Corehouse Li'l Hacker

You have to time it so that the shake gives you a quicker flip of the prop.

When I started using TD .049s it took me a while to get used to having the needle so close to the prop. They can be scary with the soft plastic props when you first see the tips flex and dance back and forth before you get the speed smoothed out. Like it's coming to get you. I brraaped a knuckle into the backside of one at full speed the other day and amazingly it didn't break the skin. Like sticking your finger into the back of a muffin fan. I guess it was just a warning shot.

If you need to, you can easily use a fine threaded needle remotely. In fact, I use one from a r/c carb many times. I take a burnt out r/c long glow plug, I drill out the post to the desired size. I then drill a hole into one of the flats on the hex to accept a wd-40 straw. This is how the fuel gets into the TD. The glow plug screws right into the plastic carb body. I heat the wd-40 straw with a heat gun and the straw instantly bends into a 90 deg. I allow about 3/4" of length on one side of the elbow to accept a piece of fuel tubing from the remote needle and the other end of the straw is a friction fit into the glow plug that I made a venturi out of. Using pressure, I found 1/8" drill bit is adequate enough for the intake. You can go quite larger but other factors are going to happen. Ken

Can you show a pic of that? The largest engine I have run is a Super Tigre 46. That one scares me. I know have it on an Eagle II to complete the break in. I gotta say, I am getting excited about this plane. I will use a Reedy on the first and the Tee Dee on the next. I will use the smaller wing version on both. I am thinking that I will let my friend fly one as well. If the wing is replacable then I am not worried about breaking it.

Godsey3.0 wrote:Sorry, but I have trouble seeing that happen. Maybe a real hot Tee Dee. But I doubt mine. I have seen guys get nailed in the hand by much bigger engines and keep their fingers. Mine was being run on 15%. It is a rather rough looking Tee Dee. I have not run it much.

Hot TD With one of them Grey props should be able to take a finer of I'd say.
Or an APC, I've had some nasty bites in the past, gmark 03 with a grey 010 prop bit me to the bone on my index finger at 1/2 throttle I am sure a TD running full could do some real damage especially with a sharp prop like and APC.

The prop doesn't need to take your finger clear off to put a real damper on the fun.
https://i.imgur.com/LHS2C.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Qp6Jo.jpg
You can't be to safe.

Ouch. I saw a picture on the groups where a guy lost the tip of his thumb. He was running a big gas engine and the lines he had on his stand slackened up and got his thumb. He now has a tiny prosthetic for it. Just a cup to grab the remaining thumb and a dowel on the end.

Seeing that you decided to run a Black Widow or reedie on your first model is in my opinion a good idea. Phil designed the Hacker for the use of that engine. As years progressed and other engines became available he did make some changes. One neat thing about the plane is the fact that you can slide
the wing fore and aft if needed. If you can avoid adding weight to balance your far better off. If this means cutting out some of the fuse sides to get the wing to slide forward, I certainly would do so.

A Tee Dee weight in at basically 1.5 oz's while the black widow with the hex drive plate and spring starter set up weighs in at 2 oz. Although this doesn't sound like a lot, it makes a huge difference in the cg of this plane. It takes almost twice the nose weight to balance a tail heavy plane as opposed to a nose heavy plane. Moving the wing can help reduce the weight required, but it can also hurt the way the plane turns. A longer tail plane is going to turn tighter and faster than a short tailed plane.

I see the plans call for a ply pad on the elevator and hard piece of wood across the front of the stab. Although it does make for a sturdy stab, it isn't required and the plane will fly just fine without it. You also don't need the entire width of that stab. If you feel the plane is too tail heavy, you can trim 1/4" - 1/2" off of the stab to help with the balance. As I said, you can build this wing and fly the plane even if you placed clear packing tape on the fuse to wing joint. You can certainly decide how it flies best by sliding the wing around prior to gluing the wing in. Ken

If you haven't already done so, you can tighten the NVA with the needle swept back quite a bit. Almost touching the cylinder and there is still be enough room for the fuel line on the other side to clear the prop. This gives your fingers a little more clearance: miss is as good as a mile.

I actually just swept it back right after it hit me. My finger is better today. Kinda ugly. I lost feeling in part of it where I guess it hit a nerve.

I just learned something else that is new. The Space Hopper with the mount that was sent with it is actually a tiny bit shorter than an 8cc Bee. I have always been hesitant to use rotaries and the Hopper because I thought they were longer. Now I know. The Hopper may infact end up on one of the Hackers. Not the first flights. I will use a Bee and then remove the firewall and blind nut the Hopper on. I did something similar on my small Skyray. I took of its old firewall and epoxied on a new one so I can use a rubber band on mount. I intend to let my friend fly this one to try loops and such.

Rolla

Edit: Another positive note to the Space Hopper is that the NVA is behind the engine. So only pain is from hot exhaust!

I have another question. I have been online all day looking at different Control Line Combat websites. Of the ones that show after pictures there are a lot of broken planes. That does not concern me terribly. I guess it is rather expected. Especially with some of the engines people use. I was wondering, where do you attach the string the streamer is connected to? Also, how long is the string? How long is the streamer? What is the streamer made of? I have heard of some people using a table cloth. I think the rules call for "crepe" paper.

