I build Rene's wacky Cox tri-motor pontooned tether car/airplane among other things

O yea i like your lactase You know i can't stand that crap , But to each there own >>> I still don't understand that drawing were the bell crank and wire meet ? Are you going to set it up just like it would bee if you were to fly it ?

getback wrote:O yea i like your lactase You know i can't stand that crap , But to each there own >>> I still don't understand that drawing were the bell crank and wire meet ?  Are you going to set it up just like it would bee if you were to fly it ?

No bell crank, just a wire from the elevator control with 3 or 5 positions up/down/neutral leading to three or five holes in the fuselage. Haven't made up my mind which yet.

Thinking about first go-around elevator full down keeping the nose down, then neutral, then full up to see what happens. I think these things are too heavy to ROG but we shall see. Three engines on each should provide a lot of go!

Mark came over today helped with sanding first coat of sanding sealer on .049, I sanded second coat on .020 then applied final coat of sanding sealer.




Final sand, assemble and paint. These are taking me a lot longer than I thought they would.

If I may ask, what do you use for sanding sealer? Curious as I have never used it yet, and am personally not fond of the way my varnish that I have been using sands. Thank you.

NEW222 wrote:If I may ask, what do you use for sanding sealer? Curious as I have never used it yet, and am personally not fond of the way my varnish that I have been using sands. Thank you.

Minwax Sanding sealer. I bought it in the quart can but moved it to a glass jar for better sealing. About four years old, this is what's left after doing about five models.

Added a second coat this afternoon to .049, and a third coat to the .020. Sanded between coats with 100 grit to 150 grit. Ready to start assembling .020 tomorrow after a finish sanding. After assembly, a coat of primer then I think silver/aluminum..........might even go all Hollywood and add decals......then a final coat of fuel proof clear.

Thank you for the information.

Getting closer.  I still have to shim and align wing engines with the nose engine.  I gave up trying to match Rene's paint and went with what I had on hand, same paint I used on my MG's wheels.

 I have the control rod for the elevator all cut and the keepers ready to put on, that and decals are the final things except for the wheels.  I would like to router out a slot on the bottom of the pontoons and slip wheels up in there on an axle.  I would have to cut slim wheels out of luan using a hole saw but question their durability on my asphalt driveway.  

Learned from my mistakes (many), will correct those on the .049.  






I couldn't resist adding flaps and ailerons, love to see flaps down on airplanes.  Really needed to as I thought the width of the wing to narrow without them.

Bob,

Subscribed!

You are doing a swell job with that one! I have to stop looking because, well I may start really liking triples!

Hmmm, Ford Tri-motor with corrugated sides (wheels spinning in my head now). Hi by Lobby has some corrugated building siding that may look good on a Tri-motor.

30D41_Jim

This would have been a cool Cox Mfg idea!! They had tether cars and rtf CL so why not a tether plane like this that would just barrel around the circle in ground effect?…. Out board props could be freewheelers…..

Fun project….. I’d like to see it running

Ford Tri-motor.....you read my mind Jim.  

Flat surfaces make it easy to build.  Also the four engined B-24 Liberator that I thought about doing years ago, flat sides too unlike the round B-17 and B-29.  That B-24 still calls.  Four Cox .049's turning stimulates.  

Pretty soon rdw.  Cut the wheels this morning out of luan, 1/14" and hardened with CA and painted.  Still waiting for the third Pee Wee to show up.  Was supposed to be here last friday but didn't make it.  I still have to bench run the three engines before mounting them.  What's a good prop for a Pee Wee?  I have 4 and 4.5" 3 and 4 pitch.



Doesn't seem to be much enthusisum for tether planes on the forum though.  But I'm looking forward to seeing what this thing will do on a 15/20' tether.  It has airfoil wings and centrifugal force might just surprise for an inch or two.  But, I doubt it and discourage it as I have about 3 degrees down thrust built into the engines.

