Dan Knippen
I just recently received the terrible news of Dan Knippen of CRCM and Fox valley aero modelers Passing. Dan was recently diagnosed with cancer and had complications after treatment. Dan was a long time friend of mine who will be missed dearly. We learned r/c together back in the early 80s and competed together in novice, expert and kamikaze classes over the years. Dan's passion was Building and flying giant scale IMAC planes and competing. Dan organized and ran the Chicago land open Imac event yearly for CRCM and then moved the event to Fox Valley. Dan was a great Friend, and modeler who will be missed by many. My Heartfelt condolences go out to his wife and family The world has lost another wonderful person. C ya at the flight line in the sky DAN, R.I.P. my friend. Terry D,
Posted on: 6/26/2012 10:22 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "IMAC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11132507

RE: Super monokote - not so super anymore
just thought i'd move this one to the top,,,, call and complain How about this, everyone call cust service at great planes and complain,,,,,, 1-800-637-7660 or 1-217-398-3630 If your in one of those moods and want to leave a nasty voicemail,, here is the place to do it. Grinnns
Posted on: 6/9/2012 6:04 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11112702

RE: have to share room with WIFE..........
Make it happen,,, thats what you do.. I started out on a 30 x 48 inch desk with a rubber desk top. 40 years later my shop consumes my whole basement.. as for the little lady,,, try not to piss her off. just try to repel her. there are many easy ways to do it. like some one else said sanding balsa should work. but I have an alternate plan that will work every time. Just crack open some polyester resin and catylist or go find yourself a can of dope for fuel proofing. Or just about any kind of model paint and thinner. the fuems will drive her out or maybe even put her to sleep. either way you can have your way. with your building and or with her if you please. Haaaaa!
Posted on: 6/8/2012 9:51 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11111960

RE: Super monokote - not so super anymore
Well,,, and thats a deep subject. Maybe it,s time to try a boycot,, and while we are at it how about a petition to all the hobby stores who refuse to stock Kits for the builders. Im sick of hearing we can order it for you.. DAAAAAAAA I can order it myself and not even have to drive to the hobby store....(Gas - 4 bucks a gallon) thats a tube of glue!!! Hows that for a vent.... ? How about this, everyone call cust service at great planes and complain,,,,,, 1-800-637-7660 or 1-217-398-3630 If your in one of those moods and want to leave a nasty voicemail,, here is the place to do it. Grinnns
Posted on: 6/8/2012 11:52 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11111432

RE: Super monokote - not so super anymore
Guy,s I Have had conversations with three different people regarding this. 1st about two years aggo our good friend Charlie B told me there were no changes made at all. Then about a week aggo he sugested to me that Dupont had secretly changed the base material without the permission of great planes. And that Don Andersen Knew about the problem since Tower was having too many returns. He said Great planes only bcame aware of the change in Jan of this year. GRINN. As of today I called Great planes / hobbico service to see if they were going to do anything about it. and the idiot customer service guy told me they never changed the formula and then two minuts later he said they had to change the glue because it had lead in it. OK if there was lead in the color why did they change the base material ( the film)??????? I asked. He then went off on some long in depth BS story about the epa and wisconsin. make a long story short it sounded to me that they changed the film to save a buck. In any case the new stuff sucks. It is workable but very much harder to use. I have been using this stuff since I was 12 ( now 52 ) thats 40 years and have won several awards for covering and think it may be time to go with Ultra cote. the only problem is It comes from the same place. Goldberg models bout by great planes owned by TOWER. Sure is sad to see this hobby being tranformed by the likes of Horizon and Greatplanes /Hobbico/Tower.
Posted on: 6/7/2012 7:47 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11110736

Super monokote - not so super anymore
quality product under the same name. The new stuff doesn’t seal permanently at seams and is almost...) Also when striping with it or overlaying it won’t stick to itself permanently (it peals off over time
Posted on: 6/7/2012 10:04 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11110045

RE: Super monokote - not so super anymore
these planes are all covered with the old Super Monokote
Posted on: 6/7/2012 9:47 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11110082

RE: Super monokote - not so super anymore
test
Posted on: 6/7/2012 9:28 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "Kit Building"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11110088

