TissueIssues

Has anyone tried to build one of these little 16" wingspan planes as radio controlled? I'm getting back into the hobby after many years and I thought it would be cool to build a little plane with all this newfangled micro-stuff they've got out now.

thanks,
James

r1morris

My Feedback: (1)

One word YEP.
You can RC about anything out there today. Don't expect it to come without a cost both in time and money. It can and is being done quite a bit. I would suggest some of the electric publications and reading in the forums here to give an idea what ways there are to go.

Ron M

BMatthews

I'm going to respond with a qualified "yep"

16 inches will fly nicely with an 010 and the lightest parkflyer stuff you can put into it. But do NOT expect it to fly as a re-trainer if that is your goal. It's going to be a hot little nasty thing that'll fly great if you can keep it within it's good manners flight envelope. Slow it down too much with super tight maneuvers one after the other and it's going to stall and snap on ya I figure.

And then there's the small size that will get small super quickly and have a higher landing speed. There's just not much wing area on those 16 inchers for flying at a 4 to 5 oz weight.

In short I wouldn't use one for your first return project. And under NO circumstances would I recomend using more than a 010 or PeeWee 020 on one.

TissueIssues

Thanks for the replies guys.

MR Flyer57

Hello TissueIssues,

I just got my computer back up and running, so I don't have all my pictures at my fingertips quite yet. I have collected quite a few pictures of the Guillow's and comet planes that have been built and flown as RC planes. I have started collecting the kits and have hopes of building and flying a few.
I would not use any small plane as a starter when coming back into the sport. Even though it is a little like riding a bike, and flying should come back to you in a short time, you should get yourself a trainer up and flying. From what I have been reading the small converted models are hard to build and hard to fly.

I think it would be a good idea to have a plane to fly first to get the blood flowing just before you try to put your labor of love into the air for the first time.

I will post the one I can find here just to show you what a really good example looks like. This one is a zero, but most of the ones I have been reading about are the WW1 bi and tri planes

colmo-RCU

Heh, thanks for posting my plane as an example, Mr flyer!!

Heres an other photo to ilustrate the size. This one is 27 in in span, and I definitely don´t recommend it to return to the hobby. It flyes great but it´s fast and not that stable (as a trainer, for instance). I think it flyes much like a top flite gold series but much smaller, obviously. I´m developing a kit for the transformation, if anybody is interested.

Good luck, Colmo

TissueIssues

Welp, to get my building fingers going again I bought the Guillows Series 500 P-40 Warhawk. Here's where I am so far:



I think the kit was a good value for what you pay for it, but you also get what you pay for. I bought stringers to replace those in the kit, and I also had to completely replicate an entire sheet of parts because the wood was half as thick as all the other sheets. I really should have used lighter wood for the whole plane but I was too lazy to hand cut everything.

I drilled some holes in the tail to lighten it up. If I'd thought of it at the time I would have done the same to the fuselage section formers. I'm leaving the wing alone 'cuase it doesn't strike me as being super-strong in the first place.

colmo-RCU

Lightening the wings will not weaken it too much, once covered you´ll be amazed of its strength. Hine has lived through flips on the ground that you wouldn´t believe!! The fuse formers need to be hit with all you´ve got, as you need plenty more space for gear and engine, tank, etc.

TissueIssues

That's a cool looking Zero you've got there Colmo.

I know this isn't terribly exiting, but I like to post pictures...
Here's where I am now. The wing is covered and shrunk-up and ready to go. I'm workin' on the rest. Took a break from covering to paint the canopy; masking those little windows was "fun".



What do you think is an appropriate "all-up" weight for a 16.5" WS model like this if I leave it rubber powered? So far it looks like it'll be about 1.5oz. You guys convinced me not to R/C this one!

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

TI:

Pardon my skepticism, but 1.5 oz including the rubber motor and prop?

That's really light.

Bill.

TissueIssues

Well I piled everything that was gonna be on the plane on a little cooking scale. The 1.5oz reading was in the lower range of the scale's graduations so it may have been inaccurate. Maybe I need to buy a scientific balance.

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

TI:

Not saying it's not possible at all, but if true, and the plane's construction is straight, you should end up with a great flying rubber FF plane.

Bill.

TissueIssues

I just re-weighed the plane and parts in the middle of the scale's range by first putting 10 ounces of CDs on, and then the plane on top. It came out 1.5oz again. This is w/out a coating of dope so I'm sure that makes some difference.

