Good Reading!!!

Double Trouble

Larry says "She has a wing span of 36.5", overall length of 38", and is powered by an O.S. 46LA.  A very simple build, and should turn out to be an interesting aerobatic biplane."

Magnetic Build Board by Larry Nieman

The Results: A scratch built 1935 Aeronca C-3. Six foot wingspan and powered by an OS .35 2-cycle.

Airfield Models

Lots of good info here, and is where I got the info I needed to make my magnetic building board and all the fixtures.

Larry

Pictures taken by Larry Troxell.

Thanks Larry

Twenty Five Years Service by Our President

Bob Satow

Today was a very special day for our club president, Bob Satow, and for the club in general.  At the end of the club meeting, the club presented Bob with a plaque which included two pictures.  The top picture was a paver that was purchased by the club to be included in the construction of the Legacy Walk located at the Triple Tree Aerodrome facility in Woodruff, SC.  It is the venue for the R/C event called the Joe Nall.  The second is the picture of the Legacy Walk where Bob's paver is included.

Bob was also presented with another paver to be included at the AMA headquarters facility in Muncie, IN.  This presentation was given by our AMA District IV Vice President - Jay Marsh.  It will be a part of the Walk of Fame.  Both presentations were for the support and dedication Bob has given to our club for the past 25 years.  Please see the pictures of the paver that was presented to Bob by our club (pictures attached.)

If anyone took pictures at the meeting today, please send a couple of the best pictures to Jay Marsh.  He has mentioned that he would like to include a couple of pictures in the AMA Model Aviation magazine.

Thanks to all who helped make the flying field look spectacular today.  It was a team effort.

The next time you see Bob, please congratulate him.

John Harrison

Jay Marsh email available to members from John Harrison

or the web master

Pictures taken by Larry Troxell. ---- Thanks Larry

5/14/2020

Rob Watson's New Build

A Falcon

Hopefully Rob will share a picture with us when it's finished.

Rob thinks this is pretty cool social distancing!

Sorry Chuck!

"ah, the fervent drone of nitro full throttle, then instant quiet, almost as loud. As the lost engine's roar echos back through all that hollow balsa: echos of instant disaster at once both thrilling and sickening; a truly unique sound not replicated elsewhere."

~ ~ Chuck

I envy the way this man thinks. D

Hey Danny

If this is what it takes to get this Ultra Stick balanced.

Is this really the solution?

Hover Mouse over picture. Click to enlarge.

I will tell you exactly what we are doing here.  We started by satisfying a long seated urge to learn about airplanes and everything connected to them.  But after we learned about flying our models we really got hooked and wanted to learn to fly all kinds of planes and maneuvers.  In doing so we talked about doing these things with other club members and without realizing it we made many new friends.  Friends want to share their joys so here we are doing exactly that.

                                                     Bob Satow
                                                     August 16, 2019

Here you can see the two fuselage sides in build-up over the plan.  These are built using balsa sheeting that is then covered on the inside with a plywood doubler for the strength needed in the wing area and the nose.  You can also see the firewall laying on the bench with all motor mount and nose landing gear assembly blind nuts installed.  Note also the plywood fuselage formers that go between the two sides.  Large balsa blocks are required at the nose because they are then sanded down on the outside to obtain the streamline shape required to match the prop spinner diameter.  Other large balsa blocks are used along the top of the fuselage. 

The second picture shows the fuselage fully assembled with engine cut-out and the outside sanded down to get the required overall shape needed. A large hatch is placed in the bottom of the fuselage to obtain access to all the gear, fuel tanks, and wing mounting screws.

Model Plans Picture:  These free plans were downloaded from Aerofred.com.  This is a great web site if you are interested in doing some scratch building.  They have over 22,000 plans.

General characteristics
·         Crew: 1
·         Capacity: 2
·         Length: 7.9 m (26 ft)
·         Wingspan: 12 m (40 ft)
·         Wing area: 43.9 m2 (473 sq ft)
·         Gross weight: 549 kg (1,210 lb)
·         Powerplant: 1 × Gnome 7-cylinder air-cooled radial, 52 kW (70 hp)
Performance
·         Maximum speed: 90 km/h; 49 kn (56 mph)

This is the rudder, in build on the plan, and ready for covering.  Being a canard aircraft, the rudder is at the front of the model, which will make the model look like a plane flying backwards. It is attached to the nose landing gear wire which will be controlled by a small servo near the front of the fuselage (see plan photo) with a NLG steering control arm.  The rudder, and rest of the model, will be covered cover with flat tan UltraCoat.