RE: For those who love World War Two Fighters
Holy cow there are tons of warbirds on here, I guess I should add my bunch This hobby is truley a sickness and I have it bad, here's my fleet, all but two of them are current. www.freewebs.com/terryfdanca The mustangs are all kits eccept the Petie 2nd wich is a world models the rest are, HL A TF Gold 60 size kit built in 1990, E2 S 40 size house of balsa kit built in 1982, E2 S 40 size GP kit built in 1994, K RF TF Giant scale kit finished this year, the F4U is a TF Gold kit built in 2000, The At-6 texan is a yellow aricraft built in 2001,And the DC-3 is a Ziroli. Currently I am trying to decide if the next project will be either a Ziroli F4 U of a B-25 michell, Who cares Rite? Oh well just wanted to add to the thousands of cool WW II airplanes. KEEP EM COMING GUYS
Posted on: 9/9/2007 4:01 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6346418

Great planes top flight Giant P-51D Project
Well here it is after five years of on and off building and mostly fabricating. I guess anything is possible now! Thought I'd throw this one up for you pros to look at and Tell me what you think. I hope Jerry Caudle likes it. http://www.freewebs.com/terryfdanca/index.htm
Posted on: 9/8/2007 2:59 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6284371

RE: Steve Fossett is Missing, this does not look good!
Respectfully; While it is a shame that steve is missing, What the heck does that have to do with model Jets, Give me a clue please.
Posted on: 9/6/2007 5:58 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6335777

RE: Rt 66 Jets Litchfield Illinois
Hi Roger, Long time no talk to. Do you have a link somewhere with all the info on your event. I'd like to try and get down there but have no info on when and where. please post a link on here if you have one. Thanks
Posted on: 9/3/2007 1:30 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6320585

RE: Where can I download 3 view of P51?
Hi thought you might like this site, lots of cool pics and info on the NA P51 mustang http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/
Posted on: 9/1/2007 10:51 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6314353

RE: ATTENTION ALL P-51's - The Gathering of P-51 Mustangs and Legends
Hey Willey Nice shot. I was stationed at semour johnson in 1982 4 th tactical fighter wing. Nice f 15, from the 4th TFW we flew mostly F4-e models then but there were a couple f-15's at the time. Cool picture. More P-51 pics comming soon
Posted on: 9/1/2007 1:04 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6313491

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Hey chad thnx for the compl. as for the nose,, yes I did actruely modify the whole front end of this thing, Had to raise the thrust line about 3/8 inch to get it about rite. and as for the blue on the upper surfaces, I originally was going to do the gun fighter version of this airplane and after I spent 9 billion hours doing the wing in aluminum trim sheets. (A whole other story) I decided to paint the fuse instead of covering it with aluminum. so here is where it ended up. looks scale from the side, so its good enough for me.
Posted on: 9/1/2007 12:54 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6294663

