Steve Polles announces:

Email me if interested. Steve

Chip Kietzmann <  > offers:

|Cox, Collection sale| I ran across MOABO (Mother Of All Buying Opportunities) the other day and bought out a Cox collector. I now have a bunch of pre-Estes Cox engines for sale. All are new in the box.

I have: Babe Bee .049's @ $25; Black Widow .049's @ $35; Texaco .049's @ $35; and Killer Bee .049's @ $40.

I also have some rare ones: 2 - Venom's; 1 - Tee Dee .020; 3 - .099 Medallions; 1 - Golden Bee, and more. You can Email me here, or at <  >. I do have pictures. On the rare engines make me an offer I can't refuse.

Thanks, Chip

Roy Clough <  > writes:

I had great luck with the .045 Baby Spitfire, including a cabin model I designed for a young club member. This was a super- simple model with a FLAT wing section. Speed and climb were quite astonishing, but the glide was of such a nature that one didn't have to worry that the plane might get too far away after the engine stopped.

Reading about iron-on film over foam wings brought several things to mind. I've never had any problems with low-temp over blue or pink foam, but in the past haven't always been lucky ironing over white bubble foam.

Recently I decided to use one of a pair of donated (Ace??) white foam wings on my new sheet foam sport design. I thought about it first and came up with this method:

First I sanded and trimmed mold marks and replaced a divot in the leading edge. Then I trimmed the trailing edge with a steel straightedge and glued on a 3/16 dowel. (I always harden foam wing trailing edges with either a dowel or TE stock.)

Then I painted on a coat of Elmer's glue with 50/50 water, let it dry and lightly sanded it. After a wipe-down with a tack cloth I cut a piece of Econocote that would wrap around one half of the wing, so that when pulled tight, about 3/8" to 1/2" stuck out over the TE.

Now, doing the job as accurately as possible (that is, smoothing ripples) I ironed the underside covering to the TE dowel and trimmed and sealed it flush. Then I pulled it tight up and around the leading edge. Tugging and smoothing all the way, I worked the top covering back to the trailing edge and sealed and trimmed it in place.

Now I had half of the wing in a somewhat loose bag of Econocote.

The next step was to use the heat gun on it, both sides, to snug up the bag. One trick to shrinking Econocote (and, I suspect, several other films) is not to hold the gun on any area until it completely tightens into place. (Overheating it can hole it.)

Move the gun around as soon as the film shows any softening -- it will continue to snug down; repeat until entire surface is tight.

Now with the wing half snugly bagged, I set my sealing iron very low and went over both sides of the wing to bond the covering to the foam. This is important to take advantage of the added strength imparted by the covering. It's quite easy to see if the film is really bonding to the foam by the change in the surface texture.

Second half of the wing received the same treatment. What I got, for much less trouble than balsa or obeche sheeting beneath fabric or whatever, was a lightweight bright orange, glass-smooth "generic" 4-foot wing, perfect for my new sport model. How does this compare with other guys' technique?

Also: I have been gathering together a lot of the stuff I've done in the past, on the possibility that I might do a book of the best of my many designs at some time in the future. I have a pretty good archive, but a few of my published model articles are missing. Maybe, in our wide circle of model airplaners, somebody has a clue as to where I can get copies of the magazines which have these articles in them.

1. Going all the way back to '46-48 I did a "Roadable Plane" model for Popular Science. I've seen the published article, but the magazine has disappeared from my files. Anybody remember it? It was a rubber-powered model, with separate power for the wing- tail unit and the car body.

2. An early article about a "Flying Barrel" or "Coleopter" that may have been published in Air Trails or Model Airplane News in the late 1940s or early 50s.

3. Popular Science, early 1960s, Gyroplane kite. (I have a copy of the article I did for Science & Mechanics.)

4. Sold to Popular Mechanics in June 1963, publication date unknown, a "Harlequin" paper glider of around 6 foot span, made almost entirely of a few balsa spars and kindergarten construction paper in the stressed-skin mode.

5. "Foilplane": It looks like a short length of symmetrical wing with a top-mounted .049. This was a FF model. It was sold to Popular Mechanics in April 1967 and published sometime afterward, because I have seen the article, but no longer have the issue.

6. Sold to Popular Mechanics in September 1968, Giant Control Line model from corrugated cardboard. Publication date unknown. I do have a couple of crude photos of this.

7. In July or August 1954 I sold a construction article to Boy's Life Magazine about a Mills Diesel model plane that flew for well over an hour on one fueling. No idea what happened to the story, but the theme of it was having contests to see how long one could keep a control line model, of a specific size, (under .09) aloft on the maximum amount of fuel it could haul into the air.

   Hey, that still seems like a fun, but a team project. No one guy has that strong a bladder.

