jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

Hi all I've been flying ucontrol since i was young like age 10 or so. I am now 25. Has anybody found
a way to fly a u control by urself? I have a cox viper and i flown it with help to hold it down. Is there
a way to fly by you're self with out any human help? Maybe some type device? Show me you're devices.

lukesp

Use a launch stooge. Look here, http://www.clcombat.info/stooge.html That will show you some different types mainly for combat models.

Also look here, http://rulecombat.com/ same deal, it's for combat models.

My favorite type is pictured below. I have used this with a Hyper Viper the only change I made was to bend the Viper's tail skid into a loop at the end to engage the launcher.

clscale-RCU

My Feedback: (7)

I made my stooge from a flat plate of mild steel about 1/4 thick then bolted a similar pin with a spring as shown in the reply above. Instead of using nails to hold in place I use 4 rubber feet. The combination of steel plate that weighs approximately 10 lbs, with 4 rubber feet it does not move even with a 40 at full power. The trick is to have the plate heavy enough to hold the aircraft. The rubber feet are important to get a better grip to the solid ground.

EF

Surprised no one mentioned it, but flying a power model (regardless of type) on your own is a little risky - any injury from that spinning prop could develop into a very unpleasant situation...

Lou Crane

EF,

So true!

However, there are times and situations...

At least, anyone going solo MUST constantly stay nearly paranoid about self-inflicted deliberate or negligent injuries.

I've had to fly from stooge for several years at a stretch, and it was that or no flying. ...or worse, flying RC (which just doesn't grab me. Not knocking those who enjoy it.)

My stooge is on a larger, but thinner steel plate than Fred's, and weighs more like 25 lbs. Doesn't need rubber feet to stay there, but a nuisance to unpack and repack for trips to the field. It comes out LAST, and goes in FIRST - none of my models are strong enough for it to sit on them.

da Rock

Yup, Like Lou said...........

Most who fly alone would do it the other way if they could. But it's a choice.

I cut my grass by myself. I figure it's not as dangerous as flying alone, but I know two guys who lost toes in their lawnmowers. I guess you don't have to be as smart to cut your grass as you have to be to fly CL. Those two toeless wonders certainly would prove the last sentence. And I had the luck to report to both of them in my career.

I used to fly alone a bunch. Had to in order to compete in stunt with any success. And being alone actually ramped up the concentration on safety. Fringe benefit was it also ramped up all the concentration.

BTW, there were guys working on stooges for combat wings years ago. Think about it.

lukesp

I fly alone. I have injured myself as well, call it a lapse in concentration. Feel free to call it stupidity if you want, I do.
I had a combat style model with a PAW 2.49 diesel on it, it had drop off undercarriage and I was using my stooge.
I should have started the model on the ground but decided for some vague reason to start it while I was standing and then put the undercarriage on and place it in the stooge.
I swapped hands and that's where it went horribly wrong. Clipped the base of my thumb, chunked the still spinning prop into my flight box, broke the prop but it still kept running. Blood everywhere. Blood on my hands, model, jeans, feet and on the flight box. I pinched the fuel line to shutdown the engine after I regained my wits, cleaned up the wound (which healed nicely) and went home.

Two lessons here, don't start a model off the ground if you have to swap hands, in fact there is no real reason to start a model off the ground when flying alone.

Second lesson, human flesh does not stop a good diesel, ever. Neither does a flight box. I have since flown this model many times, but always start it on the ground.

jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

yea well u cant loose a toe off a 0.49 lol. I've been struck a couple of time, and it hurts its like getting hit with the roto off a heli
but safer. A week ago or so, some how i ended up flying my viper by myself, i had my righ thand on the handle and left hand
on the plan and i let go, it went straight but once my string streched and prop hit the floor but it still ran and zoom i was flying.
I notice that my motor ran a bit better, so maybe it can hurt me on this motor because its new, but older 049 didn't did ****
to me. But yea don't try that at home, especially on bigger ucontrol planes. I have a 25 size mustang ucontrol typed with
an 40 size motor, omg LOL. Most people I don't know here, so how am i gonna tell them to help me at the park. I mean
this is something that only a good friend would go and help you. A regular friend that doesn't like planes would say nah
lets talk here play computer games, drink beer blah blah. Most of my real friends don't like planes so its hard to get
help atleast for me to get some ucontrol time. Flying on stick is alot easier, u have the throuttle so. Anyways happy
flying.

da Rock

Interesting what people will try.

Letting a control line plane go with slack lines really isn't a good idea is it. You were very lucky the lines didn't snag on something and trash the airplane. And when they hit the end of slack lines they usually snap around. And they've been known to hit their own lines. The weight of the lines can also start the model rolling.

