SMALLnet post346

...Recently I found myself in need of some basswood sheet for a "special model project". I was quite surprised to learn that bass- wood isn't available from either Sig or Midwest any more. Further investigation turned up the apparent fact that there's only ONE current source of model-airplane-sized basswood in the USA.

Source: Basswood

Vendor: Joe Deppe

That's Joe Deppe, Box 135, Bolton Landing, New York 12314 --- (518) 644-9465. I spoke with Joe on the phone, and he sent me a copy of his price list. That's not easy to interpret -- but what it amounts to is that ALL the wood Joe cuts is "to order"; and he maintains "metal-machining tolerances". That means you can specify your wood dimensions EXACTLY as you want them.

Joe sent me a few samples of his production, and the wood is as smooth as if it was sanded with 360-grit paper. He cuts sheet basswood as thin as .010 and as thick as 1 inch -- lengths as long as six feet too. A typical price is $1.50 for a sheet 1/32" X 2" X 28".

Joe said that there's a lot of demand for his precision-cut basswood, and there's usually a waiting time of 3 or more weeks per order.

I like basswood better for modeling purposes than spruce. I've found it more uniform, more resistant to sudden snapping, and about the same weight. By the way, in the Good Old Days, basswood was what Jasco used for the booms and other hardwood parts of their famous "Thermic" gliders. [JW]

The weather looked like it was going to play a big factor in our weekend, as Saturday produced overcast skies and winds from the South/Southwest about 8 to 15 mph with gusts nearing 20.

Sunday morning we awoke to strong winds, and rain started about 7:30 AM and continued until about 10 AM, at which time the general consensus was "LET'S FLY", which we did until about 3 PM.

By that time, the winds were really howling and I decided to wrap things up. The weather had some effect on attendance, but all in all I would say it was a successful week-end.

We had forty-five registered pilots and approximately 150 aircraft ranging from an Albatross to several Zagi's. There were several innovative aircraft and some very nice conversions of IC-powered craft, including a Sig Somethin' Extra and an Ace Sundancer.

I've heard it mentioned that the trend in electrics is towards smaller models, and this was quite evident this year. Scott Christiansen of Sig was on hand and had a prototype of the new Rascal. What a gorgeous little bird.

E-FLI-OWA is very informal. There are NO competitive events, no PA system; you fly when your pin is available. It's a "have a good time" type of gathering. Buy, sell, trade or just hang around and ask questions is the order of the day.

A HUGE thank you to the Davenport R/C Society for allowing us to use their flying site for the week-end. It's located on a sod farm and is truly an outstanding facility.

A newcomer to our flying site is Graham. He's into electrics, small of course, and his description of the Pibros flying wing and a material called Depron led me to a fascinating browsing experience about SMALL flying in Europe and Scandinavia.

I've just come away from 3 hours of happy browsing and watching movie clips. (Use Copernic2000 search engine and just type in "Depron". You will be treated to a bunch of fun stuff.)

I've been a wet flyer all my life. The last few hours have inspired me to consider micro-electric flying. Would you believe someone has electrified, and R/C'd a Hacker Tiger Moth (26" span) and then had the gall to put floats on it and THEN proceeded to have a blast of fun with it? There otta be a law.

So now I've got yet another project to consider for this winter. Good thing the winters are long.

Depron, by the way, is like foamboard without the paper skins. It's the same stuff that meat trays are made of, but it's also used as a flooring underlay in Europe and is available in large sheets in 3mm and 5mm thicknesses. It's available from Peck Polymers. One site describes how a foam EDF Lear Jet was made using this material. The builder actually re-moulds the material into complex compound forms to make the fuselage.

The Pibros is a Delta flying wing that has acquired something of a cult following, originating as a slope combat ship and then getting electrified and glow powered.

That prop Al Lidberg found way down south of Phoenix was used on one of Nikko's airplanes. They made several, and they were sold through toy stores and department stores. The motor was probably a model 1906, which had a nice gear system to swing that prop.

Now, the thing to do is go back down there and talk that clerk out of the motor system. It was every bit as good as a Speed 280, maybe even a little better!

I would just like to report on my latest ARF project. I was very well satisfied with Norvel's new low-wing 4-channel plane called the U Can 2. The little plane has been flying in a fairly stiff breeze and has been handling it very well.

