RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Hi JL1, I'm sorry, but I had never heard about him before; as far as I know, none of my old club's "builders" ever used his plans, maybe he is more famous somewhere else in Italy! At the moment I live in Sydney so it's not so easy to get infos locally, but I'll try sending an e-mail to my old mates and see if anybody can help. If I can get some kind of info about mr. Zuffi, I'll post it here. Cheers
Posted on: 8/3/2009 4:09 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8985502

RE: SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 docs
Hi Chad, try here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_SF.260 there are some infos and links about this beautiful plane. Good luck! Claudio
Posted on: 7/2/2009 1:55 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8899944

RE: mucchi 202 or 205
Hi, I think the correct spelling is "Sotto a chi tocca!" which means something like: "com'on, who's next?" in Italian slang, when you call someone into the fight. Cheers Claudio
Posted on: 6/22/2009 1:45 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8870536

RE: Macchi C.202 Falgore vs. Macchi C.205V Veltro
Hi all, I read this thread with much interest since I'm Italian and I like to see some interest in our beautiful and almost forgotten warbirds! I'll try to contribute by answering some questions I have read, in random order: 1) the correct spelling of "Macchi" depends on the English accent: I now live in Australia and I would write "Mukky" to have the Aussies spell it quiet right; the "a" sounds like in the word "mamma" and "cch" sounds like "kk" 2) I built a sport scale MC 200 Saetta (see thread MC 200) and I found the best reference was a series of books named "Ali d'Italia", they are meant for static modelers but they are full of pictures and 3 views scale drawings with cross sections as well. Good news for you: the texts are bi-lingual: ITA + ENG! I choose the MC 200 just because on a small model the radial cowl hides the motor much better... 3) Said that, I had studied the 200 & 205 as well and here are some comments: the 200 and the 202 share the same wing, the 205's wing was different just because the ailerons hinge line had a "step"; the book says that many times field engineers swapped the different wings for repairs... and yes, one wing was slightly longer than the other for balancing propeller torque (!) I built my Saetta with even wings anyway. The fuse is a different story: the MC 200 is quiet different from the others -taller where the cockpit is- and cannot be used for building any scale 202 or 205. These last two instead show some difference just from the cowl line on because they used different engines, the rest is just the same even if the 205 used a big antenna mast that only the latest 202 had. Tail feathers were common for 202 and 205, the 200 didn't have balancing "beaks" on the elevators. Landing gear was just the same for all. The 205 had two cylindrical oil radiators at the bottom of the cowl sides, while the 202 had a smaller single squared one at the bottom of the cowl. The 202 spinner was conical, but the 205's was more P51 style. Last outstanding difference I can remember is the 205 had a pair of wing mounted machine guns, the 200 and 202 didn't. If you have more questions about Italian warbirds, I'll be more than happy to try to help you! Cheers
Posted on: 6/17/2009 2:23 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8858433

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
You are right... probably this happens because we were in the loosing party :-) and because the shape of Italian warbirds is not well suited for mass production kits (it was true also for the real ones: i.e. only less than 1500 Saettas were built in total as far as I know). At home they are more popular among the modelers, but still we are on our own building from scratch only (there is still someone around who can do that) since the few kits available are either not accurate or difficoult to find. I'm happy to know that someone oversea likes our planes and If you want to bulid some other, just ask me, maybe I can help you finding some documents about it. Cheers
Posted on: 4/28/2009 2:30 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8721607

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Very good job, Tech 134 and thanks for the feedback on flight features! The model looks right in shape and the painting job is historically correct: very nice for being a "sport scale"! Wish I could get the same result on mine... Just a little note if you ever whish to improve scale fidelty (since I see you take it to scale events): the cowl is missing the vertical engine exhausts, they are a very unusual and typical feature of the Saetta; second I can't see in the pictures the machine guns in the nose, these details are quiet clearly visible in many pictures of the real ones and the judges might notice that... hope you take it as it is: an advice from another modeler for improving your already very good model! A copy of your plane picture is now stuck on my workbench to remind me how much better I could do. For RC-Power bus: the correct spelling for this airfoil series is Eppler you can find many info about them if you google that word Cheers
Posted on: 4/21/2009 8:13 PM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8703167

