A vintage model and a senior pilot!

[tim hooper]

The Mini Super has been around decades, and must surely qualify as a vintage design in its own right.

Pictured here, with his own Mini Super, is my own clubs most senior member. Harry Jeffries is 89 years old, and has just re-engined the MS with an OS26 fourstroke to get better performance.........

tim

[Gerald]

...Harry Jeffries is 89 years old, and has just re-engined the MS with an OS26 fourstroke to get better performance.........
timMmm... an OS26 fourstroke to get better performance?? What what did it have before?

[tim hooper]

Gerald,

I believe it was an aged Enya 15.......

tim

[leccyflyer]

Nice Pic Tim- there's that bank of trees again :)

The Mini Super was my third attempt at R/C flight back in the mid 1970's (first two were a Keil Kraft Student and Outlaw). The kit went together just nicely, covering was with doped nylon as a follow on to my control line models. I don't think I'd ever even seen a piece of Solarfilm. Then came the fatal error.

I love blue and yellow aeroplanes and was desperate to have a blue and yellow Mini Super. Luckily the firm which my Dad worked for had company colours which were a nice french blue and a golden yellow - lovely. That meant that dad provided the paint, which he scrounged from work. However my Dad was a marine engineer. The paint was the sort of paint that they use on dredgers, for the hull and the deck and the funnel. The model weighed about 36 lbs by the time it had two coats of heavily lead-impregnated paint onboard, but it was a lovely finish. Never flew. The PAW 2.49 diesel had just about enough power for a leisurely taxi. That came shortly before I gave up modelling, temporarily, for beer, guitar and other pursuits.

I've got a Mini Super plan here and really should do something about that. Got any suggestions for a suitable electric power train Tim??

Brian

[clipclop]

Brian,
A 22-23turn doublewind buggy motor with 2-1 gearbox should give it plenty of urge for brushless choices someone else will have to answer .
Stewart

[vintage1]

Even a speed 600 would probably be enough.

On brushless, I'd pick a mega and olympus belt drive probably.

[Chas]

Brian,
Why not reverse that earlier MiniSuper election and go for really light weight? There are plenty of 50-inch Speed 400 models flying on their wings, and simply using 1/8 instead of 3/16ths for longerons, and the like, will bring you into the ballpark. I used a Robbe 12-volt ducted fan ferrite on a long box (5:1) on my MiniSuper, and ten 800 cells, but you don't need to go to such a powerhouse. Covering was Micafilm - wait for it - blue and yellow!
(Just like my Stol Mk 1 pictured earlier).

I used a two-wheel undercarriage, and raised the tailplane from that startlingly ugly bottom-of-fuse spot, but at least I stuck with the torque rod and wire torque arm for the rudder. Worked a treat with a plastic sleeve over the torque arm to obviate any "noise" problems, but with 120 watts going through the brushes at the other end I wonder if I should have checked myself in at the local clinic!

I bet a "Super 60" would be fine on a good 05 cobalt and standard box, even eight cells, if built lightly. I had the same quandary with the Super 60 on wet power in 1970, when most of the sages at the club were using ST 40 and up for power (a Merco 61 in one case!!!), but I managed with a PAW 19 (admittedly using only RCS Guidance System single channel). The three-function propo outfits of those days weighed only about 12 ozs though, so I can't see that all that brute force was justified. Don't you think our models are over-powered, generally? The Attila here was pulled along spiffingly by an old OS15 III.

I used an OS 26 FS on a later Super 60, Solartex covered (I think it was about 3.5 lbs?) and it specked out in a minute or two. Wonderful!! And guess what colour it was??

Chas

[Chas]

after some repairs...hermph hermph..

[clipclop]

Chas,
i have seen both a Junior 60 and a 60" Simplex fly quite well on an OS15 , my Playboy senior uses an old OS40 4st the early one with no rocker cover bumps and its got heaps of power 45-50deg climb out . Most people tend to forget the old engines these aircraft were built for were no powerhouses .
Stewart

[Chas]

Stewart,
You bet mate! Just by chance I have just been firing up my OS40FS (same model as yours, 25 years old!) on the bench ready for a "Great News", and it tached 9000 on a Graupner (wide blade) 10.5 x 6. That's 50 mph with bags of thrust to boot. "Who could ask for anything more..."
;-}
Chas

[clipclop]

Chas,
I run an 11X5 on my OS40 4st in the Playboy otherwise even at idle it doesnt want to sink in calm conditions I have to kill the motor in order to land it
Stewart

[columbiarcdude]

I've always really liked that design. I've got the plans stashed somewhere around here ... it was published a few years ago in AMI I think ... I should build a lightened version for a Nippy ... maybe a 1812/100 on 10 or 12 cells ... just a thought.

Tom