This small three-engined plane is very pretty I must say that the version you built is surely better done I wonder which of the two will go faster I follow this project closely Can't wait to see more

I think I like this project because it reminds me of times when these engines were sorta used for non-typical experiments and fun because they where plentiful and inexpensive…. Homemade prop rods, Flying rags, and etc….I built the “Rotoriser” in Ken Willard’s 1/2 project book and had a lot of fun with it…. It was a single blade helicopter sort of thing that actually flew pretty well…. Ruined a Black Widow in it though flying out of dusty cotton fields….

I’d use your lowest pitch props on the PeeWees for a start for pulling power…. If it goes pretty fast with the help of the .049 you may be able to switch to higher pitch for more speed…..Tether on!!!

Thanks guys,

I'm screwing on the engine mounts rather than gluing them, so if I want to replace that .020 on the nose with a .049 I can.  

Attached the axles and wheels this afternoon.  I'm out of 1/8" collars so fuel tubing is substituting.  Levent's pilot decals that he made for my Mexican Black Widow will go on, the others, I don't know.  I also attached the elevator control, three positions - up, down and neutral.  Start with down elevator, second run neutral, third up elevator just to see what would happen.  I'm taking guesses.  Wonder if Rene ever tried his.  When finished I will weigh it.  




Rather than gluing the axles in, I'm thinking about just using screws to hold them on, then when I retire it, remove the wheels.  

This thing is rough, no way I was being picky building it.  But, it's not quite as rough or sparkerly as pictured.  Camera always shows details you would like to cover.  

Engine day today.  The fun stuff!

The third engine is "Out for delivery".  The other two look good, clean reeds and fuel tanks.  Going to gas them up and hopefully run them this afternoon.  Got to thinking, I have no .020 spares, if a glow head is no good I will have to rob one off my Sky Copter.  Heck, I'm not even sure if I have a .020 Cox wrench.  



I couldn't resist a few decals.  Should have, the checkerboard doesn't go well but Levent's pilot figure does, it's scaled well to the airplane but my application is a little jiggy.  




Mark thinks I should have painted the whole thing yellow and I'm thinking remove all the yellow stuff and repaint silver.  Hopefully the engines will cover most of the engine mounts and soften the yellow a bit.

That looks sharp I may say. The yellow kind of acts like a 'warning' as to not put yuor fingers there. Great job!

No touch zones Chancey.  

Got the third Pee Wee in this afternoon.  Looked good.  Just a smaller version of the .049.  Funny after playing with these for fifty years + you can look at them and gauge their quality.  

Of the three I thought it the most likely to run, and run well.  I wasn't disappointed.  Filled the tank with 25% Cox fuel, opened the NV about four turns, primed and flipped.  Took about three.  Running slighty rich I leaned it out to a perfect hum that lasted a couple of minutes. Never a stutter.




The other two.  Not so.  The unanodized fuel tank has little compression, and the other red anodized tank just dragged on the flip.  I was sure the crank shaft's relief was plugged with goo.  

I gave up on low compression, going to replace the top end from one of my Sky Copters it's that bad.  

Red anodized, I filled the tank, dropped some prime and just flipped with no attachment to the glow head.  Probably about five minutes before I could feel it loosen up.  Attached the clip and got a couple of burps off the prime, then longer burps.  Still doesn't feel right so it gets some needed reed attention.



But, I have few .020 parts, just some star mylars and about three glow heads so a visit to Bernie was made that included a .020 Cox wrench.  I looked all over for one, all my Cox tool draws, my boxed Sky Copters, nothing no .020 wrench.

Then I thought maybe I have a .020 NIB.  Went through several from my display case when I found this.  A survivor from my selling  model stuff on ebay days in the late 1990's.




I used to just slip a noted piece of paper in my engines boxes.  Seems I bought this one before Cribbs was even born.  He's such a kid!

But no way I'm using that new cox wrench, I will wait for Bernie to show up with another one.

Used the Sky Copter's top half on one engine and cleaned the reed on the other.  Didn't bench test them thinking that they will run.  Should.

Balances aft of where it should, a drilled hole in front of both pontoons and filled with .45's will fix that.




What it looks like without the cameras flash.



Got hubs and buttons to match coming from Bernie.  Still waiting for wheel collars to run it.