Slot the hinges into the wing and aileron but don’t glue them in place yet.
1. The fuselage side frames are built directly over the plans then the frames are joined beginning with the landing gear mount beams. Machinist squares are used to ensure the sides are perpendicular to the work surface. 2. The finished fuselage frame with all the formers, crosspieces, and stringers installed is ready to fit the landing gear and plastic detail parts. 3. The rudder, elevator servos, motor and speed control are mounted in the fuselage and tested for proper operation. If problems are encountered, this is a good time to fix them, while the components are still easily accessible. 4. Here’s the firewall and motor mount assembly. The firewall has offset orientation to accommodate right motor thrust. The TowerPro brushless motor is mounted, wired up and tested for proper direction of rotation before adding the cowl details. 5. The rudder and elevator pull-pull control cables are run in and secured to the plywood control horns with a keeper made from 1⁄16-inch O.D. aluminum tube. 6. The Hall-Scott engine is detailed using bits of plastic and wire. The radiator is made from blue foam with a bridal veil used for the inlet screen. The cap was turned from a 1⁄4-inch-diameter wood dowel.
THE FUSELAGE Build the two fuselage side frames directly over the plans. Lift the frames from the plan and score the top longeron and B1, and bend the frames to match the angle shown in the top view of the plans. Gouge a 1⁄16-inch slot into the landing gear beams and pin them in place over the plans. Glue the fuselage side frames in place on the beams taking care to keep them aligned perpendicular to the plans. Locate and glue the four no. 4 formers and former 5 in place. Assemble the motor mount onto former 2. Note the orientation of the mount offset. The mount box should favor the left-hand side of the fuselage to accommodate right motor thrust. Glue the assembly in place, followed by formers 1 and 3. Now, block sand the joining bevel into the tail posts and glue them together. Glue formers 6, 7, and 8 in place. Remove the frame from the board and glue the remaining upper and lower cross pieces along with TS1 and TS2 in place. Make the cabane mount beams using the detailed drawing provided and glue them in place. Now, glue the stringers in place from former 1 back to former 5. Once the stringers are in place, trim them at the cockpit openings.
Bend the landing gear and cabane strut components from 1⁄16-inchdiameter steel wire. Assemble the landing gear on the fuselage and tape in place. Wrap the joints with fine copper wire and solder together. Lash the landing gear to the beams with Kevlar string and secure with thin CA glue. Fit the plastic detail parts to the fuselage. The top fuselage cover will need to be trimmed to allow the cabane struts to plug in, and to allow the aileron “Y” leads to pass through at the left front cabane. Make up the lower access hatch cover from sheet styrene. Build the scale engine assembly, but don’t glue it in place until after the fuselage is painted.
RADIO AND DRIVE SYSTEMS Build the elevator pull-pull control assembly and glue it in place within the fuselage. Install the servo mount and attach the servos to the rails. Install your desired elevator control system. Run in the rudder pull-pull cables using the cable routing diagram on the plans. Tape the rudder and elevator in place and tie off the cables to their appropriate control horns. Mark the exact location where the cables exit the fuselage and mark the locations on the plans for
GEAR USED
RADIO: Spektrum DX-7 w/AR-6000 Rx (horizonhobby.com), four Hitec S-75 microservos (hitecrcd.com) MOTOR: TowerPro 2409-18 1000KV outrunner w/ TowerPro 20A speed control w/BEC (hobbyking.com) PROP: GWS 10x4.7 (gwsus.com) BATTERY: ThunderPower 2100mAh 2S or Flight Power 2170mAh 2S (thunderpower-batteries.com)
reference after the model is covered. Glue the aileron servos in place using a gob of silicone. Run the wiring out of the wings using extension leads, or by soldering an extension into the servo lead. Be sure the output arms are centered and that retainer screws are installed before the servos are mounted as they are inaccessible once they’re in place. Mount the motor and wire up the speed control. Test-run the system (without the prop to prevent accidental injury) to ensure that it’s working properly and rotating in the right direction.
