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Paul Swanson <  > asks:

Is any information yet available on the annual SMALL Event in Little Rock?

If you're interested in a .25-size profile designed for 3-D flight with a .25 engine and an all-up weight of 2 1/2 lbs, check out the Taco at < www.swanyshouse.com/tacoff/tacoff.html >.

Thanks, Paul Swanson

Leonard Rozamus <  > sent:

Joe's advice on securing plastic fuel lines by soldering a ring of brasstubing one size larger on the tube worked great. However, on my next model I got lazy and used a DuBro fuel line barb. The result was a neatly sliced fuel line that I should have suspected when the engine would rev up and quit. Instead, dumb me, I richened the mixture and went on and flew. The erratic engine (my favorite, an Enya .15 III) burned out a lot of metal, the Shrike it powered spun in, and I was left mad at myself.

The fuel line barb must have cut the blue silicon line when I tugged the tank at some time previously to make sure the line was not jammed into the firewall. The incision was so clean that no fuel leaked. It was just the air leak that leaned out the engine.

As part of the post-crash overhaul, I ground down the razor-sharp barb edges and used pink fuel line (must have come with the tank).

I have resolved to use the barbs only on exterior applications and with Tygon or pink (where do I find that?) silicone line.

On another subject: In his January FM column, Randy showed Pat Tritle's L-19 and said it would come out as a Dumas kit. Do you have any updates? I am a Bird Dog fan, having built Berkeley and Herr models of this plane. The only other kits available for the L-19 are huge. So I am anxiously awaiting one this size.

Also: my highly-modified Robelen PRONTO that Randy displayed in Small Talk a couple of years back has been my most enjoyable and successful R/C model (even surpassing my two Gere Sports). The hottest pilot in our club flew it and was so impressed he is going to take the dry-rotted, moth-eaten scratched-over plans and try to get them copied so he and others can duplicate the bird.

That is some kind of compliment. Despite his need for speed, he surmised that my 1970's bushing OS 25 is probably the right power mix for this airplane. I like it because I can drill holes in the sky the first five minutes of a flight, then thermal another fifteen or twenty minutes. A perfect flight is when I deadstick with a cold engine.

Anyway, should he be successful in copying the plans, I will try to make them available to those who e-mailed me requesting them after mentioning it on SMALLnet way back when.

Thanks again for SMALLnet. Len Rozamus Hopewell, Virginia

Frank Weaver <  > contributed:

Great news, the gang is back, sitting around the ol' wood stove at the flying field BS-ing about model airplanes again.

But, how things have changed in the 20-something months since we last got together. Me, after 35 years I sold off all my wet stuff, my Cox/Norvel/OS engine collection, my diesels, everything.

It's all brushless and LiPo's for me now. Electric power has allowed us to fly model airplanes in a way never dreamed of just a few short years ago: 3-D and 30-minute flight to name a few. For many it's like re-discovering the hobby.

When the modeler who bought my Cox engines asked what I was going to do with the money, I said "electric goodie" and he replied, "But Frank, it's got no sound... it's got no smell... it's got no soul".

But, he did perk up when he first heard that sweet Axi sound.

Fly SMALL, have a BALL, Frank

Michael Hawkins <  > takes another view:

It is some time since constructional techniques were discussed on SMALLnet, and there may now be many new ideas to pass on.

My Herr Aquastar (Norvel 061) has been "resting" for 18 months during which time the Monocote has gone brittle and wavy, having been affected by nitromethane, water, UV light and temperature. (The same sort of degradation happens to me !).

I have now re-covered it using Coverite fabric over open areas and 1/2 oz. glass cloth, put on with Acrylic, water-based varnish on the wood. The adhesive on the Coverite was not sufficiently strong, so I used Balsaloc to help, and this is now fine.

The Acrylic is much easier to use than epoxy resins and much less messy -- you can clean up with water. When dry it takes paint directly. I suggest this is worth considering if you are re-covering an old water-plane.

The Aquastar weighs 24 oz. (the plan says it should be 19 !) but it flew nicely off the lake today in windless conditions.

On the nostalgia scene, diesel engines for model aircraft first became available in England just after WW2. The first one that I saw run was a BMP 3.5 in Henry Nicholl's shop at 308, Holloway Road, London. Soon after, I saved my pennies and sent away for a Mills 1.3 at 5 pounds, 5 shillings and 6 pence, direct from Mills Bros, Model Engineers.

I mounted it on a bench in the garden shed, mixed my own fuel and wore it out before ever getting it near a model ! First flight came later, after a re-bore, in a KeilKraft Phantom control liner.

