CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
07-22-2012, 01:25 PM
#1
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CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
Flew this today, and it needs longer lines, say 30 ft. The Puddle Jumper is a 1949 Berkley design. I got plans from the AMA Plans Service. It is covered with silk, nitrate dope, black tissue numbers and letters, blue canopy, and black front end are Sig butyrate. Prop is 5.5 x 4.5 and the tank is way too big. I plan to enter it in Old Time Stunt at the Vintage Stunt Contest at Tucson in March. A Drone 29 is shown for comparison with the Arne hende .5cc Drone.
07-22-2012, 01:45 PM
#2
RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
Jim great little ship nice to see the classics still out there and still flying. Good luck at the old time event " infant Drone fantastic" good stuff lasts forever
so much for diesel is dead martin
so much for diesel is dead martin
07-22-2012, 03:48 PM
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
How does the wee Drone handle compared to the full sized one? My experience with AH engines (I have several but not the Drone) is that they are very well made and handle well.
ChrisM
'ffkiwi'
ChrisM
'ffkiwi'
07-22-2012, 05:01 PM
#4
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
It handles well enough to be on an airplane. It has less than an hour running time and I am still learning how to reliably start it. I'm running on Eric Clutton Old English fuel, so it is not any special high ether small diesel mix. The tank is a uniflo, and the engine runs very steady flying around level with ups and downs. The tank as shown is good for about 15 minutes (estimated), so I'm going to start measuring fuel, as plumbing am even smaller tank is not an easy task for me. It does vibrate, so I think it probably has an unbalanced crank like the original Drones.
07-22-2012, 05:06 PM
#5
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
Jim, I'm so envious, that I hate myself. What a beautiful model you've built and flown.
I've built Berkeley's second version. It's called the Junior Puddle Jumper; it's the version with
the twin-foil sheeted wing and has a die-printed fuselage and stamped metal cowling.
It is yet unpainted , but it is already too heavy for decent flight performance with the
DC Dart I was planning on using. Great Effort Jim!
Tony
07-23-2012, 07:29 PM
#7
RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
beautiful little model.
One time I asked Arne which one of his smaller engines he would like to see on a model and he said the Drone. Arne said it had a lot of power.
One time I asked Arne which one of his smaller engines he would like to see on a model and he said the Drone. Arne said it had a lot of power.
07-24-2012, 01:53 AM
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
In 1949 , what tubing did they use was it plastic , or did they have neoprene then ?, and what lines , they did not have multistrand stainless at that time ?
07-24-2012, 07:38 AM
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
The tubing is gasoline tubing from the lawnmower place. The lines are .008 stranded. Back in the early 80's we flew 1/2A Goodyear on .008 solids and had a lot of trouble with lines sticking.
07-30-2012, 07:20 AM
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
Sig Mfg. Co. is now making updated kits for the Berkeley Mini-Zilch which is a perfect control line airoplane for these small diesels. Laser cutting and first rate wood with the original Berkeley planes. It has a 19" span built up wing and full fuselage and is as cute as a bugs ear.
07-30-2012, 05:21 PM
#11
RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
ORIGINAL: 123Cat
In 1949 , what tubing did they use was it plastic , or did they have neoprene then ?, and what lines , they did not have multistrand stainless at that time ?
In 1949 , what tubing did they use was it plastic , or did they have neoprene then ?, and what lines , they did not have multistrand stainless at that time ?
Of course you had to replace it from time to time, but no big deal.
07-30-2012, 05:27 PM
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
Back in the day, I recall bicycle tyre valve black rubber tubing was "the go". That was before clear neoprene became available.
07-31-2012, 10:03 AM
#13
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RE: CL 1949 Puddle Jumper with AH Drone diesel
ORIGINAL: bobsrc
Sig Mfg. Co. is now making updated kits for the Berkeley Mini-Zilch which is a perfect control line airoplane for these small diesels. Laser cutting and first rate wood with the original Berkeley planes. It has a 19'' span built up wing and full fuselage and is as cute as a bugs ear.
Sig Mfg. Co. is now making updated kits for the Berkeley Mini-Zilch which is a perfect control line airoplane for these small diesels. Laser cutting and first rate wood with the original Berkeley planes. It has a 19'' span built up wing and full fuselage and is as cute as a bugs ear.
Hi Bob, how do we go about ordering one of these Mini Zilch models? I built two in my life. One was back in
1951(??) for my Baby Spitfire .045 that came from my Wen Mac AeroMite. The other was about 20 years ago
from third or fourth hand plans. An ebay Baby Spitfire went into that one. I do recommend a very
small displacement diesel engine; such as a weak .50cc or strong .35cc diesel engine. The Mini Zilch is
a very tiny minimal wing area design and an engine such as a PAW .5cc would really be overkill.
While I'm at it, I'd love to see SIG produce kits of the WEE DUPER ZILCH and LIL DUPER ZILCH.
Thanks for the heads up;
Tony
