Great haul at the club meeting!

I just opened the super clown box to have a look. Is it just me or is there a rare bear in there  raring (pardon the pun) to get out?

No.  

Build it like it is...

Good to hear you pulled off a good haul.

JPvelo wrote:Central Arizona Control Line Club had a meeting and race today, with a sale of model stuff from an estate up in flagstaff. I came home with a thermal hopper, new in box fox .35, sig 1/2a staggerwing kit, super clown kit, 2 1/3 oz tank for the mongoose I'm building, sig 1/2a spring wheel retainers, and a Tee Dee .09 glow head. 95 bucks! May sell the hopper to finance the rest and buy the other fox. Also picked up  a huge stack of 1/2a plans, mostly Dick Sarpoulos but some built up stuff, for free.

A good day indeed!
Jim

Congratulations Jim!! and...... you got yet another Staggerwing!  What is the "other" Fox? Is it also a .35? I'm very curious about the Dick Sarpolus plans. All I have are copies of a few pages from a library book I took out 30 years ago. Mr. Sarpolus' book was one of my first influences to building balsa-wood control line models for my Cox engines!



I just noticed from the pic... he's a "lefty"..

Roddie,
This Staggerwing will be modified to a beam mount for Tee Dee/Norvel use.
The other fox is another 40th anniversary .35.

Tha Sarpolus plans are Blohm & Voss P.179, Cap 21, Eindecker, F 4U Corsair, Half A Nobler, Mig 15, F-86 Sabre, Junkers J.9, AT-6, P-51, Beech Bonanza, Mooney, Stephens Acro, Zlin Z-50L, T-28, and Spitfire. Also got a set of Barry Baxters 1/2a Stuka Stunt, a plan I've wanted for years.
I was pretty excited to find this:

I scratch built one of these for a black widow about twenty five years ago. I was so impressed with the way it flew in the first thirty seconds I got brave and tried an outside loop, something I hadn't done before. I put it straight into the pavement. Turned it into a pile of toothpicks on its maiden flight in front of my then wife, brother, and his wife. I think I need to build a new one and redeem myself.

Jim

Certainly looks worth building. Go for it!

JPvelo wrote:Roddie,
I was pretty excited to find this:

I scratch built one of these for a black widow about twenty five years ago. I was so impressed with the way it flew in the first thirty seconds I got brave and tried an outside loop, something I hadn't done before. I put it straight into the pavement. Turned it into a pile of toothpicks on its maiden flight in front of my then wife, brother, and his wife. I think I need to build a new one and redeem myself.

Jim

Oh man...  literally "Lil Bits".. crap... I can't imagine how that must have felt. Was it a tissue and dope covered wing.. or MonoKote? That's a nice little design. I can see how it could get real heavy for a reedie though.. especially with a 27" w/s. Do you have another Norvel you could build it for? I think you should definitely go for it!!

I believe the .010 model of this plane is known as the Wee One.

Roddie,

It was monokote. I think it could be built light enough for a reedie. Weight wasn't my problem though, it was what the NTSB refers to as "pilot error due to lack of experience and unfamiliarity with the aircraft".

JPvelo wrote:Roddie,

It was monokote. I think it could be built light enough for a reedie. Weight wasn't my problem though, it was what the NTSB refers to as "pilot error due to lack of experience and unfamiliarity with the aircraft".

That's a nice high-res image of the plan Jim... I've wanted to try building a full-fuse 1/2A stunter.. and this model has my attention. I'm surprised that "Ian" hasn't commented on it. He prefers a full-fuse model over a profile. I'm not sure how much he's into "scratch-building" though. I could see him building one for one of his beautiful little diesels!!

The funny thing about those engines and the people who have them.

Ian is practically an exception from the rest of the "Unique engine collector group" since he actually runs his! I don't know how these guys can do it, drop a thousand $$$ on a pretty little engine and then let it sit on the shelf and collect dust! If I had one, I'd for sure run it. And probably put it on a nice little RC warbird and fly it too! I understand that these are very unique, special, and expensive engines, but still. Who wouldn't want to run it? Why even handmake a working engine to not use it as an engine?

I am well into "scratch" building and balsa bashing, my preference is full fuselage but I struggle now with small aeroplanes.

Even though I run engines - it has been a rare event for me to fly (other than an electric equivalent) anything under 1.5 cc. The smallest control line I have flown is 0.8cc glow and a 0.5cc diesel - that was almost 50 years ago.

The smallest engine I have ever flown with was 0.05cc diesel and that was indoors (in the living room!).

I have quite a collection of small RC "Park Flyers" that I now have difficulty with. My eyesight is not good - glaucoma, loss of peripheral vision (1/3 in one eye and light sensitivity) - I find it is too easy for me to lose track of small models and they also require quite a speedy flight. The larger models I have can be slowed to walking pace giving me enough time to get my act together. For me to fly a small plane - no wind, no sunshine and no rain. That is a little restrictive! A larger plane handles the wind and my reactions a lot better.

I still haven't flown control line for many years but I now have two models ready and three under construction. The two that are ready - one is a .5 equiv and the other a 0.8 equiv. I keep finding excuses not to bite the bullet and launch but I do have concerns over the speed these will (eventually) fly at.

I look at all the 1/2 videos posted by our illustrious members and they seem to fly very fast! The two under contruction are 2.5cc equivs and one is a "35" equiv.

I do, though, understand why some collectors do not run their engines (let alone fly with them!). A rare treasured engine is usually irreplaceable and some of them are things of beauty. Prang a model - it can be replaced, rebuilt, repaired....... smash a thousand dollar engine and that would be an expensive disaster.

I have now built quite a few engines. All the engines I have built have been run but only a few of them have come up to the standard of commercial engines - either through weight or performance. The pleasure is building an engine that runs! Repairing engines is another story as it usually results in an improvement.

The Lil Bat would be ideal for a PAW .049 diesel or a Valentine Cox 049 diesel!