bullseye000

Hi All

I have been perusing some of the plans catalogs and was wondering if anyone has any info or ideas on converting a set of Control Line plans to RC. Only having the pictures to reference and no experience with building CL planes it appears that the tail moments and maybe the wings are short. A few designs caught my eye as being unique and maybe being good RC models. I noticed that Top Flight is marketing a Nobler kit that one of the more mature gents at the field flies. He remarked that he used to fly a CL version years ago. It got me to thinking about the possibility of doing some conversions. Any thoughts?

Regards
Bullseye

Steve Lewin

Could be an interesting challenge. Some will convert fairly easily, some won't. E.g. many old C/L planes had asymmetrical wings (inside wing longer), you wouldn't want that . If you look at the current R/C Nobler against the real thing you'll see that what you might easily end up doing is designing a new plane loosely based on the appearance of a C/L plane.

I think any detailed comments should probably be based on specific examples. If your chosen model is symmetrical, has a relatively long tail moment and a reasonably large fuselage (you don't need much space inside a C/L model ) then you only have to worry about sizing and fitting the control surfaces.

Steve

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Interesting you should post this: I recently bought 3 C/L ringmaster kits at a local craft store for $10.00 ea. I have already converted one to RC and am now finishing the second. Here are my findings at least for the Ringmaster (Profile).

The tail moment was way short and lengthened. The orig total fuselage length was 24" and changed first to 27" then 29" by adding a plug.

The vertical stab and rudder were enlarged about 40% total with the rudder area increased the most.

Horizontal Stab and elevator left alone except thicker balsa sheet substituted.

The nose moment was OK and left alone.

The radio was crammed into the wing and a pod built underneath to house the bottom of the servos.

Added ailerons about 1 " wide.

Flight performance on the first model is good, stalls straight ahead but spins like a deamon. 2.5 turns per second with no natural tendancy to pull out. You must hold full oposite rudder for a turn or two before she stops. Snaps are very fast and you can get two in quick succession before she enters the spin. Spins outside as well as inside. Otherwise similar to a pattern ship and quite fast with an OS .25 FX, originally designed for a .19 to .35. She has good vertical performance and may hover with the right prop.

I think the unpredictable spin is due to the shallow depth of the wing and the sharp leading edge radius. Ship no 2 will have a blunter leading edge, longer tail and slightly enlarged vertical stab and rudder..

All in all a fun project. Give it a try!

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

i've got one called a "59", or "54", i forget which, the wings stayed the same, i made the fuz longer, it's like a 15 size patternship type thing, real nice to fly, and will do amazing snap spins at full speed, you'd think it would explode. all mini gear but hardly any room inside.

Joeytrain

I have also modified the Ringmaster for R/C.
Great flying plane. If it wasn't so pretty I would use
it for combat. I went the other route though, for speed.
I didn't modify anything about the plane with the exception
of planking the wings and adding cheeks. It is powered
with an Os LA .46 and bullets through the sky. It has no
vertical limit, and like "2fast" said, it will spin and spin until
no end. To see a picture of it, go to: Http://www.geocities.com/unitedflyin...cs/fastbat.jpg