The .074 engine has been a real pleasure and has lots of power for this plane. I have found it has to be throttled back to 1/3 for typical flying. I do not hand launch it; I take it off the runway at 1/2 throttle -- any more will spin it. It rolls great with the ailerons, and really excels at inverted flight.

I think this is a great combination. It is not a small under-powered pussy cat; it really stands up favorably to the bigger guys. I think you SMALLsters should give this one a second look.

One word of caution: My plane did not fly well right out of the box, because it had a small wing warp. It did not do well until the wing was straightened.

Plans are done for my new "WINGlite" electric indoor/outdoor flyer. 34 inch span tail-less, geared Dymond Max 1 motor, HS-50 servos, Dymond 05 ESC, 8 cell, 110 NiMH battery pack, 5.5 ounce RTF weight. Plans can be ordered by mail -- E-mail me for details, if interested...

Bob Stought < > responds to Joe Papasso's query about an Ace Pulse Commander system that doesn't work right:

Suggestion: try replacing the receiver with most any of the cheap toy car (under $10) 27 MHz R/C car receivers which go forward with signal on and reverse when there is no signal.

Enjoyed Steve Morris's review of the Enya .06 glow. I recently got an Enya .06 diesel from Enya UK (and paid far too much for it, 58 Pounds Sterling, including shipping -- but I was really curious about Enya's only diesel). Apparently, the glow and diesel versions are alike except for the head.

And the clamshell muffler is really klunky, with the barrel-like chamber behind the cylinder, oriented side-to-side. This makes these engines difficult to mount on most any airplane. One must hog out some sort of a passageway through the nose of the plane behind the engine. I must admit that this does appeal to my perverse sense of aesthetics. The klunky engine-and-muffler will look like an aluminum fungus intergrown with the nose of the airplane. Anyway, I have not yet run the diesel enough to say anything much about it. Just ten runs of a minute each with low compression and rich needle, to begin breaking-in the iron piston and steel cylinder.

I will report more later, if anyone is interested. Actually, I will report even if nobody is interested.

And I will get an Enya .06 glow version too. From what Steve says and from Enya's inclination with their old TV series to make engines that are mildly tuned, I suspect that the .06 glow may be just what I am looking for. I think that Ed Stevens is doing a great job with Norvel, but he knows what most guys want, which is high rpm's and lots of power.

For myself, however, I remember with affection the little half-A engines that were user friendly, like the K&B Infants. They started easily and ran reliably month in and month out. The hot engines, like the Atwood Wasps, could be finicky and frustrating.

To me, Norvel .049's and .061's are a big improvement over Cox Tee Dees, but I personally prefer engines with milder porting and smaller venturis. I have yet to find a totally relaxed, friendly, and loyal 1cc-sized R/C glow engine. That is, until now. Maybe the Enya is it!

All right, Joe! I think I know what you are about to add by way of experienced editorial comment: If you guys really want relaxed, friendly, and loyal little engines, stick with DIESELS!

To which I can only respond that I have more little diesels than little glow engines for good reason... Besides, in the case of the Enya .06's, the diesel is more aesthetically perverse. This aluminum nose fungus will exude copious castor slime!

Sorry, can't be done. I made sure that engine had every possible modification as seen at the Nats. You just need to break it in very carefully (otherwise the top of the piston will fall off!), then find the best prop for your model. You might add a rev or two by shimming the cylinder and playing with the number of gaskets under the head, but be sure to verify that with a tach, as you are only bringing the engine to its design setting (there are manufacturing tolerances, after all).

All Venoms were produced before E*tes took over C*x, so they are the best we knew how to produce. There were only about 1000 of the engines made, but you can make your own as follows:

Old! Tee Dee .049 piston and cylinder (not quite as good, since the piston is heavier, but the top should stay on)

Davis Diesel replacement crankshaft or an original Killer Bee crankshaft (not the ones they use now, which are stock RTF ones)

Any of the tanks you like with the venturi and backplate drilled out to .081" diameter.

High-compression head, but play with gaskets (probably 2 or 3, depending on your nitro level)

The Tee Dee cylinder and piston give you the go, the Davis Crank lets it live. The stock rtf C*x cranks are too brittle. Rumor has it that baking them to anneal some of the hardness out will allow them to stand the high rpm, but I never got around to trying it.

I like to polish my cranks with 1000 grit wet-or-dry paper soaked with oil. I chuck a headless 5x40 screw into my drill press, set it on the lowest speed, screw on the crank, then wrap the paper around the crank, and polish it until it looks like chrome. This is before ever running the crank in the case.

