RE: balning a bipe
Bob I believe the reason the quarter cord seems more to the rear when you look at it as I described is because you are looking at the collective outline of both wings and not just one wing that we are so used to and for these purposes the collective outline is what we need to base our estimates on. Now with your straight bottom wing and with that swept top wing of 10 degrees that means the trailing edge of your collective view is going to be straight and the leading edge is going to have just a bit of a bump in the middle. If that leading edge were you to imagine was straight from the tips its very easy to estimate the quarter cord using that view from afar as I described (practice, practice) and then just allow the point just a smidge further forward because that area forward in that 'bump'. Agine practice, on you own airplanes even better your buddies airplanes That are know good flying airplanes. Stand 'em on their noses get way back and note your estimate of what you think 25% is. Then just check the airplanes in your fingers and see where they are actually flying them at. Yes some will be just a bit further aft than the quarter cord and that's fine but what we are looking for is a known safe place to start with. Of course fine tuning later can be move aft a bit but on that pitts you really want that 25%. John
Posted on: 6/18/2013 10:15 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11546868

RE: Unexpected flight characteristics
Andrew that mix is not in common use and I think you found out why. The very first thing I would do is to clear that mix and make sure it is inhibited then fly the airplane agine. John
Posted on: 6/17/2013 9:51 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11546437

RE: Muffler for Gold Head .60
I don,t understand, you already have the Dubro tongue muffler and if a pressure tap is all you want just drill and tap the dubro for a pressure tap. Some of those tongue types also came with a pressure tap. John
Posted on: 6/17/2013 9:38 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11546430

RE: binding.
Indeed stick with the Futaba[8D] John
Posted on: 6/17/2013 9:14 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11546423

RE: balning a bipe
OK RT the technique I spoke of would work well on your lovely Pitts S-1. What you need to do is assemble the airplane with both wings and with the larger airplanes such as this one its easiest to work with someone else. The idea is to stand the airplane on its nose with you helper holding it near vertical. Now you step back around fifteen feet or so. The idea is to get your eyeline perpendicular to the airplane and looking as if you were above the airplane and the wing outline you will now see is the projected planform as well as the collective outline of both wings. from this perspective it will become easy to visualize just where 25% or the quarter cord is by a visual estimate. With just a bit of practice you will be amazed how easy it is to imagine where that point is and what I recommend is to practice this technique on any of your other airplanes the easy ones with straight cord and the taper wings as well as swept. Is this precise aero engineering - Certainly not but is a method you can practice and actually amaze yourself with a little effort. Now visualizing that one quarter point (25% MAC) is of course not the perfect CG perhaps for every airplane but for the majority of types we fly it is a very practicle and safe starting point for much of what we fly. Likely you pitts will ultimately be best at around 28% but always start a little forward than aft and you can adjust CG to how the airplane flys from your safe starting point, Just yesterday one of the fellows presented me with I guess what would be considered a sixty size and it was an unknown bipane he had refurbished it only took minutes to step back and pick out that quarter cord. After taping on an eight inch cresent wrench to the top of the cowl to adjust to that point the airplane flew quite solid and graceful with no suprises. I know this is no fancy computer project but it has worked very well over the years as a quick and satisfactory method for all those 'mystery airplanes' and its well worth learning as one of those useful tools. John
Posted on: 6/17/2013 7:21 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11546332

RE: balning a bipe
If it is straight cord wings then it is still easy to estimate a good starting point for the CG which for most airplanes I prefer 25% MAC of the collective cord. Collective is a a key word and an important technique for doing the estimate for biplanes. Folks are bringing me airplanes at the field all the time for a quick estimates and its not that hard to estimate a biplane/triplane or more. This is not some computer program but a simple method that works well for me and you can make your own decision, I,ve even received unpleasant Pm's in the past for suggesting something that was not a computer program so if your interested I will elaborate further after I return from the field this morning. What I believe Gray Beard was getting at is the name of the airplane is not really important but what is will be the configuration. So here are the questions: Is one or both of the wings swept? Are the wings staggered, if so how much and is it positive or negative stagger.? Is the wing straight cord? Or are one or both wings tapered? A shorter lower wing is usually not a problem when using the 'collective or projected Planform' estimate. Actually biplanes are simple but what I have had the most trouble with are canards and in one case a straight cord flying wing "flying plank". John
Posted on: 6/17/2013 5:59 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11545614

