I've read many of the foamy airliner conversions reported here, so when I saw one at the LHS I thought I would give it a go. The thing that attracted me to this one was that it had nacelles and looked fairly realistic. Another plus point that I found out later was that , although the wings friction fit into the fuselage, where they meet there are overlapping and 'interlocking' sections which keep the two wing halves firmly in place during flight. Having flown and crashed it already, I found that the amount of friction fit is not enough to stop the wings coming off when it nosed in, and resulted in only minor damage to the wings. Unfortunately, the fuselage snapped at the wing saddle, but was easily repairable.

AUW is 11oz and is setup for rudder, elevator and throttle. Power is 2 EPS100 DD (280) motors with the standard 5*3 props, CC pixie 7 speed controller and 2 ETEC 1200 Lipos. Receiver is GWS 4 channel with a liteantenna and two Cirrus 6.2g servos. Static pulls around 6 amps. Wings are removable.

She flies very well and quite fast.

Where is your CG?

Nick,
I like the shape of the wing. Do you recall the name of the plane or the manufacturer?

Yours looke great! These planes make awsome convertions. I like the twin 280 idea.

I slapped two EDF 50's on mine and added LG. Very cool plane, but it could have used more power. it needed full power to climb well, and cruse was around 3/4 WOT. Still a fun plane, and flew very scale-like.


Thomas

Where do you find these cool looking gliders? The LHS and retailers have awful looking stuff; nothing like a real airliner.

It's the Life Like Models 737, the can be found in the free flight glider section at Tower, or run a search on life like on their website. It's a good idea to buy 3 or more since they are a little pricey with shipping. Otherwise, many Hobby Lobby craft stores carry them year round as a regular item for about 5 bucks.
They not only make a great Airliner, but by them selves or with other foamies combined they are great starting platforms. I have bashed, sanded, hot wired, sliced and carved them into Sonic Liners, Fighter jets, X-wings, Y-wings, Salamanders, Pteridactyls, pylon racers, business jets, cruise missiles, cargo planes and several other things. The other gliders I usually used to help create some of these are the Ultra Flyer, Turbo Jet and Lanier U-2. I also save parts from crashed kits.

The Hobby Lobby craft stores stock them if theres one in your area

Dick Roberts

Still going strong after over a year.




I'm going to upgrade from the EDP-100's to 300's and get some
more power for loops and stuff. Right now it's just a cruiser.

Mine is still going strong on those little bitty GWS direct drive motors with 3/2 props in pusher configuration.

Gary

Just decided after I get the EDP-300s installed I'm going to put
wheels on mine. I'm tired of just belly landing it. Time for touch
and goes!

Originally posted by jamin
Where is your CG?

Hey Jamin - it's 4 1/2 inches back from the leading edge at the root

Nick

Hey Nick, You got it too heavy! ;-) I bet it would really be fun with those little 50XC motors like I have on mine. I flew mine a bunch last weekend out near Blythe visiting with RC friends from AK. They couldnt believe how well it flies! There is definitely a run on gliders out there. They all want one! Sorry I havent been around much lately. Ill be out on business this weekend :-(. But after that I am gearing back up!

Take Care,
BC

BC,

I just ordered a couple 50XCs and those tiny props from
Aeromicro. I'm just curious as to how they perform. Does your
757 have decent power and what batteries do you use? Also can
you post any close up pics of your landing gear?

Thx

Btw, just for everyone's info my CG is 4" from the LE at the
wingroot and is rock solid stable.

For anyone wanting to buy one of these (sorry-they no longer
make the American Airlines version) here is the "Air Force Glider"
made by Lifelike, available at Tower Hobbies (in stock now) for
$8.39 plus shipping. If you can't find them locally, price wise
and "bang for your buck," you can't beat it!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXDBH7&P=7

Same plane, just different decals.

Originally posted by bcripe1
Hey Nick, You got it too heavy! ;-) I bet it would really be fun with those little 50XC motors like I have on mine. I flew mine a bunch last weekend out near Blythe visiting with RC friends from AK. They couldnt believe how well it flies! There is definitely a run on gliders out there. They all want one! Sorry I havent been around much lately. Ill be out on business this weekend :-(. But after that I am gearing back up!

Take Care,
BC

Hi Bill,

Yep, it's no floater thats for sure. The foam itself weighs 5oz, so with a smaller wing size than yours, I figured it needed the EPS100 DD motors to keep it in the air.

I bought another one like yours and will build it with the same setup you have. Let me know how far back you mounted the motor on the fuselage.

Looks like we will miss each other weekend after next as well as I will be out on business. I'll drop you an email when I get back into town.

All the best
Nick