Do NOT lap the crank to the case! that will break down that lovely wear-resistant hard-anodized coating (heard of "Ceramkote" cylinders? Guess what that is.). If the crank is still tight, keep polishing it, not the case.

The remaining difference in time between you and a Nats winner is in the pit stop technique and the model design.

...I tried the "oven-baked stress relief" technique with some C*x shafts a few years ago. It didn't help. Evidently the brittleness is irreversible; the result of case-hardening changing the crystal- line structure of the metal. [JW]

Thanks to SMALLsters for all the well-intended recommendations. After trading e-mail with Todd Long of < toddsmodels.com >, I have resigned myself to the fact that e-power for 200-square-inch R/C scale models is currently impractical.

Todd says that my estimated 12-14 ounce all-up weight is nearly twice as much as will fly well with 200 squares. I hefted a pound of butter and remembered how light my TD.020 with Ace single-channel pulse gear felt, and am convinced he is right.

I think that, for now, I will enjoy more standard 300-square-inch and larger Speed 400 designs with my somewhat heavy subminiature R/C gear. I will also invest in a PAW .03 R/C diesel for the Flyline kits. We in Orange County have no nearby wet flying sites since closure of Mile Square Park and El Toro Air Station. All schoolyards have signs forbidding flying of model planes. I can probably sneak off some quieter diesel flights before being thrown in the Hoosegow.

So as a general rule of thumb, with a 200 square inch wing, all-up weight should not exceed 6 or 7 ounces for decent e-powered flying, given state-of-the-art motor/gear/prop/R/C/battery systems.

There is an old saying: be careful what you ask for --- you just might get it!! In the last SMALLnet Posting I asked for advice on how to go about selling off some of the kits which I had lost interest in -- and, to say the least, the response was overwhelming!

I received so many replies that I can't possibly answer them all. I just want to say "Thanks" to everyone who responded! I think the general consensus was that E-bay would be the best way to go, although I need to investigate the "hows" and "what fors" involved in this venue. At least it should be a learning experience!

...A few SMALLsters also submitted E-bay selling advice to SMALLnet. Some of that was quite comprehensive and well-presented. But I don't think that kind of information's sufficiently relevant to SMALL's purposes: the design, construction, and flying of sport- type model airplanes with modest power... [JW]

Thanks much for publishing the notice of our upcoming Small Steps Fly-In. We could get a decent turnout if the weather cooperates.

Your publicity help is valuable and I sure do appreciate it. I will miss the much more comprehensive (hate to use the term "big") fly-in at Seagoville as I will be in Florida at that time. Otherwise, I'd be there. I'd also like to thank you for all the effort that you put into the newsletters. Best regards, Phil Oestricher

I had a chance to go to the Field today, packing my funfly ship with the P.A.W. .09. I had reset the engine thrust line 3 degrees to starboard per your suggestion, and was set for some good flying.

While fighting the engine's desire to quit right after starting, the prop came loose (again), and I stripped the prop nut (again), which killed the flying session. On the way home I stopped at a hardware store and bought a couple of 6x1 mm nuts -- which are worthless, as were the original nut, the Enya nuts, and the TR-3 nut that I was using. I will now contact Eric Clutton in hopes of getting something that will work. My frustration leads me to believe I now know why most English auto companies have gone bust, and why the Concorde should have been grounded a decade ago!

The weather here is perfect for flying (note the frustration above), and tomorrow I hope to join some C/L guys in another county where I'll wring out a Ring Master, Jr. with a Fox .15, and a Dumas Crusader with a Fox 29X. Len

...I should have mentioned to Len earlier that although the shaft threads on the PAW .09 SEEM like they're a metric size, they're not. The thread is a British Standard (BS), which I found out the same way Len did. Eric Clutton has the correct PAW prop nuts -- but those are evidently of "commercial quality" rather than high- precision. For one of my own PAW .09 projects I had to obtain a British Standard tap of the proper size (not cheap!) and make some prop nuts of my own in order to get PRECISION-fitting propeller retention.

In fact, the most likely reason for Len's having running reliability problems with his PAW .09 is a loose prop. For any model engine to run dependably, propeller slippage MUST be eliminated -- and diesels seem more sensitive to even slightly loose props than glows or sparkers. [JW]

SMALLnet Posting post346