My Swap-Meet Ringmaster ! Smack Down!!!! The Resurrection Begins!!

Sweetness! I got the test stand assembled and painted ready to run. The nose of mine is still off, and a motor beam came out ( glad that happened now) The engine mounts properly but I haven't checked balance yet. Plugging away at it slowly.

Phil

pkrankow wrote:Sweetness! I got the test stand assembled and painted ready to run. The nose of mine is still off, and a motor beam came out ( glad that happened now) The engine mounts properly but I haven't checked balance yet. Plugging away at it slowly.

Phil

Soon enough Phil!!!! I hope it's everything you expected.

Kim.... So how did it fly from your perspective? Anything really good/bad?

cribbs74 wrote:

pkrankow wrote:Sweetness! I got the test stand assembled and painted ready to run. The nose of mine is still off, and a motor beam came out ( glad that happened now) The engine mounts properly but I haven't checked balance yet. Plugging away at it slowly.

Phil

Soon enough Phil!!!! I hope it's everything you expected.

Kim.... So how did it fly from your perspective? Anything really good/bad?

Good deal Phil !! Looks like 2013 is gonna be the Year of the Ringmaster !!!

Yeah Ron...it's a hard-pulling sucker. It stayed out, tight on the lines through insides and outsides, with no roll in either direction when pulled hard. I DO think it could use a bigger tank, but I'll live with it for now.

The elevator throw might be a bit too much, but it could also have been a case of nerves on my part. In the last of the outside loops that begin at 1:50 in the video, I pulled in full-down and the Ringmaster cranked around almost like a combat wing, with plenty of speed and line tension all the way through.

I also need to try a bit harder to get a good 4-2-4 from the old Fox, as the thing REALLY wound up tight in it's dive. Need some more flying!!!

Yeah, it sounded a little lean to start although you have waaaaaaay more experience than me with these things.

I use a 4oz tank with mine, not sure how long it runs, but I know I am ready for it to stop when the engine finally quits.

Mine has like 25 degreess of deflection and I can still stall it out in the loops.

WOW! Very nice Kim.

I like the photo of handle w/ Ringmaster.

Your lap times looked about right (appx. 5 sec. per lap/60') i don't think you were far off on the needle. I think the 2-4-2 or 4-2-4 (lol) gets a little too much emphasis (much like sub-port induction) i'd take line tension any day.

Remember the older stunt ships w/ thin airfoil flew a little faster.

Post cribbs74 Yesterday at 10:16 pm

Yeah, it sounded a little lean to start although you have waaaaaaay more experience than me with these things.

I use a 4oz tank with mine, not sure how long it runs, but I know I am ready for it to stop when the engine finally quits.

Mine has like 25 degreess of deflection and I can still stall it out in the loops.


I was wary of that big elevator cranking it around also, but it just flew on through the turns as far as I dared to push it. I do need to check the tank size, just for info sake. In the unedited videos, I'm getting about 3 1/2 minutes on each run. This is probably going to be fine as I'll never compete with it, and so won't need the time to do the whole A.M.A. Pattern....just some Redneck flip-flopping! I cannot imagine someone flying an hourglass with it! ...a long, 60 degree, inverted dive with a pull-out to upright / level at 4 feet? Whew! I'd need dive brakes!

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Post Mark Boesen Yesterday at 11:44 pm

WOW! Very nice Kim.

I like the photo of handle w/ Ringmaster.

Your lap times looked about right (appx. 5 sec. per lap/60') i don't think you were far off on the needle. I think the 2-4-2 or 4-2-4 (lol) gets a little too much emphasis (much like sub-port induction) i'd take line tension any day.

Remember the older stunt ships w/ thin airfoil flew a little faster.



Thanks Mark!

Yeah, you're right...(I never thought to time the laps!)...and I think some of it was the mental conversion back to .35-powered planes from my .049'rs. Big Otto was going at what seemed liked Mach 1 with hardly any pull, and then I get hold of this thing, and quickly remember how my skinny teenager arms ached by the time Wayne's Ringmaster used up it's fuel.

It IS good to have that steady tension all the way around and over the circle !

hmmm....

I think I am going to end up nose heavy. I bolted the engine in solid to glue the beam back in properly aligned, stuck the muffler on and without the nose and fuel tank it balances where it should, on the front lead out... Should I worry?

I was considering a sludge hole in the bottom of the cowl blocking. Considering it more now. An extra coat of paint will make the tail heavier than the nose due to simple area. Maybe it will work out OK.

I need to volume the fuel tank. I think it is a 3 oz or so, but will fill it with my measuring syringe and make sure. I am OK with short but adequate flight time.

I think I'll hang it back up and leave it till next week with the engine on it and then get back to it.