COVERING AND FINISHING Do a final detail sanding and fix any minor boo-boos to prep the airframe for covering. To simplify the task of wiring up the ailerons, don’t cover the top of the wing center section until final assembly. The color scheme I selected was for Steve Wittman’s plane and was not available in standard iron-on colors, so I opted to use two different materials. I used buff-colored Nelson Lite-Film for the wings and tail sections for a natural linen look. The fuselage is covered with Doculam and painted with Testors Model Master Insignia Red with a few drops of Flat Black added to dull it down. The color was sprayed onto the fuselage and plastic detail parts using an airbrush. I highlighted the fuselage with light gray, and dirtied up and weathered it using flat black and silver. The wings were highlighted and aged with light tan. I then gave the wings and tail section a light dusting with Krylon clear satin to eliminate the shiny look of the Lite-Film. The “Atwater” decals on the side of the fuselage come from Callie Graphics (callie-graphics.com).
FINAL ASSEMBLY Begin by gluing the plastic upper fuselage section, side panels and nose bowl in place on the fuselage. Then, glue all the control surface hinges into place using Pacer canopy glue. Plug the bottom wings into the fuselage, and using them for reference, align the horizontal and vertical stabilizers and glue them in place. Install all the control cabling and hook up the rudder and elevator. Use a small piece of cellophane tape to reinforce the cover where the cables exit the fuselage. After the ailerons have been hinged in place, make up the 0.032-inch-diameter steel wire aileron pushrods. Align and glue the control horns in place then build the lower hatch. Make the wing alignment jig from artist foam board and tape it in place on the fuselage. Plug the top wing panels into the center section and fit the
wing onto the cabane struts. Plug the outer interplane struts into wings to hold the lateral position of the top wing and glue the center section to the cabane struts using 15-minute epoxy.
Now the inner interplane struts can be plugged in, the wings aligned, and the struts secured with a drop of thin CA. Run the aileron servo leads in and cover the top of the center section. Finally, finish the model by adding any desired additional details. The wing rigging is done using 40-pound test Kevlar fishing line. Run the rigging in beginning at the top wing inner hard points, over the top wing rigging support and through the outer hard points. Then thread the rigging through the struts working both span- and chord-wise toward the wing root. If all goes well, you should be able to rig each side using only four pieces of string. When all the rigging is in place, pull it taught, and with the washout set properly, secure each point of contact with a drop of CA. Bend the wingtip skid loops from 1⁄16-inch steel wire and glue in place. Add the remaining details as desired. Install the battery as low as possible in the fuselage as the model is a bit top heavy and the battery location can adversely affect the way the model flies. Adjust its position to best balance the model.
IN THE AIR The J-1 is a great-flying model, but it’s an old biplane and flies like one. I love pure, seat-of-your-pants flying, so I set up my model with no mixing and found it to be a genuine rudder airplane. Due to the extreme adverse yaw (without differential aileron mixing), the model won’t turn using ailerons alone, and a good bit of rudder is needed to coax it around. For the less adventurous types, both rudder and differential aileron mixing can be used to smooth things out. But by doing that, the charm and challenge of flying these raggedy old biplanes can be lost. The model flies nice and slow yet responds well to control input. The elevator is quite lively, but the rudder and ailerons are somewhat docile. The main thing is to let the model take its time responding to input, and after you get used to how it responds, you will find it to be gentle, honest, and very pleasant to fly. Takeoffs and landings are excellent, and the model has no tendency to ground loop. After many flights and more than 60 touchand-go’s, the wingtip skids remain unscathed! In the air, it cruises nicely at 2⁄3 power and will climb at a very scale rate. In all, it’s a gentle giant that’s at its best floating around in still morning or evening air. When you’ve got some stick time o these n cl the J-1, assic ol you’ll know the d biplanes. lure of
K1108A | STANDARD J-1 BIPLANE
Designed by master model designer and builder Pat Tritle, this 1/9-scale classic barnstorming biplane is a great flyer. The 1/4-scale model is a lightweight backyard flier design. It uses traditional stick and former construction with laminated outlines for wingtips, rudder, stabilizer, and elevators. Short kit and plastic parts available from ManzanoLaser.com. WS: 60 in.; power: brushless outrunner; radio: 4-channel; LD: 2; 3 sheets; $27.95. Order the full-size plan at AirAgeStore.com.
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COMMERCIAL UAV EXPO
Latest innovations in small uncrewed aircraft
Based in Switzerland, Flyability has been a dominant manufacturer of drones specialized for indoor and confined-space inspection since its original Elios took the $1 million prize in the United Arab Emirates’ “Drones for Good” competition in 2015. While it inaugurated an entirely new venue for drone operations, the original Elios was a handful for pilots.