Yup, you learned a lesson. Hopefully

Don't try to fly that 25size Mustang with the 40 on it that way. But then you might already have figured that out.

jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

ha its a one time thing anyways i'm gonna use one of those kids that run up and down the street, maybe they'll hold my plane.
LOL hope their parents don't get into a fist with me. LOL

lukesp

Jim,

if I get a chance I will take a picture of my stooge and post it here, easier to understand than the drawing. You're scaring me with the "letting the model go" talk.

There is also another method I will try and dig up. Hairy and not for the faint hearted but apparently it works.

da Rock

If you can build an airplane model, you really can build a stooge.

Stooges are a safe way to launch a CL model. They are completely dependable in a couple of ways. They always work the way you built them to work and need no special training to release the airplane properly. They aren't scared by the noise of the airplane. They don't have to understand what you mean when you tell it to "just hold the airplane pointed straight ahead and when I signal, just let it go, and don't reach into that spinning prop to see what it feels like." And they don't decide it'd be fun to see what happens if they let go as you're walking out to the handle.

I've used passersby twice and lost airplanes both times. One was an adult who I was looking right in the eyes when I explained to just let go and not push or anything just let go, but must have been deaf or dumb. He pushed with all his might. Which turned the tail out and the airplane pointed right at me. And the steel lines wound up wrapped around my free hand. Which wound up needing many, many stitches. BTW, out of the corner of my eye as I was dodging the airplane and trying to get the lines off my neck, I saw the jerk RUNNING for his car.

Either find a modeler to fly with or build a stooge or stay at home.

da Rock

BTW, a friend of mine had to repair the wing of his model after he got a launch from a passerby. The guy went white knuckle when the engine cranked up. And he crushed the wing with his hand he was so scared. The fuselage was profile or he'd probably have crushed it too.

Finding somebody wandering by to launch your airplane is actually not smart.

And don't bet on the onlookers staying out of the circle when you're flying. I had an idiot walk out to see how you fly those things. He wanted to see close up. And didn't understand why he had to sit down to see. Or to walk around behind me if he wouldn't sit down. And didn't think to wait until I landed to come over and talk about it.

There is a reason most parks put up chainlink fence around circles.

jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

yea post some not just for me but for the people that also going through that. I made a drawing that should work what do you think fairly simple
but i don't know if i can use a lighter base since i usually use my bike instead of car.

jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

what program did u use to do that drawing? I used paint, it sucks

lukesp

OK,

here is my launcher, crappy but functional. The base is chipboard and the four knobs are the heads of old roofing nails which go through the board and spike into the ground.

lukesp

One more shot to show the release catch open.

jcervantes11

My Feedback: (8)

how about if ur on a black top, how r u going to use that thing if u cant use nail through cement oh and nice samples

lukesp

Just use weight. I don't normally fly from hard surfaces so the spikes setup works fine for me. If you made one that was sufficiently weighted then you could use it for both grass and hard surfaces.

da Rock

I made about the same thing. And when I used it on pavement, would put a cinderblock on the back of it. Hid the cinderblock in the bushes so it was handy. And took off from the outer most of the the circle. When landing, I'd make sure I was center circle away from the side the block was on.

When I moved to another state and got permission to use an unused ramp area at an airport, I searched the concrete until I found a seam that had a couple of holes in the fill asphalt (asphalt seam filler in the concrete). I drilled a couple of holes in my stooge that suited the holes in the seam and was good to go without needing a weight.

Modelers can fix anything.

lukesp

...what Da Rock said.

These launchers really do work well, as long as the catch works freely AND holds the model until you want it released. Make sure of that. I had to play with mine until it did what I wanted it to. BTW, the space on mine where the model's tail loop goes is way too wide, I need to make it narrower. The less distance the pin has to travel the better. I have been meaning to do that for the past ten years.

Elwyn

I've got one stooge that uses the stab release method. Works O K as long as you don't try launching into a heavy headwind. I had the wind switch around on me one day and I didn't move the stooge. The wind was really blowing hard right at the nose and ended up backing the model up to the point it was free of the stooge or more likely just blew the nose up to where the angle was steep enough that the model was able to take off over the top of the padded restraints. Either way I had just picked up the handle and looked back at the model and it was pointed skyward about 4 feet in the air over the stooge! I quickly backed up finished the flight. I went home after that due to the high wind though.

da Rock

Nice workmanship on the stooge.
And the model is nice too. But I'd suggest a prop with a bit more pitch.

da Rock

The one I built was like that too at first. So I put a block in between the two sides that was where the inner side would have to be moved to to narrow the gap. Didn't have to move anything. And the filler block is under no load. All it has to do is make where the tail loop goes less wide. Took no time at all to do. And the launches got instantly better.

Elwyn

Thanks. I can't take credit for the plane though. I bought it already built. The little block of wood with the two nails sticking out is to poke in the ground next to the left tire so you don't inadvertently pull the nose of the model toward the pilot.