Phil

I think all Ringmasters build a little nose heavy. I would just finish it out and see where things sit. While I don't have a Super Ringmaster, I ended up adding 1/2oz to the tail of my S-1 to even things up.

If it were me I would drill a sludge hole. Even if it's fuel proof where is it going to go? Can't wait to hear about your maiden!!!

In general, all Sterling kits build heavy. The profile fuselage wood was Louisville Slugger blanks. Realize that die cutting was the only productive process in repetitious cutting. The problem occurs when you cut soft balsa you achieve die crushing instead of die cutting. When the dies started to deform or become dull, the harder c-grain wood would ultimately cut better. At least for the sake of argument it would cut or mark the wood even if it didn't cut through it entirely. All the soft preferable material was discarded. The Sterling Ringmaster leading edge material in my opinion really was the backbone of their kits as this was the strength.

I have to agree with Ron as they build nose heavy. I've built at least a dozen Ringmaster's and 2 of them out of the box actually built correctly. These were my best performers and I was a little upset when I lost them. A common practice for me was to thin the fuse down to 3/16" to the rear. I stopped doing that to try and keep some weight in the rear and give it some strength. I've gone with 1/16" ply doublers on the nose or 3/32. Keep in mind not all ply is created equal and don't even think of using Lite ply as it just crushes. Sig was notorious for providing Lite ply in their kits and these pieces are just templates for me now. Phil however has a full bodied Ring so none of this applies.

I also wanted to add I found the original decal for the Super Ringmaster. It was just sent to me via e-mail and I could certainly pass it on. Ken

Yeah Ken, Could you post a scan of the decal?

Thanks !

Kim, I looked for it this morning and couldn't find it. I requested my friend Larry to resend me the e-mail which had the decal. He will try and do this tonight. It really is quite neat. Ken

I look forward to seeing it too.

Phil

My friend Larry sent the photo once again. I hope I was able to extract this properly to get it into an image. Enjoy I think it looks pretty cool. The decals were always the best part of the model. Ken

I might have to now...I wonder what decal film costs and if the office store will run it through their printer (I refuse to print color at home)

Phil

Phil,

There are a few sellers of decal paper on the Bay. Cost is about $10

I am sure your local office supply would print it in color for you.

Ron

As you can see, my baby took a pounding! The Saving Grace was that the wing structure is still sound, with stress cracks running down the fuse. Already laying on coats of clear dope over the patches..."Patches"...which I've decided to name the old dog!
Ordered a new decal from Brodaks, and a few bits of hardware. Gonna cut the engine mounting beams next, and then start working on the rest of the puzzle !







I've got an ancient partial kit which still has the nose blocks and some stray parts present in case I can't acceptably bond the busted stuff back to their former glory!



Poor "Big Otto"and my Uncle's "Buster" once again got shoved to the side to make room for another patient's recovery !!!

The nose of mine is still open if you need some measurements. I have most of it glued back together though, but the joints are obvious.

Phil

Thanks Phil,

All the chunks actually fit back together, so I've got their dimensions. Also, my old partial kit still has the blanks from the ply parts being punched out, so I've got patterns of the really massacred pieces.

Appreciate it though !

I got paint on my repairs today (Finally!). I masked the wings, which were (ahem) covered and finished. It rained, but the paint had already flashed dry so the paint was OK. When I pulled the mask the film came off the inboard wing root top and bottom. It is looking good otherwise. I have enough red to repair the wing, but not to recover the wing entirely.

Kinda sad. Slightly upset...

Still need to re-do the yellow trim on the stab, but that will wait a couple days so the red gets good and hard. It will also involve a fresh roll of 3M blue tape because this green "frog tape" sucks with rattle can paint (it is meant for latex paints), and when it gets rained on it won't let go of shrink film.

I should post some pictures, but I don't feel like fighting with my phone right now.

Phil

OK, paint is done. Engine broke in. Wings fixed. Near flying trim, must balance prop properly.

The muffler makes it quite nose heavy balancing between the LE and the lead out. I am OK with this for the maiden flight, should be predictable...

I broke the engine in on an old 10x? topflight prop, this is a new master airscrew in 10x6. This prop size is recommended by Fox for the engine, a Fox 35 Stunt.

I have a half-sheet of linoleum on lauan that I plan to cut into two 2 ft x 4 ft strips and put the brodak stooge mechanism onto.

Phil

Sounds Great!  Put some photos of that bad boy on here if you get the chance. I got to drag mine back to the bench and finish it up !

Missed a pic
Phil

Far Out! I just completed my Super Ringmaster, and it's truely maiden flight should be on Sunday. Check out the Purple Plane Factory post to see it. I have not built a profile Ringmaster of the .35 size-but I do have a Baby Ringmaster, and I have flown a Junior size. Now, all we need is an Imperial! If you are interested, I'll post a note about the performance mine has, and we can compare stuff...