Any ideas for electric to .049 conversion under $40?

[magic612]

Hi all (and I hope I'm putting this in the right section)-

New to these forums, and kind of new to r/c airplanes, but not r/c in general, as I have had off road cars for over 20 years. Well, I did a good job of crashing a couple planes as a teenager, but 20 years later, I'm trying again!

Here's my present situation: From my teenage days, I have a Cox .049 QRC engine, which still works. Also have a 2 channel, airplane frequency radio radio with standard size servos and transmitter - also still works. I've noticed that there is a significant increase in the available electric powered planes, and almost no .049 size planes made anymore. I'd eventually like to get into the electric planes, particularly the park flyers at some point.

So, recognizing that a lot of these electric planes are very light, and would likely be well-suited to an .049 engine, can I get some recommendations as to what planes might be best suited for me? I'd be looking for a slow-flying trainer, preferably with landing gear that can use standard servos. I can build a kit or modify an ARF - so modifications are not an issue for me. Of course, if there are some .049 kits or ARF's out there, I'll look at those too, but an examination of some sites and magazines has turned up precious little in the way of an .049 trainer.

And of course, with my funds a bit tight at the moment, keeping everything I would need to buy (covering, if necessary, included in this total) under $40 is the goal for now, so I can get my "wings", and add to radios / planes, etc. later. I do have some hinges and pushrods laying around, that I could make use of, if needed Any ideas for something under, or at least close to, that $40 target?

Suggestions welcome, and thanks for your input!!!

[Demon-Leather]

Has the "Quick Stick" for .049 or even a smaller .010 in February's issue. (I just got it :D ) All together, I'd say building one is your cheapest bet. about 25 bucks in balsa, glues, coverings and you're in business. I have TONS of 010-049 plans, a lot of them are free-flight oldies. The free-flights are designed to"fly themselves"..which means, if you get into trouble, all you do is stop trying to fly, and let the plane do it. Normally, (with enough altitude) they will straighten right out & fly themselves ahain, giving you time to swallow, and regain composure. I have an old Ken Willard design from March 1963 called the "Pageboy" that I have scanned I can send You... but for 049, you'll have to scale it up to about a 36-38" span at your local CAD/blueprint shop (like Kinkos)
In 1963.. it was the World's smallest R/C model plane with a wingspan of around 16". (No small feat, considering they were using huge, heavy escapement r/c! :eek: ) If You'd like it, You can send me an e-mail at: Geniside2@aol.com.. files are too big to send via PM. I'm building one of Ken's planes now.(built ALL of them as a kid...he was My hero!) I'm doing his "Roarin'20" which is a bit bigger than the Pageboy (20" span, for .020) Both planes are simple All balsa sheet designs that go together quick..even the wings. I'm doing a twist, and building mine for electric, and out of fan fold foam insulation. If the Pageboy, or the Quick Stick aren't your cup of tea, You can find LOTS of 049 plans on ole' Ebay in the Toys & hobbys section. There are a lot of FREE plans on line as well, if you're interested, I can hunt some up for you. Most will download to your P/C as a PDF file and you can print them out & tape them together for the actual build-on full-size plan. I don't think you'll find an electric for conversion for 40 bucks...But, if You build it, You can fix it, or build it again! ;) Bob

[cmulder]

you could take a look at the foam planes made by gws ; they are also sold without motor "slope glider" version.
One thing you have to keep in mind that your servo's are probbaly to heavy and you better get some micro servo's.
The same probbaly goes fpor the reviecer but you could remove the case.
Last thing would be the reciever battery that has to be smaller too (like AAA size)

Good luck

[Demon-Leather]

Take a look here: http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/
And here: http://www.parmodels.com/Plans/jigtime.htm
Most of these planes were designed in the 60's for R/C control, and all of them flew great (that's why they are well sought-after classics today)
They are large enough to carry heavy gear (old radio stuff was REAL heavy) and actually pretty easy to fly.
The Jig-Time rubber jobs can be enlarged to about to about 38-40" and built out of 1/16" balsa & some 1/16" plywood. These, are PDF tiled files, and will print out full size from your printer. About 10 -15 bucks in wood will give you an airframe for your engine and your radio gear. Bob

[eliworm]

Do you remember the Q-tee? A great little .049 trainer from a few years back. I have laser cut some short kits out for myself. We have 3 under construction that I and my kids are converting to electric. Let me know if you are interested.