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
I double checked the model features while repairing it and I found some interisting things: - the original C.G. was basically placed on the neutral point (!!!), good maybe for an EXTRA, but not for a warbird... after a more clever calculation I had to move it forward by about 40 mm to get a static margin of 15%. - the propeller had about -10° incidence; considering that the thurst line is about 90 mm above the wing, this gave a very strong down-pitch moment when power was applied, now this is corrected: I'll start with 0° incidence, and adjust it eventually. I found some paperwork of the project in my archive: the root profile is Eppler 209 and the tip is Eppler 207; despite being quiet sharp at the leading edge (which is not bad for scale fidelity), they are designed for low Reynold numbers tipical of model airplanes. The wing area (round tips excluded) is 33,2 dm2, giving a wing loading (empty) of 85 gr/dm2, a bit high for a 1,54 m span model, but we all know we aren't building trainers... In any case I won't make big modifications to the model: if it doesn't fly well as it is, I'll hang it in the garage and build something else: I have learnt a lot by building it anyway. I hope next week end I'll be able to fly it again, more feedback will follow.
Posted on: 4/18/2009 9:41 PM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8694107

RE: Warbird Choices
OK, the G55 was a late WW2 bomber interceptor equipped with german DB605 engine; the G59 was a post war advanced trainer built using the same airframe, coupled with a RR merlin engine. Both excellent planes, I'm about to start building one .60 size from scratch using plans available in Italy. If you want to know something more about Italian warbirds, read the thread on the MC 200 Saetta, I posted some links. Cheers
Posted on: 4/18/2009 2:05 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "TEAM RCU - Mike McConville"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8692056

RE: Warbird Choices
I think the FIAT G55 / G59 is a good choice: easy to build, big wing area, and easy to duplicate camufolage (overall green for the G55, overall silver for the G59).. and made in Italy is trendy! Anybody knows it already?
Posted on: 4/17/2009 4:29 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "TEAM RCU - Mike McConville"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8689140

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Hello, the MC 205 is among my favourites: I opted to build a slightly smaller MC200 as a training for gaining some experience in building before starting the Veltro (they are basically the same plane, just the motor changes), but then I realized the cigar shaped body takes too long to build and I decided for the G55 or G59 instead -easier shape and more wing area-. As I said, Gazza's design looks pretty right to me concerning the shape, but there are some things I don't like: -Fusolage sheeting with hips of thin strips... madness for me! On the Saetta I used much bigger strips cut to fit and soaked with water then left overnight in place with rubber bands to take the shape. - Ailerons driven with torsion bar system: that works well for full span ailerons, but with tip ailerons in a 1,60 m wing there is high risk of flutter unless you use a large diameter shaft instead of piano wire as indicated. I'd use two servos instead, now they are much smaller, cheaper and reliable than the time when the drawing was made. - Main spar made with a vertical sheet of plywood: I like best top & bottom hardwood spars with shear webs in between - the plans show how to build working scale exhaust (!!!) but no flaps, nor retracts indicated... shame. -from what I understand the motor sits upright and this would spoil the look; I tried a motor template mounted inverted, still stands out a bit from the bottom of the cowl, but it's much better. - The wing loading calculation is pretty optimistic since it includes the tail area! The real one tough -wing only- is not too bad for the model size. Hope you can find a good copy of the plans anyway: you can make a good model out of them; the Veltro is still on my "to do" list, but not now... Thanks for the FIAT G50 link, lots of good ideas, just it's a shame I can't read Dutch language, but the pictures are useful too. I don't like the shape of the G50, but the wing is virtually the same used on the G55 /G59 and this will help my next project. Cheers
Posted on: 4/17/2009 1:54 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8689002

