jimmie Allen Bluebird

[Ian Easton]

Here's a few photos of my Jimmie Allen Blue Bird.
I built it about 20 years ago and went whole hog with it, lightning the ribs, adding bamboo tips, hand carved prop, etc. I didn't fly it much, then hung it up for a lot of years.
I thought it was time to restore it and post the results here.
I'm considering going electric with it but am undecided at the moment.
Any opinions?

Ian

[Bob Chiang]

Hi Ian,

That's a beauty: what a lot of ribs and sub ribs, and lightening holes!

I love Jimmy Allen models, and built a BA Parasol for electric a couple of years ago. It is a very nice gentle flyer, though short flights with the 110 mah packs I was using. Li-poly would be great. They look very cute in the air IMHO.

-Bob

PS. We named my son James Allen, (before I knew about these models)

[vintage1]

I'd probably try and find a power plant from the GWS range to swing that actual propellor! Its a work of art.

Were you (thinkng of) RC'ing it? Or FF only...?

Seems a shame to cut all those tail surfaces up to make controls....

[tim hooper]

I expect Geoff Northmore will be along soon to mention his J A Racer, but I'll prepare the ground a little;

Geoff scaled up an original plan to 42" and fitted a diesel and 3-channel radio, and it formed the basis of a magazine-issued plan feature. Before he was finally deported from the UK and dumped in the New Zealand outback last year, he passed the airframe on to me.

I cleaned off the diesel gunk as best I could, and fitted a Mega 1615/6, a 9x4 prop and 8x800AR cells. Performance was surprisingly spritely; brisk ROG's, flick rolls and loops. Best of all was the models ability to flatspin; there's a super bit of video (taken by Bri Cullen) in the gallery here;

http://rcgroups.com/gallery/data/511/1568jimmyallen.avi

The model has now been passed onto another clubmate, although I've had the plan enlarged to 63" for a future project!

tim

[radioflier]

Ian -

I was at Kinko's having my Bluebird plans enlarged 160% (60" span) at the very instant you started this thread! Talk about great timing!

I have nearly everything firgured out for the conversion to electric and 3-channel r/c, EXCEPT for those pesky cabane struts. This is my first model with cabanes and I haven't quite figured out how I want to do it. I need to easily remove the wing for transportation, and am not opposed to adding wing struts if the cabanes are minimal and require them to support the wing. I'm looking for ideas for an easily done and clean installation of cabanes.

Also, where do you put the wing on this thing? My plans from Bob Holman do not show the location of the wing over the fuse - I have an idea from looking at your and other pictures I've found on the web. Is fore/aft location critical?

ron

[Ian Easton]

If your looking for ideas on how to make parts removable then Tim is the man you need to hear from - he does a great job of making his models dissassemble.

As for the wing location - it's supposed to be movable so that you can balance the model without adding any weight, then you can lock it in place once it's established.

Vintage1,

As for FF or RC I'm not 100% decided, though I am leaning toward FF as I'm having a great time flying FF lately (another reason for the timer thread you started).

Ian

[tim hooper]

If your looking for ideas on how to make parts removable then Tim is the man you need to hear from - he does a great job of making his models dissassemble.



I have to defer to Mr Northmore on this one! ;) This shot of Amelia is the best I can do though; there are four brass tubes attached to the dihedral-break ribs (two on each side, and the front tubes are spaced away from the wing to give a little positive incidence), whilst the cabanes terminate into four forward-facing 'spikes'. The wing is simply reversed onto the spikes, and then an elastic band is slipped over the front spikes to prevent the wing from slipping forward.

In the event of a crash, the wing comes free by sliding off the spikes through its own inertia. Works like a charm!

tim

[Ian Easton]

Ron,

Have you made any progress with your Bluebird.

My restoration has taken a back seat for the moment as I have relatives visiting for three weeks, so in a couple of weeks time I'll get working on it.

Looking at Bob's model is tempting me to go RC with mine.

Ian

[radioflier]

No progress other than studying the plans some more. I need to order some more wood before I can start on the fuselage. That and taking care of the honey-do's that have been creeping up as of late. ;)

ron

[Ian Easton]

Once I get the framework stripped of it's old tissue covering a bit better I think I'll give computer printed tissue a try. I've never done it before so it sould be interesting!

Ian

[Ian Easton]

Here's my first attempt at tissue printing.
First I scanned the parts themselves.
Then I imported the image into Printshop.
Drew my "artwork" (not exactly stellar, I know).
Erased the background photo and printed out what was left.

[Ian Easton]

When I printed it out on High or Medium resolution I got a lot of smearing as it came out the printer. I found that low resolution and a little heavier tissue worked OK
The images you see here are crunched down a lot and not as sharp as the originals.

Any hints about tissue printing would be appreciated. How do I do artwork for a whole wing panel for example?

[Ian Easton]

I covered my fin with the printed tissue and it looked pretty good, then I shrunk it with alcohol and the red lines bled - the black was fine though. So I've stripped it again for another attempt.

[Ian Easton]

Well I got fed up spending hours trying to get some decent printing on tissue and finally gave up, for now anyway (as well as wasting a lot of tissue).

I covered the tail feathers and wings and just patched the fuselage as I wanted to keep the old original silver tissue on it.

It's been a while since I used tissue and ended up with a few more wrinkles than I would like.

[Ian Easton]

Well, initial test flights were going great until the dreaded blown motor occured...here's the results. I should have known better and used a winding tube, but I didn't. The original tissue was pretty brittle anyway so now I get to do it all again!

[Gerald]

Well, initial test flights were going great until the dreaded blown motor occured...here's the results. I should have known better and used a winding tube, but I didn't. The original tissue was pretty brittle anyway so now I get to do it all again!Ouch! That hurts. :(
I'd just repair it and leave it as rubber powered and don't use so many winds in the future. I bet it's of more value to you to be able to keep it nice so you can admire it for another 20, and fly it just enough to earn it's keep ;).

[Ian Easton]

Gerald,
It's an easy fix and I already got half of it done tonight. Yourright about keeping it for another 20. It's really pretty in the air: my wife got some video of it this morning which I'll attempt to post soon.

Ian

[Ian Easton]

The Bluebird is all repaired and is flying well again. I used a new winder counter and torque meter today that I'd built (see the free flight forum) and what a difference (I used a blast tube too - lesson learned). She flew great - what a joy to watch in the air. The torque meter really was a great help.

Ian