Jim

[Demon-Leather]

Being a low-wing, but You don't even need plans to build it. Still... I wouldn't recommend it as a "first project" but You can see how a sheet-job goes together (keeping in mind it's a fairly complex sheet build)...and it will give you lots of ideas & tips in the thread.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2266816#post2266816
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=246240
I should have it done by spring, if I can stop fooling with the Foamie planes... :rolleyes: Bob

[Demon-Leather]

But I might be confusing it with the SST Trainer... can You post a picture? Bob

[eliworm]

Here is a link to the one I built electric about a year or so ago.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269181

My first plane was a Q-tee with a Black Widow .049 about 25 years ago. (I still have the engine) I built another about 11? years ago and used a Norvel .049 in it. That was sweet having the throttle. Taxi out just like the big boys....LOL. We are covering 2 more right now. Hope to have at least one flying for the Arizona electric festival. Just a fun all around flyer.

Jim

[magic612]

Excellent suggestions - thank you everyone!

[Demon-Leather]

What do You think You will do, Magic?....... :confused:


I remember that one Jim!,.. :D I'm allergic to "laser-dust" :rolleyes: so I use My primitive "stone axes & bear claws" for My building! :D Seems like yesterday, they were new....guess time flies, when your havin' fun, and runnin' around the cave in a bear skin... :rolleyes: :D Bob

[magic612]

Demon-Leather: I think initially I am going to pick up a few large, cheap Wal-Mart foam gliders (that way I have some extras if / when I crash it) and modify for R/C use. In other words, dig out the foam for servos/receiver, strengthen the wings with tape / dowels, build an engine mount for my Cox QRC .049, add hinges for elevator / rudder and top it all off with a 7 x 3 prop to fly nice and slow.

I figure I'm better off crashing one (or more! yikes...) of those to get my "wings" initially rather than smash a lovingly built balsa stick model at the get-go. Besides, while I'm learning to fly that, I can be building a balsa model. So... we'll see what happens.

I'll keep you guys posted - and thanks again for the ideas! I'm sure I'll use some of them down the road.

[Demon-Leather]

Is a most-excellent Idea! :D I've given that advice for a lot of newbee electric guys. It REALLY is the cheapest/best way to go. I learned on a Goldberg "Gentle Lady" with an 049 power pod... lets you go slow & t-h-i-n-k... (I've always been & still am a slow-thinker) Be sure to come back & post the results here, or at least add a link from this post to any new ones you do... I'd like to follow along. :D Bob

[magic612]

Ahh... the joys of Do-It-Yourself!

Okay, sequence of events over the weekend:

SATURDAY
Toys-R-Us near me is having going out of business sale - convince wife to go there. Purchase 3 foam gliders with 54" wingspan.
Return home. Determine center of gravity, and mark CG on wings and fuselage.
While balanced, set servos, receiver, battery and engine on top of fuselage to determine approximate placement of various parts.
Cut holes for servos, receiver, hack off about 9" of nose, cut straight edges for stab & elev controls. Cut and attach balsa control surfaces with vinyl tape (nice hinges, eh?)
Reinforce wings with 2" clear packaging tape, top and bottom.
Bring engine to garage to test. Realize it wasn't cleaned up after last run 15 years ago. Spend 1.5 hours tearing apart, cleaning and rebuilding engine.
Bring engine BACK out to garage. After several minutes of fumbling with needle valve position - SHE RUNS! (And there was much rejoicing.. yay!)
Several runs later, remember that glow plugs drain LOTS of juice from D-cel battery. Remember need for 4 cell AAA battery pack. Run to Radio Shack, pick up 4 cell AAA and D cases.
Rewire D-cell case for parallel wiring. Cut hole for AAA battery pack. Cut and glue on firewall.

SLEEP

SUNDAY
Rummage through old R/C plane parts and scrap drawer, find one old pushrod and some piano wire. Attach control horns. Bend and cut each pushrod to work properly on control surfaces.
Cut slot in plastic wing holder to attach receiver switch. Tape down servo / battery wires. Double check CG. Look at plane, realize it's all white. Look outside - white snow, white clouds.
Rummage through old R/C stuff - find some red and blue trim pieces. Cut to fit - red on right wing, blue on left. Attach engine. Look outside again - complete calm. Get nervous. Tell kids to get warm clothing on.
Drive with kids to nearby large open field. Test radio - all systems go. Test glide over snow - perfect glide, perfect landing. Pilot starts to get cocky (BAD idea..).
Start engine. Engine doesn't like 45F weather. Engine finally starts and stays running. Test flight one: about 30 feet, had landing into ground. Repeat 2 more times. Realize that gloved hand bumped trim controls. Fix trim controls. Kids complaining about being cold. Start engine 4th time, plane launched - HOLYCOWTHISTHINGISGOINGFASTERTHANIEXPECTED....plan e flies at least 40-50 yards, slight gust of wind suddenly pops up out of nowhere....

