Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, I was pretty bummed about the Jug; but every flight there's a risk of trashing something. Live and learn...

At least everything but the airframe was salvagable, and just this afternoon I finished putting a new (identical) Jug together. So next time I get to go fly I have a new Jug to try out. It's nice out today, but too windy for my planes / skill level / available space to fly in.

I haven't flown the Sabre again since the maiden flight, but I'm looking forward to the next 'perfect' flying day The motor sounds a little funny, but it'll either run or break... If it breaks, I'll just have to get a new ducted fan assembly and try a juicier motor lol.

The Simple Stick flies like a raped ape now; it weight about 30 oz and pulls at about 42 oz; 1.4:1 thrust to weight ratio seems about right I just have to keep a close eye on it for signs that it's about to tear itself apart (like wrinkles in the skin or breaking glue joints on the tail) If it doesn't hold up to that much power, the local hobby shop has an almost identical plane in balsa and plywood construction that will. So now I'm trying to literally fly the wings off it.

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 09-08-2007).]

Time to rename the simple stick to Slick Stik or Streak Stik...

Looks good. Will it keep up with the Jug?

I think so....

What about a three or four-blade prop for the Jug? Or even the Blue Angel? Or does that take too much torque for the electric? Hmmmm...with all that height on the landing gear, you have clearance for something REALLY ridiculous, diameter-wise. (Like the old Corsairs---the original reason for the gull wing configuration was to have clearance to swing that monster nine-foot prop. Only later did they find out it contributed to the plane's speed as well.)

[This message has been edited by Vonov (edited 09-09-2007).]

I have thought about a 4-bladed prop for the jug; it would look nice on there. The only problem is belly landing the plane. With the 2 blade prop, when the plane touches down the prop blades are pushed to the sides; a nice scale 4-bladed prop may tend to want to dig into the grass.

The electric motors have plenty of torque to run 3 and 4 bladed props, but the 2 bladed variety are the most efficient designs from what I've read. I will probably try one out on the Stick (my cousin dubbed it the 'Scary Stick' ) eventually though. I do like the look of them.

As far as prop diameter, I'm slowly working up to it. That motor has a suggested prop range from 10x7 to 12x8. But the more prop I run, the higher the current draw from the battery, and my battery is only rated up to 18A continuous draw. The 10x7 drew about 12 amps at WOT; I currently have an 11x7 prop on it but I doubt I'll be able to swing much more than that until I beef up the battery and some of the wiring. It's all a learning curve for me so far

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 09-09-2007).]

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: I have thought about a 4-bladed prop for the jug; it would look nice on there. The only problem is belly landing the plane. With the 2 blade prop, when the plane touches down the prop blades are pushed to the sides; a nice scale 4-bladed prop may tend to want to dig into the grass.

Maybe you could put a lightweight metal skid under the belly and disguise it as a belly tank with a balsa fairing.

Like this ?

I was thinking more like---

Of course, it might give cptsnoopy the willies, lol...

After several more flights, the oversize motor was getting rough on the simple stick... so I picked up a new airframe to swap them into. I just got it tuned in and ready to try out last night and had it's maiden flight this afternoon. I just kept hearing this voice in the back of my head saying... "you bring that plane back full of holes, college boy, and you'll be patchin' it up yourself !"







Great Planes 1/12th scale combat corsair (converted to electric) - park 480 outrunner, 11x7E prop, and ThunderPower 2070 mAh 3-cell lipo pack

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 09-29-2007).]

Been spending a lot of time playing around in Mig alley And I've kinda gotten addicted to the whine of an electric ducted fan... Today I snapped a few pics of the fleet out front.

everyone likes the P51 and everyone has one. My 2 fav WWII planes are the P47 and F4U. I had a Royal kit Corsair back in the 70s loaded with everything including 90* retracts. It crashed when nyrods to the tail melted thru during an on board in flite fire. Totalled it, wish someone had a vid cam. Looked real going down.

Yeah, there are tons of nice P51's out there. Just about everyone has one; that's the only reason I've avoided it. But I guess there are tons of Corsairs and Jugs around too

I'm really thinking about picking up an (electric ducted fan) F4 Phantom, F9F Panther, or P80 shooting star though if I can find a nice detailed plane in the 'park flier' size range. The nearest club field is just too long a drive for the short flight time an electric gets. But the local Jr high school is within spitting distance, has a nice big field, and nobody minds us flying over there. When we fly after football practice a lot of the parents like to hang around and watch.

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 10-20-2007).]

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: I just kept hearing this voice in the back of my head saying... "you bring that plane back full of holes, college boy, and you'll be patchin' it up yourself !"