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
hey Brock, let me first say good choice on the Tuskegee Duchess Arlene. I have seen tons of mustangs out there and have not seen a single Tuskegee color sceem. You will be original, thats for sure. As far as your landing gear goes you will be ok just using the single gear channel on your 7 channel radio. For your own good and safety let me suggest the use of a pcm reciever. Anyway I had to sit down and write this out so I hope you can understand what Im telling you in the following paragraphs. PLEASE Note I kept it as short as I could. Im not a writer and my spelling? well you'll see. READ THIS, Ok, first things first, In order to get this whole thing working rite you first have to know how the gear operation of a P-51 is supposed to work. So lets start off on the ground A) RAISING GEAR AFTER TAKE OFF CYCLE. 1) Aircraft parked, mains down all doors open. 2) Aircraft ready for take off, inner main gears door will be closed after you air up the System. All gear down and locked and tail doors open. 3) After take off gear retraction is as follows. Inner gear doors open to allow main Gear struts to retract into the wing then inner doors close. At the same time tail gear Retracts into aircraft then tail doors close to complete cycle. B) GEAR LOWERING CYCLE FOR LANDING. 1) Inner main gear doors and tail doors open together 2) Mains and tail gear lower and lock 3) Inner main doors close, TAIL doors stay open. Now here is an easy way you can make it all happen. First off you are going to need a couple items not normally used on a basic pneumatic Landing gear system. 1) A gear door sequencer is not the only way but probably the easiest. I chose the Jomar And have had very good luck with it. Just make sure you keep it isolated from vibration. 2) You will need a pneumatic micro air switch for tail door operation. 3) Two Robart retract valves with or without restrictor valves. Note it is wise to use two Separate air systems, one for the struts and one for the doors but not mandatory. THE SYSTEM SET UP IS AS FOLLOWS. The Jomar sequencer will plug into your recievers gear channel. The Jomar sequencer will operate two servos, one for the gear and another for the gear doors, The AIR MICRO SWITCH is installed in the area of the tail gear so that when the tail gear is up. It actuates the AIR switch to direct air pressure to the tail door close side of the tail door cylinder. OK HERE IS HOW YOU PLUMB IT TO OPEN GEAR DOORS plumb all three doors cylinder open lines directly to the Robart Valve. TO CLOSE DOORS plumb the main doors close lines directly to the Robart valve, the micro switch is installed in the tail door close line for the tail doors only. So they cannot get any air until the tail gear is up. Keeping them from closing when the gear is down. And that’s basically it. Here is an outline on the sequencer. When you flip the switch on your radio to bring the gear up. The sequencer will operate the gear door servo and valve opening the doors. They will stay here for now. Next the sequencer will operate the 2nd servo and valve to raise (retract) the landing gear. And finally the sequencer will operate the 1st servo and valve again to close the gear doors. The operation is the same for lowering the gear for landing. Unfortunately the servo timing is adjusted on the Jomar sequencer by setting the speed of the servos, and with a little trial and error it can be set for worry free operation. One last note on retractable landing gear in general. In my experiences I have found that By using the largest volume reservoir you can fit in the airframe. It will give you more dependable cycles, as the pressure drop from each cycle is less. The air micro switch can be found at www.BVMjets.com I used his Gear door hinges and cylinders as Well, eliminating cylinder stroke issues. I will try to get some pictures of the tail gear door cylinder set up and post them for you but that may take a day or so. Hope this anwers all your questions. You can aslo make this all work without a sequenser but that would require at least three more micro air switches and 20 miles of airhose. I think the sequenser way is probably the best hassel free way to go once it is all set up properly. good luck and if you have any more questions fell free to ask. Thanks
Posted on: 9/1/2007 12:52 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6313448

RE: ATTENTION ALL P-51's - The Gathering of P-51 Mustangs and Legends
Hey Willy here is another one of my & stangs, More pic coming. I have to get the camera out, Now where did I put the camera? http://www.freewebs.com/terryfdanca/index.htm
Posted on: 8/30/2007 5:46 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6307998

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Funny thing Willey, Why just the other evening I found a bottle of debonder out at the flight line,,,, Maybe it yours?? Thanks for the heads up on the throws.. looking forward to a nice calm sunday evening, Yahoo!!!
Posted on: 8/28/2007 5:02 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6299284

RE: Spiderman Jet Meet is BACK!!!
Just thought I'd sign in on here and say hi to all those I havent seen for a couple years. And to get this thread back on the front page.......SO HI !!!!!!! Maybe I'l see you all at spiderman,, Who knows. Just dusted off a few airplanes I havent been able to atend to for two years. Hope I can make it.
Posted on: 8/28/2007 5:39 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6296990

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Pretty sure your rite. Didnt great planes buy out top flight. like almost every other model airplane company they could. I wasnt aware of them discontinuing this kit though. As for the wheel wells and all that good stuff, you pretty much have to re engineer the whole wing center cection to keep it all together. Lots of carbon fiber and more kevar in and around all of it to give it integrety. all ribs are laminated carbon fiber and aircraft ply. cross woven aeromid (kevlar and carbon fiber) cloth for joining the wing halfs. and most important kevlar batting rope for the leading edge and from the front edge to the rear in the center cection to keep it from folding back.. The engine used in here is a brison 3.2, C & H ignition with a custom built header to keep it all inside. Another engineering feet was building and retrofitting a typical engine box witch runs all the way back to aroung the center of the cockpit. it looked to me like the engine mounting for my engine was no where near strong enough for a brison so I went thru modifying the whole thing. in the process I raised the thrust line about .375 inches to get the hood area to look rite. The gear doors are a laminant of poly ply (witch is a fiberglass sheeting) and balsa. Molded to the bottom of the wing before the sheeting was cut away. once all the laminating is done and you have the rite shape. Micro ballons and 30 minute epoxy to smooth it all out. The BVM hinges are very nice for this kind of set up and they almost weigh nothing. the BVM cylinders are very nice and small as well. used wth his hinges there is no issue of cylinder stroke. I used two different pneumatic systems in this bird just for redundancy. The robart valves are the best in my opinion and I have had no trouble with them. I did how ever remove the restrictor valves for the mains. Notice the retractable landing lights. one last thing on the gear I used two large air resivors. I have found that with more volume you tend to get more reliable retrack cycles. To me that is a great thing to not have to worrie about weather or not the gear is going to come down when you want it to. All flight control servos are Jr Hi torque 4721's and 4381's 2 on the ail, 2 on the ele, 2 on the flaps and one 4721 on the rudder. I would have put digitals in but they were not around when I started building this thing. The canopy is also pneumatic and uses a Jr micro servo a robart valve and a home built cylinder with a 4 inch stroke. Dont want to tell you what it cost for the tooling to build that little bugger. but it looks great when you can open the canopy when your taxiing in from a flight. As Far as the miden goes, It s looking like this sunday. and no my knees arnt really shaking we have a 700 ft runway here (Blacktoped) so getting it back down shouldnt be too hard. Plus I like to fly the maiden flight from the trainer side while I have a helper on the main box make adjustments in the programing while in flight. We've done this with some jets and its a quick way to work out bugs. Well thats it for now. As for the wheel well here is a couple pics. hope you like em. Happy landings,,,, I hope.
Posted on: 8/28/2007 5:30 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6296328