Rolla

Edit: I thought that I should add this video. Very neat mount. With how the plane flew I would say it was a success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHW5RvVOZc

Combat has different categories. You have officially recognized events like 1/2 A events, fast combat, F2D combat. You also have a non official event speed limit and GX combat. When flying combat, in the case of speed limit there are simple rules that apply. The plane can't exceed 75 mph. Gx combat flies a bit faster in the 80 mph range. For the most part other than some additional point scoring these two events are the same. The whole idea is to not crash and in the event either pilots keeps their planes in the air for the full duration of the match they're both equally awarded a considerable amount of points.

When you see planes crashed I would think that this would be more related to the aggressive flying usually with F2D. This can happen as well in 1/2A. You have the same rules in 1/2A as you do for fast which is known as the kill rule. You have to take the knot off of the string. Just because you took the entire streamer doesn't mean you won the match. In speed limit your to take cuts on the streamer and you get scored for a maximum of 3 cuts at 100 points per cut. Speed limit your also being scored for the time your in the air which is 1 point a second.

Having the kill rule can sometimes entice pilots to act more like Kamikaze pilots. The match can literally be over in seconds. If you fly your plane through your opponents taking off the tail hence the string, you won the match. F2D has rules that are constantly changing and can certainly become quite complicated.

We do have set lengths for streamers. I don't recall them off hand but I do know the length of the strings for larger planes are generally around 6 " long. A 1/2A plane can use around a 5' string and approx a arm and a half length of streamer. Many times no matter how unorthodox as it may sound the streamer can be tied to the control horn. I've done this but I certainly don't advocate it. Many planes currently use arrow shafts and the string can be tied around it. F2D planes have actually hooks they tie they're streamers to. Older design built up models would have a hole drilled in a tail boom for instance to tie a streamer. In the case of the Hacker, you should have room directly behind the trailing edge of the wing and the fuse.

My son and I fly 1/2 A frequently. We use either crepe paper or vinyl table cloth material cut into 1 1/2" strips. Crepe paper quickly degrades and can fall apart just from twisting and flying in the wind as small pieces start to shred off.This makes vinyl the better choice. We don't fly the kill rule when we have a match but rather the same way speed limit is flown. For the most part it really is a game of chase following for the most part which is easier than it looks. Ken

Ok. So I will get 5' of string and attach it to the body in front of the elevator. At the end of that I will have a streamer of some sorts. I have a big roll of a vinyl type streamer. I do not know if it is too thick or not.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/2011-2012CLCombat1.pdf

Thank you for posting the AMA rules on the events. Although these rulings are flown at the Nats, one thing that myself and others can agree on is the fact that the streamer needs to wider in 1/2A. The problem is the drag created by wider streamers. You need to have almost exact arm lengths and line lengths so that you can line up on your opponent for a prop cut. It's hard enough to hit a 2" streamer which by the way is readily visible, a 3/4" streamer is quite difficult to get a cut on.

While flying larger models like speed limit, you can even have a wing cut the streamer. Although this can happen in 1/2A it's certainly more likely to happen with the bigger planes. The real problem flyers are faced with is the string getting caught in the prop and getting wound in between the drivewasher and the case. For 1/2A use the lightest string possible to avoid this as you can crash both models. Another factor I didn't mention is to trim your model when you go to fly it with a streamer on it. A streamer can really calm down a plane that is sensitive to control inputs. For basic fun and messing around your certainly going to enjoy this especially if your friend can get one and fly as well. Ken

Oddly enough my two favorite things to watch are c/l combat and indoor microfilm models.

I've always been a 1/2A enthusiast. I can't even imagine two pilots using built up models in 1/2A combat as both models would more than likely end up broken. A simple line entanglement would directly result in problems. This isn't the case however using the Lil Hackers. They don't weigh enough to self destruct and they certainly can take some ground pounding punishment. This is indeed what needs to happen for a beginner pilot who needs to gain experience flying combat. It certainly doesn't arrive over night.

We all know how frustrating just getting one plane to run properly can be at times and these problems can be even more of a headache with two. The end result is when both planes are airborne, it can certainly give you a great deal of satisfaction without even beginning to mix things up in a match. Just flying with two in level flight , chasing your opponent in a figure 8 is really a cool sight and the streamers make it even more spectacular. Ken

That is why I wanted one of these. Something to bash around and save my good looking models for stunts.

Rolla

Just ran the Tee Dee. It did very well. I did one lean run and one slightly rich run. I noticed when it finally runs out of fuel it hits this real low speed run. It held that for a few seconds and then died. I definitely think this will go on one of the Hackers. Plus, the balloon has had fuel in it two days and has not completely rotted yet. But it will eventually.

Well, cannot get the Hacker. Shipping and "handling" is 15.50. I checked shipping on the link in their site and it was $5. I do not want to dump $50 into a foamie. I guess I will put it towards an engine and maybe wood.

lousyflyer wrote:The Lil hacker is basically a combat trainer. They come two in a kit.

That help?

I would still like to buy it but the money is just not there. Around $40 I was all for it. But they stacked on a $10 handling charge. I would do it if I knew it was what I really wanted to do. But I have not flown a Combat Wing and do not know if I like it. I am pretty sure I would. But not sure enough to put $50 into it. I would rather scratch build something else for less. I think I will do the Cheap Imitation. So the quest for a Combat plane is still on!

I have decided. I will build the Cheap Imitation. I enjoy scratch building and it is cheaper as well. The plans can be found here. I may build some of the others there as well. Regardless, I am gonna get a Combat Wing in the air.

Edit: Also, Corehouse told me that shipping would happen around 8/24/12. Possible on 8/2/12. But most likely on the later date. With a scratch build I can get done sooner.