This is the bottom wing, at initial build on the plan, and as finished except for the wing mounting blocks to be installed once the fuselage is built.  Both wings are under-camber airfoils, which required shims under the front and aft spars during the build-up.  The main spar is a build-up of two full length pieces of basswood with a piece of balsa sandwiched between them.  This is the first model I've built using this design.  The aft spar is one full length basswood piece, with balsa fillers between each rib.
There are a total of 107 individual pieces in this bottom wing.  Main landing gear blocks can be seen between the various ribs.  To be more like the original aircraft, I did not build the wings using an outer dihedral as shown on the plans.  Each wing is 45 inches long.

This is the top wing in work on the plans.  Similar under-camber airfoil and spar contraction as the bottom wing except for the two ailerons, which will be controlled by a single center mounted servo using flexible Gold-N-Cables running inside the wing.  The top wing will have a total of 146 individual cut pieces.

Top wing completed except for center wing mount filler blocks. A single center mounted servo will drive the ailerons thru Gold-N-Cables.

Left:Start of fuselage build over the plans.  I used basswood thru-out the structure, which will increase the weight somewhat, but will also significantly increase the strength of this long stick fuselage.

Right: Fuselage sides where then aligned in a home made jig to keep everything straight and square while the wood glue sets up.

Here you can see the initial test fitting of the rudder, nose landing gear, and the two canards.  Brass tube assemblies go thru the entire length of the rudder and canard surfaces.  The rudder is then glued to the nose landing gear 1/8 hard steel rod, which will be controlled using a standard NLG steering horn inside the fuselage.  The two canards are mounted out on the front of the nose using an assembly of three different size brass tubes to allow pivoting of the entire canard surfaces. Lots of surface area out there, so it will be interesting to see just how sensitive the pitch control will be.  Both canards are controlled using handmade control horns and a pull-pull cable system that comes thru the fuselage sides back by the fuel tank near the CG.  As I indicated earlier, this plane will look like it is flying backwards.  Next comes building the four pull-pull control horns from
1/32 brass sheet covered with 1/32 ply, and final full-up fit checks and CG balancing.

This picture shows the initial test fitting of the two wings to the fuselage.  Between the wings are six fins, and they will eventually be covered, which will make the wing assembly look like an old box kite.  How many of you have made a box kite when you were a kid? They fly great.  While the plans do not call for them, I'm going to install small 90 degree brackets at the back of each wing fin to hold them in place.  The front of each fin fits into a notch cut into the leading edge of each wing.  The main landing gear were bent from 1/8th and 1/16th hard wire, and then finished with basswood which is attached using cord wrapping.

With the major build completed, I then accomplished a full-up fit check of all aircraft assemblies to include engine; fuel tank and lines; aileron, throttle, and canard servos; and all the other hardware.  This step also allowed me to determine the position of the final servo (rudder/steering) and the battery pack to establish a proper CG.  The CG for this aircraft is
5 inches in front of the wing leading edge, which is just forward of the red strap you see around the fuel tank.  Next step is disassembly and start the painting and covering.

First and foremost this Phaeton 90-II started life in Larry Neiman’s father's shop as a pile of wood. Larry’s father scratch built this plane and installed a small engine. I think Larry said it was a .47 which Larry replaced with a 90 when he received this plane.  The plane has ailerons on the lower wing only and reportedly has a problem completing rolls when under powered. I plan to add ailerons to the upper wing to help with this problem;however, the covering on this plane is no longer manufactured so I decided it would be easier to increase the power.

Since I wanted to add a Satio 125 I needed to come up with a way to get it into the cowling that had already been modified twice.  If I cut the cowling again I was sure it wouldn’t stay together and the Satio was ¾ inch longer that the engine Larry took out. The first picture shows the old and new cowlings together. I had to stretch panty hose over the old cowling to make a mold to form a new cowling. The old one looks larger because it is closer in the picture but the new one is larger. You can't see it in the right picture but there is a hole just in front of the middle screw on the cowlking for adjusting the low range screw.