RE: ATTENTION ALL P-51's - The Gathering of P-51 Mustangs and Legends
we need more stangs on here ,,, lets go guys post em
Posted on: 8/28/2007 12:30 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6296536

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
One more thing on the wing. I dont have any photos of it as it was finished before painting. I thought I had some but cant find them. The aeromid cloth is layed over what you see in these photos and runs out to the 3rd and a half rib. also a 3/16 kevlar rope not seen here is inlayed in the leading edge. The finished weight is just under 25 pounds. Will let you know what happens next week. Hey guys I just went to tower hobbies .com and found this kit is still available here is the link>>> http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHU93&P=7 Just ckick on the link and your there,,,, I hope i dont get in trouble for listing it.
Posted on: 8/28/2007 12:23 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6296379

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
One more thing on the wing. I dont have any photos of it as it was finished before painting. I thought I had some but cant find them. The aeromid cloth is layed over what you see in these photos and runs out to the 3rd and a half rib. also a 3/16 kevlar rope not seen here is inlayed in the leading edge.
Posted on: 8/27/2007 11:45 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6296365

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Hey Willey,, It is in fact the major project great planes kit.. Lots of wood sand sand sand,, although I replaced most of the stuff that came in the kit. skins ect. Thanks for the compl.
Posted on: 8/27/2007 6:11 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6294635

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Yes I know ,,, Thanks Bob. I was very upset after I finishe this airplane. I guess I shopuld have done my research before I painted it. I spent about 5 hours on line trying to find the history on the color sceem only to saddly find out what you just wrote above. ( No records of this vertion in the european theater) WELL, I learned a valuble lesson. The next war bird I do Is probably going to be another mustang, only this time I'l do the research before I even get close to the spray gun.... Very depressed but not suicidle :) Thanks for the complement though.
Posted on: 8/26/2007 11:23 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6291384

RE: The Gathering of P-51 Mustangs and Legends - NOW WITH VIDEO!!!!!
here is a shot of my latest creation
Posted on: 8/26/2007 2:39 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6287731

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Well I dont know what happened to my photos,,,, I'l have to upload them again
Posted on: 8/26/2007 12:49 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6287382

RE: TF 1/5 Scale P-51 ARF Assembly Thread
Here are some pics from what I did on mine,, I used Bob Violets hinges and cylinders for the mains and sonic tronic hinges for the tail wheel. You will have to divise a seperate actuater for the tail gear doors and use a air micro switch to keep them open when the gear is down. asumming your going to want the typical gear door operation. Jomar makes an electronic gear door sequencer that works ok. so the inner main doors can close when the gear is down and locked. One suggestion I can make that I feel is very important. Use a high volume air tank and maybe even two if you can fit them in. The more volume you have in the system the less the pressure drops with each cycle of the gear. I also used a seperate air system for the canopy operation.
Posted on: 8/25/2007 7:25 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6284430

RE: Great planes Giant P-51D Project
Im Looking for some advise on throws and take off and landing flapp and elev settings.
Posted on: 8/25/2007 6:47 AM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6284384

RE: Anyone flying the New comparf Rookie!!
hey guys Im trying to figure out how to contact the webmaster of this site Can anyone help Thanks Terry
Posted on: 7/20/2005 11:58 PM by Author "T F DAnca" in the forum "RC Jets"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3185951