My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

**RknRusty** Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:06 pm

It was a show and tell meeting and I took my Refried Bean skeleton with White Monokote covering the center and the engine and tail mounted and gave them a classic Rusty story to embellish it. I'm a public speaker by nature, so it spilled out pretty freely. Many of them perked up recalling their CL days and knew what the Jumping been was, some of them had seen me fly the other day. We went out to dinner and had a spirited conversation about CL. Jim, the club president said, Now you see what you've started, everybody is going to be digging out their old CL stuff and trying to fly it!

Okay, please help me identify this. I'm thinking Norvel .049. The tank means it has to be a Big Mig, not an AME(because AME will not run on suction), am I right? I think it's also an old Russian one because the muffler clip goes around the top of the crankcase under the insert and it has a silver colored prop driver. It's nice and stiff with castor goo, but no corrosion, the piston skirt is still shiny and clean looking through the exhaust port.
My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc... Norvel10

My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc... Norvel10

I'm thinking this may be better suited for the Refried Bean and the .061 can go on my "new" Baby Flite Streak.

I also got an ancient old looking Babe Bee and some nice clean perfect tanks and a bag full of other stuff. A Ringmaster of some size, kit I think, is coming my way, as is something called a stick of some sort. Damn. I think I got the club stamp of approval, cool huh!

Here's what the Bean looked like all spiffed up for the S&T:
My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc... Sam_2015

My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc... Sam_2015

Mark Boesen Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:57 pm

pretty cool Rusty!

At the end of the day, they're all model airplanes R/C, C/L, F/F, gas, electric, rubber, etc. each one is as neat as the other!

gcb Tue Nov 06, 2012 11:32 pm

RknRusty wrote: ...Okay, please help me identify this. I'm thinking Norvel .049. The tank means it has to be a Big Mig, not an AME(because AME will not run on suction), am I right? I think it's also an old Russian one because the muffler clip goes around the top of the crankcase under the insert and it has a silver colored prop driver. It's nice and stiff with castor goo, but no corrosion, the piston skirt is still shiny and clean looking through the exhaust port.

I think it is a Norvel Big Mig. With the head off check the intake ports. If it has three large transfer ports it is an AME. If it has five (if I remember correctly) smaller ones it is a Big Mig. The large dark fins means it is Revlite...aluminum with an hard anodized aluminum oxide coating.

BTW, the aluminum oxide coating is non-conductive so you can not use the clip type glow plug connector.

The tube coming out of the tank is usually connected to the muffler nipple with fuel tubing. This provides pressure. That's why the tubing faces the muffler. BTW, check if the fuel pickup is set up for CL. I had to bend mine.

George

andrew Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:19 am

As George noted, it is a Big Mig -- the swept back needle is indicative of a Big Mig. All AME's I've seen have the needle at 90 degrees to the crank -- if you have the head off, just count the intake ports (3 for AME; 5 for Big Mig). It is also possible to count the ports looking thru the exhaust port. The AME ports are oblong; the Big Mig ports are almost round. Two of the ports on the Big Mig are just about in-line with the crank.

It is also a .061 -- that's clearly seen stamped on the side of the case.

The turned thrust washer does indicate an earlier model; later Revlites had a cast washer.

**Cribbs74** Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:22 am

Cool Rusty, seems you have lucked out. If the Ringmaster is a Jr. You can fly it with a .09!

If it's a Baby your set too. An S-1 is worth a bit of money so it's a win/win no matter what. The stick is probably RC.

Makes me want to join a club!!!!!

Ron

**RknRusty** Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:07 am

andrew wrote:...It is also a .061 -- that's clearly seen stamped on the side of the case...

My mistake. I was comparing it to my other .061 which has "10" stamped on it, and 1.0cc=.061 cubic inches. But .61cc only equals .037 cubic inches. So, I made an assumption without doing the math and trusting Google images. It looks like I have two .061 Big Migs now. I was hoping it was an .049, but 0.8cc=.049 cubic inches. So I guess if the stamp was metric it would have "08" on it.

The pickup is set inside of a ring stamped in the back of the tank, in the lower right looking from behind, so that would be the CL position. However the tank is coming off as I'll be beam mounting the engine.

One last silly question: Jim pronounces Norvel like nor'-vl. I've always pronounced it nor-vel'. Who's saying it wrong? I hope it's him.

It's pretty stiff. I'll try not to ruin the gaskets getting it apart for a good cleaning.

andrew Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:51 pm

RknRusty wrote:One last silly question: Jim pronounces Norvel like nor'-vl. I've always pronounced it nor-vel'. Who's saying it wrong? I hope it's him.

Rusty --
You're correct. The engines were initially imported to meet the demand for high performance controlline engines in the combat competitions. Originally, they were sold under the umbrella "Northern Velocity". This was later shortened to NORVEL by Ed Stevens when he acquired the distribution rights (later sold to SIG).

andrew Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:58 pm

RknRusty wrote:
The pickup is set inside of a ring stamped in the back of the tank, in the lower right looking from behind, so that would be the CL position.

If you're talking about the small dimple where the tube terminates, it is indeed molded into the tank backplate. The larger ring (almost the diameter of the tank) is glued in. On older tanks, you may see some debris in the tank that looks like curved blades of dry grass. When I first saw that, I thought how the h**l did that grass get into the tank. It is actually some of the glue fillet that has flaked off the backplate seam.

The advantage of your tank is the airbleed. On many of the tanks, it was missing, so you had pull the fuel line when filling the tank to allow for bleed air and keep from flooding the engine, then hold it nose down to get it full.

gcb Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:03 pm

[quote="RknRusty"]

andrew wrote:The pickup is set inside of a ring stamped in the back of the tank, in the lower right looking from behind, so that would be the CL position. However the tank is coming off as I'll be beam mounting the engine.

Keep the tank. It can be used to break-in both NORVELs and TeeDee's.

One last silly question: Jim pronounces Norvel like nor'-vl. I've always pronounced it nor-vel'. Who's saying it wrong? I hope it's him.

NORVEL is an acronym for Northern Velocity, the company name of the importer before SIG.

It's pretty stiff. I'll try not to ruin the gaskets getting it apart for a good cleaning.

I would suggest squirting some fuel in it to free it up. If it is nearly new, sometimes they are hard to turn over until they have been run a few minutes.

It looks great...good luck with it.

George

**RknRusty** Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:00 pm

I saw that spring loaded air bleed. I thought that might be its purpose. I'll definitely keep it, hadn't thought of using it that way.

This one looks like it is probably broken in, just gunked and stiff. I'm familiar with the feel of a brand new one as my other one had never been run before I got it. I'll play with it tonight and see if I can loosen it up.

I'll take a look in the back and see how clean the internals are and make sure wet the internals and get some fuel down the drive tube. Maybe I can avoid taking it apart. I sure don't want to bust off any of the cylinder screws. I want to get some new longer hex screws to replace those on both engines in case that ever happens.

Thanks for the tips.

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My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...

Re: My first monthly club meeting...and a bag of CL goodies, Norvel, etc...