RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

This is my biplane, a Goldberg Li'l Toot.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Nicely done George..!
Is she a pretty good flyer..?

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I haven't flown her yet, CP. But seeing I have more time on my hands, it is a good possibility when the weather is right to find out. I need a reason to break in that Testor's McCoy .049. :)

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I built one years before I fully understood minor details like CGs..and it was too nose heavy [with a Black Widow] to glide for a gracefull landing.
Those were the days of flying on 26 foot of dacron string and looking for asphalt parking lots of abandonned shopping malls for places to fly. Asphalt is definitely the School of Hard Knocks....:D

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

True, I understand the parking lots and the dacron lines. Saw my really nice new Cox RTF .049 Stinson Army Liaison make a half circle to be done in with the 10 - 15 mph tradewinds in Hawaii. Those plastic planes really scattered hardware all over the place, and I had another donor engine for a balsa CL job. It wasn't a big loss as I had a job in high school working after school on a poultry farm. In general, all the profile balsa with 1/8" thick sheet wing 1/2-A's I had would mush down after the power ran out. They just didn't have the momentum to do a decent glide, but nonetheless they were fun.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

My Lil Wizard and Swordsman would land OK.
The Lil Wizard was a great trainer and the Swordsman could fly stunts.
The plastic RTF planes of that era must have had the worst ratios of money spent to enjoyment of any toys ever marketed...?

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I think Goldberg did a better job on the CL's. The Sterling Beginner series would fly fine until the power ran out, then simply lose speed and fall. Might have something to do with being slightly nose heavy. My 38" Sterling profile Mustang with Red Head McCoy .19 would glide nicely, so did my 33" Sterling profile Ringmaster Jr. with OS Max .15 FP.

Don't know how my latest creation, a Ringmaster Gee Bee Z variant with Gilbert .074 will glide after power off. Now working on color trim, I'll get to see how it flies on Dacron.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

That looks nice!
If you can put the CG where you normally fly your planes and slow the control geometry down to where the elevator has enough throw to loop the plane but not enough to be jerky, then it ought to fly nicely.
Getting the line spacing at the handle the same as the spacing at the bellcrank is often overlooked or never even considered.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Thanks, I built it out of 3/16" poster foamboard. I some time back had a plastic control handle for 1/2-A that had 2 rings to put the first and second knuckle through. It has closer spacing so one could match the bellcrank spacing. On this plane, it may be a little tough to not have her nose heavy as the Gilbert .074 is a heavyweight engine. It would probably balance out if I used a lighter Cox Sure Start.

What you state about line spacing makes sense.

I'll need to get my Ringmaster Jr. repaired, it's a blast to fly.

Several days ago broke out the Testors McCoy Black Head Series 21 .40 engine and ran it on my test stand. It ran sweetly on my Master Airscrew 10x5 break-in prop. I'm targeting it for my 42" Sterling Hellcat. Now that thing ought to have a nice glide. :)

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I bought a Testors .40 about 25 years ago and it was a good running engine.
I ran it on who knows what oil content fuel and the engine didn't last much more than a couple years...but the engine was $10 or so at a swap meet.

Should have run it on the Fox fuel that was blended for the stunt .35s. That stuff was usually mail order only around here..inspite of all the hobby shops we used to have in the greater Seattle area.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

The Poster board Ringmaster is a nice model but not a Biplane. Now there is an idea..... Who has a Ringmaster Bipe?

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Well, the poster board Ringmaster has 2 wings doesn't it? A left and a right? :D

One plane in the queue to build is the Airtronics Gere Sport by Lee Renaud:

[link]https://www.rcmplans.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_ id=1454[/link]

https://www.rcmplans.com/images/pl-635.jpg

When I get around to it, I was thinking of decorating it in a WW1 British biplane scheme, like an SE-5 or Sopwith Camel. ;)

Another is a CL/FF version of 18" wingspan Sterling Hornet Bipe (photos attached). This one is reasonably rare. I plan to template the parts and build from scratch, preserving the kit as a collectible.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I do recall some 20 years ago, that there were some attempts for alternate oils to Castor, and alternate octane boosters to nitro. It was like a fad. Funny how that even after all these years, Castor Oil and standard nitro still win out.

