Trident Redux

Bill Stuntz said:
What's this "Sir" stuff? I WORKED for a living. Or at least I did back then. I was an E5, HM2. E4 at El Toro, so I worked even harder. Didn't make E5 til I was transferred to Bethesda Naval Hospital after an extra year of school. When I got out 4 years later, I was the 2nd JUNIOR man in my department. We had 3 E7's, 3 E6's, 2 E5's, and 1 E4.
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Ha.. I worked for a living too. I was an E-5 (Staff Sergeant) when I got out of the Air Force.
 
How long were you in, & how long did it take to make E5? I was in for 6, and made E5 at about 3 based pretty much on training (tied for 1st in CP School & top 5 in all the others) not leadership ability. I hear it's a lot harder in the Air Force. Boot camp, Hospital Corps School, Field Medical School, 52 week Cardio-Pulmonary School. I was in school for over 2 years not including 6 months at El Toro between FMS & CPS. I was a clinical instructor & working CP Tech at Bethesda til I got out. The only times I was on a boat were times I rented a sailboat from the Naval Training Center. And one time, I tied the sailboat up to a submarine that was having an open house to tour the sub. They knew the sailboat was Navy property & allowed me to approach without shooting at me - mostly because of the open house. But I did have to show ID to board the sub. The only time I was on a ship was to attend the commissioning of the USS Eisenhower. I think that was actually before I joined the Navy. I got to do that because my brother was an engineering officer during it's construction. He also built the California, the Abraham Lincoln, and I think the Nathaniel Green. He went in as an E1 & got out as an O6. He's also the one who gave me the Ringmaster & crashed that foam Cub. He was E1,2,3,4,5,6, W1,2, O2,3,4,5,6. At one time, I think he was the highest ranking mustang in the history of the Navy. As a Line Officer rather than an LDO like most nukes, I think he was #3 in the chain of command on the Eisenhower when they left for the Persian Gulf. But I think someone has him beat now. He really got his sh*t together after flunking out of Youngstown University!
 
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Bill Stuntz said:
How long were you in, & how long did it take to make E5? I was in for 6, and made E5 at about 3 based pretty much on training (tied for 1st in CP School & top 5 in all the others) not leadership ability. I hear it's a lot harder in the Air Force. Boot camp, Hospital Corps School, Field Medical School, 52 week Cardio-Pulmonary School. I was in school for over 2 years not including 6 months at El Toro between FMS & CPS. I was a clinical instructor & working CP Tech at Bethesda til I got out. The only times I was on a boat were times I rented a sailboat from the Naval Training Center. And one time, I tied the sailboat up to a submarine that was having an open house to tour the sub. They knew the sailboat was Navy property & allowed me to approach without shooting at me - mostly because of the open house. But I did have to show ID to board the sub. The only time I was on a ship was to attend the commissioning of the USS Eisenhower. I think that was actually before I joined the Navy. I got to do that because my brother was an engineering officer during it's construction. He also built the California, the Abraham Lincoln, and I think the Nathaniel Green. He went in as an E1 & got out as an O6. He's also the one who gave me the Ringmaster & crashed that foam Cub. He was E1,2,3,4,5,6, W1,2, O2,3,4,5,6. At one time, I think he was the highest ranking mustang in the history of the Navy. As a Line Officer rather than an LDO like most nukes, I think he was #3 in the chain of command on the Eisenhower when they left for the Persian Gulf. But I think someone has him beat now. He really got his sh*t together after flunking out of Youngstown University!
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I spent 8 years in the Air Force and made Staff Sergeant near the end of my first term. I didn't want to be in charge but they kept making me NCOIC because I was an honor student in both of the electronics schools I went to (electronic warfare systems). So they tended to put me in charge which I didn't care for I'm more of an individual contributor but with rank comes responsibility in the military. And supervising people that mostly wanted to slide by didn't work for me. So I got out and ended up as an electronic engineer then later a software engineer. And now I'm a clown designing toy planes.
 
