Hey, the moderator is away....what should we talk about?
Ok, now that I have your attention...lol..... I have the cox ricken fracken....^&((&((*&&!!!!@@!!! baby bee on a simple glider..... I have a couple of simple questions. I cleaned it up....got a good bugger of castor out of the needle seat. Sliced a thin gasket of silicoln for the gasket in the tank, and put a piece of fuel tubing on the needle...... I an the only eccentric flying cox engines in a club of giant scale flyers (they love it)! "Wow I haven;t heard one of those in a LONG while" is the normal reaction when I fired the .049 up...! So....the glider go's up...then down... It runs for a while then go's lean....I am thinking it is the little bitty gasket....you know the tank gasket that looks flat....that I replaced with a piece of silicoln fuel tubing.... Ok, so give me your best guess what I can change to make the cox .049 a reliable runner....(wait I have changed all the normal stuff to make it work correctly...new needle....sealed up Everything...) Ok, so here is the question....is the gasket connecting the tank to the backplate (new)....a round gasket or a cut paper gasket? How thick...what kind of material?...I have cork..(just joking)... any pics of "hot wife or girlfriend" with the original gasket gets extra points.....! [:D] I am an old bald headed guy so all replys with a pic will be appreciated....[:D] (well the moderator is away!) thanks for just a reply... Steve
Posted on: 11/21/2009 2:00 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum ""1/2 A" & "1/8 A" airplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9269294

RE: DIESEL CAR SCIENCE PROJECT QUESTION
Well what ya need is the speed of the engine, the wheel size (assuming a wheel size calculate the circumference of the wheel)...assume no wheel slip (probably a good assumption since it is moving slowly)...1rpm of the wheel=circumference of the wheel. Then you can take the ratio of the engine rpm to wheel rpm to determine the gear ratio needed. Now comes the complex part....if the floor will be completely flat you need to find out how much force it takes to move the car. So I would make a test sled and pull it with the wheels you think ya need to go the correct speed. Now it is a matter of converting to torque. The force times the wheel diameter will give you the axle torque needed to move the car. You can times this by the gear ratio to get the torque required at the engine. Ok, so how much torque does the engine have converted to diesel?...probably more than the glow version. So you can estimate and size your engine. Always go oversize since too much torque won't hurt since you have to accelerate the vehicule. Now with that said....there are COX powered tractor pullers that are pulling a bunch of weight (you can find them on the web)....look on Youtube. These engines are way small..(.049). Typically, model diesels run on a mixture of approx 30% kerosene, 30% oil (castor), and 30% Either...some have an anti-knock compound added Typically 3%. Some/or all of the kerosene could be traded for biodiesel...some are using different Oil (why I don't know since castor is a natural oil coming from a bean). So you could mix up a batch of semi-bio-diesel. If you want to go diesel, the diesel engine forum would be good. My guess is that you could probably gear down a .15 sized diesel, run a pipette for a fuel tank...and calibrate the fuel load to run out pretty consistantly. (well it is going to be geared down and running pretty slowly). Steve
Posted on: 10/31/2009 11:41 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "RC Car General Discussions"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9218992

RE: Need help from some Motor experts
1. Fuel: 1/2A's love high nitro (25%nitro/20-25%castor) 2. Drill Motor?...may not spin them fast enough (unless geared). 3. If they are reed valve engines you should be able to hear the reed working when turned over by hand (at least a cox ya can). 4. Air Leak. (around the needle). 5. If it is a cox the ball joint on the piston can get (or comes from the factory) loose. Get a ball and socket reset tool. 6. Fuel flow restriction. Are they standard cox's? As a kid I had the red cox spider and I had no problem spinning the rear wheel to start.
Posted on: 10/30/2009 6:25 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Control Lines"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9215966

RE: Just ain't my day!!!
OUCH...[:@]. That is horrible...I was kind of easy going about my lipos since I have had no problems with them...now I think I will get one of those bags to charge them in. Sorry for the loss of models. Steve
Posted on: 10/30/2009 6:14 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9215938

RE: Silk Covering Techniques
Thanks PD1! I was going to try it before I put them on the plane. I guess I wouldn't have to clearcoat over them I could clearcoat before I put them on. My main concern was that the dope finish could shrink/expand with time but the vinal probably won't. I can find some waterslide decals for the inkjet but I have to order them off the net...and office depot is closer. Steve
Posted on: 10/30/2009 6:06 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9215914