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Hello again, people interested in building replicas of Italian warbirds could have a look at a series of magazines named Ali d'Italia (the text is ITA & ENG) website: www.bancaero.it they are intended for static modelers, but they have scale 3 views (including sections) and lots of pictures and details; I found them very helpful for my Saetta. Talking about flying models, as far as I know, the a.m. MC 200 published by Model Airplane News seems to be the only known set of plans for the Saetta. The only copy of my modified plans was damaged by water leakage and cannot be used again (and in any case they were not 100% scale). A well known designer of Italian warbirds is Raffaele Oberti ( www.oberti.gofly.it); I doubt he speaks English, but he can supply quiet good sport-scale plans for 60 size Macchi 205, Reggiane 2005, Fiat G59 and others. I purchased his plans for the T28 Trojan and the G59 (my next project): the shape is not 100% scale, but I understand many changes were made to allow a better flying model; the design is a bit old fashioned in my opinion and don't expect to find every single bit there: something is left to our skill -wich is not always bad-. I think they are anyway a good starting point for a beautiful scale project. I have also plans for a 60 size Macchi 205 from Giorgio Gazza, more detailed and more true to scale, but in my opinion more difficoult to build and with some questionable design features. I got the plans time ago (they are dated 1990) from a friend of mine and I know very little about the author... maybe now google can help... does "AT6 texan" know more about him? Another designer is Roberto Nicetto, you can find him on google. If you need to see details of the Saetta and other Italian planes, try asking me, I have taken lots of pictures when I visited Vigna di Valle, maybe I have the one you need (for free, don't worry!) The decals were printed from files found on the web some time ago... don't remember where, but I still have the files if you need. Printed on a clear self adhesive paper they look good for sport-scale. (By the way: like it or not, the Saettas had only the fascist markings of the Regia Aeronautica for almost all their service period: a MC200 with red/white/green roundels just looks VERY wrong!!!) Hope I gave some good feedback, here you find some better pictures of my Saetta; now I come back in the garage to fix it... Cheers!
Posted on: 4/13/2009 12:48 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8675731

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Thanks a lot mates! At the moment I'm living in Sydney, but I can post some contacts for finding plans of italian planes when I come back from Easter holydays next week... and some more pictures too! I had the model tested last week end, but the maiden flight was not so good: probably due to a too much down thrust the model was very unstable in pitch with full power and crash-landed after a short and bumpy flight. Now I know I need to buy incidence-meter! Said that, an OS56Alfa 4T seemed even too much for a weight of 2,8 kg, the increased tail area worked quiet well, but I can't tell much more about flight performance until I fix it and try again. I used Eppler airfoils (different ones @ root & tip, with -1,5 aerodynamic washout) and didn't seem bad, but the flight was too short to tell. I begun this project 7 years ago (little time for building models you see) and then I couldn't afford retracts, but now I realize it's a real shame... the wing is foam & balsa, while the fuz is boat-like plywood formers and balsa strips -never again!!!- with hand made fiberglass cowl, canopy and fillets. In the pictures it looks much better than it is: I like flying models and I'm not a good pilot so detailing is a waste of time; I just wanted something looking right (achieved) and flying well (not jet). I'm happy to contribute to building Italian planes, so... more on next week Cheers
Posted on: 4/9/2009 2:05 AM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8663686

RE: Macchi MC 200 C
Hello everybody, I am new to this forum, but I'm much interested in this thread, since I have just finished building a Saetta from scratch. I found on the web CAD drawings for an RC combar MC200 and I have enlarged them to 1,55 m span and largely modified to get a more scale and flyable model. Being Italian, it was easier for me to collect lots of infos about this plane since at home it is a very popular subject among modelers. I visited Vigna di Valle museum and took lots of pictures of the plane preserved there also. I'll be happy to help anyone wants to build the Saetta and any other -little known, but very beautiful- Italian warbirds like Macchis, FIATs and Reggianes: just ask me and I'll try to give you the answers you look for. Cheers
Posted on: 4/8/2009 9:01 PM by Author "tasso5" in the forum "RC Warbirds and Warplanes"
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8662850