country flier

Three for 09.....   Westland Whirlwind(electric)   Ercoupe 415(glow or electric)   Pitcairn autogiro(glow or electric)   Harold    

A merry, happy Christmas and great new year to all. Winter is upon us here in Nebraska so it's now official building season. I'm sure we'll have some threads to share in future. Harold

Hullo Jack, Four EDF in a Vulcan would be quite the set-up and in fact is one I've been thinking of for a while. The snow in Toronto must be part of that big cold air mass that is bringing rain here in Nebraska. Midwest products has a foam material that compares to depron in a 15" x 48" size which might be available in Toronto. Of course, Depron is a good material and with an order in hand........build,build,build Harold

Glenn, The vid you put up is very good, showing well the flight quality. Not whippet fast but actually very scale appearing, lights and all. Using Loreena McKennitt (Night Ride Across the Caucasu, I think) as a musical background makes a nice touch. Harold

Trevor, By all means give the 15" Vulcan a go. It's a bit of old time modeling as the kit is of a B1 version rather than the later B2. A build thread would be fun. Harold

Quite the model of the Vulcan, Glen. The 15" jetex model by Easy Built is a B1 with the straight wing but is neat for inspiring a bigger build. XM573 is at the SAC museum near ( about 70 miles) where I live in Nebraska. That makes for a great scale reference when I get to building a Vulcan. Harold

Hullo Stuart, According to the data file in the article Tony used a 4 Max PPO 5055 580 with a 70A brushless esc and UBEC with a 5s 5000 mAh LiPo. The prop used is an APC 14x7 e prop. That would equate to around 1000 watts assuming reasonable battery performance and running the esc to maybe 80% of amp limit. In terms of h.p. that would be around 1.35 which is certainly in the .61 IC range. Harold

What a glorious plan and model Tony has created. It certainly ought to be one that gets built this winter on the farm here in se Nebraska. I received the special issue on Wednesday (8/10) and quickly opened the plan and article just to get an idea of what I'd be getting up to. About the only question is IC or electric! We'll see which wins out. Harold 

The Sep issue arrived yesterday. Nigel's Fling Wing is too good to pass up. The basic fuselage is done and ready, weighing at .75 oz. and all constructed from odd bits of wood I had. The only new material needed willl be some light 1/4" balsa for the wings. Also this one will be done as a bungee launch glider with elevons. Harold in the states

Tony, When I build mine in 2038 it will be silver as was K5038. Simple schemes like that really appeal to me. Also here in se Nebraska camoflauge schemes might work too well since my neighbors are farmers. You've created a real winner with the Hurri. Harold

peevie, Remember too we can create ethanol fuel here, especially in 2038 Harold

Dateline 2038.....somewhere in se Nebraska, USA I'll be 90 this year and still enjoy flying the way it used to be. My friend Mark (almost 92) and I bought a large supply of parts and pieces back in 08-09 for retirement fun. We're strictly old school with no VR items except in winter when it's too cold to fly outside. We even built a couple of high-revving glow engines in Mark's machine shop over the winter. We build from scratch or the occasional kit ( we squirreled a bunch away years ago). In fact we might just finish up a couple of Hurricanes from the "old" Tony Nijhuis plan. Somehow civilization seems to have bypassed us here. We do wonder how much things will change in another thirty years though..........we keep hearing about plans to pave the rock roads in this still rural area. Occasionally someone will ask what we're doing with those little airplanes- we tell them we're living our youth and why don't they join us? meanwhile, back in 2008.......Harold 

Years back I saw one forlorn Lightning airframe in a salvage/wrecking yard on a run from Harrogate toward London......Tony's miniature would be cool, yes. Harold

Shades of actual flight time in a Cessna...looks to be a good kit. Harold

The Whirlwind, Chipmunk and Catalina are my three choices. Harold

Three choices- 1. Stinson Model A Tri-motor; not more than 60" span? 2. model 415 Ercoupe 3. Westland Whirlwind or Welken Harold

A merry and happy Christmas to you David and all the folks who make RCM&E an enjoyable forum. In 08 I'm sure we'll all have some neat projects and such to share. Lee Morgan's drawing looks a bit like our place here in rural southeast Nebraska at present. With snow on the ground and all that comes with winter weather it makes for a good time to build. All the best.. Harold

Hi Alan, I think the Spektrum would have the advantage there but in any case the antenna must be unblocked re: the radio wave. Carbon fibre is electrically conductive and thus can attenaute a signal; Peter Christy writes on some 2.4GHz issues in the Bentley Flyers at Crewe, Cheshire. They are BMFA club no. 0322. regards, Harold

Hi again Alan and Dave, The antenna question may be resolved by looking at the means Spektrum and Futaba use to avoid "signal collision" which is required by internationally agreed upon 2.4GHz standards. In the case of Spektrum their DSSS (direct sequencing)system employs two seperate frequencies-with two receivers- used for the duration of the flight or run. This is also a broadband approach which favors low power transmission. Embedded software on the chip then selects the frequency with the best signal for processing data. The frequency shift, narrow band approach of the Futaba system selects a single 2.4GHZ frequency every 2ms or 500 times  a minute. Embedded chip software then determines which antenna has the best signal. Both systems seek to have a reliable signal but use different methods to achieve that. Installation-wise the Futaba might be easier to use. One interesting item I found in searching is that metal and carbon fiber can really attenuate a 2.4 GHz signal which has a wavelength of about 12.5cm or just under 5". Thus the antenna placement could be a critical item. Thanks for piquing my interest....... Harold

Alan, I'm in a rural area and have never had difficulties with various radio systems related to the technology, whether 72Mhz or 2.4Ghz. Perhaps you could expand on your concern with the satellite receivers?  Harold

Les hits on  the point there. The physical size of larger components can effectively shield the radio waves in the 2.4GhZ range. Thus the utility of the satellite antennae is to provide a means of always having an antenna unblocked to receive a signal. Added fault tolerance equates to redundancy. Also the later Spektrum systems are considered full range which means beyond visual while the radiated power of the signal remains the same. Antenna performance then takes on an added dimension; the satellite redundancy in large models provides that performance. Harold

Indded David; the range accomodates virtually everything from indoor to park to full on models. I imagine one day they will use the telemetry functions found in the surface versions for cars resulting in a fully contained system with all of the control and feedback elements one could want with precise control. Naturally no system (full scale or model) is 100% "bullet-proof" but the improvements with digital technology are there. It worked for Lockheed with the SR-71 and U2 over twenty years ago so here we go with similar progress in the modeling world. Harold 

David, The advent of the 2.4GhZ systems certainly brings some interesting applications, whether from Specktrum, Futaba, JR or whomever. When Spektrum announced the AR6000 about two years ago I bought one and saw the future. These new AR rx systems only reinforce that view. My older 72MhZ systems (U.S.) will be used in some models until they're "done" but they won't be replaced, only supplanted by 2.4GhZ. Harold

Tony, Very nice indeed. I'll certainly want a plan (and parts) when ready. It should be glorious off of water which is more common here stateside in Nebraska than one might think.. Harold

To David's point; the motorglider with precise speed control and possibly regenerative charging with a windmilling prop for descent could go in the direction of hybrid technology. My wife immediately thought the motorglider idea was the way to go. Scott hits the nail on the head with "real aeroplane sound". What a turnabout. Harold