SMALLnet post467

I just realized you've posted a date error on the previous SMALLnet Posting:"...This year's annual SMALL event at Little Rock is on Memorial Day weekend: May 30, 31, and June 1. The meet will be held at the same field near Wrightsville, Arkansas as it was in 2006 and 2007..."

Memorial Day is celebrated this year on Monday May 26th. I know it used to be the last weekend in May, and I don't know why we are celebrating it on the 26th....but, we are. Love, Barbara

I have some used Cox engines and parts which I want to go to the right people. Is it permissible to let the subscribers know what I have for sale? I don't have a clue as to some of the prices, but some I wish to ask for $10 -- namely glow heads for .049 and .09 Medallions. All of the parts are in plastic bags marked with Cox part numbers.

Maybe the thing to do is to let everyone know what I want to do, and have them contact me off list for details. I would like to see someone from the net get these items rather than some stranger on eBay.

I know I've said this before, but I am sure glad to see SMALLnet back in operation. Also, glad to see you have got your health back. I'm sure the Good Lord had a lot to do with that.

I was hoping you may be able to help me with one of Randy's plans. It's the Easy from May 1987. MAN says that it's no longer available. Would you have any idea where I may be able to get hold of a copy ? Thanks, Paul Neville

Glad to learn that you are once again out from under the debilitating effects of medications. Like you, I was like a zomby and told my doc that I needed to get out from under that crap. I couldn't drive for more than 45 minutes before I had to hand over the tiller to my wife. He amended the ticket, and so now I am off writing and drawing up a storm for FM once again.

The first of my new series of A VIEW FROM HERE pops up in the June issue, I believe.

Buddy Irwin sent along your Post #465 and I found both it and #466 to be fascinating reading. I've been a "closet fan" (!!!) of yours for a long time, but was unaware of your Postings, and as a consequence I would most certainly enjoy being on your list. I still have my 2CC ED "Penny slot head" and my Mk I FROG 100 that I bought in 1948-'49. In addition, I have a couple of .5 cc Allbon Darts...one of which I "rescued" from a fellow RAF cadet in 1951. He had been ill treating it and so I had to keep gently squeezing the cylinder in a vise to restore its "roundness". Runs fine still.

When my son comes up to Michigan again I'm going to run them, to let him hear how a real engine sounds!

We have our house on the market and plan to move back to Central Indiana, to be near the grand kids. We live on an airport and, since I lost my medical cert, I no longer fly....so perhaps we will be able to come to Arkansas for one of your "SMALL" flys.

I certainly concur with you on the subject of glues. Good balsa cement appears to have gone over the hill and I rarely use CA except as a liquid "pin" in desperation. The darned stuff cost an arm and a leg and it shouldn't do, considering the quantities in which it is made. It is quite a common chemical.

I bemoan the loss of Wilhold aliphatic glue so, in common with yourself, I am using Titebond II. So far, I have seen no use for the modern "monkey" glues even tho' I also fly fairly large RC. I don't mind waiting for a minute or three for "white glues" to set off. In fact, I often build another component while waiting.

With decent weather coming along I'll be resurrecting my Peanuts and my No-Cal Miles Messenger (was in FM). Great to fly on a calm evening at my end of our grass runway.

...For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jim's work, he's the best illustrator in the "model press" these days. [JW]

Our FF activities here in Salt Lake City will commence in May; I will be flying my Dakota with its .020 Pee-Wee reed valve engine. I don't know how people fly that plane with all the power of an .049. All the guys here that have tried have crashed. Guess I'm just lucky. Here's to a grand FF season for all of us.

We are now offering balsa wood in strips, sheets, and blocks. Because of the somewhat recent reduced number of sources of direct mail order high quality balsa wood (caused by a fire at one source and a relocation of another to different state) we have decided to become a direct mail order source of balsa wood. Feel free to call us about the status of the current suppliers of direct mail order balsa wood.

Our supplier provides us with perhaps the highest quality balsa available in today's market. Offered is a selection of balsa wood that is used in the construction of radio control sport, scale, and aerobatic models. See our web page for the initial stock items of balsa wood.

Our prices are very competitive in the direct mail order balsa wood market. We are not the cheapest, but certainly the highest quality. For example, our 1/16 x 3 x 36 balsa sheet sells for $1.08.

