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Hi All,

I was asked to make this post buy a forum member. As most know the Diamond Dust are no longer produced. But in Georgia, they live.

These were the last two kits I was able to purchase form Tetracam Inc. about 2 years ago. My brother Bill wanted Batman, and a Family friend wanted Robin. I was already Captain America, and my other Brother Mike was the Green Lanturn. Batman, Robin, and Captain America are outfitted with the Evolution 40NX. Captain America has a Jett Tuned Muffler. The Green Lanturn is running a TT Pro 36 on a Jett Muffler.

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My Dad (Dan Stevens) passed away in 2007, and he had and old MVVS 40 that had not been run since a rebuild probably 20 plus years ago. As the Story goes, this was Mac Hodges motor that he used on a Dust until he lost the airplane (Lost Radio) and hit a tree (this motor has no throttle, therefore wide *ss open). (After 5 agonizing days of pain, the tree died ). Well I just had to put this motor on another Dust! However Tetracam Inc. stopped selling them. Since we are doing the Super Heros, this Dust could only be "Flash." I started cutting parts by hand from a plans set and before you know Flash lives!

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Flash Died a horrible Death at a Fly-In @ Gray Ga. Why Not everyone else was tearing up thier stuff too. I thought I had mid-aired someone only to find out after the explosion, Flash was the only Fatality. Flash had a structural Failure. I am currently re-building Flash. Because of the failure, the New Flash is a foam core using a pylon racing airfoil. After testing the new delta with the same motor and prop, against a Dust with the same motor and prop, If things go well, I have a Jett Fire 50 Rear Exhaust NIB waiting for it.

Meantime, at the Hall of Justice, Brother Bill started complaining he couldn't see Batman. I warned him of the colors but he was geared up on the 60's style Batman. Now I have to Give Batman a Face-Lift. I enlisted the help of one of my daughters friends to strip Batman for me while I was working on something else.

In the middle of all of this Robin crashes completely. It just doesn't get any better than this. Like Captain America, I laid on the wire so my friends could get through this. Robin was one of my first Laser cut deltas. Tetracam Inc stopped selling them, Diamond Dust RC is unresponsive, and I was tired of hand cutting these simple parts. I had the parts I needed put into a CAD program (It will Cost me a Delta, Aquaman I think), and took the program to a guy I know with a Laser Cutter. Life is good again.

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Batmans Face Lift. Just a Few Shots. Before and After.

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The New Robin! Keep in mind Robin is a fresh build. The old Robin is Dead. I did save the fins though.

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Would you believe that Bills first time out with Batman's new Face Lift he flies the thing through some trees! OMG, first a build, then a Face-Lift, now a Re-Build? Really!!!!! I had to repair the right tip, completely replace the left tip and partial spar. Bandsaw out the chewed up portion of motor mount (found the motor 30 yards away from the aircraft), and replace with good wood, fiberglass and epoxy.

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I did build one for my Graphics guy. He Decided to be the Martian ManHunter. He debude it at the Hilltop Fly-in a few weeks ago and it flew well and Don flew it well. Don Grisson is pretty big into RC Combat (He does Combat write ups for AMA Magazine) and he took to the Delta like a Duck to water. Martian Man Hunter is also powered by and Evolution 40NX. Don also had me build a battery Box with a hatch in his so he could use a LiFe battery. He Wanteed to be able to pull it out for charging. Sorry, but the group picture at the Hilltop Fly-In was the first time I saw it with the graphics. I need to get some better pics of it.

On a Side note, while at the Fly-In, Brother Mike Sold his Green lanturn to Richard "The Lying" Heart. Now Mike wants me to build him an Iron Man!!! Does this ever end? I'd go crazy if it did. I haven't even started on that. I'm in the middle of Magneto!

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So I was typing about Magneto. Super Villian. Can you guess the powerplant? Another friend of mine is into electrics. As soon as I was asked if I could build him an electric Delta, my first question was, "Will you be Magneto?" To me, electrics are the Dark Side. Killer of the Glow engines, and Catalist for RC as a whole. More members than ever, but few who build. If you can buy it, you can fly it. Clean, no fuss no muss. I hate electrics, but I now have a few. I have givin in to the Dark Side.

Magneto is still being built. It is Ready for covering and Graphics. The center section has been narrowed, and the front has been re-engineered completely. Therefore it is a smaller aircraft. I used a mount he requested, and made the housing area large enough for a 4 cell battery. He is going to run a Monster Jett 2200KV motor, 70 amp ESC on 14.8 volts swinging a 7x5 prop. I don't have a clue what this will do.

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Magneto is coming along. In the mean time, my Brother Mike and I were toying around with some ideas & concepts since we needed another Delta for him (Iron Man). We decided to call this series of Deltas the Hell Raiser. We did complete the basic Fram-Up today.

This Delta spans 32 1/2 inches. 2 full inches shorter in span than a Regular Dust reducing the wing area by at least 48 square inches because we took the 2 inches from Center rather than tips. I predict a fun time installing servos outside of the main ribs and a whole bunch of other problems along the way.

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Group Picture at the Hilltop Fly-In

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Wow that is cool.

You've got one powerful addiction going there. Thanks for the post.

The one and only DD I saw fly crashed. The guy was doing about 150 MPH and lost orientation and put it into the woods. Not a good plane to bring out at the last bit of light before packing up to go home!

Cool plane though.

I see by some of the photos, that some DD are built with a single vertical fin.
Does this affect the way the plane will fly?
Does the height, or square inches of fin matter?
I have a side exhaust OS 32SX with tuned pipe, and it looks as if the pipe may interfere with the dual vertical fins.
I have a NIB kit, and was just starting to duplicate parts for my first DD.

Greg

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Yes, the addiction is real. I've flown Dust for over 20 years and they still get my heart racing.

I've had several discussions on how to best deal with orientation issues with small deltas going really fast. Some people like to use bright opposing colors. Personally, I use the silloette of the fin(s) combined with a constant and conscious mental track of the aircraft. It is only going is one direction.

As far as the fins go, you need a certain amount of area of fin in relation to the area of wing. The Diamond Dust came with twin fin, and I don't recall the exact area total of both fins, but my single fin has enough area for the wing and is close to the total area of the original twin fin.

I prefer the Single with no rudder. Other folk like the rudder. The only application the single doesn't work is a rear exhaust pipe.

We also use the fin to add character to our planes without changing the way they fly. Every Super hero plane we do has a diffent fin(s) set up.

Thanks for inquiry

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