Les Holloway

I’m a bit late to the Oodalally party, but in case anyone is still interested, here’s my take on Peter Miller’s great design. I kept the RCM&E plan from years ago because I liked the look of it and finally got around to building this last winter. No longer able to lug fuel containers, starters and other i.c. gear around because of age and infirmity, I opted for an electric version. You can see my solution for mounting the Rimfire .32 motor in one of the pix – alloy standoffs from a substantial ply firewall to get the prop in the right place. The bottom of the cowl is largely cut away to promote a free flow of air over motor and ESC. A large top hatch with a spring latch fixing allows easy access for 4s 4500 lipos. Quite a lot of lead went into the cowl to get the balance point where it should be – I guess the Rimfire is a lot lighter than Peter’s original .32 SC engine. Should have lightened the tail feathers! However, the maiden flight last weekend was a delight. No trim needed to get straight and level flight, unlimited vertical climbs, and by the second flight I was looping and rolling all over the sky. Many thanks to Peter for a super design and to fellow builders for their tips on this blog.

Hi Glyn Cutting the nose was the scariest part of my Red Eagle build - mainly because I had already installed the motor, and I knew how tight the wires were inside the fus. This is what it looked like: I didn't dare take any more wood off so left it like this and added the replacement bits. If you compare these pix with Ton's right at the beginning of this blog you will see the difference in his workmanship and mine! However, rough as it looks at this stage, the David plane and some Permagrit sanding blocks soon had it looking more respectable, as below, and by the time the covering is on, who knows? Hope this helps - Cheers, Les Edited By Les Holloway on 11/01/2015 12:36:19

Hi Alan - sorry for tardy reply but I didn't get any notification of your posting and have only just read it. Glad you like my colour scheme. More of a Golden Eagle than a Red Eagle, but I'm pleased! The covering was actually quite easy. I was using the cheapo stuff from Hobby King, which seems to work well with the same settings as I would normally use for ProFilm (aka Oracover) - that is,120C for tacking down, 150C for sticking properly and 175C for shrinking. I covered the wings and tail completely in the transparent yellow first, and shrank it tight, The white was then added in strips on a "low" setting of the iron, trying to avoid bubbles. When it was all in place I increased the iron heat to 150 and went over it carefully. Such bubbles as there were, I pricked with a pin to let the air out and it all ended up pretty smooth. Hope that helps - and good luck with yours. Les

The maiden flight was very impressive. She climbed swiftly to about 250 feet on full power then settled smoothly into a lovely flat glide while I trimmed her out - actually a couple of beeps of right rudder was all it took. Several more rapid climbs and long glides followed and I landed after about 20 minutes with 65% of the battery still available! Flying mate and electric flight guru Chris Dickens then took over the tranny while I shot my snaps. He commented that the rudder needed a bit more authority and the elevator a bit less, so I have made those adjustments. I am particularly impressed with the way the Eagle makes a smooth transition from mid-power cruising to gliding and vice versa without any pitch variations. Very stable - and yet she does a nice full-power loop as well! I am delighted - so many thanks again to Ton. Here are two more pix - one of her reclining naked on a rug, and the other fully clothed. Cheers - Les

Hi everyone. Sorry I'm late to the Red Eagle party. I started building mine back in July, but with the great summer weather this year, flying existing models got priority over workshop sessions. Intermittent though the build has been, it was very enjoyable - thanks to Ton for a great design. Anyway, yesterday was the highly successful maiden flight so here are a few pix. Apologies for poor technical quality but I hope you can see how good she looks in her natural environment. Cheers - Les