Scratch built C/L for PAW .15

TD ABUSER Fri Aug 16, 2024 8:52 am

While looking through my collection of unfinished projects I found an uncovered control line wing already with a control system and a .15 sized motor mount.
I had just taken a PAW .15 out of storage and was looking for a possible plane to match it up with.
This wing is about 45 inches span and 10 inch average chord/
Covered with medium silk span applied with nitrate dope
for color what was left of some Tamiya acrylic red..[about an ounce with a airbrush barely did the whole plane..!]
Finally some butyrate dope to hopefully fuel proof it.
[I've heard about using Minwax water based polyurethane paint but I chickened out]

The finished plane won't win any beauty contests but I'm happy with the way it flies.
It weighs 17 ounces
The PAW .15 is spinning a 8 x 6 "rubber" prop 10,000 on some "mystery fuel" I've had laying around for a couple years. I blindly dumped some starting fluid in to "wake up" the old fuel and that helped. [I've got some John Deere starting fluid ordered to mix future batches with][url=https://servimg.com/view/20276546/68]

https://youtu.be/bKM3iyAwkqE?si=s14wIWuJVFLnVq6K

Ken Cook Fri Aug 16, 2024 1:12 pm

I think that old Tornado prop could be hurting you more than helping. I use the black Magnum Tornado on diesels which don't flex like the yellow. I enjoy flying combat wings with diesels.

TD ABUSER Fri Aug 16, 2024 3:56 pm

Ken Cook wrote: I think that old Tornado prop could be hurting you more than helping. I use the black Magnum Tornado on diesels which don't flex like the yellow. I enjoy flying combat wings with diesels.

Thanks Ken...I'll give your suggestion a try.
I don't know if I've ever seen a Black Magnum prop..but [maybe I've never noticed]

The floppy 8 x 6 props were more or less standard with the Brit Nostalgia Diesel Combat Club that was organized by Mel Lyne.

Most of the hours my PAW .15s have accumulated were flying the slowest [and mid air collision free] RC combat anyone has ever seen with old retired AMA Fast Combat converted to elevon control.
With 4 ounce tanks each sortie would last close to 20 minutes.
We flew from lawn chairs. Surprised

TD ABUSER Sat Aug 17, 2024 12:08 am

I took some of Ken's advice and tried a 8 x 6 Master Airscrew GF Series.
This is the thin blade type/
It was like night and day...this prop worked so much better that there was little reason to try any others. About double the line tension, which makes this plane capable of flying in the wind.
I tried a Brodak "BY&O" 9 x 4 wood prop and about the only thing good you could say is that the model had enough thrust to do mostly level laps.
Next prop I tried was a MAS 9 x 4 and it was just about as good as the MAS 8 x 6.
Now that I'm "back in the swim of things" running a diesel again I gotta say they sure make life easy.
RC diesel combat was easier to manage than glow and so is goofing around with a back yard sport plane.

I think it's time to get my PAW .049 out of moth balls and build a plane for it.
It didn't put out enough for a scratch build C/L project I tried a couple years ago..but I think some of the trouble was the wrong fuel mix and trying to get it to fly too heavy a plane.

Ken Cook Sat Aug 17, 2024 5:52 am

The reason I made mention of this was due to a similar experience last week. I have a Nobler like stunter with a PAW .049. I have both the bearing and bushed versions. The twin bearing likes to be launched at higher rpm's. I forgot about this and when the plane was into it's third lap, I could tell it didn't have enough guts. I instructed my son to bail in the high grass. The prop broke and this is a bit of a problem. We discovered that this plane combination works quite well using the older version APC 5.7x3. This is like a scimitar shape and much wider blades then what is currently offered. All I had was a Cox 5x3 black rubber prop. It turned the engine into a complete turd. I could see the blades flexing all over the place. I currently have a stiff Cox gray 6x4 on it which is doing ok. Not quite the same as the APC we had but it does work.

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Scratch built C/L for PAW .15

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