the fly boy was my second model...first to fly successfully
great for beginners.
i wish i still had it, i left it in the garage and my dad ran it over...

We've had some fun with the Mini Catapult Glider...



....so today my son began constructing the "Cadet".



Here's where he is up to so far.





I've got no modelling experience so I hope we are getting it right!!

Regards,

Simon

Certainly looks like a good start to me!

what -james- said



-des

I built a Cadet years ago. It flew pretty well but use better rubber than what came with the kit. I remember building a second one and trying water shrinking tissue covered wings. That bowed them way out of shape.

Kev

One problem I had with my first Cadet was that the simple flat metal prop holder didn't keep the prop at a constant thrust angle. It just flopped around making getting it trimmed impossible. Are they still using that type prop holder in these kits?

The prop holder is a little 'L' shaped piece of metal with a hole in the short leg. Is there a better way to connect the prop?

Yes, the little L shaped piece of metal is what gave me trouble so many years ago. There are a number of better ways. I'm off to bed for tonight. I'll dig up some examples tomorrow.

Before jumping into the more involved build of a stick and tissue kit I would suggest that he buiild a brace of all balsa chuck gliders. They are great fun in their own right when hand launched or catapult launched and teach a lot about the basics of working with balsa in terms of cutting and sanding to achieve the desired shapes. And with less parts to worry about it's easier to spend time thinking about shaping each part to perfection before assembly. Not to mention that the smaller versions take up a lot less room to fly. I must have made a good 40 or 50 chuckies sized from 5 to 12 inch span when I was a kid before I ever tackled my first rubber model. Standards, canards, deltas, flying saucers, biplanes, twin booms and others just to see if they had different flying charactaristics. On top of that they were done as both profile scale models of fighters and jets decorated with felt markers as well as more "contest" types. Great low key fun that taught me a lot about trimming at the same time as grinning.

When I was younger I bought every rubber powered stick fuselage and sheet winged kit I could find, the inexpensive kits for a few dollars. I must have had ten of them, some the same kit but I looked for differing designs. I tried all kinds of wing, stabilizer and rudder combinations and often combined the parts from different kits. It was great research and fun. These days though I don't see as many of these different kits for sale. There are flight science kits available at the local Hobby Lobby here in glider designs. From what I understand these kits allow for all kinds of different glider combinations for experiment.

Kev

OK, 2 ideas on a prop hanger. First, a workaround from Simpleflyer over at the SFA site. He simply made the loop of rubber a little shorter than the distance between the prop hook and the rear hook, so the prop was under a little bit of tension all the time. Gave it enough stability to fly decent.
Second, buy one of the Guillow's slip together planes that come in a plastic sleeve and use the hanger and prop assembly from that. You would need to add some balsa to the nose so it fits snugly.

In my last post I didn't think to ask what kind of tools and building skills you might have. There's a few other ways to build prop hangers, but they require a bit of both tools and skills. Nothing major, but I don't want you to spend money on something you won't use much.

A general suggestion. Check your local library system for 2 books, "Hey Kid! Ya Wanna Build a Model Airplane?" by Bill Warner and "Rubber Powered Model Airplanes" by Don Ross. Both have a lot of info on model airplane building for the beginner. I think the Don Ross book is still available new, but the Bill Warner book is out of print and prices for used copies are a bit steep.

That's the thing. With simple all balsa chuck gliders the expense in wood and time is so slight that it's just not worth the time or cost to buy someone's "science" kit package. It's far more fun to design and build your own models and if they don't fly well to figure out what is wrong and correct it.

My first stick and tissue build. I'm 40 and I flew rc foamies for the last few years. For FF I Started with a Retro RC Sky King balsa hlg, moved to the Guillow's Goldwing, then this Cadet. My maiden was today. The wind was a little strong, but after waiting to fly after the glue dried, I just had to get her up. She flew well for the conditions, but tracked very straight, I think the amount of right rudder (per instructions) was just enough to eliminate torque steer but not induce a turn. I don't understand why they have me trim for right flight when the torque could just take it left? Anyone wanna chime in? Next up is a Peck Polymers Sky Bunny ROG, then a Guillow's Javelin. Thanks to the gentlemen at the AMA expo, Tony Naccarato and Howard Littman for talking so patiently to a newbie and letting the bug bite me.