I have never got over it and get every bit as much fun today with powered model planes as I did then.

Now as for these new-fangled electrics -- all very well but .....

Yours, Mike Hawkins

Don Garry <  > wonders:

I would like to know which Webra .10 Steve Staples is installing in the Keith Laumer "Zoomerang". It will certainly ZOOM if you use Webra "Speedy .10" schneurle-ported engine. Have you built Keith's "Twin Lizzie" yet? Your terrific selection of models, including the "Super Sniffer", the boats, etc. are right "down my alley"! I also have the Comet 54-inch "T-Craft" and "Aeronca Chief" kits awaiting on the back burners. THANKS much for your most interesting SMALLnet posting!

Donald Garry
535 Clearview Drive
Cocoa, Florida 32927
Phone# (321) 632-9115

Pat Tritle <  > says:

I saw the Posting item regarding Steve's 54" Comet T-craft at SMALL, and I'm proud to tell you that I was the lucky guy who got to fly the model that weekend.

And I must say that it was by far, the best flying model I've ever flown -- period!! It was smooth and honest, had just the right amount of power, and the airframe was straight and true as a guy could ever want. I do believe that it was as close to the "perfect airplane" as I'll see in my lifetime.

I've never tinkered with diesels, but if I were going to re-enter the world of wet fuel for small models, diesels are the only way I would go. PAT

Larry Renger <  > wrote:

I have been playing with Jasman's indoor R/C model, the "Vroom- Zoom". It has proportional throttle control only, and is set up to fly like a regular indoor model, always circling left. Thanks to Randy Heydon, a bunch of us have had access to a church gymnasium of about 25 ft ceiling.

This thing could probably climb 150 feet, and you have to keep modulating the power to stay below the rafters. I can't wait to tear it apart for the hardware and build a larger, possibly scale model. The current weight is 19.5 grams, and you get about 10 minutes of power on a charge.

The model's turn opens up when power is reduced, so it is possible to maneuver the model around by careful pulses of high power and glide.

At the AMA Convention in Ontario, CA they were for sale at $30. This includes the charger, Tx, and airplane ready to fly. Put 6 C-cells into the charger, 2 AA cells in the transmitter, and you are ready to go.

The charger has automatic cutoff. This thing is an amazing deal.

Anyway, there is a bit of downside. The trim isn't what it should be. The model is very tail-heavy, and if you get off the power it will tuck under into a vertical dive. The good news is: here are the fixes:

Turn the wing around backwards, it is non-symmetrical, and this moves the area aft quite a bit.

Next run some thread from the rear wing mount hooks to the tops of the v-tails. This prevents them from flexing and losing incidence as the speed picks up.

Finally, add a bit of noseweight to the landing gear crossbar until the plane flies correctly. I haven't been able to completely tame it at moderate power levels, but the gallop is at least manageable. I think more tail area might be needed.

The result is a model you can fly in a moderate space for the full battery run!

Another issue entirely: As mentioned in another post, Paul Bradley has been copying the Top Flite Jigtime models to be printable on balsa. He has sent me a couple of them, and they are remarkable! There's one more that he needs: the Spitfire. I have lent him several of my collection, and he has returned them in perfect condition. So if you have a JigTime Spitfire kit, I suggest you contact Paul so he can finish the set. He also has 3 of the 4 Midwest airplanes, but needs the Cessna Cardinal.

Larry Renger * Design Engineer

Dave Fritzke <  > reports:

Pete Havriluk asked what happened to Dick Gleason's collection of model plans.

They are safe and sound in my care! Yes, the family was not too interested in running the operation, so I have been slowly selling the "stuff" (not plans) on eBay for them and scanning the large plan collection with my 500 dpi 36" scanner. I have 2500 of the 8-10,000 plans done so far.

Dick's magazine collection went to a collector in Illinois. Some full-scale stuff went to the local EAA chapter and, sadly, lots and lots of stuff went into several dumpsters. I had to perform "triage" as I could only manage so much stuff. I did salvage his database of plans off his old 386 DOS computer, so I know what I SHOULD have in my possession.

I believe Dick's collection was the old Hobby Helpers (later Timely Plans) operation, and I have run across many original inked mylars with ID numbers in the lower righthand corners. If anyone knows more, I'm all ears!

It was just a fluke that I ran across his name about 5 weeks before his wife Harriet had to be out of the old storefront in Austin MN. She is now in a senior care facility in Austin, and has a great daughter named Linda. (I was looking for some old Hobby Helpers plans myself and found a reference to him in an old newsgroup posting.)