I'll make sure I have sufficient Castor oil content when I run the Black Head .40.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Re-boot


1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-

Lets look and talk about 1/2A Bipes. And not ignore the connection of the upper wing to the rest of the airplane and the cabanes.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I built a couple of L'il Toots over the years, but free flight with Pee Wees. Overpowered tight spiralling climb, fast glide back withing reasonable walking range.. good fun. The second one I built from scratch with light wood, maybe 15 years ago or so, got a few nice flights before typical attrition took its toll. I recall the typical RC-only club members at the field had a hard time understanding the appeal and how I could be having more fun than they were with an old Cox engine and $3 of wood.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

The Little Toot may be a Candidate for some Modern Micro Gear.. Any takers?

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

There are a few challenges to the Goldberg Little Toot. It was designed as a half-A CL plane. For free flight, one would want to lighten the frame. Replace the 1/8" thick balsa wings with 1/16", may be add a slight airfoil for better lift. Add dihedral. Add a little down thrust to the engine, add some negative incidence to the elevator.

There are already better candidates, for example,

All balsa 20" span FF British Bipe Buggy:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=949[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/thumbs/models/949.jpg

1951 Air Trails 29" span built-up FF Alkie II:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1205[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/th...odels/1205.jpg

1958 Aeromodeller 20" span Ebenezer all balsa profile FF bipe:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=2208[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/th...odels/2208.jpg

16" span RC Cannonshot Bipe by Ken Willard:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1247[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/th...odels/1247.jpg

18" span RCME RC Flipper bipe by Vic Smeed:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1314[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/th...odels/1314.jpg

Larger 27" span RC version by same author:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=35[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/thumbs/models/35.jpg

For RC, here's something along the lines of larger for a hot .049 to .15:

Ace All Star Bipe:

[link]http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1355[/link]

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/images/th...odels/1355.jpg

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Now you are touching the tingly spot George. May have to check my Hz's, Temp, BP & U/wear

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Good looking plane. Mine suffered the same as CP's by the builder not fully understanding cg or weight, except mine was tail heavy and yes it was as the saying goes, " a tail heavy plane flies once". :D Think I had a Baby Bee on it maybe 35 years ago. Gee, I'm getting old..............[X(]

John

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

The all star bibe can be found here tiled so you can print it out at home and tape it together plus some other 1/2 a planes. joe http://my.pclink.com/~dfritzke/

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Now, I don't worry about tiled prints, because I have free tiled print capability in Linux, Ubuntu to be exact. Using a utility called "pdfposter" I can take any PDF and create tiled print PDFs by upscaling, downscaling and selecting margins that work with any printer.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Top Flite School Girl was my favorite with a TD 049 and a 1 ounce tank and regular servos, as I could not afford the Kraft S18 minis. Wings were sheeted with 1/20" balsa and the plans showed rubber band escapements. They HAD to fly good as a design back then, and it flew with the best. Kit is now available from Early RC Models (http://earlyrcmodels.com). No throttle or ailerons, but a great flyer and lots of fun.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I got a couple of tanks through with my Baby Bee, it flew ok, so I tried a loop, and that finished off the Little Toot. Looked cool in flight though.

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

I had several Ken Willard Top Flite designs, built in a similar manner to the Schoolgirl. These were the 27" span Schoolboy, 20" Roaring 20, and 39" Schoolmaster. All were great flying designs, built extremely light but performers. Talking about power, the Schoolmaster on an OS Max .10 older baffle piston really made it sizzle. On rudder only with sequential throttle (Hi-Med-Lo back to Hi), full throttle pulled it up at well over a 45 degree angle climb.

Being slightly smaller, I think the Schoolgirl would be most appropriately powered by one of the modern day throttled .061s or .07s, Norvel or Thunder Tiger. With a little more power and throttle adds just that much more to the flight envelope. A .09 or .10 would be an overkill.

When I build my 36" span Gere Sport bipe, I plan to power it with a .15 engine for hotter performance. That is one bipe that ought to sizzle. :)

RE: 1/2A Biplanes.*** LIMIT***. .010 to .049? *** MAXX LIMIT .15 ***-
 

Can you scan and post the top wing "Cradle" and how it is connected to the Fuse on the 36" span Gere Sport bipe