COMPACT FIELD BOX
Joe Beshar
It is always a challenge to carry the minimum amount of equipment and at the same time satisfy your needs. Try traveling a week with just an attaché case for luggage, as I did for years during my travels while gainfully employed.
We lug a gallon of fuel to the field and end up lugging most of it back after flying. I find that most fliers do not use a quart of fuel during a flying session; why carry a gallon? Carry a quart of fuel in the field box and a quart or two in the trunk of your car. It is a great way to test different types of fuel for performance comparisons.
Why carry a heavy wet‑cell or gel‑cell battery for an electric pump and glow‑plug ignitor? If the battery goes dead, you're completely out of business. Consider a hand pump, Ni‑Cd glow‑plug ignitor, and a starter with Ni‑Cd battery holder. Now you have complete diversity.
The Compact Field Box holds all of these items, as well as the basic tools and accessories that might be needed. The completed box is user‑friendly, extremely efficient, and measures only 8 1/4 x 12 x 10 inches.
The starter cavity is for a Kavan geared electric starter with Ni‑Cd battery holder (available from Hobby Lobby). There is a section for a flight battery tester and space for all the tools you may need at the flying field.
CONSTRUCTION
Materials (additional):
- 1 piece of 1/4-inch luan plywood, 24 x 48 inches (I purchased one from Home Depot for $4.75 and had an 11 x 24-inch piece left over)
- 1 piece of 1/2-inch dowel, 6-1/2 inches long
- Carpenter's glue
- Paint
- #6 wood screws
- One-quart plastic containers (available at local gas and oil-change stations at no charge)
- Du-Bro fuel-cap fitting kit (#192) and supply tubing kit (Furomost recoil tube #123)
- Kavan geared electric starter with Ni‑Cd battery holder (for starter cavity)
- Hand pump, Ni‑Cd glow‑plug ignitor, flight battery tester, and the tools/accessories you plan to carry
Assembly steps:
- Cut the detail pieces shown on the cutting layout.
- Start assembly by gluing and clamping panels as shown in the layout. Use steel square blocks to hold panels square; sand-filled plastic bags can be used to hold panels down while the glue sets.
- After the glue dries, assemble the bottom and glue in the handle partition and the starter/ESV partition.
- Drill the rack to accept the specific tools you plan to carry.
- Glue two platform rails to provide a means of holding the removable ESV platform with storage below.
- Sand and paint the box as desired.
- Gather the tools and accessories to be carried, and drill/mount the hand pump using #6 wood screws. Trim off screw ends inside the box as required to install the items to be carried.
- Install the Du-Bro fuel-cap fitting kit (#192) in the quart-container caps and connect the supply tubing kit (Furomost recoil tube #123).
The Compact Field Box is complete. I trust you will enjoy it as much as I have on my trips to the flying site.
Good luck and happy landings.
Joe Beshar 198 Merritt Dr. Oradell, NJ 07649
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