To ensure that it could keep flying after brushing up against an obstacle or even maintaining physical contact with the surface of a structure, the fairly conventional quadcopter was enclosed within an entirely unconventional carbon-fiber cage, which could rotate around the aircraft in three axes. This unique configuration made it possible for the aircraft to “roll” along floors, ceilings and walls.
In the hands of a skilled pilot—a very skilled pilot—it could be invaluable for exploring and inspecting confined spaces like sewers, utility vaults, fuel bunkers, and so on. At the 2022 Commercial UAV Expo held in Las Vegas this past September, the company released the Elios 3.
While it superficially resembles the original Elios with its carbon-fiber cage, it is altogether a different aircraft. The cage is fixed, and its ability to stabilize after colliding with obstacles has been maintained through careful refinement of its flight control system, which is even capable of reversing the direction any of its four motors are turning, if that is what the circumstances require to maintain it in flight.
“The big change with the Elios 3 is that it incorporates a LiDAR sensor, said company spokesperson Zacc Dukowitz, using the acronym that describes Light Detection and Ranging systems and which accomplishes the same basic task as radar, only using lasers.
“LiDAR allows the drone to create 3D models in real time, and then it uses SLAM—Simultaneous Localization And Mapping—so the drone can position itself in three-dimensional space, ” Duckowitz explained. “SLAM also allows the drone to be incredibly stable: it uses three visual sensors as well as the LiDAR sensor to achieve what we call ‘world-class stability. ’”
Having had the opportunity to operate the aircraft myself at the show, I can attest to its formidable station-keeping abilities. It’s about as steady in the air as a conventional drone from DJI or
The 16,000-lumen lighting array built into the Flyability Elios 3 has been designed to avoid back scatter on dust and debris stirred up by its propwash and provide the operator with a clear view, even in contaminated environments. The Elios 3 from Flyability incorporates a non-stabilized one-axis gimbal at the front of the aircraft, which supports both a visible light and a thermal camera and provides an unimpeded 180-degree field of view, from zenith to nadir.
Autel Robotics—but that’s with zero GPS input. Unlike the original Elios, which required the pilot to manually manage the platform’s momentum and position, all while the protective cage was spinning crazily around it, the Elios 3 basically flies like a conventional drone— except in a cave.
Add to that the incredibly precise data that the LiDAR sensor is able to gather and the result is an entirely new capability for indoor inspections.
“We’re discovering new use cases all the time, ” said Dukowitz. “LiDAR sensing on an aerial platform in a confined space sounds really niche, but there is actually a lot of potential. We’re seeing the drone used in mining. A client recently told me they had a clogged chute in their mine and they had spent two months trying to figure it out … in one ten-minute flight [with Elios 3] using the live, 3D map, they were not only able to identify the cause, but also determine that the efforts they had made during the previous two months were never going to work because the problem was fundamentally different than what they originally imagined. ”
Another example Dukowitz described was the inspection of the inside of an oil-storage tank on an off-shore drilling platform. Previous iterations of the Elios had been used for this task, however a human inspector was sometimes still required to enter the tank, just to verify that the drone had examined its entire inner surface. However, with the LiDAR developing a 3D map in real time, it is easy to confirm that complete coverage has been obtained.
The combination of LiDAR and SLAM technologies has created the possibility of fully autonomous confined space mapping and inspection. The Elios 3 also incorporates an array of more conventional sensors, such as a 4K visible light camera and a thermal imaging camera—both of which have an unobstructed 180-degree field of view on a user-controllable pitch-axis gimbal.
To aid in the inspection of dark environments, the Elios 3 incorporates a 16,000-lumen lighting array, which has been designed so that it doesn’t directly shine on the dust and dirt that are inevitably stirred up the by the drone’s prop wash, providing for a clear view even in contaminated environments. Finally, the Elios 3 has been futureproofed with a modular payload bay, which allows another external sensor to be mounted alongside the LiDAR.
For all its capabilities, the aircraft is not without a few disadvantages—mostly stemming from the fact it must be able to fit through a standard-sized manhole cover. First, with the LiDAR sensor attached, it can only fly for nine minutes on a fully charged battery, which is actually an upgrade from the original Elios. Also, its small, fast-turning props emit an ear-splitting racket, requiring hearing protection for the operators.
eBee TAC Although it might at first glance be mistaken for a $100 Popwing, the eBee has been a mainstay in the aerial surveying and mapping industry for nearly a decade. The flying wing is renowned for its ease of use: plan a mission on your laptop, take it out to the field, shake it three times and then toss it into the air. A conventional twostick controller isn’t even option with the eBee—but with a starting price of $13,500, you’re probably better off letting the computer do the flying, anyway.
