tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Just finished building a Contender 60. Her name is Lucy!

Used:
Engine: Tower Hobbies .61
Futaba 3001 Servos
Futaba 8UAFS
6V battery NIMH
Weight 6.1 lbs
Ultracote Midnight blue and Silver
12X8 Prop
Installed the built in Flap


I was very happy with the build, lots of carving and sanding, but it all came out pretty well. Standard weight is 6.5 lbs for the kit, so comming in at a little over 6 lbs made me pretty happy. I have to say that the Tower Hobbies .61 engine is the nicest running engine I've ever owned in my 10 yrs flying. It has the lowest idle, and is rock solid. Ok, now to the question. I initially built the wings with the curved up wingtips (pic in next post) but decided to cut them off. I created my own wingtips, and now the wings are about 6" shorter than the original design. I'm probably going to fly this plane during the weekend, was wondering if anyone else has done this to their contender, and was curious of what to expect.

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Ok, here is the plane with the wingtips how I built it originally. Just didn't like how it looked, and the monocote kept pulling up from the middle.

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Another pic

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

TM:

I never liked the wingtips of the Contender, I like yours much better.

Doubt if there will be any bad effect on its flight characteristics, might even improve the roll rate.

Bill.

PS: Good looking plane overall, too. wr.

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

I just finished roughing mine in; the wing tips, that is. Haven't even begun the fuselage yet.

Those Horner-style upswept tips were designed to eliminate roll/yaw coupling present with the straight/conventional tips. IOW, when you make a rudder input, the opposite wing drops.

I too am lookig forward to flying this model, but the sucker certainly is over-built; i.e., heavy. Good thing I'm putting a big four-banger on it.

tmproff, I've been wondering the best way to tackle that covering job (the upswept tips). By "pulling up in the middle", just exactly what do you mean?

Looks to me like the best method will be to cover the bottom first, then cut a piece to fit across the top of the end rib, with plenty of overhang past the tip. Iron the end rib piece down securely, stretch it around the tip and iron down, then shrink the hell out of it.

I like your color scheme; but I'm afraid that puppy is gonna disappear on an overcast day...

Steve

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Please refer to your pic that I modified. Where it comes up is right where the red line is, and also a difficult area is where the red arrow is. I dont consider myself a master at covering, but If I were to do it again, I agree to use use 2 different pieces of monocote and cover the wing tip separately then the rest of the top wing. Also, take special care when covering the LE of the wingtip. I had quite a difficult time getting that correct. The more you heat that piece of monocote, the more it will want to come up from the wing due to the angle. As to the rest of the plane, I agree, it's built like a tank. I especially like the vertical fin and the dorsal fin. Should help in knife edge and tracking. Another thing I like about it is how different of a body style than most other planes in it's category. The center flap is also a very cool add in. Only thing I might do is increase the size of the elevator and maybe the ailerons. They seem a bit small to me. My .61 is a lot of engine for this plane, giving it full throttle and pointing the nose up, it feels like it could take off like a rocket. BTW, the bottom of the wing is the opposite of the top, Large part midnight Blue, and a grey strip about 3" along the LE.

Steve Campbell2

Got it, thanks.

Keep us posted on how she flies. I work slow, so it will be a couple of months, at least, before mine is ready to fly.

Steve

Sewerdude

My Feedback: (20)

Great looking plane. Could you tell me how you got the canopy blue? Thanks, JT

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Hey tmproff! LTNS!

I was wondering what ever happened to you. Now I see you were busy building! It looks great, and I wouldn't worry about the short wing.

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

Good to hear from you Minnflyer, I see you have come up in the world as a moderator I still have my beautiful and perfect Super Skybolt, but I am in need of a 4stroke 120 to weigh down the nose enough so that I dont need to add a pound of lead to the front. To get the canopy blue, I used some Testors transparent paint and sprayed it on the inside. I used to use RIT for everything, but it's a slow process, and you have to take extra special care about not melting it. (I did use black/brown on my Bipe tho to get a nice tinted canopy) But for colors like red and blue, I use the paint, it does an excellent job and is quick. The key is to spray very light coats to avoid drips. Hopefully this weekend I'll have my new contender up and flying...I'll post what happens and maybe some video. One last pic:

smchale

My Feedback: (67)

In plan view i liked how the tip shape matched the stab tip shape, but i too didn't like the way they bent up. What i did is used that tip shape, but brought it out horizonal and flat from the center of the rib. then i added some small riblets from the rib to the tip top and bottom and then covered it. Seemed to look ok. Just another thought.
Also another mod, mounting the engine inverted gives this plane a real jet-like look.

tmproff

My Feedback: (5)

In my instructions, it gave me the option to put the wing tips out horizontally, but I opted for the angle. When taking them off, I used my dremel, and I'm afraid that they aren't reusable I like the look of the wing now anyways, reminds me of the Sig SE wing....very thick and has that cut off look on the ends. I bet this plane is going roll like noone's business.