I am not really ready to provide much from his collection as of yet. I can e-mail a rudimentary list of what is scanned so far to anyone interested. If I get swamped, I'll post the list on my website. The plans not yet scanned are just going to have to wait till I get to them as they are stored in 4 places in no particular order! Just about impossible to find a particular plan, like that Andreasson BA7.

Dave Fritzke <  >

George Hostler < ghostler (qt) plateautel : net > inquired:

Now that we have Top Flite, Goldberg Jig Time and Frog Junion/Senior models being preserved and plans available for enjoyment, I just wanted to inquire: Is anyone working on preserving the Walt Musciano Scientific .049 C/L planes that were so plentiful in the '60s?

Sincerely, George

Derek Lee <  > requests:

I'm looking for an OK Cub .049 or a K&B Torp Junior .035. If anyone has one that they would like to sell, Please e-mail me. Thank you! Derek

Steve Polles <  > sent:

In response to Tim's questions about NiMH batteries and how to recharge them -- it seems best to recharge the NiMH batteries after a day's flying. I use 170 mAH to 700 mAH 6- & 7-cell packs (so I can't comment on larger-size cells), and have noticed that if I do not recharge at the end of the day, next time out the first charge seems weak and generally results in a short flight. Second charge that day then seems OK.

If you recharge when you're done flying, then they seem to accept a full charge right off the next time out.

Nicads are completely different -- you can leave them sit uncharged for a month, and they will bounce right back.

Tell Tim not to overlook LiPolys -- for all the ballyhoo about fires and other problems, if you treat them with respect when charging and using, they are head over heels better than NiMH batteries.

I'm giving my age away (like George), but I remember when Nicads were first used for electric flying -- all kinds of horror stories about people burning their cars (and airplanes) up when the batteries overheated and sometimes exploded. One popular electric source (a big mail order business today) even sold you a connector that you attached directly to your car battery. You held the Nicad battery (in your hand!) until it got warm/hot then you disconnected it -- no charger, no meter, no nothin' except the skin on your hand! Imagine doing that today!

Steve Polles

Tom Pearson <  > submitted:

It is with great concern that I have observed a substantial number of modelers that were active in control line speed, rail and tether car racing succumb to cancer in recent years. I suspect that it may be partially because of exposure to some of the "hot " fuels we used to use with gay abandon.

The prime suspect is the benzene (benzol) family and its frequently used nitrated variation, nitro-benzene (oil of mirbane), which was prevalent in most of the hotter fuels of the late 1940s, 50s and 60s. Benzene was heavily used in gasoline fuels for automobile racing prior to the development of tetraethyl lead.

Benzene is easily absorbed through the skin. (So is tetraethyl lead). Fortunately for future generations. TEL is gone and benzene is heavily controlled and generally not accessible to the public. Unfortunately, we have seen a great many old timers slip away to the ravages of cancer which may or may not have been caused or aided by benzene or some of the other things like cigarettes. George Aldrich and now Hal DeBolt come to mind as recent victims.

BTW, for those who are/were also gun-shooting enthusiasts, the old formula of Hoppe's #9 used nitro-benzene to mask the ammonia smell of the cleaner (the shoe-polish smell was the nitro-benzene, which I think was also used in shoe polishes in the past).

When I think about the old sparker engines that we destroyed in the early days of glow plug and hot fuels I get sick. Our club fuel mix (bulk made) was 3-3-2, 3 parts alky, 3 parts nitromethane and 2 parts castor oil. This fuel mix was almost guaranteed to blow the cylinder out of a O&R 29, 33 or 60 (the .19 and .23 weld was apparently strong enough to handle the fuel).

It also broke con rods in Madewell .49s, Rockets, Orwick .60s and .74s, Vivells and many many others. We trashed a lot of engines back then.

So if you are an old fa*t like me and used hot fuels in the early years, you might alert your Doctor about your probable Benzene exposure years ago, so he may have a leg up on any problem with the big C that may arise. Tom

Dan Hamburg <  > asked:

Does anyone have any memories or information about the 10-cent diecut sheet balsa "display" kits made by Guillow that were available all over the place (in my case, candy stores and hobby shops in the Bronx, N.Y.) back in the early 50's?

A while ago, I queried Guillow about these kits, but they just sent me a regular catalog. As a really young kid, I was taught the basics of model building and plan reading by my father as we built some of these kits together.