When I went back to Anderson’s I talked to Matt about what I decided to do. When he was looking for a regulator he thought of something else and he brought out as a “Glow Control” made by Sullivan. It’s an electronic switch that allows you to turn the glow plug off and on to save the battery and it contains the regulator to drop the voltage from as high as 12 vdc to 1.5 vdc. An additional feature of the Glow Control allows you set the point when opening the throttle to turn the glow plug off. As soon as the throttle drops down passed that point the glow plug comes back on keeping the engine running upside down for as long as you want. It works great. Thanks Matt.

Bob Says he is building a Citabria Aerobatic Pro. It will have an 80 inch wing span. The first Citabria Pro flew on August 2, 1968 and was able to maintain unlimited inverted flight. No wonder Bob chose this for his next plane. There is an excellent article, pictures and Brief history of this aircraft at this link.

Thanks Bob for sharing.

Roger Wood Landing

Tuesday May 8,2018

Today those of us lucky enough to be at the field saw Roger Wood Land his plane and park it just as you see it here sitting under Bob's 330. It was very gusty Tuesday and when Roger was half way down the runway it sounded like he cut the power just a couple of feet off the grass, as he did the wind took his plane up and barrel rolled it over the infield. As Roger avoided everyone and tried to pull back up heading across the runway the wind started to loop the plane back towards the parking area so Roger again cut the power and as the plane leveled off and settled to the ground it was stopped in its forward motion by the wind setting on the right wing tip in a slightly nose down position. When the plane settle on the ground and the wheels touched, the prop struck the ground and kicked the plane back a few inches just as the tail wheel hit and pushed Roger's wing under the 330's horizontal stabilizer. We all walked over together and I took this picture before the planes were moved. The planes never touched each other and I don't think either was damaged. That is how I saw it but you should ask Roger for a better description. I think Bob had his eyes closed during the last loop but he had a better view up until then than I did. Great job Roger and thanks for the thrill.

Dan Voyles Balancer

This balancer started out as just a box to set on my airplane work table to extend my table saw when cutting long boards or plywood. I then added 4 slotted blocks to the sides of the box, below the surface, so I could still use it for a tables saw extender but also as a frame to balance larger planes. When I finally finished building my 72" WACO biplane I realized the wings were too wide front to back to fit into the current frames. . So I had to build new heavier frames and this time I wanted to make it more adjustable. In the bottom picture you can see the block I’m holding has three holes to move the pin in and out. The pins have ball joints on the top so the balance pads from my Great Planes Balancer will snap right onto it. The blocks on each side can move the entire length of the 36” frame. The blocks can also be replaced with longer or shorter blocks depending on the width of the fuselage of the plane. This balancer can handle planes of any size up to 34” wide wings of any span and a fuselage up to 20" wide of any length. I wouldn’t put more than a 30-40 pound plane on it unless I changed the pins out to something of a larger diameter. It’s here if anyone needs to use it.

Thanks Larry

This plane was donated by Larry N. to the club for the Swap Meet 2018 raffle.

When you see Larry at the field be sure to Thank him...

Pronounced like taco but with a "W" despite what everyone says and stands for 'Weaver Aircraft Company'. This is my current project along with all the other things that go on in the summer. This one however will probably last into the winter. The full Scale CTO was 22' 5" long and had a wingspan of 30'3" upper and 26'3" lower. It was powered by a Wright J-6 225 HP 7 cylinder Radial engine. It weighed 1677 pounds with a useful load of 923 pounds. It carried 65 gallons of gas and had a ceiling of 19,000 feet. A max speed of 138 mph, a cruising speed of 115 mph, and a landing speed of 48 mph. This plane was the Winner of the' Transcontinental Air Derby' and many others. There are three still believed to be flying today. I'll keep you posted.

I've been making some changes to the vertical stabilizer, elevator and when I get to it the ailerons. The plans were never designed to use robart hinges but someone started it that way and I'm going to try and finish upwith Robarts. When I was trying to decide how to fit everything into the fuselage I noticed the plans called for blocking off the cockpit and I need to be able to access that space for my pull-pull rudder so I built a removable cockpit instead. It's tough trying to get everything right without a manual and having only two of the three pages of the plans. More to come.

