//------------------------------// // Chapter 25 // Story: Joe // by JMDARE //------------------------------// Joe hurried back towards the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse, the almost complete main wing in held against his chest by one hand and feeling the strain on a finger on his other hand. The scale of the model meant that with how the keel necked down where it entered the lower part of the tail the hole it slotted into was about finger sized, so it had seemed to make sense to use that hole to carry it. Unfortunately although it was not heavy the slight breeze and how it caught the air as he walked did tweak a little. Things were made even more awkward by the thin sheets of metal that were all Joe had thought he’d be carrying and the wheels he had belatedly realised they might need. And slightly embarrassing by the floral design on the bag Rarity had lent him. “Hello girls,” Joe greeted, noticing how close to complete the rest of the model looked. “Sorry I was longer than I said.” “Here, let me get that,” said Scootaloo, trotting and buzzing across as she saw things start to slide. “Thanks,” Joe said, letting go of things, Apple Bloom taking the tail section from him and Scootaloo the main wing. “Bit overburdened there Joe?” Apple Bloom asked. “Awkward rather than heavy, but that is the price we pay for Sweetie Belle’s sister being so skilled.” “Of course,” Sweetie Belle nodded as Joe released the wheels with three plops. Then she asked. “How?” “What I was expecting was to pick up the fabric tomorrow, or maybe later today, along with something to dope and stretch it. Then take a hour or two to attach the wet fabric to the frames and take a few hours more, or overnight if I’d picked it up today, for this all to dry and contract and be ready.” “Look ready ta me,” commented Apple Bloom. “Because Rainbow Dash had warned Rarity…” “She is awesome!” Scootaloo nodded. “So, after she’d finished telling me how I should have warned her myself, she was ready with the fabrics, willing to cut them at once,” continued Joe, “and she knows all about stretching and shrinking fabric. And had some glues very suitable for fixing fabric to wood and could sew seams that are almost invisible.” “Because she is awesome,” Sweetie Belle said, looking at Scootaloo as if to dare her to disagree. “So you got it all done today? Rather than overnight or tomorrow?” asked Apple Bloom. “Which meant I was in Ponyville longer and meant I had those to carry back today,” Joe nodded, taking the rudder, ailerons, and elevators out of the floral bag along with the bags of small screws, “and that we’d need the wheels today.” “Ah was wondering about those,” agreed Apple Bloom. “Fortunately the same sort as I think you have on your wagon were the right size, and seemed light enough,” Joe smiled, “and from the speed Scootaloo propels you we know their bearings can support a lot of weight and turn fast.” “Are you saying something about our weight?” asked Apple Bloom. “My apologies miss, I should have said support enough weight, since the wagon is sturdy.” “And they weigh more than this model,” Scootaloo added. Rather than comment or answer Joe decided to look at the skeleton of the rest of the model. He then did more than look as he tried flexing it and seeing how stiff it was, allowing for the few missing pieces. The fuselage seemed stiff enough, even without the rim around the miniature cockpit that it had been tempting to not bother with. Continuing the lateral ribs all the way around rather than having the section out of the pod would have been simpler. At the rear of the pod the Y struts were braced together and against the ribs and this seemed solid. But when Joe tried the tail booms he felt a slight hint of flex. “Right,” Joe sighed, “this is all good work, though the real thing would have more and proportionately slimmer ribs.” “Eee’yup,” agreed Apple Bloom, waiting for Joe to get to the point as she started to examine the fabric skinned parts. “But feels like tail flutter, if that is the term, might be a problem,” Joe continued, getting to the point. “Not for the model as it’s proportionately stronger…” “You’ve explained, several times, that strength is the area of the cross section and weight is the cube,” agreed Scootaloo, heading off another explanation. “Ah think he jus’ likes saying pro-pooor-tin-ate,” Apple Bloom nodded. Joe wasn’t much pleased by that interruption, though he was pleased they still felt enough at ease with him to interrupt and joke at his expense despite the earlier glowering. “With the full sized one, if we follow this design, we might risk the rudder bending the booms rather than turning the plane,” he continued, “and eventually that flexing would snap the tail off.” “You thinking of putting the propeller at the back of the fuselage after all?” Scootaloo asked. “So we can have something coming down from the wing to make