Here's my new Com-Bat; Test flights-Take 2

Just so you know Rusty, the hinges on my plane just broke. I had done a figure 8 and when going inverted it spazzed a bit and hit the geound. Walked up to it and the elevator was completely slack. I am going to get some Robart Hingpoints (not sure on the name) for it. The little plane survived fine. No new marks or scratches.

I'll keep an eye on them. It's the same fabric hinges I have on the Bean.

Looks good Rusty!


Yep, if you get glue or paint on the fabric hinge swing point, they will work harden and tear in two. I always lay a 1/16 strip of pinstriping tape down both sides of the hinge area of the elevator, sealing off that fabric portion. you can tuck the tape inbetween the gap so you can still paint right up to the edge of balsa wood but not get paint on the fabric. Another trick is to take a toothpick and very carefully dab some vaseline JUST on that fabric hinge point area before painting.

Good job Rusty! Can't wait to see the flight report. I bet she will be a tad responsive.

It's missing a Cox Powered sticker!

Hey Rusty....Here's a little history on your Lil Bat...which you may already have, but thought I'd post it anyway. Your Lil Bat was designed by Voo Doo's dad!

We went through a bunch of the planes in the late 1960's. Things got much better later on, when I discovered epoxy...a LOT fewer trips out to the weeds, searching for my engines and their mounts !

Godsey, I didn't get any paint or glue on the hinges. And I never use CA on them, that will make them break faster than anything. I always use airplane glue to stick them down. I epoxied the whole nacelle and firewall. It looked like glass before I painted it.

Matt, I looked for one of those Cox stickers. My plane didn't come with any of the decals featured in the pictures. No leadout wires or eyelets either. I hope the clear coat holds the stars down, or it'll look like it's sprinkling fairy dust.

Kim, thanks for the old ad. Mine looks most like the Li'l Bee.

You don't want to lose that fairy dust. If it's anything like pixie dust then it just might be what makes your airplane fly.

fit90 wrote:You don't want to lose that fairy dust. If it's anything like pixie dust then it just might be what makes your airplane fly.

Well if it's anything like angel dust you should lose it ASAP.

Ok. That explains it. I got both of those on my hinges. My Sig Skyray kit arrived today. My dad got the Staggewing. Already have mine built. He is almost finished with his. Not sure on power source though. I am also just now ordering a Queen Bee from Ray Stone to fly on a Pee Wee. I am thinking 20' lines. He said max 25'. I was thinking maybe trying 15'. Short lines do not bother. I am used to the speed.

Short lines don't bother you, eh?
Brave thing to say there.

Godsey3.0 wrote:Ok. That explains it. I got both of those on my hinges....

Make sure you get enough gap between the stab and the elevator. Too tight there will stress the hinge too.

Man, I just spent two hours wasting fuel trying to get that stupid engine to run right. Three different tanks, a balloon, a glove finger and a wedge, and it acts the same, like its drawing air. If I could ride the plane and adjust it, it would be fine. It was all I could do not to hurl that sucker and slam it up against the wall. Must be the crankcase seal, those screws were almost too short. So, I finally said screw it, I'll use the Black Widow. Unbagged it... oh yeah a busted tab on one side and a cracked one on the other. Stupid plastic.

I have a million things to do before I can go fly tomorrow, the last thing I want to do is piddle around with a finicky little twerp of an engine first. I do have a good backplate I can put on the BW, but I didn't want the added length of a tank. There's always the KB but I hate to cannibalize the PT-19 because I want to fly it too. S'pose I could use the Medallion... nah. Grrrrr.

[/venting]

Okay, I'm all better now. As I was lying in bed not sleeping, it suddenly occurred to me that the bellcrank and control horn on this model, by design, are both on top of the wing and stabilator. Hmmmm, what's wrong with this picture? I didn't even think about it until I had built it that way. Duh!

If I held the handle like normal people do, I would just try to remember to hold it upside down. But not me. Do I look normal? When I was a ltttle kid, I never read the directions and trusted my Dad, who knew everything... almost, to teach me the right way. So as a result, I hold the handle in a way akin to what surfers call goofy footed when they position their feet backasswards; in the case of a control handle, this means straight out in front clutched in an overhanded fist. Wrist right=up, wrist left=down. I never learned elbow up and down control. I decided to try and correct a 45 year old habit last Summer, and guess what. Muscle memory rules. Maybe this was the reason I seemed so retarded when I was smashing my first plane, a black Stuka into so much slag, and went through a box of rubber bands on my PT-19 before I got the hang of it.

So I could remove the hardware and mount it under the wing, which would involve a fair bit of chiseling, thereby uglying up my nice new plane. I could saw a slot in the wing for the rod to pass through and put the horn under the stab. Or, I can just cross the leadout wires between the crank and wingtip guide. I'll take #3. I should write captain Blackhawk a letter, and try not to call him a doofus.

Do y'all think about airplanes while you're lying in bed? I sure do fly better when I'm in bed. The lines never slack and the needle is always set perfect. You should see my wingovers and vertical 8s. And it never sucks air until I say it sucks air, so I never land upside down.

