Originally Posted by Draknkep

Just remember, don't drop those in flight....

DAG, maybe you can rig a few non functional air tanks to be dropped and explode while under 100 psi. That would definitely be the icing on the cake! Just make sure everyone at the field is wearing their safety gear though! (of course, not being serious here. Just letting my mind wander around)

Once again kudos for having the where-with-all to have your kids share your passion for aviation... My Dad was a navigator on the Spectre gunships and I congratulate you for giving your son the opportunity to see firsthand the cockpit of a C-130.

My nine year old daughter is nowhere as enthusiastic as yours seems to be with R/C aviation, though if I were buiding something as impressive as your project it might be another story...

Originally Posted by CKD315

Once again kudos for having the where-with-all to have your kids share your passion for aviation... My Dad was a navigator on the Spectre gunships and I congratulate you for giving your son the opportunity to see firsthand the cockpit of a C-130.

My nine year old daughter is nowhere as enthusiastic as yours seems to be with R/C aviation, though if I were buiding something as impressive as your project it might be another story...

My son climbing all over the C-130 has now made him want to join the Air Force, and so far he is still pumped about it.

A few more pics from that day. A really good friend of mine has a museum that has a operational Nasa C-130 that they acquired. We were on a road trip to Oshkosh last summer.

DAG

Before I get slammed today....

A thing about designing.

Over the last 40+ years most RC models have been IC, so they were loud and shakers. I believe most just built planes they felt would not fail, no real design, no real math or testing. While looking at my B-136D design 8 years ago I knew I had to use very little birch plywood, and stay as lean as possible on lite-plywood. I had bought many Don Smith plans to evaluate how plans are designed and built. I had my first Don Smith 189" B-29 cut for me per the plans, I then cut a second kit using my design methods I had came up with, my bundle of wood came up 5.25 pounds lighter. Now that might not sound like much, but then when you look at the way I like to sheet and us stringer to support the sheeting, I ended up with an airframe 26% lighter. Most all the plans I see out there (except 3D) are so over built. My 260" C-130 will only have birch plywood on the main gears, and nowhere else. The bulkheads will all be light-plywood, and everything else will be CF/balsa. Keep in mind, as soon as you sheet the fuse/wings and then glass you have great increased the strength. Heavy plywood in the fuse has just become worthless. I see people use plywood because they need the strength, do they really??? Who told them that??? What testing shows that a balsa structure with a bit of CF would not have been just fine and half the weight????

When I drop the bomb and chose my next project I may start another thread just to not clog this one up. But I want to post the design as well as I have seen great interest in the design side of what I do.

Rock On!
DAG

You are spot on Dag. Since most anything will fly with a large enough engine on it, RCers have been known for poor design and construction. My dad taught me to build light as we built mostly freeflight and control line. He has a Goldberg Valkyrie with an 8ft wing that weighs 5lb ready to fly. The design is from the 40's.
You have the advantage of CAD but you are also learning to use your intuition for choosing the right or close to right construction method.

I work as a framer (construction when there is any) and I can attest that the normal frame (2 x 6's, etc.) are pretty rickety and prone to sway, move, wrack, and twist without a lot of bracing. When you sheet it with plywood it make it about 900% stronger.
Foo

Hey all,
I have been contacted by a few really cool C-130 guys that was around the real bird. And I see the C-130 will be a great project if I go that direction. But one guy e-mailed me and said I should ask if anyone has a elevation of the fuse with the stations called out for where everything is located. I am finding out very quickly that most the drawings out there, and defiantly the 3D drawings are whacked. One set of plans scaled up full scale with the wings at 132' has the fuse at 16' wide, when it is 14'6".

So if anyone has a drawings or picture that shows the station lines that would be out of this world, and I will buy you lunch one day.

Thanks, DAG

I just sent you the C-130 Handbook...has all the station lines

Hi Dag....

Cool pics....especially the one of the Russian "Hind" Heli... That was/is a very potent bird. Almost on par with our "Apache", but capable of carrying troops too.....A double "whammy"

And...if you ever wanted to do a large scale heli, I have the station lines fore the Apache, that I got directly from the manufacturer years ago... If the model was 12' long the stations would be about 1/2" apart...so very detailed...

