Taken at the Thames Blackfeet flying site at the vintage meeting held Nov 27/28, 2010. Wonderful weather, great camaraderie, an altogether good time. Following URL will take to you video footage of my large vintage (1939) being put through its paces. A Reg Truman design, (wing is the original built by Reg in 1939), the model span 2.8 metres, power is a Super Custom .91 cu in four stroke (bags of power but need the nose weight ) and is silk and dope covered. Is a delight to fly and very gentle. Allen

Vintage model RC1 (1939) in flight (1 min 3 sec)

Love the model.....sweet. How about a close up photos of the four stroke you powered it with?

Thanks Bill

Nice one Allen. Great to see vintage well supported in your part of NZ. A great Kiwi design.

Allan

From what I can gather these SC engines are the same as Magnum or ASP........would I be correct?

Bill

Yes, I think there is some sort of link up between Super Custom and Magnum or ASP. I don't know much about this, however, I am happy with the performance of the engine. You may be able to make out the letters SC on the side of the engine. Mind you, it is usually operating at around half to two thirds throttle so it is not being stressed at all. You may have noted quite a lot of smoke from the exhaust on the video. I use copious amounts of ATF when storing engines and always try to run them a little on the rich side to avoid overheating. Allen

Allen, nice model and video.
Is the wing really from 1939? No re-build, or fresh glue?
John

Hi John
Yes, it is the original wing from 1939 built by the designer. It had been stored in an attic however and was quite badly warped. I removed the old silk covering, added a rear diagonal spar and some diagonal ribs in the main panels to remove warps, replaced some damaged balsa sheeting, and recovered it again in silk. But the basic wing is still the same.
I think the video captures the essence of the model, a lovely floater. Just wished the last dead stick landing was a little more graceful
Kind regards
Allen

Thanks Allen. Truly amazing that the balsa and glue have held up for 70 years. Speaks volumes! The video shows it to be an excellent flyer, giving us all that little bit of extra inspiration to build another. And, as Bill says, the engine sounds just great!

Very nice video Allen. Looks like a very stable flyer, and the four stroke sure sounds nice. Still think that is one of the best looking old time designs I have seen. I am really drawn to the shape of the whole plane. I am thinking of scaling up the Top Hat plan a little for my Ohlsson 23. Then maybe scale it on up for one of my four strokes, or an Anderson Spitfire 65.

Thanks for the comments Jim. Yes, it is a lovely stable flyer, and it would have to be one of my favourite models to fly. An old sparky up front would sound good. There are 3 other models of Reg Trumans that were recently discovered that had been stored elsewhere and I have been the lucky recipient, one of which has a sparky up front! Haven't picked them up yet but have attached pictures. Do you recognise the old engine. The other two are Cox engines. Also, the Top Hat is Reg's original 1/2A Texaco model. Allen

The sparky is an Ohlsson side port, but I can't tell what size it is from the picture. If it is a fairly large plane, it would be a 60, and if smaller, say 60" or less, it would be a 23. I noticed it had a timer mounted behind the wing on the fuse also. On my R/C old timers, I use a micro switch mounted to the firewall, and operated by a servo through a nylon pushrod. I like to keep all of the ign. parts as far forward as possible, to keep from radio interference. It's not so bad I guess on the new 2.4 stuff though. A 10K ohm resister in the spark plug lead works for me on my old 72 radios. I have heard you can get by with a lot less on the 2.4.

Thanks for that Jim. The model is around 48 inch wing span so would presume it is a 23. I have wanted to have a spark ignition engine but don't know a lot about them. Do you have a special fuel mix you use? I do know about the interference with the radio signal and appreciate the sound advice to keep radio and engine as far apart as possible.
You mentioned that you operate a micro switch mounted to the firewall. Does this replace a timer and act as a cutout for the ignition? Excuse my ignorance, I can see it's going to be another learning curve! It's possible the wiring insulation could have gone brittle after all this time. Things will be a little more clearer once I have physically received the model. I have both a 2.4 radio and one on 40.230meg.
If I am correct, this model has some historical significance here in NZ as it won the NZ National 1/2A Texaco event way back in the 1940s. Thanks for your experienced input.
Allen

I remember seeing an old large pylon model hanging in Reg's garage some years ago; if it's the model with the sparky up front it's about 7 to 8ft span.
( obviously not the same model)
Colin.

Hi Colin, I had not seen that one 'in the flesh' so will be interesting to eventually see the model in person. I have to collect the models over Christmas/New Year so hope I have room in the car if the model is a large as you say it is! Allen

Yes on the micro switch. I just have it in series with the lead to the points. When the model gets as high as I want to go, I just kill it. The Ohlsson 23's are a joy to run. Easy to start and set, and run very consistant. I run both glo fuel, and gas oil in my sparkers. If you run glow fuel it should have a minimum of 25% oil, mostly castor, and no more than 5% nitro. When running gasoline, I mostly mix it with 25 to 30% castor, and sometimes use 60 wt. Harley Davidson motor oil. 70 wt. motor oil is what they use to run, but it is getting really hard to find where I live. By the way, the little Ohlsson 23 will run about as well on gasoline as it will on glow fuel.

Here is a transistor set up I use in some of my planes instead of running a condenser. It also runs very low current through the points so that they are not really an issue and are just used to trigger the transistor.