a triangle and brace the tail?” “Cables might work,” mused Apple Bloom, “though a boom would resist being squashed as well as stretched they’d be more drag.” “Longer landing gear though?” Scootaloo asked, turning back to Joe. “Would be that problem,” nodded Joe. “Why?” Sweetie Belle asked. “The propeller would still be well clear of the ground.” “I’m not so worried about that as that at the speed those go around even a small pebble or bit of dirt being thrown up into them can be bad. Could damage the propeller and if you are really unlucky a pebble could be pinged back off it and hit you or something else important.” “Ah suppose that makes sense,” Apple Bloom agreed, slotting an aileron into the main wing to check it still fitted and would move freely. Joe considered warning her about a story he’d heard of a heavy bomber where the ailerons had been fitted upside down in the factory and even with the elite pilots of that squadron managing to compensate it gained a reputation as an evil plane to fly before the mistake was discovered. “Before we decide on any major changes,” he said instead, “we might need to do some more calculations…” “Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” Apple Bloom interrupted and almost screamed. “Mah head still twinges at that idea.” “But we might be moving the propeller?” asked Scootaloo. “Possibly not,” Joe replied, pointing at parts of the model fuselage. “Here at the rear of the ‘pod’ is where everything comes together. Got the keel coming through, extending to the nose and tail. Thin upper boom from top of ‘pod’ to partway up tail, which would get in the way of moving the propeller down. Bent Y-shapes of the V struts to the wings and the single strut to the landing wheel…” “Ah follow th’ practical stuff,” interrupted Apple Bloom again, “and we worked that all out together anyhow.” “What’s your idea Joe?” Scootaloo asked, seeing a twitch that showed one more interruption might resurrect the glower. “I was thinking of a short broad wing at the rear of the pod after all,” replied Joe, taking a calming breath and pointing again. “No wider than how far the V section of the Y’s bend out to the sides, but would allow some vertical struts between it and the main wing.” “Which would brace those together,” Scootaloo nodded. “That was one advantage of biplanes,” agreed Joe, “the upper and lower wings could brace each other.” “You were talking about the tail though?” Sweetie Belle asked, frowning a little as she tried to follow this. She knew she was smarter than her friends in some ways but Scootaloo as a Pegasus seemed to be getting the hang of these ideas faster and Apple Bloom seemed able to build anything. “Cables or booms from that wing to the tail?” asked Scootaloo. “That was my idea rather than moving the propeller since it would brace the wing as well as the tail.” “What about the landing gear though?” asked Scootaloo again. “Pardon?” Joe frowned, not understanding the question. “Th’ lower wing would maybe get hit by stuff from th’ wheel if we left th’ wheel struts the same length,” suggested Apple Bloom, breaking her brief silence as she finished fitting an aileron. “Though that would be protecting th’ propeller if we moved that as well as added th’ lil wing.” “Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed, “but I was going to say that as we have these struts…” She pointed at one of the model’s wheel struts. “Then we could run a cable from them. Not be as wide an angle, but be something.” Joe slowly nodded as he realised his thoughts were being outdistanced. “I hadn’t thought about the lower wing and the stuff from the wheels,” he admitted, “though if we metal skin its underside then it could be doing duty as a mudguard. Using the wheel struts also hadn’t occurred to me.” “Ah told you he wanted to metal skin everything,” commented Apple Bloom. “Though whether th’ lil wing is needed depends, ah think, on how bendy the main wing will be.” “If it would be good to run a cable back from those struts,” Sweetie Belle suggested hesitantly, “then what about forward to the nose?” “That would help brace the wheel strut,” nodded Joe, “and I think even if we did add a small lower wing it would not add much weight or drag to have cables fore and aft from there. Though Apple Bloom talking about how bendy the main wing might be reminds me of the original problem.” “Everything bending?” Scootaloo asked. “How hard everything will be being bent,” said Joe. “Bigger control surfaces would put more stress on the airframe and would be harder for you to move.” “Ah’m strong,” Apple Bloom commented, starting to fit the second aileron. “True,” agreed Joe, “ but how strong?” Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah get what you’re saying,” she admitted, “and ah remember you talking like a test pilot and saying how controls get harder to move iffen you’re going too fast.” “So,” Scootaloo said slowly, thinking things through as she spoke. “The stronger we are the more push we can give the controls, and the more push we can give the controls the bigger the surfaces we can move, and the bigger the surfaces we can move the harder we can change direction?” “And the more things want to fall apart,” said Sweetie Belle, pointing out the downside. “That too,” Scootaloo admitted. “We are not designing an acrobatic stunt plane…” began Joe. “This time!” “Hush Scoots,” Joe chided her mildly. “Even if we could figure out something that fast and agile you’d already be flying by then…” He chuckled. “Though perhaps that would be a good competition. You getting faster and more agile as you mature and Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom trying to build a plane to outmatch you.” “Ah do like a challenge,” agreed Apple Bloom. “Still, if we do manage to build a Microlight”, Joe continued, “we can build it strong. That way it might last longer as less stress on it and rather than changing the size of the control surfaces we can have them moving more or less.” “So when we get stronger we can move them more?” asked Scootaloo. “Be simpler to change how much they move for how much you move the controls than to rebuild the Microlight.” “Though we are getting ahead of ahselves here,” Apple Bloom commented, easing a pivot into position to secure the second aileron. “We need to see if we can even make a model fly.” “Which humans managed long before they managed full sized ones,” nodded Joe. “Sounds frustrating,” Scootaloo frowned. “I can only imagine, but yep.” == Papers swirled around the Golden Oaks Library, with Spike ‘swirling’ around it as well and trying to catch them, as the air inside was churned up. Although the magic was silent the sound of motion and dragon footpaws was enough to make Owlowiscious very unappreciative of them reaching this stage of their work. He turned his head to try to ignore their antics. Twilight Sparkle gave the back of her number two assistant’s head an apologetic look and then concentrated. The device secured to the table was already glowing but as Twilight Sparkle’s horn matched that its glow intensified for a moment, and then the glow around her horn and the one around the device both faded in unison. As the device became inert and the air was no longer being stirred the last of the papers settled to the ground for Spike to pounce on it. “Hmm,” Rainbow Dash commented from where she’d been standing out of the way, “think you made that strong enough Twi?” “I hope so,” replied Twilight Sparkle, “you could only say it would have to be about half to two-thirds the size of…” Twilight Sparkle slowed to a stop as she saw how much the inside of the library had been blown about and realised her friend had been teasing her. “Oh,” she added with a blush. == Apple Bloom had finished fitting the control surfaces to the wing and tail and then they’d soon added the last few ribs to the fuselage. With the booms coming out the rear and the struts diagonally out the sides the rear of the fuselage pod would need some complex shapes so Apple Bloom used some paper as that was easier to trim down and get the right fit. Once she had her templates Joe began to measure along the ribs to get how large the simpler plates of the metal skin would need to be and then shook his head and smiled. “You know,” he commented, “Twilight Sparkle would not approve of this method, though I think it’s more Apple Bloom’s style.” “How do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked, a little suspicious as she deftly shaped a section of metal sheet. “As far as she’d be concerned this would be incredibly easy to calculate,” winked Joe, “got the circular lateral ribs and the curve of the longitudinal ribs so the changes in size as things taper towards the nose is obvious. On the other hand I have a tape measure and a Sweetie Belle to take notes.” “Check!” Sweetie Belle said. “And a sense of déjà vu thanks to you three,” continued Joe, “this is all so symmetrical I keep getting the same numbers, so I’d be fine just measuring one for each band.” Apple Bloom shrugged. “Ah don’t know what else you expected, not like ah’d fix things together all skew-whiffy.” “True,” Joe smiled. Despite his growing sense this was unnecessary Joe continued to measure and Sweetie Belle to note these as Scootaloo began marking out the simpler shapes on the thin metal sheets, drilling fixing holes before cutting them free, and Apple Bloom finished the more complex ones and began to help her friend. Joe remembered doing this sort of thing before but didn’t comment about that as it seemed computer modelling and linking vertices with faces would take too much explanation. Though those faces were only triangles rather than quadrangles and were flat rather than curved so the analogy was a weak one. “If we do a full size one…” Joe began. “When,” muttered Scootaloo, loud