RE: taxiing a warbird and taking off
Thanks Chad, delighted the race start worked for you. A very useful tool at times under certain considtions with some types of airplanes. John
Posted on: 6/16/2013 5:41 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11544671

RE: glow fuel - what can I expect to pay?
Tower is not the place to buy glow fuel if you want to buy it in gallons. If you simply must purchase from Tower then the quart sizes is the economical way to go because of no hazmat however in most cases you will get you best fuel prices at the Local Hobby Shop. Connect with you local club and find out where the best place to go or in some cases some groups mix their own. John
Posted on: 6/15/2013 4:56 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11544310

RE: Situation
[quote]ORIGINAL: riadh. .So squaring the wing with stab is the way to go even though the leading edge is not with the firewall and the engine ? [/quote] I agree squaring the wing with the stab is the way to go but from your first post it was just a little difficult to understand exactly what you were trying to describe. But from your last sentence above could it be that what you are describing is a firewall that is canted to the right to provide right thrust? This is done often in some warbirds. John
Posted on: 6/13/2013 5:41 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11542630

RE: Battery Burning
[quote]ORIGINAL: raptureboy Not totaly true. They all will puff some after a hard discharge but are not necessarily bad. I have some that I have been using for years that do this. Follow the rules, use precaution and you will be ok. [/quote] And just what do you think that hard discharge is raptureboy? Its damage that's what it is so now tell me are you prepared to accept the libiltity if Villa has an incident. Exactly how little puffing can one be safe with and are you prepared to tell them what it is and what is not safe, I think not. Your cup may be half full but be assured the lawyer that can come after you, their cup is half full. You yourself said follow the rules and every rule out there will tell you puffed batteries are damaged batteries and are unsafe. John
Posted on: 6/13/2013 10:56 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11542307

RE: Radio questions
In regards to the original poster his radio is 2.4 and as such I am of the opinion that 4.8 packs are just a brownout just waiting to happen therefore my personal recommendation stands. Further I do not believe its just a brand thing and I beleve it has everything to do with and is generic to 2.4. Now I definitely do not beleve its first is limited to just Spectrum and that Spectrum fixed anything much but instead education got a whole lot better. And that means much more careful charging techniques and practices than we formerly tended to use as well as a definitely safer 6 volt packs of much higher capacitys than we formerly tended to use. You say you are a Hitec user RCJetflyer and that's wonderful so am I (extensively). If you read very carefully between the lines in various places in the manual you will find yes you can use 4.8 but rather strong reccomendations for 6 volts. Its obvious these veiled comments are mearly for the various brands trying to compete with each other. We would be deluding ourselves if we beleved we are immune to brownout because we use brand X or that brand Y fixed it. I believe brownout still happens (any brand) in most cases because of new folks combined with very poor charging practices I see this a lot and it greatly helps simply by in most cases with the few exceptions I used in my former post, to use 6 volt packs of capacitys of around three times what we formerly used in the past with 72 systems. John
Posted on: 6/13/2013 4:35 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11542003

RE: flaperons and spolerones
[quote]ORIGINAL: Top_Gunn [quote]ORIGINAL: JohnBuckner As always when you are talking a technical field, language becomes very fluid and is constantly changing. In the full scale world I believe the word spoilers was used in connection to systems such as the P-61 as well a virtually ever glider/sailplane still to this day but all of these typically were never mixed ailerons and spoilers. The were
Posted on: 6/12/2013 9:51 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11541195

RE: flaperons and spolerones
As always when you are talking a technical field, language becomes very fluid and is constantly changing. In the full scale world I believe the word spoilers was used in connection to systems such as the P-61 as well a virtually ever glider/sailplane still to this day but all of these typically were never mixed ailerons and spoilers. The were normally separate surfaces positioned near mid cord and they killed lift to provide increased rate of descent or used differentially to provide roll control. The P-61 not only had these for primary roll control but also small conventional ailerons to provide primarily some tactile pilot feedback on the controls, something pure differential spoilers were/are poor at. Spoilerons is something that I cannot think of a single application in the full scale world but its early this morning[;)] and the pure use of mixed spoilers is OK but even the spoiler function is poor when used in this manner as there is excessive pitching when applied. This is something pure spoilers mounted near mid cord do not do. Those are a joy to use both in full scale and RC true spoilers do not effect any pitching at all. John
Posted on: 6/12/2013 6:24 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540988