If I remember correctly, these models varied in the quality of realism from kit to kit. I once brought home a kit for a P-40 Warhawk, but the instructions were for a P-51 Mustang. My father then proceeded to modify the parts in the kit, adding and subtracting areas until the finished product was the Mustang in the plans! Dan Hamburg

Ian L. McQueen <  > wrote:

I use yellow (water-based) carpenter's glue for quite a bit of construction, when I don't want the joint to set up until I have got it into alignment. One application tool that I use is a medical syringe and an 18-gage 1-1/2" (38mm) hypodermic needle, the largest available locally. (I file the end of the needle flat to avoid stabbing injuries.) This lets me put small amounts of glue precisely where I want it. (I draw glue into the syringe by removing the needle, sticking the end of the syringe into the glue, and pulling up the plunger.)

The same syringe can be used with solvent-based glues.....for a while. Eventually the elastomer doohickey on the end of the plunger breaks down due to the solvent.

One of my needles clogged through non-use. (I do stick a pin into the end to seal it, and also put the cap over the needle, but the glue can dry out anyway.) Rather than buy and file a new one, I looked for something that would fit into the bore of the needle. Pins are too short to push all the way through. What I found that does the job is "utility" steel wire (for hanging pictures, etc.) sold in small coils at one of our local dollar stores.

This is in eastern Canada, but the same product is probably sold in many of those stores across the continent, with different package labels.

A very useful bit of information came through SAMtalk from Roger Left <  >.

It's a computer program called "IrfanView". As Roger wrote: "This lets you scan, crop, resize, print, etc with a minimum of fuss....it's also FREE!"

I downloaded it Friday night, and was using it soon after to enlarge a 13" peanut plan to 20" and 24". (Hint if you use it: proportionally reduce the DPI setting in the Resize/Resample section of "Image" to enlarge -- and the opposite to reduce.)

I highly recommend this! Ian

John Meacham <  > sent:

From the previous Posting: "Anyone have neat stories to share about the first small glow engines of yesteryear, such as the K&B Infant?"

Well, if anyone had one of those Infants, they better count their fingers! That metal prop was a real hazard.

It wasn't a glow engine, but I had one of those McCoy .049 diesels. That was the worst finger-biter I ever owned, but of course I had no idea of how to start and run a C.I. engine at that time. Would either get big blisters from useless flipping, or prop cuts when it did fire and bounce back the wrong way.

A few years ago I did get a diesel to run pretty well when I made one of the "Mite" engines that you machined yourself from furnished raw material and a section of aluminum extrusion for the crankcase. About a .12 cubic inch displacement. You made the piston, contra- piston and cylinder from cast iron furnished; and the rest was aluminum. Then the long job was lapping in the pistons and cylinder; and lapping the cylinder tapered using Brasso metal polish.

When I finished it no one was more amazed than I was when it actually ran. Took so much time and tears to build the thing I never put in a plane, but just kept it as a "trophy" to my bull-headedness. John Meacham

George Wallbridge <  > has good news for us:

Hi Guys, George at SAMS in England writes to correct some information posted. Mr. Stefan Gasparin is NOT DEAD, NOT BLIND, NOT RETIRED!! He is still in full production of his motors, albeit slowly. Check out his website for motor sizes and his latest sub-micro radio gear.

If you haven't visited recently, you will find much much more on the SAMS website: < www.samsmodels.co.uk >. George

Bob Sisson <  > adds:

Bob Sisson

Oscar Aitken Corral <  > wrote:

I have three suggestions for the OS 26 FS: a Flyline Great Lakes Trainer; a Fournier motorglider (Astroflight), and a Pilot Aeronca .20. I am flying the GL Trainer now, and the Fournier and Aeronca are waiting their turn in my workshop production line.

If you go with the GLT, drop me a line to share with you my solutions to a bit of overheating inside the cowl. I made a removable cap which is "in" for static display, and removable for flying. I got all of these old kits through eBay.

Best, Oscar

Jim Rundle <  > reports:

Maybe I originally got the reference from SMALLnet, but in any case, I'm putting in an order to Model Research Labs and it has a lot of SMALL-useful materials. They carry Polyspan in 38 in. x 18 foot rolls for $25, a water-based sanding sealer that you wipe on with a cloth, carbon rods including an 1/8 in. diameter which sounds good for small push rods, fluorescent dyes, etc. Caters primarily to free flight. Anyone try any of this stuff?

I'm back to building a Petite Parasol, by Ralph Fidance (MAN 3/66) that I had put on hold. I was inspired to resume by another modeler in Florida who thought he was the only one in the world who would build this model. He saw a post of mine on RCU mentioning it and wrote to me, sending pics of his. It has a 41 in. wingspan and is, to my eyes, a lovely classic design. Lots of carving and fitting, and plans and instructions leave a lot to the imagination.

I'll finally have to learn to bend and solder cabane struts. Ralph powered his with an Enya .09 and so will I. MAN still sells the plans. Jim