enough to be heard without being loud enough Joe had to take notice or offence. “…then we might have to pre-form the curves, even if the metal is not much thicker,” Joe continued. “Rather than just bend it to the ribs as we screw it in place. Certainly will have to use clamps.” “How we holding it in place here then?” asked Apple Bloom. “I hold, you drill and screw,” shrugged Joe. The filly gave him a slightly cockeyed look as he finished his measurements and shifted the fuselage where it was settled in his lap. He’d worked from rear to nose so rear was where they started. The tip of the nose and tip of the rear of the pod were solid wood but to her surprise Joe simply pinched the small first metal plate of the rear band of those in place with his fingers. Apple Bloom quickly made a thin guide hole into the wooden ribs inside the hole and sunk the first screw. As they continued Apple Bloom began to get a little puzzled. Even the largest plates were still a little smaller than one of Joe’s hands, but that was the same as saying his hand was not much larger than them. Finally she had to ask, as she finished the last screw of the latest plate. “Joe, your hands are awful strong for such small things…” “What? Oh,” Joe smiled. He pushed up his sleeve. “No muscles in the hand,” he said, flexing a fist and showing the response, “they’re worked by tendons from the muscles of the forearm.” “Oh,” nodded Apple Bloom, remembering other creatures with paws and similar arrangements, “that makes sense.” Things got a little tricky as Apple Bloom and Joe got towards the nose and the curve of the lateral ribs got sharper while he also had less room to fit his hands into. He did wonder if doing these first would have avoided the second problem, though at least this was one of the rare things that would be easier if they were working full sized. It did also show an advantage of having included the cockpit as that gave him a relatively large hole to put his arm inside the fuselage pod and approach things that way. Somehow they managed and Joe set to rubbing down the plates with the rounded end of a smooth lump of wood to make sure they were flush and to tightening any screws that had loosened as the other plates were added. Meanwhile the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders had been bored. There wasn’t any room for them to help with what Apple Bloom and Joe were doing and while Joe was concentrating he wasn’t available to tell them another implausible story. It seemed rude to leave or go up into the clubhouse but there was nothing for them to do. Aside from a homework assignment, and they weren’t that bored by the time the fuselage had been skinned and their fellow Crusader was able to return to them. “Ah think once Joe finishes that we’re about ready ta put th’ other stuff on,” Apple Bloom declared. “I think so,” agreed Joe peaceably. “Wheels first?” “Ah think so,” Apple Bloom nodded, repeating herself and Joe. “They won’t mind a little knocking, then th’ tail ah suppose.” Joe nodded and shifted the fuselage to hold it at the right angle for the wheels. As she was so familiar with these from her scooter and having to fix and maintain that and the wagon it was Scootaloo who dealt with attaching those to the struts while Apple Bloom gave the mounting holes on the tail and main wing assemblies a final check. Then Joe shifted the fuselage again to hold the pod in his lap, left arm wrapped around the nose while his right hand held the lower boom / keel firmly as it stuck out to that side. With how accurately Apple Bloom had shaped the ends of the two booms and the sockets for them in the tail this took a little pushing and felt like a tight enough join to almost not need the dowels to be tapped in and through. But only almost and once those had been seated and Apple Bloom had polished them flush with more sandpaper Joe decided to experiment again. He’d a good grip on the boom and had the fuselage well braced against him so while he had it there it seemed to make sense to feel the bendiness of the finished thing. “Hmm,” Joe commented as he tried pulling his right arm back and then pushing it forwards, “feels like the two booms being linked by the tail has made a difference, locked them together better at the ends, so might not need more bracing.” “Or rather than using your muscles,” a voice commented, “you could try using your brain. We did work out how you could calculate the stresses in a less primitive way than trying to bend it.” “Twilight! Dash!” Joe said, looking at the pair of arrivals. “It is good to see you both.” “Especially Rainbow Dash,” whispered Apple Bloom to Sweetie Belle. “Well of course it is especially good to see her,” Joe commented, giving Rainbow Dash the slightest wink as he turned his head to look at the Fillies, “I was wondering how to test how well this would fly, and now we have a ‘drop plane’.” “Oh, of course,” nodded