RE: Nitro fueling question
[quote]ORIGINAL: p3arljam yes simple hand crank fuel pump just like on my other plane. [/quote] No that is your fuel pump that's not a fueling valve. OK lets get down to the nitty gritty, if your carburetor is flooded after filling the tank that badly then one of two things are happening Either - the carb is simply to low in relation to the tank and a syphon is started or you are simply fueling incorrectly for the plumbing and forcing fuel the wrong direction and into the carb. You have not indicated how the tank is plumbed is it a two line system? or is it a three line system? is a Fueling Valve used (that is a popular device that stops fuel from being forced into the carb and directs it toward the fuel tanks. Not all airplanes a plumbed the same way and we have no way to know what your setup is unless you tell us. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 10:44 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540804

RE: Nitro fueling question
Are you using a fueling valve?
Posted on: 6/11/2013 4:38 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540536

RE: Aurora 9
I to am not a fan of lipos in transmitters and there are voltage setttings in the programing you use if you want Lipo Last November I made along distance floatplane flight on the Colorado River and I just took out the standard six cell nimh hitec battery and velcroed a big old six cell car battery that was a 5000 mah pack and filed a notch in the plastic door for the wire. Worked like a charm. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 4:31 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540532

RE: Nitro fueling question
You inadvertently crossed the muffler and carb lines? The fuel tank to carb relationship in the new airplane is wrong and the tank to high? is the engine in either airplane inverted? Lots of questions. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 4:19 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540521

RE: Aurora 9
Yup as Steve indicated above. There's Magic in that Box, I love my A9's[;)]
Posted on: 6/11/2013 1:57 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540392

RE: flaperons and spolerones
The trouble is the landing spot just may be far to small for whatever kind of airplanes you are flying and that's why finding a mentor just might be able to help. There is no way anyone on these forums would be able to tell you that your site is to small or not. This is a very common problem with those that try to teach themselves that is they will tend to pick sites that truly are to small for their airplanes and if that's the case then flaps will only make things worse. Best use here would be to find your local club and connect with those folks where you truly can get help.
Posted on: 6/11/2013 1:51 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540382

RE: flaperons and spolerones
[quote]ORIGINAL: superflyboy1988 help slow the plane down for landings and that's what i need there is a creek and the end of the run way my buddy has all ready glide in to it but what else do u use them for but info will be great we are kinda new to flying thanks a lot [/quote] "What else do you use them for" They are most useful for generating vastly increased sales of new replacement ARF's, RTF's etc. They are a big mistake during training or just learning. Every new flyer can,t wait to use them only to discover they usually materially shorten the life of their airplanes. You would be better of to find an experienced mentor to help you and or find a runway without a creek at the end. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 12:50 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540315

RE: Radio questions
[quote]ORIGINAL: BarracudaHockey Get a 5cell NiMh or NiCad [/quote] Dittoes on this. If you run a 2.4 radio, its my opinion that runing a four cell or 4.8 volts is a brownout just waiting to happen and it does not matter which major brand system you have. All my airplanes run five cell packs and I use Nimh which are great if you use packs that are around three times the capacitys that we formerly used with Nicd's and the size/weights usually come out close and some a little smaller than the Nicd's. In other words for say a sixty sized airplane that we formerly used say a 600mah Nicd I would use an 1800mah Nimh or larger. My only exception to this is just two of my airplanes that are controlline ships that I now use 2.4 systems to control throttle and in the case one that has a second servo to operate a stooge release. These airplanes are fine with four cell packs having only two small servos and will never be more than sixty feet away[:D] Those servo plugs I pictured are the old Futaba 'G' plug and those will not plug to a modern Rx without an adapter or a plug change. Since you have the modern J plug then there is no reason not to try those servos. They are probably an older series but no reason not to give them a shot. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 12:05 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11540278

