New SOY/Lesiure Playboy

[Allan Wright]

Something about a pylom model old-timer that really looks 'slick'. More and larger photos on my site:
http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/aew/rc/Playboy/

Working out some radio troubles that are bothering me, but except for that it's a beauty in the air!

[Allan Wright]

Woah - tough room....

[Gerald]

Allan, your playboy looks to be a very nicely executed build. Fine craftsmanship and probably an excellent flyer if I had to guess. Personally I'm partial to cabin designs though. :)

Just wait for the Playboy enthusiasts to show up and you'll probably get some discussion going. I bet a lot of folks are away for the holiday weekend right now.

[Wildbill10269]

Woah - tough room....

Everyone is probably stunned speechless at the beauty of the plane and photo ;)

I saw this posting the other day but I couldn't access your web site for some reason. It worked today so I saw the other photos, which are also great.

The Playboy is one of the planes I have always wanted (for obvious reasons) but I'm not a great builder. I bought a Bird of Time kit around the time my youngest daughter (#4) was born. She is now 7 1/2 years old and I have a completed and covered fuselage but the wings are only 1/2 built.

I'd be interested in seeing some in-flight photos if you have any.

Bill

[California Condor]

[QUOTE=Gerald]Allan, your playboy looks to be a very nicely executed build. Fine craftsmanship and probably an excellent flyer if I had to guess. Personally I'm partial to cabin designs though. :)

Here is my cabin Playboy for the SAM A Texaco event.
Eut

[Allan Wright]

Nice farings on the landing gear! I need to do something like that. Are they just balsa laminated on the wire?

We have two other Playboys at my club, both cabbin, so I decided to be differend and went with the pylon version. So far it flys great. I've had to swap out the radio and ESC on the motor, but now the bugs are worked out. I'll try to get some in-flight photos soon.

[California Condor]

The wire was sanded and wraped with Micafilm and CA'd. Then the balsa fairing was CA'd to the strut.

[Allan Wright]

Nice trick, I'll have to try that. Thanks for the information.

[Allan Wright]

There are a couple of videos of my Playboy flying last night on this web page: http://www.nhflyingmisfits.org/events/2004/July-07-2004/

Look in the videos section at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

[evan_s]

Allan:
What batteries? What esc? What is the quality of the kit?
I'm thinking of building one.
Evan

[Allan Wright]

Hi Evan,

Quality of the kit is fairly good. It's laser cut, but old-style (no interlocking parts, etc.) You have to do some sanding/fiddling to get things to fit, and my wingtip parts didn't end up matching the plans exactly. I was able to make them work. This was my first old-timer and let me say, some of the construction techniques are very different from modern kits, so I had to take my time to do things correctly. Now that it's together the plane flys and looks wonderful. The kit comes complete with hardware and landing-gear wire (no wheels). In fact, I had many extra parts left ofer when I was done, since they put in parts for all the optional steps. I chose to deviate on the plan a little by putting in a platform for the battery to rest on with velcro straps to hold it in. Besides that mine is built to the plans.

I'm using an Astro 020 with Hacker Master 18-amp brushless ESC. I use all sorts of batteries. That's one of the nice thing about these, they're quite flexible in the payload they can carry. I've used 8x600 AE NiCads, 2s2p 1200 LiPoly, 8x1800 AA NiMh and all the way up to 8xCP1300 NiCads. All work well. The LiPoly and 8x600AE packs give the best L/D for thermalling with the prop folded. Whatever you do make sure your ESC has a brake and your prop is a folder, you'l thank yourself the first 30-minute flight you have in a thermal.

The other modification I made was to put an ample cooling hole in the nose, shaped and rounded the intake to look 'old-timer-ish', and I also put a matching hole in the battery door to allow the air to exit. This makes everything (motor, esc, batteries) nice and cool, even on the hot days. My hatch is hinged with clear tape and the rear is held up with 2 pairs of rare-earth magnets purchased from Radio Shack. The hatch makes battery swaps quick and painless.

Buy one, build it and enjoy it. You won't regret it!

[evan_s]

Thanks for all the information, Allan.

From what I can see on the web, the choices for a Playboy kit are the SOY, Ben Buckle, and the Holman ribs and plans. I think the BB kit is a larger span.

Do you, or any other forum members, have any opinons on the pros and cons of these kits? Are there any others out there?

[Allan Wright]

The Buckle kit I think is the 'Sr.' version, so yes it's larger. Aveox put out a Playboy kit, you can probably still find old kits out there, but they're not made any more. The aveox kits build up nicely, I believe they were die-cut.

If you go with plans, there's not much more work than a cut kit since the whole fuselage is made from sticks, the only thing a cut kit saves you is cutting the ribs, and wingtip pieces.

If you want to go the REALLY lazy route, Hobby Lobby has a playboy ARF, but yuck! Old-timers should be built by hand with love and caring. They fly better that way :D

[Allan Wright]

Hmmm I just checked the Hobby-Lobby site and the Playboy arf is discontinued. I wonder who 'really' made this and if it can be found elsewhere.