With its extensive track record of success in civilian operations, eBee’s developer senseFly—acquired by AgEagle from French drone maker Parrot in 2021—decided to create a new version tailored for a group of endusers with an even more urgent and compelling mission: the military.
Of course, the tactical use of small UAS immediately conjures up images of a live video feed, revealing the bad guys trying to set up an ambush on the opposite side of a hill from friendly forces. However, as a mapping platform, the eBee is ill-suited for that type of real-time reconnaissance. I asked AgEagle’s regional manager for North America, Gary Licquia, to explain conops for the eBee in the battlefield context.
“What we’re doing with eBee is cutting out a step in the process for those guys that are right there on the leading edge, ” said Licquia. “Right now, they have to call in for aerial reconnaissance and they might be 15th in line to get a larger asset overhead. So, instead of having to phone the mothership and say, ‘Hey, I need this data, ’ they have the drone with them so they can go ahead and do it themselves. ”
When the aircraft returns from a mission, the data can be quickly
Incorporating a LiDAR sensor, the Elios 3 from Flyability is able to construct a three-dimensional map of its surroundings in real time, both enhancing the pilot’s situational awareness and providing data for its onboard Simultaneous Localization And Mapping system. While operating in a cargo trailer at the Commercial UAV Expo 2022 in Las Vegas, the LiDAR sensor on board the Elios 3 managed to begin building a 3D map of the entire conference hall through the trailer’s doorway.
The eBee TAC is easily distinguished from its civilian counterpart by its speckled surface, created at the request of its military customers to help camouflage the small aircraft.
The standard payload for the eBee TAC incorporates both a 20-megapixel visible light camera as well as a 640x512 thermal imaging sensor, allowing vital intelligence to be gathered day or night. To help protect forward deployed military personnel, the eBee TAC incorporates encrypted communications and other data security features to prevent it from giving away friendly positions, even if it is captured by the enemy.
downloaded and assembled into a map using common software tools such as Pix4D React. And, the resulting data is unclassified, so it can be freely shared across different units operating in the battlespace.
The eBee TAC was developed in consultation with military customers and incorporates many features that would be unnecessary, or even counterproductive, in a civilian platform.
“We’ve integrated some security features: we have 256-bit encrypted communications, suppressed flight logs and a secure SD card, so that if anything happens to it, the bad guys aren’t going to be able to pull any useful data off the drone, ” Licquia explained. “Also, we can fly without any radio communications at all. You can upload the mission to the drone beforehand, so it’s stored on board, and then you don’t have to communicate with the drone while it’s performing its mission. You can fly in complete blackout mode, so it’s invisible in terms of RF signals. ”
The aircraft also incorporates the ability to add bespoke payloads that may be required by certain military applications through an open payload design. Licquia added: “We give them the specifications in terms of the size, the weight, the center of gravity so they can go ahead and integrate it into the drone themselves. ”
The eBee TAC is capable of flying for up to 90 minutes, giving it the ability to map nearly two square miles at a resolution of 1.5 centimeters per pixel. The eBee’s regular black-and-yellow trim has been changed to a speckled black-and-white surface to camouflage the aircraft, which is undetectable visually and acoustically beyond 1,000 feet.
The stock configuration includes an electro-optical/infrared payload incorporating a 20-megapixel visible light camera as well as 640x512 thermal imaging sensor from FLIR. Standard alternative payloads include the S.O.D.A. 3D visible light camera that incorporates an internal roll-axis gimbal to capture both nadir and oblique imagery to enhance the quality of three-dimensional models constructed using photogrammetry, as well as a 24-megapixel visible light camera optimized for low-light performance.
Equally important for the prospective military user is the fact that the eBee TAC is approved for use in sensitive applications. Indeed, the eBee is the first fixed-wing platform to be recognized as a Blue UAS by the Defense Innovation Unit for use by the United States
The Condor, developed by Drone Delivery Canada, has a payload capacity of nearly 400 pounds, prompting the interest of oil and gas extraction firms with operations located deep in the Canadian wilderness.