RE: Aurora 9
Ken, Steve is correct you can disable that transmit screen but I would recommend you not do that. The reason is if you do not push the transmit button there will be no RF generated which translated to lots of power used. So its actually better just to get used to the extra little step and for those times when you do not push it you can push the no button and program the radio at your leasure without using up much of your battery power at all. That's what this screen is for and worth using in that way. There are two other features I would like to tell you about and both are accessed by pushing the 'tools' button then next pushing the 'info' button. The first thing on this screen you can program your name or any words you will be greeted by every time you turn the radio on to your startup screen. That fine and a pretty cool feature as there are enough of them around here not that I have actually picked up the wrong tranny. Now what I want to warn you about on that same page is a lockout feature any you select a code that must be used to turn the tranny on, now the problem is if you are like me and prone to forget things like codes and you have activated this and selected some code then you are SOL. That radio is useless and you cannot turn it on without the code. The only way to get it unlocked is to send it to Hitec and I am guessing with the original sales receipt. This is a nice feature I suppose if theft is your biggest fear but my biggest fear is forgetting all these codes and passwords before the computer age finally caught up to me. So if you are anything like me it best to avoid that lockout feature like the plague. If you do any teaching then you are really in for a surprise, there is Magic in that box[;)] I love my A9's. John
Posted on: 6/11/2013 6:03 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539947

RE: Radio questions
mmabc is the reason you said you obviously can,t use those futaba servos because they have plugs that look like this? John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 9:52 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539741

RE: A good deal or crap?
Frsky and Flysky are definately different and unrelated. I actually use a Frsky receiver hanging out the back of my Hitec Aurora to serve as a cordless buddy cord system so its good for something[;)]
Posted on: 6/10/2013 9:48 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539734

RE: Aurora 9
Hi Ken I have no doubt you will soon come to value your A9 over all the others. There is always a learning curve with any system and one Quirk with the A9 is, First of all the binding process has to occur in the same order of steps every time. When you first put the A9 into the search mode for the binding process it is a little tricky because you have to push the binding pin in the back of the module at the same time turning the transmitter on and pushing the button asking are you ready to transmit - yes on the front side of the tranny. Yes that is auckward but you soon get good at it. They actually solved that problem with Eclipse 7 Pro by putting the transmitter bind button on the front side. I love my A9's John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 9:15 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539713

RE: A good deal or crap?
You need to understand shd that radio is a one airplane radio You cannot store multiple airplanes on it, oh wait you cannot store even one airplanes basics such as end points. In other words you cannot do didly squat with it except servo reversing so all adjustments will be done the old fashioned way - mechanically. that's likely to be an interesting additional challenge and well sorta of a lost skill these days. Aw heck I think the blue stickers are way cool[;)] John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 8:54 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539697

RE: Radio questions
Your battery plugs into the switch/charge harness and the lead from the switch harness plugs into the bottom Rx port marked 7 or CH 7. Actually you can plug the power from the switch harness into any unused RX (servo) port. If you need all 7 channels then the switch plugs into a Y harnesss and the other leg the servo will plug to. Then the single lead from the Y harness is plugged into that last port marked 7b. That 'b' means battery. John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 8:34 PM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539675

RE: A good deal or crap?
Its a forty dollar transmitter and not much more than just that! May work ok close range in a small parkie but anything much more than that well you figure it out. Most of the fellows who show up aroung here with stuff like that are soon trying to sell it, guess what there is no secondary market for that stuff. John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 11:49 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Beginners"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11539145

RE: Battery Burning
[quote]ORIGINAL: Villa Should I stop using the battery? The batteries have never been damaged. [/quote] If they are puffed at all then yes they are damaged and yes that battery is history totally unsafe to use and easily can end up looking like this one. This not just some picture off the net, I took this picture, it happens. John
Posted on: 6/10/2013 8:48 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11538971

RE: Battery change to NiMH from NiCD
Poppy2 Important question, do you fly 2.4 or do you contemplate do so in the future? John
Posted on: 6/9/2013 11:55 AM by Author "JohnBuckner" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11538184