RE: Silk Covering Techniques
Hey, I gotta question....Can vinal stickers be used over silk/silkspan covering? If so will the thinners in the dope clearcoat eat them up? I was looking to make some up on my inkjet printer to replace some waterslide decals in an old kit....the old ones aren't useable as is. Thanks Steve
Posted on: 10/29/2009 8:21 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9213505

RE: Silk Covering Techniques
Ok, I am a newby at this dope business, but have been asking a LOT of questions. Here is a tip I got yesterday from one of the local guys that I have yet to try but will shortly. (and he build absolutly beautiful models). He said to take a permanent marker, pull out the er soggy roll thing in the middle, soak it in a jar of thinner untill the thinner is dyed, Mix that with your clear dope to create any color you want. The color on his models is a very beautiful translucent covering job. Oh, btw I like this thread since I am now trying to cover with dope. Steve
Posted on: 10/18/2009 11:12 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9182605

RE: Maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting old...
Ok billmod12, I was just joking with ya...[:D]. I vote for PD1's answer, the people are really nice in here, and they are true modelers so if you like building/trimming/flying you will like it here....and you will actually learn a bunch. Steve
Posted on: 10/16/2009 9:57 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9179281

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Well, I let it dry. it seems like the abs (or whatever it is) seems to be getting softened by the thinner. So what I did was sand it off, then I put some dope out on a plate and let it thicken up while I ran some engines, then I brushed on a coat. It seems to have gone on without messing up stuff. So the next idea is to let it dry well, then brush on another coat or two then sand lightly and try to smooth it out without thining the previous coats much....then start spraying a light coat on it and let it dry well. If this doesn't work then I will sand it off and go with a sealer coat of finishing resin. I like the Jetco kit (in fact I have been looking for a Cessna to build). It is very buildy compared to a kit from the 70's like I am used to (something like a commander or kadet or even the Kadet Sr). It is really a marvel of engineering with wood with all the pieces fiting together like a puzzle. It is a good change of pace of what I have been building lately(you might see a stuka, ultimate, or delta in the background)...I have got to admit that it sure seemed like something was missing when I installed the radio...it just didn't look right with one servo in there.... It has been a learning experience that I have enjoyed....and I have learned to appreciate what modelers of the 50's and 60's had to go through to build one of these things (even thought I have to admit I DID use ca and not the dryed up 5c model cement). I got a couple of pictures of the parts that look ok for an amateur I will post as soon as can get the cord from the wife. Steve Steve
Posted on: 10/16/2009 9:48 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9179255

RE: Maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting old...
Hey Hey...now BillMod12...all of us are not 70-80 (though sometimes I feel like it)...some of us are younger than that (45 for me). I like it here because I relate well to the older generation who hang out around here(most of my friends at the field are older than I am), and to be honest have flown a bunch of different types of models (racing, scale, 3d, twins, big) and I personally was running out of model types to fly that were different (I was basically getting bored). The older equipment was made when a modeler had to learn about building, trimming, flying, and radio electronics. Basically, you had to learn something. Now you don't, you get an arf, get the guy at the hobby shop to assemble it for ya, and then you fly it. Steve
Posted on: 10/15/2009 11:50 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9177013

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Ok, the white dope is on....and also the red trim....where the silkspan was put on looks well it looks pretty good for an amateur.....but (there is always a but isn't there) the cowl looks like er (bad...really bad). It basically crazed. The cowl looks like abs plastic and I had my doubts about it (I even considered carving out a wood one) but I thought well it must be compatable with dope since that is what everyone covered with back in the day. What is interesting is that I sprayed it with white first (yes it was buterate dope) and all was well (maybe this mix was more thinner than the white heck I can't tell ya what the mix was). So my plan is to let it dry...lightly sand it and spray on a bunch of very light layers ....and sand lightly between and try to get the thinner to flash off before it melts down into the layer laid before....Is this the way to go on this thing? I guess I learned something...lol. Steve
Posted on: 10/15/2009 11:32 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9176968