Good ol' Sergeant Micklin, lol...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jiw0oGPps

LOL I had a feeling you'd know who I was referring to there

BTW yeah, I know I screwed up and stuck the stars and bars on the Corsair wing upside-down. I noticed it as soon as I stuck it there. Unfortunately it's really tough to get off, and I'm afraid it'd take the wing covering with it if I tried to peel it off... I gotta find a way to fix that. It really bugs me.

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 10-20-2007).]

You got it upside down on the Jug too. No worry, be just right on a dive bomb mission, lol.

Next time you apply stickers, use a dishwashing liquid/water solution in a spray bottle. Spray on the solution, peel the backing off the sticker, and apply. Once you have the sticker positioned to your satisfaction, gently apply pressure to the sticker to squeeze out the water. After 24 hours it'll be ready for flight.

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: Been spending a lot of time playing around in Mig alley And I've kinda gotten addicted to the whine of an electric ducted fan... Today I snapped a few pics of the fleet out front.

Got more info about the A-10?!?!?!?!?!?

Rumor,

My A10's a GWS kit I picked up for $70 including ducted fans and (brushed) motors. These kits are not that detailed, but look great in the air nonetheless. But some really skilled modelers have made them look pretty awesome. Mine really needs a nice set of brushless inrunners to fly well though; the stock setup flies but has no power to spare and has to be kept light. In any wind it becomes pretty iffy to control. I lawn-darted mine at full throttle trying some ill-advised aerobatics one day, so after repairing the nose (and wings... and engine nacelles... and tail ) I repainted it in the camo scheme. I couldn't easily find a match for the stock green color. I had to cut out the cockpit area for my battery to sit in, and haven't figured out a good way of adding the pilot and canopy yet, so that area still looks a little incomplete. But here's a better photo.



And one in the air (in it's original green)



A Czech company called 'Flying Styro' is coming out with a really sweet A10 soon; I'm sooooo tempted to pick one up over the winter



That thing just looks scary, don't it ?

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 10-22-2007).]

Wow, very cool! Thanks for the info... I need to get one of those!

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: Rumor, My A10's a GWS kit I picked up for $70 including ducted fans and (brushed) motors. These kits are not that detailed, but look great in the air nonetheless. But some really skilled modelers have made them look pretty awesome. Mine really needs a nice set of brushless inrunners to fly well though; the stock setup flies but has no power to spare and has to be kept light. In any wind it becomes pretty iffy to control. I lawn-darted mine at full throttle trying some ill-advised aerobatics one day, so after repairing the nose (and wings... and engine nacelles... and tail ) I repainted it in the camo scheme. I couldn't easily find a match for the stock green color. I had to cut out the cockpit area for my battery to sit in, and haven't figured out a good way of adding the pilot and canopy yet, so that area still looks a little incomplete. But here's a better photo. And one in the air (in it's original green)

Yours looks much better than the original green.

Yeah, the original green wass just way too bright a shade. When I reconstructed the nose and it was mostly white (from patching, spackling, and sanding), I figured I'd might as well repaint the whole thing. I still have to do something about those atrocious bright orange GWS fans It's just a bummer that it's been way too windy around here to fly it again since. The F86 and the Thunderbird fly a lot faster and their wing geometry and loading make for much better wind tolerance; so they've been getting all the flight time. I actually flew the Thunderbird jet in 25 mph gusts last weekend. It wasn't a smooth flight, but I did pull a nice landing outta my arse somehow. So I did it again... and again...

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 10-22-2007).]

Well, my next plane is gonna be an 85mph A-4 Skyhawk. It arrives on Tuesday; hopefully I'll get it put together and get to try it out next weekend

I seen a new electric jet in the hobby shop the other day, looked pretty cool, but not a scale model of an actual plane I dont think. Sorta looks like the ones in Hot Shots.

We have a huge indoor dome down the street for year round golfers to practice. An electric aircraft group has arranged for it to be used every other Saturday just for flying electric planes and helos. First get together is next weekend for both days.

That would be a lot of fun. There are 3-D type electric planes that people can fly in spaces as small as a basketball court, but a golf dome would be really cool. I bet they draw a pretty good crowd of fliers once people know they can fly there. No weather to worry about.

I've been out flying the Sabre in the rain today Plastic bag over the transmitter, and no worries about the plane. The fuselage keeps water out of the electronics, and the fan housing and ducting keep the motor pretty much dry.

I've been doing a ton of flying lately. I started out with a strong preference for the scale warbirds; they look really cool in the air. But over time I've come to appreciate that red, white, and blue jet in my photo above. That thing was cheap at only $90 (Hobby Lobby's "crash" sale) for the plane with fan and motor. It is very durable, wind tolerant, easy to hand launch, has nice speed, and handles like it's on rails. It's actually become my favorite plane to fly; as I can take it out any time I want as long as it's light out and the wind's under 25mph. I'm looking forward to trying a belly-skidding takeoff on crusty snow Just the kind of stuff I wouldn't do to my other planes...

