Re: Carl Goldberg Skylane 42

GallopingGhostler Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:53 pm

NEW222 wrote:Thanks for the information. I will give it a try with the Golden Bee, and if not very good, I will try a Black Widow. This rudder only flying sounds interesteing. I am looking forward to it.

I'd go with the Black Widow up front. The power difference between the two is milder, not like putting say a .09 on it. It's there but for a larger airplane at 42" wingspan, it could use the extra power. Youĺl find props will be a way to adjust performances as well as running richer.

Your first flights would be on a partially fueled tank, so it would be shorter. Also, it is good to fly over tall grass. These lighter aircraft (versus say a .40 aircraft) usually survive very well when crashed into tall grass. I don't know if you have access to a field like that, but if you do it makes a big difference during first flights. I've spun a plane in with little damage when I lost control. (Of course, these were .020 aircraft of 30" span or less, but these slightly larger 1/2-A's should to okay, too since they weigh may be a pound to a pound and a half, versus say a modern .20 Schneurle weighing at 4 to 5 lbs.)

GallopingGhostler Thu May 19, 2022 1:35 pm

GWILLIEFOX wrote:O,

My Fox 049 single channel Skylane. Hundreds of flights. Rudder only, Babcock escapement. Trim it glide flat and straight. If it won't fly without the radio, it won't fly with it.

Rudder only ships were trimmed to fly with a slight climb. Upplying rudder will cause a turn, but you can't just hold the rudder. As the plane turns it will bank steeper and steeper dropping the nose. So you must learn to apply rudder in short bursts.

If you hold the rudder and get the nose down and apply opposite rudder, the plane will stop turning and the nose will be down. This causes a lot extra airspeed and the ship will zoom up. Learning to control this zoom will let you do rolls, loops, immelman turns, and wingovers, all with no elevator.

If you want to fly faster in a straight line, give it right the left rudder, reversing just as the nose drops. Kind of like tacking.

Don't let the plane get downwind. You'll have to have mastered tacking to ever get it back.

Years of flying in a few sentences.

Yes, words of wisdom from a sage, the late GWILLIEFOX, (R.I.P.). My GB Skylane was carried away by a strong storm cell updraft 44 years ago. A really nice kit to build, but a more time consuming build than most self included want to do These days.

But, it builds into an impressively beautiful aircraft to show and fly. Popcorn

GallopingGhostler Thu May 19, 2022 1:41 pm

@NEW222, just curious, did you ever get your Skylane completed and flown?

NEW222 Thu May 19, 2022 2:19 pm

Sorry, no I unfortunately not. I ended up passing it onto a local modeler that was looking for one. After giving it to him I regretted it but ended up picking up something similar that I also have yet to fly.

GallopingGhostler Thu May 19, 2022 2:28 pm

NEW222 wrote:Sorry, no I unfortunately not. I ended up passing it onto a local modeler that was looking for one. After giving it to him I regretted it but ended up picking up something similar that I also have yet to fly.

Fully understand, NEW222. It does build into a beautiful model, but it does require a lot of time to make it happen. I gave away for a small donation, a Great Planes Big Stick 60, which I got for a song 8 years ago and repaired to flight ready condition.

skylane - Carl Goldberg Skylane 42 - Page 2 9_bigs10

I am a small planes flyer, never flew such aggressive project before. I've decided I am better off with fewer channels and simpler and smaller flying. My outer bounds is currently .25 for R/C and .35 for CL.

I like shorter skirmishes that are easier to put together and get flying, so I know the feeling.

getback Fri May 20, 2022 7:25 am

I am pretty sure I have one of these kits upstairs still sealed , It was one the first single channel planes i tried to fly ,, got it to take off in the schools front parking lot and it took an right and flew right into the window above the front door lol!

We got it down and later as i was charging the little disc batteries that were in it in the other room and heard a blast went to see what it was and the battery's had blown a hole in the side of the plane where they were . End of that for me i still don't know what i did with the radio . Doh!

GallopingGhostler Fri May 20, 2022 10:24 am

getback wrote:I am pretty sure I have one of these kits upstairs still sealed , It was one the first single channel planes i tried to fly ,, got it to take off in the schools front parking lot and it took an right and flew right into the window above the front door
We got it down and later as i was charging the little disc batteries that were in it in the other room and heard a blast went to see what it was and the battery's had blown a hole in the side of the plane where they were .
End of that for me i still don't know what i did with the radio .

(Booms were my addition. Very Happy

)

Never had a nicad battery do that to me, but there were ample warnings on charging current (1/10th of ampacity), 24 hours only, etc. so, Single Channel Aviator Eric Flying

became Terminator Eric? Devil

Ouch! I hate for stuff like that to happen, especially on a time consuming build. Sad Goodbye

(Actually you are lucky, others have burnt down their garage and even house from aircraft battery charging.) Affraid or WOW!