The marketing name for our balsa wood is Select R/C Balsa. As the name implies, we select all the sheets and blocks of balsa wood into different weight or densities. The basic grades are light (under 10 pounds/cu.ft.), standard (10-13 pounds/cu. ft.), and hard (heavy) weight (over 13 pounds/cu.ft.). The light weight grades are further graded to 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 pounds/cu.ft.. Each sheet will have a small label indicating the item number and grade. The light weight sheet labels will show the actual density of that sheet.

Note that imported balsa wood in the light weight grades are in limited supply. Importers of balsa wood cannot request various densities. The bulk of the balsa wood is in the 10-13 pounds/cu.ft. densities. The 10-13 pound/cu.ft. balsa is commonly used for most sport, scale, and aerobatic R/C models.

Because of the limited amount of light-weight balsa, there is a premium price for these grades. There is also a limited amount of hard balsa. Our supplier generally sells the hard balsa for industrial applications.

Our first shipment of balsa wood just arrived. This shipment will be one of many during the rest of this and the following month. Received so far are 36 inch sheets in 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8 thick. Widths are 3 and 4 inches.

If you have any questions about our Select R/C Balsa please call toll free at 877-263-5766.

What would be a good introduction to DIME SCALE airplanes for competition in Flying Aces events ?

Welcome back...it's great to have all this small stuff brain power back on the net. Some years ago there was a discussion on improving the idle of small engines like the Norvel by making mods to the carb. Guess I'm getting older and can't remember the specifics. Can anyone provide me with the info to get these little gems to idle reliably ? Thanks, Mike

Just got back from the Toledo Show and it was very obvious on the freeways between cities that the 18-wheelers easily outnumbered the cars! Lots of cars (locals) around the cities but on the open freeways ---. Anyway, I have figured how to beat it for SMALL in Little Rock. After the festivities on Saturday night I will head for home, driving through the night to arrive here just after midnight, thus saving a motel bill which will buy a fair bit of gas. Don't tell Exxon, or they will buy up all the motels and put those prices up as well ! ERIC

Good to hear about your new-found energy, so that you can to do more of the things we SMALLsters like to do -- including the recent resurrection of SMALLnet. Good to know it hasn't been laid to rest!

YES, the Beta Blockers can considerably slow our heart rate (pulse) and reduce our cardiac output. (I am still waiting for my next heartbeat!) We then have to deal with the negative effect of lack of energy or fatigue. YAWN! However, the positive effect of Beta Blockers is a much lower risk for ANOTHER heart attack! So each of us "energyless zombies" must seriously consider our own risk.

In Posting #466, Tim Goldstein said he is the new owner of Peck Polymers. It was good to hear Tim's statement that "we still have the Mini Bell and have even upgraded that to laser-cut contest wood just like the rest of our kits."

I purchased Mini Bells wholesale from Sandy Peck when she owned the company. At the time it was one of the very few kits designed for R/C that could be successfully flown with a MICRO-FLITE/COX TD .010 "R/C" ENGINE and a very light 3-4 channel Micro R/C radio.

Interestingly, after the COX TEE DEE .010 engine went out of production, along with ALL COX glow engines, there are now a number of laser cut kits on the market for the Lilliputian COX TEE DEE .010 engine. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing in our R/C hobby?

In the May, 2008 issue of Flying Models, "Early R/C Models" has an advertisement (page 16) for the "Roughneck II", designed by Aubrey Kochman, along with a list of other Laser Cut Kits, including the "Roaring 20" and "Schoolboy" designed by the late, great Ken Willard. All of the laser cut kits named were designed for the COX TEE DEE .010 Engine.

Bill Cannon, who indeed is the true father of multi-channel micro R/C (for that great accomplishment, he is in the AMA's Hall of Fame), had a price change notification on 1/15/96 for Cannon R/C systems. His "Ultra Micro Servo" (.33 oz.) was listed at $64.50 and a four-channel "Ultra Micro Receiver "(.44oz/12.5g) was listed at $107.00.

