The Giggler

I would love to be the proud owner please,

We forgive you for your sins Phil. LoL !

Still on the topic, what about areas that are around the engine bay that will be covered in film, mainly the edges ?

Cheers guys, its only fool proof if you know the answer ! I was unsure of the right way round.

They say its fuel proof , but is it fool proof ! After doing a repair to the bulk head , should I use the fuel proofing before I use epoxy and matting or will it stop the epoxy making a good bond ? Cheers Craig.

Hi guy's, I have bought another airframe, It is already covered in white solar film all over both top and bottom, The question is what can i use to add coulor to it, I would like to put some blue chequre on the underside and some form of star burst  effect to the top side of the wing's, Do i need to strip the covering or what?? Can i use coulored solar film or some kind of low weight viynl (i think thats how to spell it LOL!!)     Cheers , Craig

To be honest, electric power is beyond the depth of my pockets. But a whole lot cleaner .

Hi all, It appears i joined the hobby 10 years to late, I love these Dave Smith Models,I think they look awsome!! They look something speacial even on the ground, First i got a Aerostar 62 , To me it was just a old plane when i bought it, Now that i have flown it a good couple of times im smitten with the pattern F3A planes,   I have just bought a newer Excelsior 177, Again i know nothing of the models but look forward to putting it into the air .   Does anyone still fly one of these models? Im looking for a chat with someone who knows the models well,   Q1, Should their be a big lump of lead in the nose of the plane, I have not put it on the scales but feels around the 1 llB mark!!   Q2, Whats a ideal engine to use should i be looking at a pumped engine or buy a seperate pump for it?   Looking forward to a response.    Cheers Craig.  

Peter, do you have the dimensions for this plane, wingspan and fusslarge lenght without the cowl, was the undercarrage originally where it is in the pics ?

Thanks Richard, After looking at Dave Smith's web site it could be a early DSM kit,I will try to email the with some pics and details.   Does anyone on here fly The Exelsior 150/163/177 model ? Just wondering what sort of C o G you have?   Cheers again guy's.   The Giggler

Biggles' older bro, i tried that link as a first port of call, But after spend hours measuring the plane it came back with @ 5% margin the C o G was almost 3/4 back from the leading edge, only at 15% it comes up with a 139mm back from the leading edge, The root is 325mm. Thats the confusing part, I have no idea what model it is ,Who made it and when, Perhaps i should not have bought it??  The guy who sold it on a well known auction site!! said it flys really well, But if i was selling it i would not say it's a load of rubbish!!   If you follow the link you just sent and go further down to the bottom of the thread you can see a link to a photo of the plane.   My main fear is the further back the  C o G then once fueled up it will just tip forwards.   It has a 63" wingspan and a 54" fuzz ,I have put in a .61 2stroke motor in it,So nothing daft proberly under powered but thats all i have being new to the hobby.   Thanks guys for your help,You have no idea how much assistance your all being.   Cheers The Giggler.

Ok thanks for the input. I am about to burn the plane ! No not really but that's how I feel about it. On low wing planes the undercarrage can I change the height of the plane ? If I move the C o G near to the 90 mm it will tip forwards very easy with a dry fuel tank the only way around this is to alter the angle of the under carrage,but I will need to make new as.the prop is too close to ground at 6 oclock . I think it will be cutting the grass on take off and landings.

Ok, As you know im new to the hobby, The wing root is 325mm And 1/3 of that is 108mm.   But if i use Lee's method which i have read before the root is 325 plus the tip 220mm     325+220=545 / 2=272.5 / 3 = 90.8 mm.    For a new to me plane never seen fly with one of my engines i have fitted would you first set it to 91mm  or the 108mm.   Sorry for going on with this.

Thanks Richard and Lee,  Question for Lee, When working out the tip chord how would you measure the tip in the link? Would you use a line from the end of the airlon ?? As you can see the tip is also tappered.

Im under the impression using 30% of the root of the wing is a good starting point,Does this apply to tappered wings or just staight wings? Mine are a tappered back leading edge and a straght trailing edge.   Cheers All.   If this has doubled please exept my appoligies.

photo link Edited By David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 12/08/2010 06:30:58

Sorry guy's N gals for this old dog. Im trying to work out the  C o G of a plane, To start with I tried the link at the top of this thread,Spent a hour measureing and re-measuring!! And at 15%static margin it tells me the  CoG is 139mm from the leading edge, If i use the way of adding the root of the wiing plus the tip of the wing then in my case its 320mm + 220mm = 540mm then devide by 2 = 270mm times by 0.333 = 89.91mm from the leading edge??   Get's worse, Use the 30% of the root in my case 320mm devide it by 3 = 106.6mm from the leading edge ??   If i lower the static margin then the CoG goes back even more.   This is the plane i just bought it,

Anyone still running these Rcv 58 ? I have one I came across , never seen or heard of a rotating four stroke I had to buy it so I could open it up to see how it worked. It's a nice bit. Of kit , it ran in a xclaim I'm learning with a little noisey and wouldn't idle reliable below 3200 rpm. So new bearings on the crank and a new cylinder bearing , new home made gaskets and whilst it sounds amazing still won't idle below 3000 rpm. Anyway its on a shelf until I get round to playing with it again. Prop I used was a 11 / 6 , 11/7 and to try to slow the plane for landing a 13 / 4 it ran with no performance drop and flow slow enough to drop a wing . But still a un reliable idle.

I have been playing with velcro this morning,One of the troubles is there is no formers or airframe to attach it to where i need the battary, Another idea i thought of was a square section of foam that i can cut into for the battary to sit in then tape it back so it cant come out and gently sqweeeeesss LOL!!  it into the fuslarge so it cant move.   Is that good enough can you think of any problems other than a crash which would allow the battary to move , At which case the plane is most likley binned!!

I have tried searching first on this one, What the best method to secure the RX pack in the fuslarge? It's a 4.8v 4 cell pack. I would like it to be movable so i can play with the CoG . Is velcro a option ?   What do you use??

To add to the smile for passing my A test the very next day I won the basic precision flight competition .

Hi all, you will be hearing more from me as I go, one question is , when doing the CoG why should the fuel tank be empty ? I'm sure we should have more than enough fuel to be able to abort a landing. Should we need to and not be running out of fuel landing dead stick . Why not do the CoG with a quarter tank or even half a tank load ? What am I mis understanding?

Hi all, Yet another newbie member to add to the gang, To introduce my self i have been around the RC world for many years mostly with the rc cars from 1/10 scale upto 1/5 scale racing at national tracks.   I started to fly small 450 size eflite heli's then the 450 T-Rex in a field self taught and the hard way, A mate who also raced with me also got the same heli's and we helped one another well i gave it up a couple years later but he decided to join a local flying club with his bigger T-Rex heli's.   He needed to pass his A test on a fixed wing and got into planes by accident he loves them more than his heli's which 3 years later is very good 3D heli pilot.   He persauded me to go along and check out the club and thats when it started, I bought a Trainer plane and fly every saturday, 5 weeks later i passed my A test and now im ready to learn!!   Im know mathmatician and yes some of the working out blows me away but with a little help from you guys im sure i will be ok.   Anyway that's me, I hope to be chatting soon.   Take care , Craig.