Since the last beta was pretty much what the released version will be I'm going to take a little time to try out a couple of things. I don't know if I'll use them but I wanted to test a couple of ideas. So have fun with the beta and I'll let you know if my ideas end up on the plane or on the chopping block.
 
technoid said:
I spent 8 years in the Air Force and made Staff Sergeant near the end of my first term. I didn't want to be in charge but they kept making me NCOIC because I was an honor student in both of the electronics schools I went to (electronic warfare systems). So they tended to put me in charge which I didn't care for I'm more of an individual contributor but with rank comes responsibility in the military. And supervising people that mostly wanted to slide by didn't work for me.
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That's pretty much what happened with me, too. I was E3 out of Boot Camp, E4 out of Hospital Corps School, and E5 shortly after arriving at Bethesda. Except that Bethesda was SO top heavy I was never in a supervisory position except teaching our students. The Navy trains CP techs for Navy, AF, & Army. One of my classmates went to Walter Reed. He worked a 35-section duty schedule, was so busy making sure nobody stole the phone off the desk overnight (and to be sure everybody got out if the fire alarm went off) that he had to take the next day off. He lived in Army housing 3 blocks from WR for $140/month. I had to pay $600 for civilian housing with 45-minute commute time each way. He moonlighted in a civilian hospital about 20 hours/week making >$20/hr. The Army was so short of CP techs that he got a $20K+ reenlistment bonus. The Navy had so many CP techs that I had the priveledge of working 65-90 hours per week, couldn't moonlight, and didn't deserve ANY reenlistment bonus. Have you figured out why I got out after 6? My brother's time in the Navy MADE him, mine nearly destroyed me, and helped to destroy my first marriage.
technoid said:
Since the last beta was pretty much what the released version will be I'm going to take a little time to try out a couple of things.
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Fine with me. Take as much time as you need. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
 
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When I originally made the wings the tip went down at a straight angle from the last rib, but from Bill's pictures the tip rounds down. So I went back this morning and rounded it. The top view still looks the same but I made the tip round down. I need to do the same thing to the hstab it's a sharp angle down too. The vertical stabilizer seems to be okay. Bill take a look at these pictures and see if they look okay to you. Thanks!

Oh. I also reduced the thickness of the wing 10%, not a lot but just enough to notice they were a bit thick to me.

Trident 65.jpgTrident 66.jpg
 
technoid said:
Oh. I also reduced the thickness of the wing 10%, not a lot but just enough to notice they were a bit thick to me.
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Different details for different purposes. C/L aerobats tend to have thick airfoils because they don't need speed. And it might also help maintain more constant speed in maneuvers since there's no throttle control with a venturi rather than a carb. The only "throttle" control back then was adjustment of venturi size & careful mixture control - slightly rich 4-cycle in level flight & leaner 2-cycle in maneuvers is what I remember. And I think they went back into 4-cycle on the down side of maneuvers. But this isn't C/L.
 
Bill Stuntz said:
Different details for different purposes. C/L aerobats tend to have thick airfoils because they don't need speed. And it might also help maintain more constant speed in maneuvers since there's no throttle control with a venturi rather than a carb. The only "throttle" control back then was careful mixture control - slightly rich 4-cycle in level flight & leaner 2-cycle in maneuvers is what I remember. And I think they went back into 4-cycle on the down side of maneuvers. But this isn't C/L.
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The first thing I did was import the plan again and compare the wing to the plan and it was a little thicker but after reducing the wing thickness by 10% it looked to be the same as the plan so I went with it.
 
I finished rounding off the wing tip yesterday so now I need to mirror the new wing to the other side but thought I'd take a picture of the two wings to keep as a reference. The new rounded wing tip is on the right side of the picture (left wing). You can also see where I reduced the thickness of the wing, to me it definitely looks better.

Trident 68.jpg
 
Bill Stuntz said:
Looks great to me. Interesting... that camera position w/ the LG lined up almost exactly with the rudders makes me imagine twin booms. Kinda like La Donna with conventional gear. I never noticed that before.
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To be honest I don't know where I got that position I don't think any of the plans I have has a top down view of the plane. So it was an eyeball thing probably. If you want to measure or look at your real plane and let me know if I need to move them any.
 
I just cutout the hstab from the plan and overlaid it on top of the wing so I could see the position of the gear to the rudders.

Wing Gear To HStab.jpg
 
Progress has been slow for the last few days I can't seem to get going on anything. Anyway I finally got around to mirroring the new wing to the other side and creating a new build so that's done. And it does look better now, or at least to me it does. After looking at the hstab I don't think it needs to be rounded more I think what I saw was a little shading on it so I think I have a smoothing group problem on the tip. So next time I work on it I'll take a look at that. I need to take the wife to her specialist in Dallas today so I won't get much more done on it.
 
Thanks guys we don't have to leave for Dallas until noon so I went ahead and finished the work on the hstab. There was a small smoothing group issue but it's fixed now. So after I add the collision mesh it'll be ready for mapping, ugh.. my favorite part.
 
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