It seems almost unbelievable that now, in 2008, you can purchase a "Blue Arrow Servo" (0.15oz./4.3g!) for $7.00, which in our State of Washington is only $1.32 more than the sales tax on a Cannon "Ultra Micro Servo" ! A "Micro Lite" four-channel single-conversion receiver (0.16oz./4.7g!), which is claimed to "outperform many conventional dual-conversion receivers", can be purchased for only $17.00! Compare that to a four-control/non-proportional "Citizen- Ship MODEL SS-MSR-8 SELECTIVE RECEIVER" (broadband superhetrodyne) that weighed 12 oz. and cost $149.50 in 1960.

In today's dollars (after inflation) that Citizen-Ship receiver would cost well over $800.00! As the old cigarette ad used to say, "You have come a long way baby" (R/C hobby). But how far will you go?

What an incredible change from only a few years ago! Micro R/C, and later so-called "sub-micro" R/C, was very expensive compared to "standard size" R/C equipment, but today's prices clearly indicate that this is no longer true. The .010 R/C planes, named above, are now very inexpensive to build and have outstanding flying perfor- mance, in convenient areas too small for any other IC power, when equipped with today's incredibly small and lightweight "sub-micro" R/C. .010 R/C finally has come of age, but only for SMALLsters fortunate enough to own a COX TEE DEE .010 glow engine.

...Roger, E-power has TAKEN OVER in the small-size model plane game. At Little Rock a couple of years ago several SMALLsters remarked on the "eerie silence" at the field. Somebody at the official's table told me that 92% of the models there were electric...

As for Bill Cannon's products, I loved those ! His prices were high because (1) everything was made in the USA; and (2) Bill personally checked every system he sold before shipping it out. I still have a couple of complete Cannon systems that work. Bill built me a custom "single-stick" 8-channel system -- one of these days I'm gonna have to install it in a model... [JW]

Our computer is used by both my husband and myself but is under my name. He is the model builder and has been since the early 1940's! His favorite model airplanes from his high school days were always the Veco Kits. He still has in his collection six of your kits plus a Chief, Warrior and Redskin. He also got plans from you for the Dakota which he hasn't got built yet. The Chief, Warrior & Redskin are hanging in his hangar!

Sorry to hear about your heart condition. My husband has had two open heart surgeries and been under the influence of way way too many pills as well. We took it upon our selves to discontinue most of them and he is doing fine. Today it has now been two years since the last surgery and he is still plugging along -- slow but surely! Still has the desire to build and fly airplanes but runs out of steam.

He is happy to see SMALLnet back once again and looking forward to reading the next Posting. Linda & LeRoy Johnson

Glad to have SMALLnet back... I've been playing a lot with 2-channel R/C and have found two gems in the RTF world...

The second find is from Toys-R-Us and retails for just $19.99. It's a "FastLane R/C Arrow Flight"... These do not fly well out of the box, and the receiver uses nicads rather then Li-Po -- but it is a wonderful unit for peanut planes :) and the receiver can be run on a single cell Li-Po (I think they were originally designed for Li-Po)...

CPC and Randolph are available as: ~Nitrate", regular and non- tautening and ~Butyrate", regular and non-tautening.

As a guy who believes that butyrate is evil stuff -- ruined a lot of C-L and FF models with it as a kid -- I use nitrate exclusively. In fact, for Japanese tissue, I use the non-taut nitrate from the very first coat. Tissue sources: Glen Campbell in Michigan & Lee Campbell in Indiana.

AL
A. A. [AL] Lidberg model plan service
AALmps@aol.com See the new Trenton Terror at: < http://www.aalmps.com/ >

Just read the discussion about glues. Having been a builder for more than 65 years, I've used most of the acetate "model cements."

Recently I've been using good ol' Duco Cement. It's available in just about all hardware stores, so it's easy to get.

For neatness of application, drill a 1/16" hole through the green plastic cap and insert a piece of 1/16" OD brass tubing. Use a T-pin to seal the tube after use. For indoor models, thin it with acetone or dope thinner.

I still have Ambroid and Aero Gloss tubes on my bench, but the Duco works just fine.

