RE: ***Share the Fun this Spring! – Forum Giveaway Presented by RC Universe and Hobby-Lobby***
[quote]ORIGINAL: RCU_Contest Good Morning RCU Members!  Even more fantastic submissions over the weekend, keep up the good work. We have a new image for everyone to post captions to, now you can post a caption for one or both pictures. Take a look!   <img src=''http://imageshack.us/a/img51/5420/hobbylobbycontest.jpg'' alt='''' /> [/quote] "Umm...I said you should try adding MESQUITE to your BBQ"
Posted on: 5/15/2013 9:37 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "The Clubhouse"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11512289

RE: Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer Build
I made some more progress. Installed the servos and pushrods. Got the cockpit hatch done. Installing the cowl was tougher than I thought it'd be. It's a clamshell and it was tough getting the top to line up to the bottom. Last thing left is final wing alignments, the interplant struts, and a bunch of sanding. Then I can cover her. Weight as she sits now is 4 lb 3 oz., so final weight will probably be in the low 5 lbs. 3 cells at 40-45 amps should fly her nice. I wanted to use a small spinner per drawing, but there's no way to get a 14" prop into a 1.5" spinner.
Posted on: 8/5/2012 2:21 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11181922

RE: Anyone have older Tower Hobbies catalogs? Hangar 1 F-105.
Nothing like that in the 1995 catalog. Closest thing are a Great Planes F14 and 15, and a Flight Line F106 No Hanger 1 brands listed.
Posted on: 7/31/2012 3:33 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11176370

RE: Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer Build
Dave, I'm making mine with the crank at the bottom. I posted a 3-view at the first post. I don't know if you can make it out, but it shows the crank at the bottom is a 2T-1A and the crank at the top as a 2T-1E. So I'm going with the "A" like yours. Here's a pic from the plans showing that they do use a spoke to hold down the cowl, and they do the same with the cockpit hatch. Plus you can see how much balsa it took to carve the cowl. Thank goodness for fiberglass. Thanks for the offer on the decals, I may take you up on it, but it's something I've been wanting to experiment with, and I may have a few different ones to make. If I fail at it, I'll let you know. Ron
Posted on: 7/7/2012 4:48 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11146245

RE: RC royal Marutaka P38
Looks great so far Carlos. Just wanted to give a heads up. I scratch built one of these and the dihedral callout on the drawing is screwed up. It shows 2 numbers, one is how much to lift one side of the wing and the other is an angle. How much to lift the wing tip (7 inches) is correct, but the angle (6 degrees) is only a half angle, it should be 12 degrees. I set my dihedral in a jig so it screwed me up. It affects how the booms sit on the wing and the stance, so I just put it aside. Here's a pic of the drawing error and where my progress stopped. It's a great plane and I will finish one day. Yous will scoot pretty good with a pair of 55's.
Posted on: 7/5/2012 6:36 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Scratch Building, Aircraft Design, 3D/CAD"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11143702

RE: Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer Build
Dave, thanks for all the ref material, I'm sure it'll come in handy. The orange with the black pinstripe was my second choice, but I'm leaning to the way you did yours. Here are a couple pics of how I modified the front end. Plans call for a 1/4" ply firewall with a bunch of 1/8 ply layers to capture the front gear wires along with a big 1/4 ply engine bearer. I'm still using the 1/8 gear layers, but went to a 1/8 firewall and changed out the engine bearers for a 1/8 ply motor/battery box. The rear gear wires are supported by a v-shaped ply former which was a handy place to connect the back end of the battery box. The battery box should be plenty long to move the batteries for balance. I'll add some tri-stock to the box to reinforce it. You can see the kevlar spiderwire I used to tie the cabanes to the fuse. Also, I soldered some clips to the rear cabane and front gear wire for the rigging. I also found this logo (I think from the great lakes web site) a while ago that I was going to attempt to make a decal of.
Posted on: 7/4/2012 4:13 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11143139

RE: Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer Build
Dave, You did a great job restoring yours, she looks great! That is the same scheme I was thinking of, but I also have an old picture that I might go with, still undecided. I was thinking of using Koverall/dope but decided to stick with the simpler iron-on covering. I read your site, sounds like the .40 didn't work out for you, you had to put in a .60? I'm shooting for a .35 equivalent, so I hope it works out. Sounds like you also had to add some tail weight, was it because of the bigger engine? My motor is a heck of a lot lighter up front, and I should be able to slide the batteries back and forth to balance. I was thinking of putting the rudder and elev servos as far forward as I can, but if it's gonna be nose heavy, I might keep them per plan.
Posted on: 7/3/2012 9:43 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11141331

Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer Build
My mother bought this Scale Line Models Great Lakes Trainer kit as a gift for my father in 1962. It's been in the rafters since, and he asked me to build it for him, probably mostly for sentimental reasons. I didn't want to mess up the kit, so I'm using the plans as a guide, updating a few construction techniques, and converting to electric. I shooting for an Eflite Power 32 on 3S, I figure that should be fine if I keep the weight around 5 to 6 pounds. It's mostly framed up and I need to finish up the wings, do all the alignments, and final stuff. Some of the changes I've made are: re-engineered the firewall for electric, added 3 degrees downthrust, reduced dihedral to a more-scale 3.5 degrees, redesigned the empenage structure. Speaking of empanage, the tail is about 10% bigger than scale, as was standard practice back in the day. If I was doing it over, I'd cut it to scale size, but it's too late for that now. I redesigned the interplant strut attachment. And the wings were designed to be attached with rubber-bands so I redesigned for bolts. I'm using 50 pound test spiderwire to attach all the music wire to the fuse. I plan to cover with orange solartex with black paint. Oh, and my mother planned ahead enough to buy an optional fiberglass cowl for it. Who would have thought she knew about such things back then……
Posted on: 7/2/2012 3:51 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Golden Age, Vintage & Antique RC"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11140377

RE: Corsair retracts other than Robarts?
Doesn't it come with stock wire gear? Nothing wrong with using those until you save up enough. Have fun with the airplane till you can get the retracts.
Posted on: 4/24/2012 3:34 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=11055280

RE: E-Flite 60 - 120 90 Deg Electric Retracts
I had them on a 12 pound plane for the first test flight. Grass field, a little fast on landing, and snapped the trunions on both mains. Can't buy just the trunions, so I'll have to mill some up on my own. Here's a video of the test flight, you can judge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SqtB0wQMLA
Posted on: 2/12/2012 3:51 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10955868

RE: Crashed!-need your input
Oh yeah, I have one of these! The only change I made was throw out the nimh and replace with a lipo. You can't move the battery location and the nimh makes the plane so nose heavy all mine would do was a full-powered glide (to put it nicely) to the ground after hand launching. Changing to a lipo made all the difference. Theres a shorting pin on the rx that you have to move to change the volt cutoff. Sound's like you might have damaged your rx, but probably not fried. Double check the wires from battery to rx, or that the battery connector has volts. The tamiya connectors aren't the best.
Posted on: 12/20/2011 7:01 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10867904

RE: Wingspan Electric retracts
The Wingspan ones are the black ones in the pics. I signed up for their mailing list and got a note a few weeks ago saying they were in stock, so I ordered them up. Only took about a week to get here. I was lucky enough to get a set of lado actuators before they went out of business and retrofitted a pair of robarts for my 1/5.5 bearcat with them, so I'm sure the Magnum R/C ones would be great too. Got the Wingspan retracts installed, was very easy. Since I had the elite retracts in there before, it did take a little tweaking to the mount and I had to slot the flange holes a little bit to get them to drop in. I'm using 3/8 struts and used the adaptor. Minor problem is a 3/8 bushing in a 1/2 inch hole only leaves a 1/16 wall. By the time they mill a flat on the bushing, there's less than one thread worth of grub screw to hold the strut. So I drilled a couple thru holes in the bushing and drove the trunion grub screws thru the bushing and holding the strut. The trunion is very heavy duty and should be bullet proof. That's the part that broke on the elite retract. I think the weak spot will be the flange, which seems to be cast aluminum. Time will tell. It might be worth bolstering it up a little with a strip of 3/32 or 1/8 aluminum on either side. My struts are cut as short as possible, so I had to face the anti-rotation links forward to clear the retract motor. On 4.8 volts for the test, they take about 13-14 seconds to come up. I have the voltage regulator set to 6 volts in the airplane, though, and that should speed them up a bit. Here's a link to a video showing them in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCZlfqEGEEI
Posted on: 8/28/2011 12:33 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10690709

RE: Wingspan Electric retracts
A set of Wingspan 60-120 90 degree retracts came today. Compared to the eflite - the trunion looks very sturdy, the ears are much thicker. It's drilled out for 1/2" struts and comes with inserts for 3/8 and 5/32 music wire. Can't tell the drive screw size, looks like about a #10 (heavier than the eflite) with a coarse thread. My only concern from looking at them is that the case looks to be cast aluminum, so the weak link might be the mounting flange. They're going into a 12 pound airplane, so we'll see how they hold up. Hope to get them installed this weekend. Tough to take a good pic of the black retracts though.
Posted on: 8/26/2011 4:17 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10688588

