cardboard wing on baby ringmaster

akjgardner wrote:      This was not balanced so I added landing gear  . All Ready for the upcoming family fly in

Joe, That's a cool-looking little airplane! Do you have weights for either of these models? There's a trick you could try, for flying that Babe Bee inverted without losing fuel out of the vents..



If you don't have a "Tee-fitting".. just slit a notch into the center of the tubing that connects the two vents.

Thanks Roddie, the ringmaster weighs in at 7.1 oz the stunt man 8.4 oz. In comparison a cox p4-40 ..9oz...cox pt19...10.1 oz...cox stuka 11oz Nice little trick with the tee fitting.Is that a 1959 babe bee its on?...I'm not ready for too many inverted flights yet....I built these two to get me used to flying in circles again. Actualy I did get a loop in with the ringmster. It flys pretty well for having a cardboard wing.I have not flown the stuntman yet.My next attemp will be a p-40 built the same way.

I totally understand Joe. I plan on doing "roundy-rounds" until I get back used to flying again.

I don't know what year that Babe Bee is in my photo. None of my older Cox engines have had their parts kept together.

almost finished with another cardboard wing stuntman, this one has the dryer sheet elevator hinge. flyi ng it tomarrow at the first annual Gardner Family Flyin.

The plane does look cool. Chuck Felton whom has posted several build articles over the years in the now defunct Flying Models mag works exclusively using cardboard. Take a peek at some of the larger cardboard models in the C/L section. Outstanding stuff and neat techniques. http://www.feltondesignanddata.com/

Ken Cook wrote:                     The plane does look cool. Chuck Felton whom has posted several build articles over the years in the now defunct Flying Models mag works exclusively using cardboard. Take a peek at some of the larger cardboard models in the C/L section. Outstanding stuff and neat techniques. http://www.feltondesignanddata.com/

Thanks Ken, I'll check it out

Joe , The Stuntman Looks Great !! Bee waiting on the flight report , You make the cardboard look so much like wood its really cool ! What are you using for paint /color ?

getback wrote:Joe , The Stuntman Looks Great !! Bee waiting on the flight report , You make the cardboard look so much like wood its really cool ! What are you using for paint /color ?

Thanks Eric, I put 2 coats of polyurethane on the cardboard, the part that is a little different in color is where it had sigment glue on it. The white black and almond is Krylon. I will bee giving a big flight report this coming week. The kids are all coming over tomorrow and we will all be flying some control line and some RC,I have 4 rc ready to go and 6 control line. Should be a hoot

Joe, these are all really neat models!





Are you using any type of bearing/plate for where the bellcrank-screw passes through your cardboard wings? I'd wondered about this before, but forgot to ask. If the screw isn't supported, it could pull-through the cardboard from a hard-yank on the lines.. which might jam your controls. At this stage in the game (models finished..) even small pieces (patches) of fiberglass-screen glued-over the screw-holes top/bottom would provide more "tear-out" protection than the cardboard would alone. Poking pinholes into the cardboard to accept "thick" glue, will further help the screen to adhere without doing any major-surgery. Treating the screw-hole itself to a few drops of thin CA-glue might also strengthen it by wicking into the surrounding material/corrugations. I apologize Joe, if you've already taken the necessary precautions.. but you know me..  

Your latest Stuntman-23 is my personal-favorite! The nose/cheek-blocks are beautifully faired-into the fuse and a good-way's back into the wing. The canopy looks nice too! I can't paint a canopy that looks like a canopy to save my life. I don't fit cheek-blocks to my designs because I reserve the area behind the firewall on my profile-models for running an external fuel-tank. I substitute plywood nose-doublers and vertically-oriented hardwood-blocks epoxied behind the firewall.. which provides a little extra-room for fitting a tank on a short-nosed profile-model.

I hope you have nice calm weather and all goes well for tomorrow!

roddie wrote:Joe, these are all really neat models!





Are you using any type of bearing/plate for where the bellcrank-screw passes through your cardboard wings? I'd wondered about this before, but forgot to ask. If the screw isn't supported, it could pull-through the cardboard from a hard-yank on the lines.. which might jam your controls. At this stage in the game (models finished..) even small pieces (patches) of fiberglass-screen glued-over the screw-holes top/bottom would provide more "tear-out" protection than the cardboard would alone. Poking pinholes into the cardboard to accept "thick" glue, will further help the screen to adhere without doing any major-surgery. Treating the screw-hole itself to a few drops of thin CA-glue might also strengthen it by wicking into the surrounding material/corrugations. I apologize Joe, if you've already taken the necessary precautions.. but you know me..  

Your latest Stuntman-23 is my personal-favorite! The nose/cheek-blocks are beautifully faired-into the fuse and a good-way's back into the wing. The canopy looks nice too! I can't paint a canopy that looks like a canopy to save my life. I don't fit cheek-blocks to my designs because I reserve the area behind the firewall on my profile-models for running an external fuel-tank. I substitute plywood nose-doublers and vertically-oriented hardwood-blocks epoxied behind the firewall.. which provides a little extra-room for fitting a tank on a short-nosed profile-model.

I hope you have nice calm weather and all goes well for tomorrow!

Thanks Rodie, Yes I have beefed up where the bellcrank goes into the wing, I took the pictures before i added the chunk of wood on top of the wings . I am looking foward to tomorrow. Its is supose to be nice and sunny

Awesome Joe! I'll be with you in spirit! I'll be curious to know how all the models fly.. and especially the two "Stuntmen"  

They're quite different dynamically from what I can see; in that the 1st-built model looks to have a similar airfoil to its experimental-predecessor Ringmaster and a 5cc fuel-tank.. where the 2nd-built Stuntman looks to have a flat-sheet wing.. and an 8cc tank.