RE: Wing spoilers vs. ailerons??P-61 Black Widow had spoilers....
Lots of aircraft have roll spoilers...even Cessna's...look at the CX, CIII-CVI series, even the model 208. Usually they have a combination of roll spoiler and aileron both. Simplicity is probably the reason most airplanes do not have them. Steve
Posted on: 10/13/2009 10:12 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Aerodynamics"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9171296

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Excellent idea Jim. Wish I'd known about it earlier....(sigh)...had to fix one sand through even though I was trying to be very carefull. I will try that on the fuselage and tail. I am taking my time on this trying different methods (there seems to be a bunch) to see what I like best. The wing ended up looking useable...actually better than I thought it would. The red covers up a lot of the messups pretty well. Now the white I shot on the fuselage is like white primer...I need to do a bunch more sanding/filling/sandings....but I can see the end of the road. Thanks for the ideas everyone... Steve
Posted on: 10/13/2009 12:06 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9168599

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Well, it is almost covered, whew! I have a few light coats on her and all is going pretty well (I think). So what do I do about the "windows"? The plans show the windows going on after the covering....but they paint them with the same color as the model. So I have another question (sigh) seems like I have been asking a lot during this ordeal. Does the dope eat the windshield? Can I lightly sand the edge of the windshield, glue her on, mask and then shoot the edges of the windshield when I am shooting the rest of the color? Thanks for your time, Steve
Posted on: 10/10/2009 3:49 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9162002

RE: Am I still the
Billmod12; I know the cushmans because the hobby shop here in town used to be shared with a guy (rich guy) that restored cushmans for his personal collection. He also started flying models. He probably has 75 or 80 restored cushmans (perfect ones) stacked in there. What you need is one of the 3 wheeled ones they have around the airplane plant here. They have some that have truck beds on them (perfect for models), but I am not sure if you could get them tagged. Steve
Posted on: 10/9/2009 11:33 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9160830

RE: Babcock Aeronca ready for maiden
Wow that description of flight made me smile...It is interesting that it doesn't have the typical positive incidence of the wing coming from the factory. I would expect more. Steve
Posted on: 10/9/2009 11:25 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9160816

RE: Am I still the
It is kind of interesting when I started this thread I was basically trying to find out the age of people building old time vintage models. I figured out quickly that there are a lot of younger guys (a lot younger than me at 45) interested in them. This is good since I personally think that vintage models should be preserved (and flown) and that the "golden years" of aeromodeling was a time when new products and equipment was coming out at a fast pace. This is interesting since to be honest the pace really never slowed down. Now we have 2.4 gig radios, and electric power that no one would have ever imagined in the well even in the 80's. So some time the models and equipment we take for granted today may be the "golden years" of modeling for the younger generation. Oh, I have also found out that everyone on here is a "kid" that never grew up. I like that I am not the only "KID" around that enjoys playing with mechanical things (planes, cars, and wow I even saw some cushmans in here)......It is fun being the kid isn't it? Steve
Posted on: 10/9/2009 6:32 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9160106

RE: Babcock Aeronca ready for maiden
Single channel planes typically have the incidence angle of the wing jacked up a bit and a bunch of downthrust. 3 channel planes have less incidence in the wing and less or no downthrust. Does the aeronca have a bunch of incidence in the wing? Steve
Posted on: 10/9/2009 6:18 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9160067

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Yes, it is a single channel model with a McCoy .049 so it is glow fuel powered. Yea, the (few) products we have around here are sig products. They carry it in quarts (sigh) so I am going to end up being kind of expensive (thinking $20 apiece for the colors (2), and then the clear, nitrate, and thinner....wow!) Oh, well I have some left over for another project. I apprectiate the help, it really doesn't seem to be too hard so far. The only complaint is the from the wife about the smell. It is pretty amazing she can smell it since the shop is hooked up to the garage with a door and then the garage is hooked up to the house with a door and somehow the smell makes it to the kitchen....I told her I could be working in the basement.... Thanks again for the help, I will probably ask more questions when I get farther along in the process. Steve
Posted on: 10/8/2009 1:24 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9155676