MR Flyer57

Hi colmo-RCU,
I am interested in making a few Guillow's models into RC fliers and would appreciate any tips you may have.
I will slide past the nay sayers and make the toys of my youth fly!!
Thank you for the inspiration and for the pictures of your Zero.
PM me or just post your tips here,
Thanks again,
MR Flyer57

Half-A-Hec

Keep it up man! Let us know how it flies! I am doing the same thing with a 27-3/4" W.S. P51-D. I think the fueselage is the most challanging part. Building it light yet strong enough for Glow Power.

Hec

colmo-RCU

Mr Flyer, I posted All the details for the conversion but the thead is now way below, maybe in the 3 rd page. I´ll post something in it so it comes to the top again and you can see it. The name is " Gillow´s Zero success story".

Any questios, just pm me or post there

Good luck.
Colmo

MR Flyer57

just add the address of the message or the message where the info starts to a reply and I can get right to it.
Thank you
MR Flyer57

colmo-RCU

It´s on the first page again. It has a smiling face beside the title
colmo

TakingFlight96

TissueIssues,

I just recently bought a Guillows 500 series P-40 Warhawk, what are your thoughts on this kit, any suggestions ? I thought that getting a Guillows would give me a bit of feel for building, which I may be doing in the near future. Is this kit simple enough for a young, beginning RC flyer to build, with some help ? Thanks.


-- TakingFlight96

Max_Power

The guillows "Arrow" makes a decent RC conversion. Its not a warbird, but it has a decent amount of wing area as well as a airfoil horizontal stabilizer. Mine ended up at 7.0 Oz. with radio equiptent from a parkzone"typhoon"...and a pee wee .020 and a 350Mah Ni-Mh pack...So you could DEFINITELY do it lighter. Mine flies well when I can get a good run out of the engine. Many times by the time I start and tune it, launch and only get to the end of the runway before it dies. I have got a few 90 second flights out of it though..I am gonna put together another .020 soon to replace the irregular runner. I would honestly suggest you try a larger guillows model for your first conversion as even my Arrow at 7 ounces feels heavily loaded. Look into the Dumas models as well they are a bit more, but are laser cut..good wood..great instructions ,and seem like they would be better conversions . I realoly like my Tiger Moth..although its just free flight I'm tempted to do another as RC. As I dont have a .010, and a .020 would be way overkill, I may have to consider electron fuel Anyway, good luck on your project Todd

gabe200

My Feedback: (21)

hi do you have pics of the arrow

Max_Power

Here is the thread I Started along with a few pictures. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_61...tm.htm#6105056 I'm considering adding some lighter gear now that I know it will actually fly. I did'nt reinforce the spars, as I hadnt seen that info when i built the wing...But i havent had any problems...of course I usually just float it around easy. If I had to do it again I would add sheer webs or a stronger spar. The arrow seemed to have pretty well cut wood...I've noticed some guillow's kits are better than other on the die-cutting. I've looked through 4 Cessna 170 boxes and all of them were HORRIBLE. I guess Guillow's doesnt want to replace 50 year old tooling ...I can understand..as cheap as these kits are I'm sure they are jusr "Riding it out"...Todd

build light

Guillow's has moved forward as they have started laser cutting some of their kits. Whether they will do this for all their kits, who is to say?

What Guillow's has not done in some time is to introduce new kits.

Robert

gabe200

My Feedback: (21)

max that looks good i think i will build mine did you shorten the nose any i wonder if i can make the rudder out os sheet balsa

BMatthews

As I mentioned 5 years ago it's extremly easy to make these little ones too heavy. Grams count for a lot on these things. Especially if you're going to load it down with RC stuff.

To offer up some items for comparison. One of the replies above questioned the partly finished model coming out at 1.5 oz. That's 42.5 grams for this 16.5 inch span model. By contrast my scratchbuilt Monocoupe bostonian shown in my avatar is only slightly smaller at 16 inch span and it weighed just a hair over 10 grams with the rubber motor in it all ready to fly. That's a quarter of the Guillows kit.

I offer up that expample not to toot my own horn but to try to show just how heavily built the Guillows kits are. All the lightening holes in the world will not reduce the weight down by enough to make up for the amount of wood that is often used in poor ways.

So to answer about if the control surfaces can be made from sheet wood. Yes they can... but you shouldn't.