RE: Mansyu KI-98
Guess what showed up in the mail today - a set of Wingspan retracts! They look to be a lot stronger than the eflites, but they weigh a bunch more too, these are 3.4 oz each and the eflites are 2.6. If it hurricanes here tomorrow, I guess I'll be able to spend some time in the shop and put them in, that's the last thing left to start flying. Oh yeah, the paint is done too. I'll have to get some outside pics, these should do for now.
Posted on: 8/26/2011 4:02 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10688576

RE: Palmer Plans Parts?
I think they look good. The chin scoop has a good proportion and the cowl flaps are molded in. I have a 1:48 model I compared them to and think they look good. Tehy're stamped A-26B, I don't know if there's a difference in the B to C cowl. Here's a couple pics, plus one of the bones. It's been on the shelf for a dozen years now, maybe its a good time to dust it off. Can't remember why I stopped, but it was one of my first scale attempts. I think I stopped to get onto something less complicated when I started trying to figure out how to do the flaps.
Posted on: 8/19/2011 4:57 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10677996

RE: Palmer Plans Parts?
I got Palmer A-26 cowls from fiberglass specialties a bunch of years ago, I guess this means they don't make them any more? The A-26 is framed up and on the shelf ready for skin, in the I'll-get-back-to-it-someday queue. Would love to make it a C too, but there's a lot of glass up front makes it tough.
Posted on: 8/18/2011 4:50 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10675812

RE: Wingspan Electric retracts
The airplane is about 12 lbs, and we have a grass runway. I have robostruts, the maiden landing wasn't too bad, just a bit fast and the aluminum trunions on both mains broke. I could machine new steel trunions, but then something else would let loose. So I just want to go with something heavier duty. I thought the wingspan retracts were aluminum, I'll have to re-check their video.
Posted on: 8/5/2011 7:31 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10656542

RE: Wingspan Electric retracts
The wingspan site says they'll be coming this summer. I have eflite 60 size in my Ki-98, but they're too wimpy, and the plane is grounded until I find something else. These looked sturdier in the video than the eflite, so I'm anxious to order a pair.
Posted on: 8/5/2011 4:24 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10656351

F-35 on Catapult
The F-35 had it's first catapult test this week. Check out those elevators on high rates... http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/07/watch-the-screaming-first-ever-catapult-launch-of-the-killer-f-35/
Posted on: 7/29/2011 3:24 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10645534

RE: Mansyu KI-98
I guess everybody knows the routine - I primed the whole airframe to show any runs, drips, low spots, pinholes, etc. Then wet sanded the whole thing with 320. Oh, and I made the wing fillets. Didn't make them the size they should really be, I don't want to add too much weight, but they'll do the job. Then I used chart pack tape to make some panel lines and sprayed a light coat of primer. Can't see the lines too well in these pics, but I'll give it another light sanding of 320, take off the chart tape, then it's ready for some color. To save weight in the tail, instead of putting a bunch of different color coats, I think I'll paint it backwards: tail markings first, then mask them, tail color (red), then mask the whole tail, then light grey fuse. Retracts are sent back to horizon for repair….
Posted on: 6/11/2011 1:31 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10568373

RE: Mansyu KI-98
Dam. I pulled the retracts out to see what let loose in them, and found the weak link. The ears snapped off the trunions (the part the gear wire goes into). The brass barrel is pushed along by the jack screw and locks into the 'w' in the frame, and that's all fine. But the ears where the trunion rides on the brass barrel snapped off. I have an email in with horizon to see if I can buy new trunions. If not, I'll have to see if my father in law can mill me some new ones.
Posted on: 5/16/2011 4:42 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10524059

RE: Royal P-38 Rebuild
Dave, I have a copy of an article published a few years ago how to do fowlers using one servo for the royal p-38. Someone sent it to me when I was working on my p38 but I used a diiferent way. It might take a little digging but I should be able to find it. Send me a PM with your email and I'll send you a copy if you like
Posted on: 5/12/2011 1:28 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10516151

RE: Struts For EFlight 60-120 electric retracts
I have the eflite 60-120 size in my Ki-98. I'm using robart struts which come with the right size bushings that go inside the strut and act as a music wire adaptor. I epoxied the adaptors into the struts and used about a 2" piec of 5/32 music wire into the retracts. Sorry, I don't have a good pic of it, but I describe it in the Ki-98 thread in the Warbird section.
Posted on: 5/12/2011 9:37 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10515768