RE: Am I still the
Bob; Ukengineman was one of the guys that helped my convert my F&M...(He knows his radios)..for use with the modern Futaba reciever. Thanks again for helping me with this. The conversion was really pretty simple...except for adjusting the pots in the transmitter. They (ukengineman and grotto) pretty much talked me through the whole conversion...and taught me a lot about the old radios (which was one of the main reasons I took on the project). Plus I ended up with a radio that some day I (hopefully) will get to use (darn kiddos). My sticks were pretty gummy..took them apart cleaned them and lubed them with silicoln grease...they are better. Oh, yea and the "balls" were cracked. The plastic shrinks with time and the metal stick doesn't. So I CA'ed em up, and cleaned them with really fine sandpaper then polished them, lubed them and all was smooth. If yours are cracked then you will be able to see the cracks in them from the front radially from the stick. Steve
Posted on: 10/7/2009 10:20 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9155310

RE: Silkspan and dope Questions.
Whew, it shrank.....and ended up looking pretty good! The next morning it was tighter...but with another reshrink...all is good...not professional but a fairly decent amateur job...it should look good with color. Well, I went with the silkspan because I am a impatient individual...[:D]...they had tissue in the box and not knowing much about covering this way I figured I needed a easily obtainable source of covering and they had it at the local hobby shop....ok I was in a toot to get this thing covered and the silkspan was quicker.... Someone should have told me these fabrics relax and tighten when you dope them, it would have saved me some heartburn...(sigh). I still have some more questions.... 1. The castor is added as a plasticizer (sorry about the spelling) to keep it from shrinking too much and to make the covering not so brittle. I mix my own fuel so that can easily be obtained. Is this OK? 2. At the shop we have supercoat, and light coat. It seems like the lite coat shrinks less. Is this what I need? 3. The hobby shop has the colors I need (red and white). Do I need to add the castor to them also? This stuff seems a lot like painting a car (with laquer) so I was thinking I should spray a bunch of very light coats and let them eat into each other. Is this the way to do it? 4. How do I know when to start putting on the color? 5. Can I clear over the color (or do I need to?) for a final coat or will that cause the masked lines to melt into one another? Thanks for your help, I am a little out of my comfort zone on this one. I have done a lot of fixing of the old equipment...(just built a rod for a spark ignition engine the other day) but really have no idea how to do this.... Steve
Posted on: 10/7/2009 10:00 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9155258

Silkspan and dope Questions.
Wow...I think I need help...got the "Jetco" supercruiser ready to cover. Read up a bunch on silk and dope/silkspan and dope....and decided to try it. I nitrate doped the structure around the edges (a couple of coats) then I wetted the silkspan and glued around the edges with nitrate dope pulling out the wrinkles then trimmed and really glued the edges well. Then I let it dry,....well partially dry (it hasn't been overnight but it seems pretty dry. The silkspan has taughtened some...but isn't "drum tight". Ok, 1. Is it supposed to be drum tight at this point or is the dope coats supposed to taughten it up some more? 2. Am I being impatient...it should be better in the morning when it drys better. 3. Geeze, ya didn't do it right kiddo...pull off the covering and try again. 4. Yes it should be tighter but you can fix it like this. Thanks, as old as I am (45) and this is the first open bay plane that I have tried to do silkspan on....the last for silkspan was when I was 15 and it was just a solid sided fuselage so any help will be appreciated. I just don't think I have the method down yet....(sigh). If I havta pull the covering off I will, whatever it takes to get a good finish (that is why I started with silkspan...it is pretty cheap). Steve
Posted on: 10/6/2009 10:43 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9152666

RE: Am I still the
Maxpower; No, sorry to say the F&M is sitting on the shelf...when I bought it in a load of junk radios at the local RC auction my 6 year old daughter fell in LOVE with the F&M. The pretty blue case etc..etc so I gave it to her and said she could play with it. (well, with the extra pulse it wouldn't drive a modern reciever). She went around with that thing for a year or so. Then I figured out about the extra pulse went in rewired, put new batterys in, adjusted the pulses with the very touchy pots and the oscilloscope. Got it all working well then...she told me that it was HERS and I couldn't use it...well I did give it to her...... ...but the Blue Max (that was in the same box) works well on 27... works well with the reciever. Oh, and she is 16 now so a couple of more years and I should be good to go! Steve
Posted on: 10/6/2009 12:25 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9150156