I didn't get to fly today, but it's just as well. I will get it in the air tomorrow.
I tied up loose ends without rushing. Look at this bad boy now. That's an APC 5.5x2 prop.

Nice, Rusty just don't cut your finger on the APC
Get some flight vid if possible too.
Now off to you next project, the RC one

nitroairplane wrote:...Now off to you next project, the RC one

Haha, yeah I hear you. I bought a Baby Flite Streak kit before you told me I had to learn RC, so on to that first.

Honestly, I would love to learn to fly at least the basics of RC. I think I understand aerodynamically how it's (basically)done, But I hope I can learn all the new tricks. Where to start, a simple kit I suppose. I would want a throttle, I think. Elevator and rudder only for starters? Money is a big problem for me. How much for a Tx and Rx and servos?

At least I have plenty of .049s. Ideally maybe I should start with a Peewee. Matt might lend me one. What sort of airframe should I get? Something with a high wing that can rescue itself to a degree?

I'm not making any promises. This could be a Winter project.

RknRusty wrote:

nitroairplane wrote:...Now off to you next project, the RC one

Haha, yeah I hear you. I bought a Baby Flite Streak kit before you told me I had to learn RC, so on to that first.

Honestly, I would love to learn to fly at least the basics of RC. I think I understand aerodynamically how it's (basically)done, But I hope I can learn all the new tricks. Where to start, a simple kit I suppose. I would want a throttle, I think. Elevator and rudder only for starters? Money is a big problem for me. How much for a Tx and Rx and servos?

At least I have plenty of .049s. Ideally maybe I should start with a Peewee. Matt might lend me one. What sort of airframe should I get? Something with a high wing that can rescue itself to a degree?

I'm not making any promises. This could be a Winter project.

It really is quite easy. Next time I come over, I could bring my electric lightweight plane.

Sure, you can borrow a PeeWee. But I can't guarantee that any of them run! Yeah, it's sad I have never run them.

A good 1/2a trainer should have plenty of dihedral,high wing, rudder,elevator and throttle.
Also keeping it ligh helps.
Sure you could do
It with a pee wee but it does not have a throttle.
A transmitter and Reciever set can be had pretty cheap.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/%5F%5F16239%5F%5FHobbyKing%5FHK6DF%5F2%5F4Ghz%5FFHSS%5F6Ch%5FTx%5FRx%5FMode%5F2%5F.html
You can use those little red servos from Bernie. You need 3 if using throttle and 2 if not.
http://coxengines.ca/cox-icon-rc-cs-6-micro-flight-servo-3.html
Then a kit.
The Minnie Mambo or little esquire should be perfect.
http://www.earlyrcmodels.com/id15.html
Then a receiver battery and charger,covering and hardware for finishing the model.
Oh And one last thing, your gonna want an engine.

Lots of dihedral... is that to help it bank in the absence of ailerons?

RknRusty wrote:Lots of dihedral... is that to help it bank in the absence of ailerons?

\Not really it just helps it self level and be stable.

RknRusty wrote:

nitroairplane wrote:...Now off to you next project, the RC one

Haha, yeah I hear you. I bought a Baby Flite Streak kit before you told me I had to learn RC, so on to that first.

Honestly, I would love to learn to fly at least the basics of RC. I think I understand aerodynamically how it's (basically)done, But I hope I can learn all the new tricks. Where to start, a simple kit I suppose. I would want a throttle, I think. Elevator and rudder only for starters? Money is a big problem for me. How much for a Tx and Rx and servos?

At least I have plenty of .049s. Ideally maybe I should start with a Peewee. Matt might lend me one. What sort of airframe should I get? Something with a high wing that can rescue itself to a degree?

I'm not making any promises. This could be a Winter project.

Here's my take on learning R/C, I would forget the PeeWee, go with a throttled .049, and a bigger, lighter model. What you need is basically a freeflight model, inherently stable so that if you get yourself in trouble (and you will!) you can let go of everything and let the model sort itself out.
The things you DON'T want are speed, and an aerobatic (unstable) model, you want to be simply guiding a freeflight model, that's more than enough to start with, take it from me!
If you fit a throttle you can always chop the engine if it all goes terribly wrong, or fly it on partial throttle to slow things down.
If you are in to building from plans, try the "Honker" (See the Models & Modelling section "Simple R/C model") about as simple as it's possible to build and nigh on indestructable

Wilf

Rusty:

There is no finer way IMO to learn the fundamentals of RC than on a flight simulator. My Real Flight G5.5 features an Interlink Tx which performs just like an actual Tx. "Crash" on a sim an the reset will make things OK once again.

Microsoft sims use keyboard commands which are not realistic at all.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll work up to it. I still have a CL project about to start, but RC is now on the list. I'll be flooding the forum with questions when I get closer to it. Matt can be my flight instructor.

I test ran the Medallion on the Bat to make sure the engine and fuel feed were all right. Man that 5.5x2 APC prop is way faster than the 5.5x3 I used on the bean a couple of weeks ago. I think I'll put a Bee head on it before I take her out this afternoon.