Apple Bloom. “That was what ah meant, right Sweetie Belle.” Sweetie Belle just nodded as Scootaloo buzzed in for a hug on her heroine. Rainbow Dash provided this, though she couldn’t help but wish the Cutie Mark Crusaders had not been here, and she’d not walked here with Twilight Sparkle, as that model looked very comfortable in Joe’s lap and she envied it. Twilight Sparkle was wishing a little the opposite and that Spike had come along instead of remaining at the library to tend it as his absence had given Rainbow Dash the walk to talk to her about private matters. She liked Joe, and wished him and Rainbow Dash well, but she wasn’t sure why Rainbow Dash was continuing to tell her things now they’d established magic wouldn’t help much and so it wasn’t a problem with which she could help much. “Going to play us a tune there Joe?” Rainbow Dash asked, managing to think of something other than herself that could be in Joe’s lap. “Huh? Oh,” nodded Joe. “If we add some bracing wires then maybe, strum away with one hand and slide the other up and down…” For a moment Joe paused as he tried to figure out how that would work with hooves and if he’d ever seen a Guitar here. Still if these Ponies could hold a violin bow and play it, or a fiddle as Applejack had put it when talking about the Apple family reunion and the sing along, then they must be able to apply different pressure to different strings. No stranger than a lot of the other things they managed to do with their hooves. “…and of course if I actually knew how to play an instrument,” concluded Joe. “That would be useful,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “So ladies,” smiled Joe, “are you here to rescue me from these three?” “Rescue you?” Apple Bloom asked. “Ah you saying you need such?” “Oh, indeed,” winked Joe. “Soon I shall have to go home and cry in my pillow that you are better with your hooves than I am with my hands…” Rainbow Dash managed to avoid a comment about doubting that. “And that as well as outworking me you three are outthinking me.” Sweetie Belle giggled and trotted over to just behind Joe’s left shoulder. She reared up onto her hind legs to wrap her forelegs around his neck in a hug. “Aw… poor Joe,” she said, the attempt at sounding sympathetic spoiled by the continued giggling. “Ack!” said Joe. “Something is trying to snap my neck, and sounds happy about it.” Once Sweetie Belle had finished her extra giggles and released him Twilight Sparkle answered Joe’s question. Her horn glowed and magic unfastened the straps and opened the flaps on the top of the panniers she was wearing. Something floated out from either bag and towards Joe. “I take it you recognise what these are?” “Well, I talked about this sort of thing with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, while Dash was still here,” Joe commented, shifting the fuselage / tail off his lap to sit on its wheels in front of him. “So I recognise this as a propeller,” he added, taking that from the glow, “and I’ve seen what Tank has and this looks like what drives his rotor.” “Surprise!” grinned Rainbow Dash. “You gave me one of those already,” Joe replied, Rainbow Dash wondering if he mean the kiss for an instant before he continued, “when I went to see Rarity to buy the fabric I found you’d warned her of that need, and then she surprised me with how fast and well she was able to give things a fabric skin.” “Because she is awesome” said Sweetie Belle, before Scootaloo could say that of Rainbow Dash. “So is Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo nodded, not discouraged by being beaten to the comment. “And so is Twilight Sparkle, since she has managed to produce a magical ‘engine’ for your model,” added Joe firmly, “as well as for a host of other reasons.” “Spike helped, and the propeller was more the smith’s work, he’s used to fixing Tank’s rotor,” Twilight Sparkle blushed, “and I only knew to try to make this because Rainbow told me what you were doing and suggested it.” “Which means Rarity can tell me some more about how lucky I am that Dash has more foresight than me,” smiled Joe, “and doesn’t alter that I have to say thank you Dash for telling Rarity and Twilight and thank you Twilight for helping, I hope the smith did not charge too much?” “He did it for free,” Twilight Sparkle reassured him, though it had actually been a few bits, “said was just a little bit of metal twisting and forming.” “Good,” said Joe, not entirely believing Twilight Sparkle but at least feeling it had probably been cheap enough to not worry about between friends. Then he looked to the three fillies and when they just looked back at him he coughed significantly and nodded towards the two Mares. “Ahem?” “Oh!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, the first to realise. “Thank you very much Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, we appreciate your help.” “Eee’yup,” echoed Apple Bloom, a moment ahead of Scootaloo. “All much appreciated, so mah thanks to both of you and ah hope it was not too much trouble.” “Thank you Rainbow Dash. Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” Scootaloo added. “Having the wings and tail today was good but having a propeller and something to power it makes it even better.” “Though ah will have to modify the wing now,” commented Apple Bloom, adding a little hurriedly, “not that ah mind.” “A chance for you to tease me again about wanting to metal skin everything?” Joe asked. “Maybe a chance for you,” said Apple Bloom, “Ah recall you saying that making th’ section between th’ struts metal skinned would make it stronger, so if we cut away th’ fabric there…” “If we make some small plates, the width of the ribs, and screw them onto the ribs first to clamp the fabric rather than rely on the glue,” Joe corrected. “Ah, good point,” nodded Apple Bloom. “Can remove those in sections ta replace with proper ones…” After a little more discussion of how to brace the ‘engine’ into position and how much clearance it needed around it Apple Bloom set to work. The first thing she actually did was to make the ‘proper’ plates for that section of wing so she knew where she’d be wanting the screw holes. With Twilight Sparkle’s help she tested how the ‘engine’ would react to being touched by wood or metal while it was glowing so she knew if it made a difference. As Apple Bloom clamped the fabric and began cutting it away from the central section of wing Twilight Sparkle moved on to Sweetie Belle. It took a few attempts and some patience by the older Unicorn, with her experience and knowledge and her special talent being magic itself, but after a while Sweetie Belle began to get the hang of starting and stopping the ‘engine’. This left Joe, Scootaloo, and Rainbow Dash unoccupied so the first two began trying to make conversation with the latter about what they had done since the last time she had seen the model. “This bit looks a bit bare,” commented Rainbow Dash, pointing at the tail booms and the X-braces between them. “Be quite a large area to cover with metal…” Joe started to say. “See, ah’m right about him and metal skinning everything,” called Apple Bloom, working on the extra bracing inside the central section of wing. “Especially with how Apple Bloom is metal skinning that part of the wing,” Joe continued, raising his voice for the first part of his sentence, “and though that would make it stronger some bracing wires would be lighter and probably help more…” “Calculations,” muttered Twilight Sparkle. “Agh,” Apple Bloom winced. “But it was tempting to put fabric over it,” said Joe, trying to hold his train of thought on track, “might reduce drag a little from eddies around the struts and allow a smaller tail, since it would be flat sided and have some of the same effect…” “But how much drag would it reduce?” Twilight Sparkle asked, satisfied with Sweetie Belle’s progress and leaving her to unsupervised practice. “How much reduction in the tail size?” “I don’t know,” admitted Joe, looking at the purple Unicorn looking at him. “Joe, we went to the trouble of working out the formulas you need…” Twilight Sparkle began. “For giving me a headache,” commented Apple Bloom absent mindedly as she considered which ‘proper’ plate to add first. Then she blinked. “Though I ah’m right grateful for your time Miss Twilight and ah’m sure that those will be mighty useful.” “Thank you Apple Bloom, I am glad you appreciate the beauty of mathematics,” Twilight Sparkle smiled. “Ah,” said Apple Bloom, not sure if Twilight Sparkle was serious or teasing for a moment until she saw the sparkle, like her name, in her eyes. “Will be something to calculate,” Joe agreed, “I’m not discounting the importance of the math. But it is also something we can test on a model, far easier to add or remove skin to this one or another one than to experiment with a full sized one…” Joe stopped and chuckled and recognising the signs of him having remembered another story Rainbow Dash obliged “What?” she asked. “I read a book by a test pilot…” “Egghead,” Rainbow Dash teased. “And one thing he mentioned was a problem moving from the prototype version of an aeroplane to the production version,” continued Joe, acknowledging the comment with a nod. “They’d used flush rivets to secure the metal skin to the metal frame on the prototype, but those were more complex and expensive than rivets with slightly protruding domed heads.” “Right,” Apple Bloom nodded, screwing on a plate and satisfied with how flush her screws were. “So they wanted to use the cheaper simpler ones?” “But those would cause more drag, not individually maybe but with them all over the airframe,” nodded Joe. “Calculating the effects of hundreds of rivets would have been very difficult, so what they did was get hundreds of dried peas and cut them in half. Then they