Non-aircraft: A model boat driven by vapor pressure in an early PM or PS. Also, published in Popular Mechanics in early 60's, a table centerpiece of an operating mill and water wheel, with ducks in the mill pond! I have seen the published article, but lost track of the magazine issue; early 1960's.

Thanks, Roy C.

Eric Clutton <  > wrote:

Regarding Dave Larkin's memories of single channel R/C in UK, I was also a pioneer of this, my most successful design being SHARKFACE, which I think is still available as a plan.

My system was to have an OVER-elevated set-up so the highly- powered model, if left to its own devices, would loop continually. This was controlled by turning off, using the rudder, so all combinations of loops and rolls were possible, even with the quite minimal dihedral.

Not exactly relaxing to fly by today's standards, but great fun in our younger days! On these models I always used the bang- bang escapements (one push for left, next push is right, etc).

I think they might be too much of a handful for me now!

Eric Clutton (Doctor Diesel).

Charles Leonard <  > contributed:

I asked Eric Clutton (Doctor Diesel) about the Frog; he is the only person I know that knew what it was. He said they haven't been built for about 40 years and doubts that any parts for it are still available.

He said the distance between rod hole centers was 0.46", and suggests making one from an old car piston, using hacksaw, file and drill press.

I have been bitten on E Bay also. I hope this helps.

Charles Leonard

Gary Gullikson <  >

After many, many airmiles and much amusement to on-lookers, my Tom Hunt "stick" version of the Dakota has ceased to exist from the wings rearward. A couple of large 70-mph aerobatic glow ships flying in formation overtook the little electric Stikota doing about 25 mph.

One simply ate the rear off the Stikota without a hiccup. Luckily the big prop on the .90 4-stroke missed the servos and receiver. The big plane had some transparent Monokote stuck to it but was otherwise undamaged.

I think that small slow electrics don't mix well with large fast gassers, especially when there are five planes in the air at once and everybody is doing his own thing. Better to fly electrics and other slow-flying sport and scale models early in the AM before activity becomes frenetic. We here in Southern California have few "legal" places to fly powered models, so we are almost forced to fly electrics with IC models.

Gary Gullikson, Garden Grove, California

Joe Bodin <  > asks:

A couple of postings ago, someone raved about his Space Walker 10. Can you tell me what his e-mail address is? I deleted the file and want to get the information he posted. It sounded like a great model to put the stuff in that I got back when the wind finally convinced my UCan2 that it wasn't a bird that should stay nested in a tree for 6 weeks.

Thanks, Joe Bodin

Carl Rankin <  > submitted:

This is my first contribution; I've been in the "learning mode".

Hand-Molding Depron sheets: I believe that food tray boxes for restaurant leftovers are Depron. It is about 2 mm thick. If you try to shape it by hand, with hundreds of finger impressions in patterns you can cause it to curl into conical sections, tubes, and even slight compound curves.

The first few passes don't produce much curvature; you're just preparing the inside surface with "damage". BE patient, it could take half an hour! If you hurry, you get unwanted wrinkles. Experiment, think with your hands.

One problem is a natural limit of curve radius, which is reached when the exterior surface of the foam sheet cracks.

SOLUTION: to achieve diameters as small as 5/16 inch and acute folds, before beginning to work the foam, coat the entire exterior surface with a layer of tape, overlapping the edges of regular 1/2-inch-wide transparent tape (the cheap stuff works better than the famous brand). A fold line needs only a single strip full length. The interior surface of a fold is relieved by a line drawn with a straightedge using an empty ball point pen.

The layer of tape takes the tension loads, preventing cracks and reduces finger damage to the outside surface. When you are happy with the shape (it takes practice and your hands will ache) you can peel off the tape. The tape does remove some of the sheen of the foam surface.

ALSO, this stuff does have a grain! You'll notice it bends easier one way. Try to align that to the axis of your curve.

Please let SMALLnet know if this is helpful.

Been making flying things for most of my 46 years. Never been in a contest. I design, build, and fly for fun! Have made over 150 R/C's: gliders, C*x .049, and electric. Have made many more freeflights. Mostly simple stuff and some odd things.

I have seen "copies" of my projects made by kids who go home from the park and show up later with their own versions. That's inspiring! Some have become school projects. But when they started sliding down the 100-foot almost-vertical slope to retrieve...gulp. You know, modeling is actually a macho sport, with many dangers! My latest is an SE-5 indoor/outdoor "silly- scale" R/C, 30.5" wingspan, 8.5 ounces gross weight, using leftover trays and a stock GWS "Pico" system.

Thanks for all the great information and motivation.

Carl Rankin, San Fernando Valley, southern California, USA

Ron Marvel <  > wrote:

We are now introducing our new line of tuned pipes for the .049 to .074, with larger sizes on the way. These are even quieter than our mufflers. Check out our website: < http://www.flyquiet.com >.

Fly quiet and have fun, Ron