Good to see on the other thread that calm air worked well to settle down the flight pattern

I'll comment on my experience with picking rubber, generally for a little bigger outdoor planes.

Quote
I tried a thinner motor and it just couldn't pull the plane thru the air. But it's better quality rubber. Can I get the same torque by using multiple strands of the thinner motor, thus increasing winding for longer time aloft, or should I just try a longer motor of the thicker rubber for increased run time?

I've used Tan Sport rubber from FAi Supply or A2Z (Peck) for Bostonians and embryos turning 6 - 7 inch plastic props. If you want more power, increase cross section, say from 3/32 inch wide strip to 1/8 inch wide in one loop. The next step up in stock size is 2 loops (4 strands) of 3/32 inch strip. A plane of 10-14 grams with a prop of about 6 inches diameter will climb well enough indoors on the single loop. I've got a bostonian and a No-Cal that do just fine on 1/8. Outdoors for takeoff power, I use two loops of 3/32 for a Peck Prairie Bird embryo. This assumes you're stretch winding and putting in enough torque. Do you have one of the yellow 15/1 winders from A2Z Peck? You can get a good enough feel for how tight to wind using one of those if you get some extra rubber and wind a loop until it breaks.

You get more time aloft from more turns and a longer motor, but you don't want to add too much weight, so you've got to experiment with motor length. The experts use a long thin motor with as many turns as they can pack in.

If you try 2 loops of 3/32 on your Cadet, you'll have a rocket once you get some torque on the motor, but it may be to heavy to climb. For 1/16 wide rubber, 2 loops might be about right.

You can get small packages of Tan rubber from FAI or A2Z (Peck). You should get some and try it out. Here near Chicago I know of one LHS, Al's, that even stocks the stuff.

FAI Model Supply http://domino-35.prominic.net/A55C2D/fai.nsf

A2Z peck Poymers http://www.a2zcorp.us/store/

Originally Posted by DuPageJoe

Good to see on the other thread that calm air worked well to settle down the flight pattern

I'll comment on my experience with picking rubber, generally for a little bigger outdoor planes.

Quote
I tried a thinner motor and it just couldn't pull the plane thru the air. But it's better quality rubber. Can I get the same torque by using multiple strands of the thinner motor, thus increasing winding for longer time aloft, or should I just try a longer motor of the thicker rubber for increased run time?
I've used Tan Sport rubber from FAi Supply or A2Z (Peck) for Bostonians and embryos turning 6 - 7 inch plastic props. If you want more power, increase cross section, say from 3/32 inch wide strip to 1/8 inch wide in one loop. The next step up in stock size is 2 loops (4 strands) of 3/32 inch strip. A plane of 10-14 grams with a prop of about 6 inches diameter will climb well enough indoors on the single loop. I've got a bostonian and a No-Cal that do just fine on 1/8. Outdoors for takeoff power, I use two loops of 3/32 for a Peck Prairie Bird embryo. This assumes you're stretch winding and putting in enough torque. Do you have one of the yellow 15/1 winders from A2Z Peck? You can get a good enough feel for how tight to wind using one of those if you get some extra rubber and wind a loop until it breaks.

You get more time aloft from more turns and a longer motor, but you don't want to add too much weight, so you've got to experiment with motor length. The experts use a long thin motor with as many turns as they can pack in.

If you try 2 loops of 3/32 on your Cadet, you'll have a rocket once you get some torque on the motor, but it may be to heavy to climb. For 1/16 wide rubber, 2 loops might be about right.

You can get small packages of Tan rubber from FAI or A2Z (Peck). You should get some and try it out. Here near Chicago I know of one LHS, Al's, that even stocks the stuff.

FAI Model Supply http://domino-35.prominic.net/A55C2D/fai.nsf

A2Z peck Poymers http://www.a2zcorp.us/store/

I got some rubber in and a winder. All sizes b/w 3/32 to 3/16. Building a Sky Bunny too then I may go find the rest of the build and fly kits before I build the Javelin I have in the box. Also, great news, my rec center gym is open and empty most of the day so indoor flight is on.