SteveT

Originally Posted by dwhee

And the winner of the free lunch is...

lol yay

Originally Posted by dag214

When I drop the bomb and chose my next project I may start another thread just to not clog this one up. But I want to post the design as well as I have seen great interest in the design side of what I do.

Rock On!
DAG

Post a link to it and I'll be watching

Originally Posted by dag214

Hey all,
I have been contacted by a few really cool C-130 guys that was around the real bird. And I see the C-130 will be a great project if I go that direction. But one guy e-mailed me and said I should ask if anyone has a elevation of the fuse with the stations called out for where everything is located. I am finding out very quickly that most the drawings out there, and defiantly the 3D drawings are whacked. One set of plans scaled up full scale with the wings at 132' has the fuse at 16' wide, when it is 14'6".

So if anyone has a drawings or picture that shows the station lines that would be out of this world, and I will buy you lunch one day.

Thanks, DAG

I can help with this. The basics: 95/245/737 (back of nose radome/front of cargo area/ramp hinge)
I'll look around and see what I can find for you.

The 3-D reference points for everything (at least on the C-130) are as follows:
Fuselage station (nose to tail)
Butt Line (left or right of center)
Water Line (elevation)

There is also a reference system for the wings...that kind of escapes me right now.

I have ideas about the MLG, using a jackscrew driven by a servo motor. I look forward to a thread on the C-130 build so we can start brainstorming.

Len

AMAZING! A y predicted finish dates? Wow, I don't even want to think about a crash…

I am very new to RC, in fact I just got my 1st car about 8 months ago, my 1st Heli about 5 months ago and my 1st plane about 3 weeks ago. I did about 3 weeks of research before I got my first plane and ended up following this tread ever since. You are definitely an inspiration Dag. Looks like I am going to be sticking with planes for now on.

I noticed everyone talking about your next project already so I figured I would put in my two cents. I lived in Abilene TX for about 2 years and worked at one end of Dyess Air Force Base and got to see many C-130s and B-1B Lancers take off. I loved hearing and seeing the B-1s and C-130s take off from there. Although they never had the WoW factor as the V-22 Osprey I now see every other day since I live in Albuquerque. Well the B-1B Lancer almost did:-)

So without further ado here is my suggestion.

V-22 Osprey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-22_Osprey

First I really wana see a video of that monster your building right now fly!

Originally Posted by dag214

Before I get slammed today....

A thing about designing.

Over the last 40+ years most RC models have been IC, so they were loud and shakers. I believe most just built planes they felt would not fail, no real design, no real math or testing. While looking at my B-136D design 8 years ago I knew I had to use very little birch plywood, and stay as lean as possible on lite-plywood. I had bought many Don Smith plans to evaluate how plans are designed and built. I had my first Don Smith 189" B-29 cut for me per the plans, I then cut a second kit using my design methods I had came up with, my bundle of wood came up 5.25 pounds lighter. Now that might not sound like much, but then when you look at the way I like to sheet and us stringer to support the sheeting, I ended up with an airframe 26% lighter. Most all the plans I see out there (except 3D) are so over built. My 260" C-130 will only have birch plywood on the main gears, and nowhere else. The bulkheads will all be light-plywood, and everything else will be CF/balsa. Keep in mind, as soon as you sheet the fuse/wings and then glass you have great increased the strength. Heavy plywood in the fuse has just become worthless. I see people use plywood because they need the strength, do they really??? Who told them that??? What testing shows that a balsa structure with a bit of CF would not have been just fine and half the weight????

When I drop the bomb and chose my next project I may start another thread just to not clog this one up. But I want to post the design as well as I have seen great interest in the design side of what I do.

Rock On!
DAG

That's the engineer-modeller spirit, DAG. Keep it lighter and stronger. That's why we design and build. As you know I'm designind a 50% Pitts S-1 to use with your gasser, after the project done it would be quite nice to compare our designs and discuss'em. Keep up this amazing job!