Created by Drone Delivery Canada, the Condor is a package delivery platform developed from a small crewed helicopter airframe with a 20-foot rotor diameter. Powered by a 90-horsepower, two-stroke, gas-burning engine, the Condor from Drone Delivery Canada has a top speed of 75 miles per hour and a maximum range of 125 miles.
Department of Defense.
DDC CONDOR The Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) booth at the 2022 Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas certainly turned heads with its formidable Condor drone: a single-rotor helicopter with a maximum payload of 180 kilograms, almost 400 pounds south of the border. You don’t need to be a mathematical genius to work out the fact that it could comfortably carry a human being, or two, with that kind of capacity.
That’s no accident: DDC created the Condor by converting an existing, crewed helicopter for service as a drone.
“We buy the shell from a vendor, and then we transform it into an uncrewed platform, ” said Armen Keuleyan, the company’s director of sales and marketing.
A small conventional helicopter, the Condor is powered by a 90-horsepower, two-stroke gas engine with a range of about 125 miles. The DDC conops calls for the Condor to be operated from a centralized command center where flights will be monitored remotely by pilots in command. This clearly puts it in the realm of a “beyond visual line of sight” (BVLOS) operation, which is not currently permitted under the aviation regulations of the United States or Canada.
“In the beginning, we’re going to use it at shorter ranges, just to prove the concept using the ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach, to demonstrate to the regulator it’s safe to fly, even though our pilots in command are far away, ” explained Keuleyan. “In the end, however, we want to push the limit and hit that 125-mile range potential while operating fully autonomously. ”
Among prospective users who are interested in the system are oil and gas extraction companies with remote facilities spread out across the vast land area of Canada.
The Condor is not the only platform currently under development by DDC. The company also boasts two electrically powered multirotors, the Sparrow and the Canary, each with a payload capacity of approximately 10 pounds and a 12-mile range. Tying all of these systems together is FLYTE, a software tool that allows for the remote management of UAS operations from the company’s command center in Toronto. In addition to allowing remote pilots to monitor the location and performance of every aircraft in its fleet, FLYTE monitors other air traffic, weather conditions and obstacles along the established routes where these aircraft will operate.
DDC is the first company to be certified as a “Compliant Operator” by Transport Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which subsumes a role equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration. The company was recognized with an Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Xcellence award at the organization’s May 2022. annual Xponential show in
HANGAR TALK
By the ModelAirplaneNewscrew Photo by David Hart (capturedfromthehart.com)
and other top crash excuses
Hard landings, unfortunate midairs, outright crashes … they happen to even the best RC pilots. The rest of us, well, let’ s say we ’ ve all have had our share of “ accidents. ” When we asked for your best RC crash excuses on our Facebook page, the creativity of Model Airplane News readers didn ’t disappoint. Out of over 500 submitted excuses, we picked these favorites. Here ’ s hoping for many more flights before you need to use one of these explanations again!
I don’t know what happened!?
It just nosed over and dove in!—Jake Wheat I should have flown two mistakes high. —Juergen Roy Mohrweiss Thought for sure I was on this side of the tree! —Chance Arana Hayden The tree just reached up and grabbed it!—Don Weber What do ya mean it was inverted?—Steve Smith I lost elevator!!—Brad Green Paranormal activity radio interference. —Diego DeGato Well if you’re gonna fly, you’re gonna crash … —Rick Mäki I thought it was coming toward me, I thought
I had enough altitude to pull out. —Joe Schmid
Who turned their transmitter on?!—Pete Bodiam I was making "PACKING PEANUTS"!!! —John Scoots Warren Oh, I was flying the other plane!—Joe Holder Ran out of skill. —Joe Naas
Ran out of talent. —David Hofman
That was exactly what I was trying to do. —John O’Connell
The ground just elevated on me. —Anders Fridén
Was standing in a fire-ant bed. —Scott Davidson
Sr.
I ran out of airspeed, ideas, and altitude at the same time. —Andres Turner
My wife called wondering when I’d be home from “work. ” —Paul Oswald
Dumb-thumbed the stick.
—Tracy Reyes I was in the Bermuda Triangle. —Howard Sutch
It was a radio brown-out. —Mike Kidd Battery died. —Dan De
My thumbs just aren 't speaking to my brain right now. —Darren Joss That tree wasn’t there before!—Simon Fischer I was pushing the plane to its limitations.
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