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 10-27-2007).]

Well, at this point I've just about gotten the hang of flying and landing the A4. It's sure a different animal than any of my other planes, and it's taken some bumps and bruises along the way. Nothing too obvious though.




And I've got the new warthog finished up. I haven't flown it yet though; have to wait till it's nice and calm out and I have my cousin with his video camera (just in case).





Just thought a few of you might dig the pics

Cool pics!

You got me started again, lol. I been thinking about trying out the new electrics after getting some helicopters. I was going to go with a SU27 ducted jet, but for coolness I found this instead. Cessny 337 SkyMaster with dual electric motors, 50" wingspan. All foam with tubing reinforcements imbedded. Waiting for a nice day to try it out. Ive tried Sobo Craft glue recommended by the hobby shop. Fast dry, invisible on anything including foam. It was like $6 for 4 oz bottle. I used it to reglue things like control horns that didnt look at that reliable.

It took me a minute to spot the second prop lol. That's the first pusher-puller twin I've seen. Neat.

Ya that was Cessnas attempt at a twin that was docile with an engine failure. Both engines on the aircraft centerline. Twin booms like a P38. Can fly with only either engine with no weird handling problems associated with other twins. Nicknamed Mixmaster, they didnt go over all that well. Someone has one at Pt Columbus.

If ya dont have a place for a runway, try one of these electrics I saw at a local show.

twin PPBY Catalina flying boat


single engine seaplane


and if you sprung for one of the CV2 Blade helicopters, there coming out next month with Jet Ranger body kits for $30


edit to add. If you dont have landing gear, go to an auto paint store and get a small roll of the thick clear 3M film and put it on the bottom to save the fuselage. Its practicaly indistructable. (same stuff you see in front of the rear wheels on some cars/trucks)

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 11-29-2007).]

Actually most of my planes don't have landing gear. They are hand-launch, belly-land setups. Fortunately the field I fly at has nice soft grass to land on. I use some clear packing tape on the bottom of the fuselage to keep the grass stains off the foam. I do have to figure something out for the A10 though; I installed the landing gear in the retracted position and it sits ahead of the center of gravity... so unless I put a skid or something beneath the tail, the bottom part of the vertical stabs will hit the ground on landing... still thinking that one over before I try flying it.

Have you gotten a chance to try that mixmaster out yet ? That's the ST model RTF setup from Hobby Lobby, isn't it ? The Cessna 182 I tried to learn on (and destroyed) was by the same company. I've got lots of flights on the ST Model radio gear and that Emax lipo that came out of it; it's some of the best quality gear I've heard of being included in an RTF package. I've run the (1800 mAh) lipo battery from that setup right at it's max rated discharge rate and it performs almost as well as the 2070 mAh Thunder Power lipos I have. The TP lipos were $80 batteries (but thye're good for 50 amps continuous discharge).

Good to hear about the radio. That was one thing I had my doubts about. One friend bought a Parkflyer T-28 about the same size. On his first flight the radio glitched all over the place and he crashed it. The Cessna seems to be pretty well built for a RTF. I just put some extra glue on a few things that seemed shakey. Its been cold, windy or rainy since I got it so havent had a chance to try it out yet...may even just wait till spring.

I was using the receiver from that ST Model radio set (with a different tx) when this vid was shot

Cool, like the music too

A nice crash vid of my A4 Skyhawk that some might get a kick out of. Might be a decent diversion from all the politics and gas price stuff.

Ummm, no McKain jokes.... k ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae_c15vsj5U

I was just slowing down and circling to kill altitude and airspeed prior to lining up for landing. I'm pretty sure I lost my port side aileron pushrod mid-flight.
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**no foamies were injured in the making of this clip**
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It buffed right out
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http://static.rcgroups.com/...455-237-P1010001.JPG
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Roger, have you maidened that Mixmaster yet ?

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 05-21-2008).]

Hey D B, what brand is that second A-10 on this page?

Thanks

~ Derek

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper:

I've got one just like that, plus stickers, its electric, thats about all I remember about it, lol. It was in the air twice. First time I had the rudder trim set wrong, and hand launched it, It was in the ground before I got my thumb to the controls, and hard. Second launch it was up and in the air for a bit, went into a hard bank & climb and the wing snapped. I'm guessing it was weakened on the first crash, it poped and just kinda flopped there with the skin holding it on as the plane spiraled to the ground. Sucked. That was 2+ years ago, I havent had a chance to fly since, one of these days I'll glue the wing back together at least..

I will soon, its been cold, rainy and very windy for weeks. Also car shows keep me pretty tied up. Just gotta wait for the right day. I have flown it in my Real Flite Simulator quite a bit. Its even set up to simulate electric or gas power.