Now, here's where I should explain something. I've had radio control cars for years. Throttle was always on the left, and steering on the right. I only have a two channel for this plane at the moment (everything I used to make it, except the plane, was stuff I alread had on hand). Well, I switched the elevator to the right, and rudder to the left, thinking that a 4 channel radio (planned purchase for a month or two down the road) would be set up more along those lines. Bad idea - the momentary hesitation of realizing that your turning stick is not under your right thumb leads to...

CRASH!

Oooops. Fuselage broke at it's weakest points - just in front of wing on the bottom, and where the plastic holder fits in the top. Okay, done for the day (kids were cold anyway). Head home, glue fuselage back together, reinforce with dowel and add additional dihedral, (this should help my "newbie" flying immensely, in retrospect), change radio back to elevator on left, rudder on right. Quick note too - the added dihedral was pretty easy to accomplish - I just pulled the 2" tape off the top of the wing, flexed the wing downward, reapplied the tape to the top and, "Voila!" - diehdral added. Took a little time to get both wings even, but warping the wings up and holding it up with the tape was pretty easy. Should fly a lot better now!

So, that was my fun-filled weekend - can't wait to try it again, actually, even though I wasn't particularly successful. At least I have two extra gliders hanging in my garage when I've beaten this one all to heck. And if I get a chance, I'll try and pick up some micro servos too - that will certainly help with the weight (although it'll change my CG, so I may not do that right away).

Thanks for all your help - I'll try to post some pictures if/when I get a chance!

[eliworm]

If I remember you said you had a QRC .049. I had one (wish I still had it) and it has lots of power. One thing you can do to slow the plane down is put the prop on backward. Makes it less effective. This gives you a little time to think with a slower flying plane.

Jim

[magic612]

If I remember you said you had a QRC .049. I had one (wish I still had it) and it has lots of power. One thing you can do to slow the plane down is put the prop on backward. Makes it less effective. This gives you a little time to think with a slower flying plane.

Jim

Yep, it's a QRC. Another reason it went faster than expected was that I had a 3 bladed 5x3 on it. I had a 6x3, but in my backyard glide tests, it broke after an unscheduled rendezvous with the swingset (another oooops....plane & engine survived just fine, prop didn't). So, the 5x3 was all I had left by the time I was ready to fly. I'm going to pick up some 6x3's on Friday, and I'll put 'em on backwards to slow her down even more for my next try - whenever that might be, one never knows around Chicago. I just hope it's sooner than April!!!

Thanks for the tip - much appreciated.

Say, does anyone know if cold weather affects these little engines adversely? I had problems getting it to stay running after I took the glow clip off, until it had run for a bit. Of course, that really drains the D-cells to have to do that - any suggestions?

[Demon-Leather]

Cold weather will effect the running... cools to quick. You can wire a small piece of tin or aluminum to the front of the cylinder to partially block the cold air flow... 2 C-sized nicads paralelled (keeping the voltage 1.2V ) hooked to your Cox clip will last quite a while, and are rechargable. The C-sized nicad is the same size used in most clip-on glow ignighters. I'f You put out about 12 bucks, You can buy a rechargable Nicad glow igniter,.. but they don't work well on Cox heads. If all you're going to use is Cox, You can modify the igniter by removing the clip-on part & soldering the Cox clip to the wires. If You are going to use it with other glows, Get a Norvel 049 head that takes standard short plugs, and replace your Cox head with it. You can get an "extra-fancy" one with a charge needle in the back even. Just make sure You get one that at least unscrews so You can change the Nicad...like this one:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD697&P=0
Saves money in the long-run. OR You can buy a cheapie with a charger, then when it burns out, buy the screw type without the charger for like 17-18 bucks. Bob

[arukum17]

I am building a great planes power pod for use with a .049 Cox Black Widow
Plan to rubber band it up to my Spirit 2M. I could have bought any engine but something inside wanted an old fashioned cox .049

How noisy are .049s?

[willin]

Heh! Heh! Heh!

Depends on where you are! and how much "ambiant noise" there is.

Seriously though, they can let out a healthy scream. When leaned out properly it will sound much like a hornet with a really bad hangover that you have just whacked 'cuz you just felt like it. Only louder. You'll see.

Robert