jprge C.

My Feedback: (1)

Hello,
Years ago I loved my 1/2A Pacer and GLH. The house I am in now has a 1.5 acre side yard and was looking for something to put together. I was on the *bay auction site and found a plane called a Cox Scorpion I am not familiar with. It calls for a Cox Tee Dee .09R/C which I have from a Tweedy Birdi I scratch built. How do these fly, it sure looks nice in the pictures.

Are these great engines and planes ever coming back?

Thanks
Jorge

build light

"Are these great engines and planes ever coming back?"

Not if Cox has anything to do with it... Sad[&o]

Don't look now but there is another one with parts still sealed on the bidding block and on top of that a buy it now for way, way too much.

Robert

DeviousDave

I've got one of these kits, but unfortunately sold the engine. I think my logic at the time was that I was going to put an Enya .11CX in it as I had my fill of carbureted Cox motors with the TD .049R/C.

Ed Sabini

Hi Jorge,
I would grab the plane, it is a blast to fly, however I would pass on the Tee Dee and use something else, to be honest I might even do electric if it were mine. If you have a Tigre X-11 or know where you can find a good one that would be perfect. Also another killer engine, now don't laugh is the ASP 12 ABC. It is a ball bearing ABC monster on 30% nitro.
Go for that plane, the covering is real nice, they are light and fly like a Kaos.

Ed

rrragmanliam

My Feedback: (1)

I have to disagree here. This plane is not light. Old ARF's wern't built on a weight diet. It's a decent ARF, I had to rehinge the ailerons on mine as the factory gaps were huge. A tame .09 (like the RC TD ) will fly it, but just barely. It's a better candidate for a .12- .15 engine. If noise and no throttle don't bother you a .09 screaming TD would haul it around ok. The .09 TD (not the RC version) has about the same power output of a modern .15 sport engine at a substantial weight savings, but they are unbelivebly LOUD!

Darren

tmark65

Hi guys,

I just got a couple of COX 1/2 kits from ebay and today I opened the Scorpion and started building it.

I agree with the friend that it's not a light model in comparison with other manufacturers.
I think it's a typical chinese kit, with heavy balsa wood and pine tree hardwood.

As you can see on the pics the quality is low, too many discrepancies at the quality of the monokote ironing endings, the piano wires are like those we use on .60 aircrafts and the cowling is a different color.

No management for lightening ... it's a typical 70's production design. The weird thing is that the back of the airplane is foam covered by 1mm balsa wood.

Anyhow, I am thrilled about it and I'm gonna convert it to electric.

Overall I think the cox logo on the box made it attractive even though it doesn't deserve to have it.

Sorry COX.

tmark65

Some pics for Dave .........

tmark65

.... some more

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks for the images, that's perfect!No worries by the way on the metric system, most of the engineering world uses metric

The images also show what the underlying structure is which is great. So, now Ijust need to set about printing and sizing....

Thanks again!

Dave

tmark65

Dave any time ... maybe I can fotocopy and send them if you like

Tasos

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Tasos,
Thanks for the offer, but no need, Ican print them off and get them scaled to match your shown measurements and make templates out of the images.

Thanks again!

Dave

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Glad we can post again!!!

Tasos was kind enough to take the photos of the tail on his kit and I now have the tail to my Scorpion glued to the fuse.  The next step is to get the rudder and elevator cut-out and cover the tail, and then I can get the gear installed....

This looks like a small pattern ship. 

Does anyone have issues with the tail flexing and needing to add bracing between the horizontal and vertical stabs?

Thanks!

Dave

hogflyer

Dave,

If you want exact measurements on the tail for a refrence, I have a Scorpion kit sitting in the basement I can pull it down and measure.

Hogflyer

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Hogflyer,
Thanks, the photos that Tasos provided had a ruler in front of them, so it worked out perfectly. The only thing I did differently was to enlarge the tabon the bottom of the vertical stab, which is really a nit.

I cut out the rest tonight, so I should get most of the rest done this weekend, unless something else comes up.

I need to go back through the thread to see what everyone is using for gear - motor/prop/servos.

Thanks again, hopefully I can upload photos this weekend...


Dave

hogflyer

Definitely post some pictures! Just remember RCU may be down again this weekend.

I went and looked at mine - the stab and tail are warped and the covering is deteriorating so I'll have to recover it before I can think about assembling it (and it sits in the box on a wood shelf a bunch of other kits in a dry basement). I forgot how thin the empenage is - I think they used a very thin balsa I'm guessing is maybe 1/16" thick.

I think mine will eventually be used for patterns to make a flyable one. I'm not sure what I'll do with mine - I do have a new never run Cox .09 RC it was designed to use, but it's also missing the cowling.

Hogflyer

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Hogflyer,
     I made the horizontal and vertical stabs out of 1/8" balsa.  The horizontal stab is built-up.  The vertical stab is a slab.  I was going back and forth on doing a built-up vertical stab but it's honestly not that big.  I can put some holes in it to lighten it but I don't think it's worth it. 