Zagi

I will be very curious how your contender flies without the wingtips. I have been flying mine for a couple of week and I built mine with the horizontal tips. The plane flies great but the rudder is useless. Flying straight and level, if I give it full right rudder the plane will do a complete roll to the left and vise versa. If I try to do a hammer head turn the plane just flops forward. Craziest thing you ever saw. Does anybody know how to fix this without changing to the angled up wingtips?

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

Flight should not be affected much at all. The reason for the upswept tips is to prevent adverse yaw coupling with rudder. Because the wing has no dihedral, the model will tend to roll in the direction opposite to rudder deflection. Tilting the tips upward eliminates that.

As far as covering the junctions of the tip rib and the wingtip is concerned, you can always add a small bit of balsa at the leading edge and trailing edge where the tip joins the tip rib. This gives you a good base for the covering's adhesive and also makes for a better transition between the two shapes.

astropuppy

My Feedback: (23)

Sorry, Couldn't resist any longer. The Contender will really come to life if you put a Jett .60 on it. see picture. Mine has the turned up tips, after flying it (2 years) I won't do it again. I'd build it with a (very) small amount of dihedral and forget the flap. In my opinion - just a opinion - it was designed with a flat wing for ease of construction. I almost lost it once triming it for knife edge.

Fubar-One

My Feedback: (1)

For some reason it puts me in mind of a low wing Uproar.

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Well, mine's finally done...

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

The other side...

tmproff, how did yours work out with the chopped tips?

Did you have any adverse yaw problems?

Events have conspired against me; I finished this puppy last week, but it will be next week-end at the earliest before her maiden flight.

Woody 51

I have an original vintage .40 size Contender kit dating back to 1979.

(Found it in a pile of old kits in a "bargain bin" at a local H.S. a few years back. The owner had 6 of them in there. I have yet to build it. The guy still has a heap of vintage Midwest kits.)

The balsa is all still wrapped and in excellent condition.

The plans give detailed instructions for bellcrank installation for the ailerons. (I'll use a servo in each wing when I build it.)

The kit boxtop makes reference to "Colonel Betkeys Flying Circus Air Show Team" and has a box top photo, of a bunch of guys sporting 70's haircuts and moustaches and wearing cub yellow jumpsuits. (......... Nice!)

Straight out of an old episode of Starsky and Hutch.

Interestingly, on this kit the up sweep of the wings is an option and if you elect to add this feature, the upsweep starts about 1/2 way a long the wing, beginning just at the point that the centre flap finishes and the ailerons start.

Can't see that deleting the upsweep on the modern version will really make it a devil to fly. After all if the original had it as an option, it was probably only put it to make it fly like a trainer.

(When I build it I will build the straight wing.)

Also in the kit is advertising for the following Top Flite kits:

Freshman, Headmaster trainer, Stand off scale P39. U control Tutor and Gleseke Nobler models. Also the "New" Topflite Monokote" covering witha piece of yellow Monokote sample.

Now, more importantly, anyone out there remember Colonel Betkeys Flying Circus?

(Come on, show your age now.)

Zagi

Here is a picture of my Contender. Still haven't been able to work out the adverse yaw issue but still working on it.

Steve Campbell2

Zagi,

You'll need to modify your wing tips. After flying my pal's, which would do a barrel roll in the opposite direction upon rudder input, I took the time and effort to do the upswept tips (see the pics of mine above).

The only problem mine has is a distinct pull to the left on vertical under power. I laterally balanced it, so it is probably a thrust anomaly. Whatever, it is not bothersome enough to worry about, and the plane flies great otherwise. It is very fast with the APC 13x6 on the 70 Surpass. I'm going to try some different props to see what happens; I've got a ton left over from the YS 63/Somethin' Extra, when I was trying to slow that one down.

If you use the flap, be sure to mix in some down elevator when deploying it. I've been playing with that, and now I can get the model to come down in a very nose-high attitude like a typical carrier approach, but it is not even close to stalling. All controls are rock-solid during these approaches.

This model has a very wide flight envelope, and is a lot of fun to fly. It was, well, "challenging" (nice-speak for PITA) to build and cover, but the result was worth it.

Steve

Blade47

How about a "T" Tail contender

OverTheEdge

My Feedback: (1)

When I covered my wingtips I covered the tips first and tacked the covering about 1/4" over and inside the inboard side of the tip rib both top and bottom. Then just cover the rest of the wing as you normally would over lapping the wingtip material 1/4" or so. Doing it this way you get a perfect cover job that WILL NOT pull off of that dreaded tip rib.
I did a build thread a couple of years ago with some cool mods... nav and landing lights, counter balanced and enlarged elev and rud, enlarged the ailerons a little, aft mounted the elevator servo, and lots of lightening holes to offset the added weight of larger control surfaces and the lighting gear etc.
Here's the thread if you haven't seen it.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_34...tm.htm#3421799

Blade... your T tail came out awesome! [8D]

Blade47

Thanks OTE ...two more months till test flight.