started gluing them on top of the flush rivets in chosen places to see how many they could add and where before it made a measurable difference to the performance.” “That is…” Twilight Sparkle blinked, “so bizarre I believe it.” “Was quite a fun book,” smiled Joe, “had anecdotes as well as the technical stuff.” Apple Bloom finished attaching another plate and then looked at Sweetie Belle. “You got th’ knack of that now?” “I… think so,” Sweetie Belle replied. “Then let’s get that and this together,” Apple Bloom nodded. The ‘engine’ was soon slotted into place and the rest of the plates screwed on over it before the propeller was attached. Joe got duty as a weight for this to push against and had to take the nose of the model in his gut and brace his hands against the leading edges of the wing, just in front of the V struts. Then Rainbow Dash obliged as a ‘drop plane’ for a few glide tests and they trimmed the model into balance before Twilight Sparkle told them how unbalanced it actually needed to be. She disliked how rough her calculations were as she wasn’t sure of the exact position of the centre of gravity of the model, Joe had not been able to give her a precise figure for how hard the propeller had been pushing, and the two margins of error combined. But it did let them get close to compensating for the effects of being under power and after Rainbow Dash had denied its attempts to reach for the sky, them having deliberately trimmed it tail heavy at first so it would climb rather than dive into the ground, they got it to fly straight and level. First when released in mid-air by Rainbow Dash and then when they set it off along the ground and it managed to take off. Which had its own set of problems as it was rather fast and so Rainbow Dash had to switch from ‘drop plane’ to ‘chase plane’ and take Sweetie Belle along for the ride so she could see well enough to cut the ‘engine’. But the model performed well when she did, the nose came up without the off-balance thrust but not far enough to make it stall rather than lose speed and settle down. Apple Bloom did have to quickly make and add a tail-skid as it was not making perfect landings but as it lost speed on the ground the nose soon dropped. Then to Scootaloo’s disgust, as she felt it should be a Pegasus flying something, Sweetie Belle began to get the knack of moving the control surfaces with her horn magic. She had to overcome how stiff Apple Bloom had made them, the idea had been they would remain in the position they were set to, but with encouragement from Twilight Sparkle she was able to move them while the model was on the ground. Trying it while the model was in the air proved a lot harder though as she not only had to move them while being able to see them less well but she had to move them in the right way. “I…” Joe said as it began to get late, feeling reluctant to end the day, “think that is good enough. As long as Sweetie Belle can adjust the elevators, rudder, and maybe the ailerons once it should be fine.” He gestured the motions as he explained. “Change the elevators from climb, so it will take off sooner, to flying level and change rudder and ailerons from straight ahead to a gentle turn, so it won’t get away.” “Ah’d feel better though if you were there, Joe,” nodded Apple Bloom. Joe chuckled. “Nothing I could do about it,” he commented, “so you should feel better if Twilight or Dash were there.” “Yeah!” agreed Scootaloo, more with the second suggestion. “I can manage the magic,” Sweetie Belle said quietly. “Ah know you can, honey bun,” said Apple Bloom. “Weren’t no lack of faith in you.” Joe hoped Sweetie Belle was used to her friend’s way of speaking rather than wonder whether ‘weren’t no’ could mean ‘was some’. He doubted Apple Bloom had meant the latter, though he wasn’t sure if he would’ve. “As I said,” he repeated, “you should be fine and you three have done excellent work and should be proud of it…” “Ah hear a ‘but’ coming,” commented Apple Bloom. “If there was a ‘but’ it’s just that having a backup when things go fine can be less embarrassing than not having one when things don’t,” Joe said, adding after a moment. “Though I expect Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would try to mock you either way.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded and Joe wondered if they were agreeing with his ‘but’ or about their fellow schoolfillies. Either way it would be their choice whether to ask for more help or not. And their problem of where they were going to put the model and how to get it to school, this had been a long day. He bid the fillies and mares goodbye and, mildly disappointed at the lack of a rainbow streak from the sky, made his way back to his hut for nightly chores and routine and to finally get something to eat. He’d begun to regret hours ago that he’d not had at least a sandwich when he stopped by to pick up the clothes.