...Thanks for the tip, Don! On my last visit to Wal*Mart, I bought myself a couple of tubes of Duco. I was surprised at the low cost (99 cents per tube). I've used that glue before, but had forgotten about it until reading your message. Used it immediately on some center-section wing planking -- and it's just as good as ever. [JW]

Andy Woitowicz < ajw (at) ntl : sympatico : ca> has been up to his usual tricks:

..... most any small engine can be converted to diesel. Lots of ether makes diesels throttle better. Generally, the smaller the engine, the more ether you need. For 1/2A, up to .15, I've found that a 39/39/20/2 formula works best.

My favorite conversions are the VA .049, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22n1znRo5IY >, the Norvel .06, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22n1znRo5IY >, and the Brodak .049 converted to AAN, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu1ucHl9SXc&feature=related >
Editor's note: The first two URLs above point at the same video, for the VA .049. Perhaps this is the correct one for the Norvel .06: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6Kk7L3HVE >.

All three are slugging an 8 X 4 prop. This was done to test their durability. Only the Brodak (which is made by CS) had a crank failure. But they've gone and fixed that. CS has come out with an .06 diesel, steel/iron engine and I managed a brief test run the other day in the middle of light snow flurries. One shot of a high ether prime showed that the factory compression setting was nearly right on. After filling the tank, the next few flips gave me a start and a few tweaks later, she was happily spinning a Master Airscrew 7 X 4 prop with authority. I had no chance to tach it but it sure sounded good.

With this diesel version of their glow 1/2A, they beefed up the crank by making the bore a bit smaller. I'll be testing this one on the 8 X 4 just as soon as the weather permits and of course, after it's properly broken in.

Notable is their method of altering the compression ratio. What they've done is to use a brass plug, threaded into the head with a very tight fit. No tommy bar here, you have to use an allen wrench. Mine was spot on for a start and as the engine warmed up, it was easy enough to adjust with a quarter turn. It's pretty tight so you have to bear down on it a bit. Not a big deal, it works. I'm assuming that this will loosen up some as the fit breaks in. Not to worry that it gets too loose, I think. Brass expands more than aluminum and at running temps. I'm sure the seal and the setting will be maintained.

And all the horror stories about how diesels are so hard to start is contradicted here: < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af4dQNa60_w&feature=related >

Notice that I'm using a spring starter on this Norvel .074 conversion. And priming is done by the pressure line from the muffler. Blocking the outlet while spinning the prop a few times brings fuel up the line and an easy start is made. I got off a little overcompressed in this clip, as you can see. This is with no prime in the intake or exhaust.

In all of these engine conversions, it was found that both high and low speed mixtures were virtually the same for glow OR diesel. Well, that is, with a 39% ether fuel. Lots of ether seems to mimic lots of nitro in small engines. In both cases, they start more easily, give better power and idle and throttle is superior.

The 1/2A conversions were also tested with the 8 X 4 so that I could enjoy a much more realistic power curve and SOUND. Oh that delicious, diesel sound! I have a long-in-the-build, Balsa Products, Texaco Tiger Moth that will take one of these and with the 8 X 4, that size prop is nearly scale and the RPMs and sound will certainly be more in line with the "real thing". It just doesn't get better than that.

One last thing. I may have mentioned in the past my use of electric starters to make life a lot easier. As shown in the clips, no problems were encountered using a starter. The trick, when running a conversion, is to find your needle settings on glow. When converted to diesel, they'll be very close. The other trick is to prime only into the intake with a high ether prime. I've made up prime mixes with 50% ether and 50% oil. Ether is very dry so lots of oil is in order. PLUS, lots of oil will give you maximum compression seal. This mix was found to work well in the winter, here: < http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-666705683941330773 >

The needle and compression settings were untouched from the last, summer flying session. As you can see, the cold engine lit right off. The first few minutes are spent tweaking and testing the settings in the air. On one dump into the snow, and with the engine still covered with snow, the engine happily responded to the starter and a high ether prime. The fiddling I had to do was a result of the spring-loaded compression screw backing off on occasion. That was fixed later with a stronger spring. A better fix on later designs was to make the O-ring sealed contra-pistom a light interference fit in the head. Andy

...Andy, I hate to admit this, but once in a while I've had to use a starter with a diesel. I took the precaution of holding the plane so that the engine head pointed sideways. Doing that is a good way to avoid the chance of hydraulic lock... [JW]

SMALLnet Posting post467