It would be fun to set-up a "balloon-bust" for the C/L portion of your event tomorrow.. and/or set-up a 2nd handle/lines for a 2-plane combat match with crepe-paper streamers!

I built these all a little different to see what featurs I like. The ringmaster flew surprisingly well the other day.I'm anxious to see if the flat wing stuntman flys better then the v foil. As far as combat goes, This is the first time to fly for every one but my son, and he has yet to make it to 360...lol....maybe the next time...lol.

roddie wrote:Joe, these are all really neat models!





Are you using any type of bearing/plate for where the bellcrank-screw passes through your cardboard wings? I'd wondered about this before, but forgot to ask. If the screw isn't supported, it could pull-through the cardboard from a hard-yank on the lines.. which might jam your controls. At this stage in the game (models finished..) even small pieces (patches) of fiberglass-screen glued-over the screw-holes top/bottom would provide more "tear-out" protection than the cardboard would alone. Poking pinholes into the cardboard to accept "thick" glue, will further help the screen to adhere without doing any major-surgery. Treating the screw-hole itself to a few drops of thin CA-glue might also strengthen it by wicking into the surrounding material/corrugations. I apologize Joe, if you've already taken the necessary precautions.. but you know me..  

Your latest Stuntman-23 is my personal-favorite! The nose/cheek-blocks are beautifully faired-into the fuse and a good-way's back into the wing. The canopy looks nice too! I can't paint a canopy that looks like a canopy to save my life. I don't fit cheek-blocks to my designs because I reserve the area behind the firewall on my profile-models for running an external fuel-tank. I substitute plywood nose-doublers and vertically-oriented hardwood-blocks epoxied behind the firewall.. which provides a little extra-room for fitting a tank on a short-nosed profile-model.

I hope you have nice calm weather and all goes well for tomorrow!

I flew all three of today. the ringmaster flew the best then the v-foil stuntman then the other stuntman. My Son in law had so much fun , he was goin to go home and start building a couple

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your family-outing Joe!!  My children are grown now (late 20's/early 30's) but they remember when I used to fly my C/L models in the side-yard. They were toddlers then. There was a bow-window over-looking the small circle that I flew within. We need to get back there.. and I'm working on it.

Regarding your three C/L models.. would you say that the two "air-foiled" ones were more stable than the latest Stuntman having the flat-wing?

I've been wanting to do some experimenting with KFm-airfoils applied to "flat-sheet" wings.



It "could be" a relatively easy experiment.. by gluing strips of L/E stock to the flat-panels.. with symmetrically-stepped trailing-strips behind. (see the KFm-10 example)

There's a LOT of fun to be had with small C/L airplanes!

roddie wrote:I'm so glad that you enjoyed your family-outing Joe!!  My children are grown now (late 20's/early 30's) but they remember when I used to fly my C/L models in the side-yard. They were toddlers then. There was a bow-window over-looking the small circle that I flew within. We need to get back there.. and I'm working on it.

Regarding your three C/L models.. would you say that the two "air-foiled" ones were more stable than the latest Stuntman having the flat-wing?

I've been wanting to do some experimenting with KFm-airfoils applied to "flat-sheet" wings.



It "could be" a relatively easy experiment.. by gluing strips of L/E stock to the flat-panels.. with symmetrically-stepped trailing-strips behind. (see the KFm-10 example)

There's a LOT of fun to be had with small C/L airplanes!

Hey Roddie, the 2 with the v-foils did fly better, but the engine on the flat wing wasn't running too good and the might of been the problem, waitinfg on rebuild kits from Matt. I like your glue on airfoil idea alot. I'm going to have to work on that too.

The way I see it Joe.. there's always new-ground to be explored with flying-models. Every single one is unique! I'll be looking forward to your future reports!

roddie wrote:It "could be" a relatively easy experiment.. by gluing strips of L/E stock to the flat-panels.. with symmetrically-stepped trailing-strips behind. (see the KFm-10 example)

You can utilize the fold, say the corner of a box, to get your leading edge and then just glue in sheets at appropriate places for your various steps. That's how a lot of guys do it with the electric foamies built out of the 1/4" insulation. Where the bundle is folded, that makes a natural leading edge.

Guys , we’ve been flying the Klein Fogleman airfpil on our RC Foamies for many years now .. Should work great for CL, and very simple to make too ...

Interesting that the plane was ready in 2015 and first flown in 2017. I am not alone in this practise. The clear over the cardboard does look nice. I have made a few similar planes with the coroplast material. The 2mm is the lightest but hard to find. They fly ok but not great. I tried cardboard quite a few years ago after reading an old magazine plan from the 1960s called the Bamboozle, I used a tri wall cardboard which was much too heavy, then went to the coroplast which was new at the time.

There’s always Foam wings … We’be been discussing control line Foamies … at https://www.rcgroups.com/foamies-scratchbuilt-428/

Foamies are cool. I have some of the blue fanfold stuff burning a hole in my brain for the 1/2A stuff. Like the SPADs too. Foam is plastic, it rates.

A friend mentioned that polyurethane would make foam “fuelproof “ , or so the castor oil wouldn’t sink in … I recall Cox experimenting with foam wings some time ago … wasn’t it like a ME109 CL stunt plane ( ? )

Norvel had some flat foamies for a short time as well Used a curved cutout in the fuselage to make a wing airfoil. There was printed decorations on the foam. Not sure if it was paper or plastic.