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Ron Daniels -> RE: For those who love World War Two Fighters (7/25/2005 1:34 PM)
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Hi Phil,
I CAN take them to the field fully assembled, but I'm usually taking so many, I need to disassemble them to make them all fit in the bed of my little mini-pick up truck.
I built a 1/12 Tempest in 1996 to check the aerodynamic changes (different airfoil under-surface, different angle of incidence) that I wanted to make to my 1/5 Tempest, that had flown in 1995, for the first time.
Other than making the planes 10% larger to allow larger electric battery packs to be carried, I've never gone back to the big one.
I find them very convenient (especially electric, which doesn't need to have the needle adjusted, doesn't need after-run oil, and gets cleaned once every 2 years, whether it needs it or not [:D]), inexpensive to own, less suceptible to hangar rash than my large planes, and every bit as capable of flying in high wind conditions.
That little Chipmunk is nearly silent, but measured over 5200 FPM on a climb, with an on-board altimeter. This year, thanks to an affordible new battery pack - GP 2000 A - it can go straight up indefinitely for the first 4-5 minutes of a hard aerobatic flight.
The little fighters weigh about 11 ounces before covering, but people fly them at up to the 4 lb mark. Since a 3 channel, plain bearing glow, hand-launch one would weigh about 2 3/4 lbs, you can add a lot of "stuff" if you want. Mine, with retracts and bomb drops is just over 3 lbs, powered by an FX .25. So I'm at 6 channels, and still have another 30% that I can go up in weight before handling will begin to suffer.
I know of 2 guys with electric Sea Furies that are under 3 1/2 lbs, with retracts!
I did make a 1/8 Typhoon a few years back (see thread about its "resurrection" elsewhere on this forum), which I liked, but the only real advantage was that the wheels were big enough to use retracts off of grass - my Chipmunk handles grass, but the maximum wheel size for the retract-equipped fighters is too small for grass, and I don't like the way fixed gear looks in flight on a fighter. The 1/8 one was certainly more expensive when I crashed it due to some radio noise!
I find that I'm more willing to take risks with the little ones, due to their low cost.
I've flown the Tempest Mk II low enough over a runway that I had to be careful not to hit the runway lights. I won't hesitate to do a slow roll at under 15'. I'll fly in loose formation with other similar or identical planes.
At the Mid-Am Electric Fly, we did a demo flight where we intercept the V1. I fly the V1, two very trusted friends fly my Sea Fury and Tempest Mk II (Mk V can't fly there, because it's glow - for now....), and two other friends flew their FW 190's chasing the British planes. Last year, we managed to get the two fighters to intercept the V1 at the exact same time. This year, Tom managed to get the Tempest Mk II's wing under the wing of the V1 and "tip" it (he rolled away, as I rolled the V1 the other way and let it drop from about 40' to about 15'). After about 4 minutes, and some good interceptions, I landed the V1 to let the fighters "duke it out" for a few more minutes. Tom circled at the end of the runway, and "strafed" the German planes as they came in to land.
To me, this kind of warbird flying is why I got into R/C. I really, really enjoy doing silly stuff like that, but I don't think I'd risk a 30 lb plane that costs well over $1000, and took hundreds of hours to build. I certainly wouldn't risk a mid-air with it at only 30', in front of a crowd of spectators. That big a plane, to me, poses a greater risk to spectators, and needs to be handled more in accordance with full-scale airshow practices.
IFLYRC-RCU,
Your Jug is georgous!
Thay are definitely huge. I have a picture of my wife using one for shade, in California, back in 1995. She is standing straight up, leaning on the tire, UNDER the wing. I had to reach up to touch with wing tip, and I am 6' tall (183 cm, for our international readers....).
My Sea Fury is painted after one that was based here in Kitchener. The fellow who owned it was kind enough to allow my 2 year old boy and I into his hangar in February to get detail shots of tricky areas, like the landing gear, and the radiator exit, etc. It was absolutely huge, with the top of the canopy about 3 1/2 -4 m off of the ground. Unfortunately, this fellow had a fatal accident with this plane, in the summer of that year. I as deeply saddend that such a nice guy had such a tragic fate.
Take Care!
Ron Daniels
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