RE: Mansyu KI-98
Thanks guys, I'm anxious to get it painted now. I just ordered paint from warbird colors. I think I'm going overall light gray with dark green camo blotches, like a Ki-61. Scale, the prop could be part of the problem. I'm running a regular prop, but it's still turning the right way, when you look at it from the front it turns counterclockwise, it's just on the back of the airplane. The prop leading edge is still leading, so you wouldn't think the prop would know the difference. It could also be turbulent air coming over the wing where a fillet should be before hitting the prop. Also, running the motor backwards might cause a timing problem. Lots of things to try to fix it, but I agree I have to figure it out before flying too much.
Posted on: 5/10/2011 4:48 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10512659

RE: Electric Setup Question??
A 3 cell lipo is probably what you want, but be careul with that speed control as the motor cutoff is set for nicads, not for lipos. You can damage your lipo with too low of a cutoff, so you want to time your flights instead. Take a short flight of a few minutes, then see how many mAhs it takes to recharge, then you can figure out what a safe flight time is.
Posted on: 5/9/2011 8:48 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10509988

RE: Mansyu KI-98
She flies! Got the best video we could with the camera we had and posted in two parts. takeoff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOkBfhjAZyc landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SqtB0wQMLA She flies straight and stable, could have used about two clicks of down, but I didn't want to take my fingers off the sticks. Took it up pretty high to test the stall, it just dropped the left wing a little. CG is 3 1/2 now and the nose felt a little heavy so I'll probably go to 4" next time. Landing was a little bit hard, not too bad though and the eflite mains collapsed. I guess the 11 1/2 pound airplane is to much for them on our grass. Too bad there's no pavement around here to fly off. No wood broke, but something let loose in the mechanisms in both of them. She makes a funny fluttering noise at 1/2 throttle. Not control surface flutter because it goes away when you floor it. Could be a motor/prop problem, I'll have to figure it out. But she flies great and I didn't break any wood, I think she deserves some paint now!
Posted on: 5/8/2011 1:18 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10508456

RE: Mansyu KI-98
I just posted this takeoff attempt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKc1MkHjz1Q Our club is hurting for members and the field needs some maintenance. Between work and travel I've only been out twice in 6 months. Anyway, I went to the field for the first flight, the weeds were tall and the chickweed was thick, it hadn't been cut yet. Couldn't build enough speed to takeoff. Tried three times and gave up before I broke something. And that's with about 1500 watts pushing about 13 pounds! I guess it doesn't help that the pusher prop wants to bury the nosewheel in the chickweed too. This thing is really tail heavy. To use an engineering term, I should call her Crisco (because she's fat in the can). I took off the spinner and added about 5 oz. lad to the nose to set the cg to 3 1/2 inches. My calcs say 4 to 4 1/2, but I'm afraid the fuse will act as a lifting body and bring the cp forward, plus being the first flight, I'll err on the side of nose heavy. It doesn't help that the wing has a straight leading edge - that acts as a forward sweep and adds to a more forward cg. The good news is that I didn't break anything and she tracks pretty straight. I'll try to get the grass cut this weekend and try again.
Posted on: 5/3/2011 12:22 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10499420

RE: Vailly 113
The pulley looks like a great idea, I just gave up trying to hide the link on my Platt 190 and put in a control horn. But what keeps the wire from slipping on the pulley? Is it attached to the back (hidden in the rudder) of the pulley somehow?
Posted on: 4/21/2011 4:07 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10476045

Saito 125 Muffler Adaptor Nut
I have a right angle muffler adaptor for a saito 125, but it didn't come with a jam nut. It looks like an odd size, maybe M13x1. Does anybody know where I can find one? I've tried horizon, mcmaster carr, smallparts.com, etc, and can't find a nut that size.
Posted on: 4/4/2011 3:38 PM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "Questions and Answers"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10442900

RE: Mansyu KI-98
She still looks the same, but I spent a bunch of hours getting ready to fly. Attached the canopy, ground flats on all axles and shafts, put in all clevises, lockwashers, loctite, wheel collars, and hatch magnets. Got all the control surfaces hooked up and moving in the right direction and centered. Had to make the boom door openings about 2" longer to fit the wheels. The doors won't go on until after the first flight. I have to double check my cg calculation, I think I came up with 4" when I was drawing up the plans, but I can't find my old notes. I have a friend who's an expert at this also running the cg calc to double check. Right now with the batteries stuffed as far forward as they can go it's at 3 7/8". But I can't mount the batteries that far up. Ready to go with batteries she's at 11.75 pounds, so she's no lightweight, hopefully I don't have to add any more weight to the nose. Last things to do: recalculate and set the cg, set control deflections, and….fly.
Posted on: 3/27/2011 7:05 AM by Author "ampeater" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10425574