RE: Babcock Aeronca ready for maiden
Well if it is dutch roll (the airplane basically swims through the air with an oval shape being drawn out by the wingtip) you have a couple of options. You can put on dual yaw dampers and split the rudder (I am joking about this but that is what they would do on a full sized plane) or cut the wing in two and rejoin it with less dihedral (ouch!). Or you can add fin area low (which is what you did...good job). Last year I was flying one of the planes for the local college and they had a flying wing with small ruddervators (rudders on the ends of the wing) unloaded it flew fine with just a bit of dutch roll, then we loaded it up with a 8 lb water bottle and WOW did it oscillate! It was interesting because if you slowed it down the dutch roll would slow down. So I know weight is definately a factor. Balancing it a bit farther forward helped a little bit. But when we added a bigger fin low (actually below the wing since there was no fuselage) it helped a lot. The wing was interesting since it was developing all of it's dutch roll tendency's from having a swept wing ...it didn't have any dihedral. So, all in all I think you did good with the fin...you might try slowly moving the C.G. forward. How sensitive is the elevator? Does it take a bunch of throw to get the plane flared for landing? Actually, this is pretty interesting to learn everyone's ideas on this subject....it would be cool to build a variable stability plane with a wing that the dihedral could be easily changed and different fins plugged in....if you aren't learning you aren't living. Steve
Posted on: 10/6/2009 12:10 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9150131

RE: Fuel Cutoff
I've seen many that were just a noose of wire that pinches off the line. Actually a couple of these were just a couple of holes in the firewall with a wire that went around the fuel line then back to a servo (or the down elevator). Another scheme that we have used on pylon racers is a fixed fuel line to the bottom of the tank. You turn the airplane upside down and it dies (this is not the system if you are planning to do outside maneuvers or inverted flight of course)...but it works well on pylon racers. Steve
Posted on: 9/27/2009 1:22 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9127475

RE: Babcock Aeronca ready for maiden
Russ; Well, Yes I do work for that company...used to work jets untill about 5 yrs ago. Now work props. I work as a flight test engineer and pretty much are responsible for the guys testing all the propeller planes. Good to hear you bought a good Cessna product. The reason you won't hear me tell someone how to fix their model is there a bunch of uncertainty in aerodynamics. Very small changes can influence an airplane greatly. I might give them Ideas to try but the bottom line is in the flight testing of the ideas. This happens in both full scale and Model airplanes. The last flight test of the model (where power reduction was tried) pretty much tells the story that the power didn't have an effect so the tail must have been small to begin with. Oh, btw, one of the test pilots that departed the aircraft is an avid modeler. Mainly freeflight. Steve
Posted on: 9/22/2009 12:23 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9114281

RE: How do ya size a 1/2 A and smaller plane?
GCB...just been turning the glow heads out of a COX head. The cox head has enough meat on it to reproduce an almost exact replica of the original. The engine originally came with a burnt out head so I had one to compare to. When started, the McCoy seemed to be running pretty good but I don't think it has the power of a Baby Bee...it might be close. I will tach them on the same props the next nice day. (It has been raining so I have been building.) Thanks. Steve
Posted on: 9/21/2009 11:49 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum ""1/2 A" & "1/8 A" airplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9114204

RE: How do ya size a 1/2 A and smaller plane?
Wow! Sorry about the picture size...and the messy shop. Ok, what did I do wrong with the picture size? I followed the same procedure I always follow...and it came out BIG? When you blow it up that big I can see I need to work a bunch on sanding the little guy down.
Posted on: 9/20/2009 11:39 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum ""1/2 A" & "1/8 A" airplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9111216

RE: How do ya size a 1/2 A and smaller plane?
Well, it is getting the McCoy on it. for a first try. It has beam mounts in it so the McCoy will be the easyist to mount. I didn't get much time with the plane since I had to machine a new connecting rod for a vintage engine, rerig a Balsa USA D7 and test fly it for a guy, test fly my delta, take the wife out...etc....but I did get the tail feathers built. Here is a pic. The wheels look too small don't they? I gotta serch some more scrap piles for some vintage (old junk) wheels.[:D]
Posted on: 9/20/2009 11:32 PM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum ""1/2 A" & "1/8 A" airplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9111208

RE: Babcock Aeronca ready for maiden
That is correct a tractor prop is more destablizing. Also more h.p. or watts. It makes you wonder if the electric power system wasn't putting out way way more power than the original airplane with an engine.
Posted on: 9/20/2009 1:20 AM by Author "Doc.316" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9109075