When I was 11 or 12, after 4th of July celebration Fireworks

in Biloxi, Mississippi circa mid 1960's, friends and I scoured the neighborhood for firecracker duds, which there were many in people's front yard and the street. After we gathered up a couple hundred, carefully unrolled the paper casings, pouring the silvery powder into a bottle. Then we took a spent Texas Twister (the one with the paddle type plastic mounted 2 bladed propeller, it would whistle as it spun along the ground) about 3 times the length of an M-80, carefully pouring the powder filling it up half way. After, we took all the fuse remnants and twisted them together until we had a fuse about 8 inches long.

One of the guys lit a match and set fire to the fuse. We watched it burn all the way until the lit end went into the Twister carcass.

There was no rocket like motion, instead a huge BANG! Blow up Mad!

Parents from the nearby houses poked their heads out of the entrance doors, asking if we were OK.

No wonder Brad Upton on YouTube Dry Bar Comedy channels says when he grew up, there were no dumb kids, because they never made! Laughing

Look to the positive, we both made it, Eric! Laughing

and more millennial humor: Very Happy

NEW222 Mon May 23, 2022 4:53 pm

getback wrote:I am pretty sure I have one of these kits upstairs still sealed , It was one the first single channel planes i tried to fly ,, got it to take off in the schools front parking lot and it took an right and flew right into the window above the front door We got it down and later as i was charging the little disc batteries that were in it in the other room and heard a blast went to see what it was and the battery's had blown a hole in the side of the plane where they were . End of that for me i still don't know what i did with the radio .

Oops!

GallopingGhostler Mon May 23, 2022 5:37 pm

Oops!

706jim Mon May 23, 2022 6:34 pm

Hard to believe that Carl Goldberg could make a successful company while selling kits for $1.95.

GallopingGhostler Mon May 23, 2022 6:44 pm

706jim wrote:Hard to believe that Carl Goldberg could make a successful company while selling kits for $1.95.

Back then, the demands, assembly lines used, and mass machining techniques allowed for tremendous cost cuts while making a decent profit (die cutting, stamping, pressing, molding, etc.)

Goes ditto for all the companies, CG, Sterling, Top Flite, Dumas, Guillow, Comet, Berkeley, etc. They were selling each model kit in the thousands per month. With stiff competition on all sides and huge volumes, this is why they could sell at lower cost.

Some may wonder why fuselage sides on for example, the half-A Skylane, Junior Falcon had fuselage sides from several pieces spliced together to make a solid fuselage versus a single piece which was done in more recent kits. Because cost cutting was so important, kit engineering was vital.

The pennies per kit saved by reducing storage through smaller, fully filled boxes, optimization of pieces of balsa to get the most parts out of sheets were part of that saving.

Personally, I did not mind if a few pieces were die crunched or of the wrong wood density. While growing up, I had extra balsa stock where I could use these as patterns. When you are only paying $4.00 for a Junior Falcon, you don't mind the low cost because it was affordable.

Overall, it seemed that CG did a slightly better job in their cleaner die cutting and wood selection, although sometimes a few hiccups occurred, but these IMO were rarer.

skylane - Carl Goldberg Skylane 42 - Page 2 Impuls10

Example of die crunching, fuselage bulkheads for a 1959 46in Berkeley Impulse trainer/single channel pylon racer.

skylane - Carl Goldberg Skylane 42 - Page 2 Impuls12

Impulse die crunched ribs.

skylane - Carl Goldberg Skylane 42 - Page 2 Impuls11

Impulse die crunched cowl cheek doublers.

Kim Tue May 24, 2022 3:33 pm

GallopingGhostler wrote:
706jim wrote:Hard to believe that Carl Goldberg could make a successful company while selling kits for $1.95.

Personally, I did not mind if a few pieces were die crunched or of the wrong wood density.

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Funny...when I started out in building (about 13-14 years old), I was pretty unassuming, and just figured that breaking parts or having to cut them from occasionally rock-hard balsa, was just how things were done.

I DID notice and was thankful when things went easier, though REALLY had a time with some Jetco and Goldberg kits. Years later, I joked that I had to "build a plane's parts to build a plane"!

GallopingGhostler Tue May 24, 2022 3:44 pm

I cut my teeth starting on those under $1.00 Comet kits in the mid 1960's. Some were die cut, some were print balsa made out of some of the rock hardest balsa available, density probably akin to basswood or white pine.

Learning to separate parts that way, I'd use a razor blade to cut through the die cutting to free parts. I found that they don't pop out like one would think they would.

That is probably why I had a head start over others. Also, because Comet kit tissue seemed always to be the wrong color (black mostly), I purchased Japanese tissue at the local hobby store. Sometimes my father would put together an order at SIG in Iowa, I'd let him know what I needed, he'd buy it for me. I found out that the Japanese stuff was of much better quality than the shoe box colored tissue that came with the kits.
Comet must have been a company of Henry Ford. "You can have it in any color, as long as it is in black." lol!

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