What's with the time stamping?  Has anyone noticed that the time isn't right?  It's 6:24am as I type this on 8/2/2013, my post last night shows as posted at 8/2/2013 10:03 AM.  ?????

I think I have the motor for this plane.  I'll have to get it all together and see what the AUW is before making the decision, but I have a 2820/6 from justgofly.com that I had in a 49" Extra 260.  This "might" be a bit overkill, we'll see...

Dave

hogflyer

Dave,

The time stamps are correct for me. You show 8/1/13 (last night) @ 10:03pm, I'm 8/1/13 10:53pm, and your showing 8/2/13 @ 6:25am.

I think 1/8" is a good idea since the original appears to be lacking in strength and bends quite easily. It appears to be in an in-between size that a 1/2A is too small and a .10/.15 too heavy/powerful (except for Combat Pigg....) that electrocution makes sense.

Hogflyer

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Ok, so I figured out the time stamp. I didn't realize that the forum had a separate time zone delta from my location. That seems kind of "lazy" to me to not have the location set the region.

On the tail feathers. If you are using something flexi, you could always run some lightweight bracing. Just a thought.

I'm planning on HS-81 servos. I just need to get the thing bolted together and do a gross CGcheck to see if I want the servos installed in the fuse or in the tail. The last thing I want to do with this plane is have to add useless weight somewhere, especially if would be in the tail.


Dave

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Ok, after much ado, I am able to get back in. I am using Mozilla, IE still doesn't let me in, very odd.

Anyhow, I thought I would upload a couple of photos of the tail that I made for my Scorpion. I really am not a fan of the "almost" black underside, but I'll fix that with some vibrant colors.

Dave

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

I was able to check the balance last night with the motor/esc and battery taped to the top of the fuselage, in the locations they should end up. As it turns out, the CG was WAY forward, so I made servo cut-outs in the tail of the fuse, where the pushrods should come through. The balsa is very thin back there so I also added a doubler for the forward screw to go through. As it turns out, there is a bulkhead reinforcement at the aft end of the servo, but I was able to put a piece of 1/8" balsa on edge and CA it into position so the screw will have something to grab. The HS-81s only one two screws to keep them in if you are not familiar with these servos.

Dave

PsychTeacher

Dave: Here is the post I submitted back on 04-08-2004 ("Norvel IN a Cox").
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/1-2-...ml#post1702948
My cousin bought a new/old Scorpion kit the day I bought mine. He fitted his with a Magnum .15. His was all but unflyable - way too fast and "squirrely." Mine, with the Norvel .074, was fast and flew with authority. I did find the elevator too narrow. By the time I increased the throw sufficiently to loop, the elevator seemed to stall and the plane would "twist" out of the loop at the top. I made another elevator that had twice the cord at the center and tapered toward the tips. It worked great with much less throw. Another club member liked the plane so much that he insisted that I sell it too him (I kept the Norvel).
Regards, Ben

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Ben,
Interesting on the elevator. I'll watch it as I get more flights on the Scorpion.

I DID maiden the little beast. I ended up running a 4S pack with the 8x6 prop. To say it is "spritely" would be an understatement. I found the mid-rates for the ailerons about right, the elevator on high rates is actually a lot for typical flying and trying to land. The rudder on low rates (~50%) is basically a non-functioning component. On my high rates at 100% it finally does something. I'll have to play a bit with the rudder settings and also play with the CG a bit, right now for the first flight, I left the CG a tad too far forward.

Anyhow, the maiden was a success. I've attached a few images of the plane after the maiden, it's still in one piece! I will be adding a few more stripes to the bottom of the wing for visibility as well....



Dave

mohr_dave

My Feedback: (6)

Quick update. I flew this after Labor Day and had a not-so-awesome landing. Nothing that should have done any damage and honestly, the plane itself was undamaged, but, the LG wasn't in the same orientation as when it left the ground. The long-story short, the lite ply plate for the landing gear does not have a vertical hardwood block for engaging the leg of the landing gear. If you have one of these and haven't flown it yet, it is worth - carefully - drilling out the hole that accepts the landing gear leg and installing a 1/2" length of dowel, secured with your favorite glue/epoxy (I used Gorilla Glue as the wing has foam) and drilling your new hole for the landing gear leg. This is a quick fix and will save you not flying if you have anything more than a good landing.

mugenkidd

My Feedback: (94)

So I have gotten the urge to do something small and glow powered as my small electrics are really starting to bore me...A friend let me fly his small glow powered plane and I remembered what I originally always loved about RC!! Anyway I picked up a Cox Scorpion and was wondering which of the two engines I have avaiable would be better for it an AP .09 or an OS 10FP? Any advise would be appreciated. Also would the best servos be the hitec HS-81?

Mr Cox

The OS 10FP should be stronger, and has proper muffler.

For servo's I like the HS 65HB, they have strong carbonite gears and also draw less current than the HS 81 (so you can use a smaller battery).