Next up is an old fling wing, Mfg & Model unknown. I go it a a RC Swap Meet many moons ago.

It was set up as an elevon plane, with the aileron servo sliding back and forth on rails by the elevator servo. Really old school.

I will put 2 micro servos in and mix elevator to aileron on my radio. It as a glider, so I will put a Dualsky XM400C motor turning an 8x4 folding prop on a 3S 800 mAh battery. That should give me plenty of thrust while keeping the wing loading down.

I will have to do some balsa surgery to get everything to work, but it should be OK.

Updates to follow.

Update:

I will need to revise the motor I planed to use for this build. The nose of the glider is so narrow the Dualsky XM400C motor is too wide (26 mm) to fit in the nose at the point the firewall will hold the motor, I plan to mount the motor behind the firewall, where I only have 20 mm max room.

The battery will be a 3S 800 mAh. The prop looks like a 6x4 E.

OK - change of plans. I will be using an oldie but a goodie - an Astro 020 brushless geared and about a 10-6 folding prop. I have the servos mounted and will have elevons by computer radio mixing. Have a nice spinner and yoke that will blend into the nose lines well. I get to practice my solder skils on the ESC wires....Continue Reading

Well, I am going further back in my WIP hoard, Cox produced a small ARF pattern-ish kit called the Scorpion. I got it at a RC Fle Market / Swap Shop (remember those?) may years ago, and could not get satisfactory performance out of a can brushed motor and some 2/3 Sub C NICADs. Go figure.

Now I have a small brushless motor with a gear box, a 3 cell LIPO and a 10 x 7 E prop. This should work.

Not too much to do to get this one ready, Rework the cowl attachment to the fuse, put some locktite on the grub screw that hold on the prop adaptor (found out the hard way why that is a good thing to do), and see how it does.

With the new battery/motor, the plane is much lighter than before. With more power and less weight (lower wing loading), it should be a nice "toss in the car and go" model.

I will post the results after my next trip to the field.

I have started going through my WIP (Work In Progress) stash to get a trainer model ready that I can use to polish off the rust from my flying skills. I will be flying some planes this year for the first time in a long while.

Not wanting to prang a really nice model right off the bat, I looked through my hoard for something slow and forgiving, and not so costly.

I found a Lanier U2 free flight glider I had started converting years ago, and decided that was just the ticket. I did a conversion of this kit (that one was rubber powered) with a 6 cell NICAD Sub C pack and a Master Airscrew 05 can motor/gearbox combo. That model flew great (I almost lost it in a Boomer thermal at the neighborhood park one day. It went from being a plane outline to a cross outline to a speck. Panicked at the speck juncture).

With the advances in batteries and motors, I anticipated a nice light (Slow landing speed) and stress free model to fly. So off I went.

The original model was a little bendy on the wings in flight, so I had put a light coat of fiberglass cloth on them before I stopped work years ago.

I decided a 3S LIPO and an Omega 103 turning a 10 X 6 MA prop would be about right. I am using a Phoenix 45A HV ESC.

I inset the servos into the fuse walls, so I could have as much throw as possible on the tail control surfaces. I used Sullivan Golden Rods that I anchored at the aft compartment bulkhead and ~ 2/3 the way back to the tail inside the fuse. I cut out the rudder and...Continue Reading