tenacious101010

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Today I am now the proud owner of a big 80 inch wingspan Sopwith Triplane built from Bob Holman enlarged plans. The plane was built in 1967. I have been in contact with one of the past owners. I now know part of the history of the plane. It was built in 1967 by a gentleman by the name of Don Henderson from near Springfield Ohio. The plane was flown once and on landing the tail skid was damaged. That was the only flight of the plane before the motor was removed and a dummy radial was installed. The plane was featured in an issue of Popular Science magazine according to the previous owner. Next the plane was purchased at an estate sale near Springfield Ohio in around 1998 or 1999. The buyers built a big T shaped crate on site at the estate sale and boxed the plane for transport assembled airplane. The plane was then used as a display as it traveled across the United States to antique toy shows at the owners booth. The plane eventually was retired from this and was stored in its crate in a temperature controlled shop somewhere up north for a few years. When the owners moved to Florida they brought the crated plane with them. I stayed in its crate untill around 2002 when it was brought out to the Bay City Flying field for display/ sale. It was packed back up and spent its time in the crate untill 2009 when it was purchased at an estate sale and the buyer then sold it almost immediately to the owner of the Devil Dog Military Depot just north of Tampa. It sat there on display for the next three years untill I traded some military items for it today. I disassembled it today to bring it home, it seems that this is the first time it has been disassembled in over 40 years.

If anyone knows anything about this plane, the builder or the Popular Science article on it, please let me know. I would appreciate any information. If further inspection reveals it is structurally sound, I plan on making it airworthy. I plan on installing a Tacon 110 Outrunner and flying it with my buddys 1/4 scale Fokker Triplane. I will post some better pictures when I can get it reassembled and can get it into some light.

Denny

All Day Dan

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His website is still active. See if he can help. Dan.
http://www.bhplans.com/

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Thanks for the link, I did email him. I got started on the plane, I have been fishing out foam packing peanuts most of the evening. I doubt I will ever get them all out. A really neat feature of this plane is that the whole firewall comes off with 4 machine screws. This allows complete access to the interior nose of the plane. The aileron, rudder and elevator servos are accessed thru this opening. The servo arms were still in place, they were the square drive type. I installed some more modern Futaba servos for the elevator and rudder. I will do the same for the ailerons. Everything in the fuselage looks to be good and solid, no structural issues noted. All green lights so far as far as making it fly again.
Denny

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

I finally have all three servos in for the elevator, ailerons and rudder. I mounted the 110 Outrunner and its solid. I am not going to use the wheels and tires that came on it, I will use some Dubro 7 inch wheels. I still havent got all the foam peanuts out of this thing. Every time I work on it, more fall out. The right center wing is now reattached to the wing strut, it just needed to be epoxied to the aluminum attach brackets. I was able to superglue the edges of the covering where it came off the wing at the fuselage attach point. I installed all the major components and doing a very rough CG check, it looks like I am in the ballpark with just one 5 cell battery installed with the motor and ESC. I hope to be able to run a 6 cell battery in this. I am going to try it out with a 20 inch E prop to start with, if that doesnt work, I have an 18 inch prop to try. I still have to get the tail skid fixed. I am so anxious to get this done and ready to fly.
Denny

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

I got the wheels/tires swapped out. I replaced the hand made set with a set of Du-bro 7 inch wheels. They were much wider than the originals so I had to lengthen the axles. I fit some brass tubing over the existing steel axle, prepped the metal and epoxied the tubing in place. I cut the tube to lengh, used a set collar on the inboard side to serve as a stop for the wheel and to secure the brass tube in place. I then drilled a small hole thru the outboard end of the brass tubing. I will secure the wheel with a washer and cotter pin. My first atempt at repairing the tail strut was not successful so I put it back together and wrapped it with thin stainless wire and epoxied all that together. I will know in the morning if that works. I put two 3 cell lipos up under the cowl and it looks like the CG is right on the money. I need to order a new 3 cell LIPO, so I can power it up and check the watts with the 20 inch prop. I swapped out the 100 amp ESC and installed a 70 amp unit that should easily handle the power this motor will need. Next I need to decide which plane I will take one of my Futaba 2.4 recievers from to install in this plane. I want to get the flying surfaces tweeked and ready for its first flight.
Denny

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Finally ready to run up the motor and check the numbers with the 20 inch electric prop. As you can see, I have ALL the weight up front and it balances nicely. I am going to start out trying it on 7 cells just because that what I have without buying another battery.

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

The numbers are in:
80 inch wingspan Sopwith Triplane
21 pounds with batterys Ready to Fly
20 inch E prop
Tacon 110 Outrunner
70 Amp HV Hobby Lobby ESC
7 Lipo cells (25.75 volts)
1816 Watts
72.9 Max Amps
6,500 RPM

I think this will power the plane great, it really pulls strong. Just a few more items and it will be ready for first flight.
The biggest one now is to find stronger rubber bands or small strong bungie cords.

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

I did a complete asembly of the plane in preparartion for its first flight. I rechecked all I could without peeling covering off and everything looks structurally sound. If all goes well, tomorrow will be the first flight for the Triplane. I will start charging batteries tonight and have plenty of power to get it into the air. I will also bring my 1/4 scale SE5 and see if we can get at least one flight on it too.
Denny

Leadtrumpet

All the best on the long overdue re-maiden! Make sure you get some video to share with us.

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Thanks for the encouraging words. Here are a couple pictures of it at the field when I did a dry run on the complete assembly, adjustment and inspection. One note here, when I got the plane, it had this white all over the plane. It was like the dope used on the covering had aged. I tried to scrub it off with different grades of scotchbrite and soap but nothing worked. I ended up spraying satin finish Min-Wax on it lightly and the white disappeared. My son says it no longer looks like it was pulled from a junk yard and has a really nice scale look to it now, not too new, and not too old. You can see the white in these pictures, I hope to have some pictures tomorrow of how it looks after the Min-Wax coat.
Denny

tenacious101010

My Feedback: (97)

Took the triplane to Bay City flyers today. It was supposed to rain, but luckily, no rain and very little wind. We got two flights in, the tripe and my son Sean both did awesome. The first flight we gave it max downtrim and it needed a bit more. but otehr than that all went well. The first landing was a noseover but the second was a thing of beauty. On the second flight a freind flew his 1/4 scale Fokker Triplane at the same time. They looked great in the air. The triplane flew at less than 1/2 power. The takeoff was amazing, the fuselage stayed level but the plane rose quickly. Sean says this is the best handling plane we have. Now to get my 1/4 scale Albatross and 1/4 scale SE-5 going so we can get a bunch of WW1 aircraft in the air at the same time.
Denny

tenacious101010

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Heres a link to a video of the first flight of the triplane a friend posted.
Denny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD1cj...&feature=share

CarreraGTSCS

My Feedback: (2)

That is fantastic. Looks great.

I've never seen the Triplane on Bob's site. Not the easiest site to search though.

funnotcrazy

That baby jumped right off the ground on takeoff! Congratulations on your project. 45 yrs old & back in the air. A real testament to the builder. My oldest is a 20 yr old modified Astro Hog.

TomCrump

Holman has more plans, than what is listed on his site.

Order his "Best in Scale" catalog. You'll be amazed at what he has available.