Dug this plane out of the shed

Thanks Jeff, I've always loved Tripes and Bipes!!

Kim, This airplane is tail-heavy. The 1st time I flew it.. I almost lost it, and flew 2+ minutes with the model wildly porpoising  ...  The second time, I put a Cox "Sandblaster" type heatsink on the glowhead for more nose-weight.

I can't remember if I had flown it yet in the last photo (1993?) where the engine is mounted... but the gear-wheels in that photo weighed next to nothing. I got them at a craft store and wished I had bought more of them.



The large pair were on the triplane.. and were the largest of four diff. sizes. I cut and painted cardstock hub caps for them. They were all Tin-sheet spoked.. with a metal tube axle and black plastic tubing tires. The smallest were 3/4".. which is what I used for the tail-wheel.



The model now has a pair of HEAVY 1-3/8" dia."Perfect" streamlined wheels on it. I can't remember if I flew it with those on there. The firewall was sized for a horseshoe backplate.. so I may enlarge it with a 1/16" ply plate and put a Golden Bee on it. Either way it's too heavy to try stunts with a reed valve engine... but at least I can move the CG back by doing that and losing the external tank.

I bet a heavier Golden Bee or a Widow would help things along. See int as it's not overly stuntable like you mentioned then that would be a perfect engine choice.

Looks very similar to the Sterling Eindecker.

Cribbs74 wrote:I bet a heavier Golden Bee or a Widow would help things along. See int as it's not overly stuntable like you mentioned then that would be a perfect engine choice.

Looks very similar to the Sterling Eindecker.

I weighed it up with a prod. engine last night (and those HEAVY wheels..   ) and got 7.95 ounces!   The flaps probably weren't a good idea either. Fact is... the top and bottom wing's flaps are joined with .050 music wire.   (not one of my more brilliant designs...) They were originally going to be linked to the middle wing's flap, but I never followed through with that. I should remove them, because there's a lot of excess weight in those joiner wires and although the Sig easy-hinges are fairly stiff, the surfaces probably "flutter" in flight.

They look the part, maybe you can just make them fixed and lose all the linkage, but retain the same appearance.

Cribbs74 wrote:They look the part, maybe you can just make them fixed and lose all the linkage, but retain the same appearance.

I just cut those flaps off, and put the old wheels back on. I'll make-up a larger 1/16" ply firewall-plate and put a Babe Bee on it.

The weight with a Babe Bee on the scale with the plane and lighter wheels is the same, at 7.95 ounces.. but losing those 2 long music-wire flap joiners and having a heavier/more forward engine, should make a big difference.

Nice, very nice. Great job.

pretty cool Roddie!