I'm not getting a lot done but I have finished sanding the entire plane and gluing the tail feathers on. I’m currently building the struts between the upper and lower wings. I don’t really know what they should look like because I have a page missing in the blueprints and no instructions. I’ve added a couple of Golden Rod tubes without the inserts to the fire wall and drilled two holes in the cowling. I have a long screwdriver that will go all the way from the outside of the cowling to the high and low screws on the carb. I’m designing a way to pinch the fuel line at the carb with a servo so no removing cowling to adjust carb on this plane.

I've started on the covering but I'm working on the mechanical stuff at the same time. It’s tough for a beginner like me to work on a kit without any instructions. I have to build linkages and mounting hardware without a clue of how it was designed to work on this model. I want to thank Tom Brittian for helping me with some research. I can find a few things on the original plane but nothing on the model.

I thought I had the WACO finished and ready to fly except to balance it and break in the new motor. It tipped the scales at 18.1 pounds which my mentors thought would still get off the ground but wouldn't have much vertical. I built a new balancer, put the WACO on it and it needs over 1 1/2 pounds added to the front end. Now it might fly but that is all it would do and I would like to do more, maybe IMAC someday. So I've started pulling the motor off which requires the removal of the fuel tank so I can get to the engine mounting bolts that have to be moved for the larger motor. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

WACO

( pronounced like taco only with a ‘W’)
If you are looking for information on these old bi-planes you might want to contact the ‘Waco Air Museum’ or the ‘Waco Historical Society’ in Troy, OH. They were really helpful and they have a lot of data on their site.

Dan Voyles Project a "Follow Me Truck"

I talked about doing this this project for quite awhile but when it started getting too hot to work outside all day I decided now was the time. The first picture is how I took it out of the box. I didn't like the racing look of the body since it was suppose to be a working truck so I bought a clear body 1972 C-10 Chevy. I wanted a working truck but it didnt have to be a clunker.

The real reason I wanted a truck on the flight line is to run down my planes on the other end of the runway and bring them back which may not be a problem for many of you but it is for me. I need a way to pick up the tail wheel of the plane and haul it back. Picture 3 is my first try at it. It is a 3-point hitch that was suppose to pick up the wheel with a single servo but when I activated the servo the weight of the plane compressed the suspension so much it lifted the front wheels off the ground. Now I'm working on a trailer that connects to the truck like a brush hog and has two caster wheels in the back to support the weight. I'm also building crates for the trailer to hold the batteries and receiver.

The lower crate on the front of the trailer is for servos and the upper contains the camera for backing up.

I've taken this rig to the field three times now and each time the small trailer tires have been pushed under the thick grass at the field keeping the unit from backing up under the plane's tail wheel even though I've increase the tire size each time.

Well I'm back at it again. Now I'm going to try steerable wheels the same size as the truck's on the trailer. I'll let you know how it goes.

The left pane shows the axle I built out of a piece of oak with the spindles and steering linkage for a two wheel drive truck like mine. The right pane shows how the wheels turn in opposite directions to allow the unit to turn without binding the back wheels of the truck.

Mark Fansler

"Grumman F7F Tigercat"

This is a 1:7.5 scale Grumman F7F Tigercat. I scratch built it from Don Palmer plans but make many modifications to more modern build techniques.

Bob Satow's 2017-2018 Project

"Cessna L-19 Bird Dog"

The plane is a Cessna L-19 known as the Bird Dog. I have built the plane based on Wendell Hostetler's plans, all 4 feet by 16 feet of them. The model will be powered by an EME 55cc gas engine. The ending weight will hopefully be shy of 25lbs. I have it wired for navigation lights, including landing lights. Landing gear is from TNT and the cowl from Fiberglass Specialties should be here the first of the week. Covering is about 80% complete. After the covering I will get installation of the 14 windows figured out. I have a long way to go.

Click on the picture to the left to see what Larry has designed to add under the center wing section of the Double Trouble. He calls it the X-20. It's an unpowered glider with elevons and he says he will need someone to fly it back to the runway after he releases it from Double Trouble. Larry I think people will be standing in line for the chance.

At least someone gets to fly off the field when it's flooded.   Click the image to blow it up and you can see the pin box and the seagulls.

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Last Updated Friday 9 April, 2021 10:42 AM