1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Hey guys!

I flew my Kamdax DF powered Warthog tonight!

Too much fun!!!!


Details....

The wing was salvaged from my Herr P-51 that I banged
up recently. I have been planning on building a new wing
for the Hog using the Herr P-51 wing with scale dihedral,
but since I had a perfectly good wing from the P-51, I
decided to use it, thinking that if the Hog flew well, I could
always build a more scale wing later.

The fuse was built from some very simple plans that I
found on the net. I'm sure you guys have seen them.

The DF units were obviously from our Migs. I dropped
mine few months ago, so I decommissioned it. My flying
partner donated his DF for the project. Anyone who had
one of the Migs, knows that their performance was poor,
at best. Well, if you use two DF units you have a whole lot
of fun!!!

One engine out was manageable with a little aileron to counter
the induced roll (fixed rudders!). It would maintain altitude &
maneuver, less one engine. Glide slope was pretty steep, dead
stick. I didn't try dragging it in on one engine, but I will try
some next time out. I would not want to try a go around on
one engine, but obviously 2 will be no problem. Rolls were
spirited, as were loops. I used my home brew mix of some
65% & 15% Cool Power to get to about 40%. One head
shim only.

To balance it I had to put my receiver & battery in the nose
along with 9 ounces of lead shot! I didn't think it would fly
with all the dead weight, but I had no options if I wanted the
CG in the correct spot. 3 flights tonight with no problems.

It was too dark for pics when I got home from the field, so
I'll try to do that tomorrow evening.

1/2A all the way!!! Too much fun!!!

Later!

Johnny C!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Way to go, JC! I'll bet 2 DFs sounded beechin'!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Sure, I bet the two 1/2a DF's sound cool, but can it do this? (turn your sound up!)

www.ulmer-rc.com/Warthog.wmv

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

post those pics

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

PT,

It's almost that loud!!!

Here are the pics!

Johnny C!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

That's gorgeous, JC!! We would have beaten Hitler in 2 weeks if that plane was available!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Thanks Pigg,

I love my 1/2A, but make 'em twins & it's a little slice o'
heaven...

Since I bashed my Dazzler, single engine craft are
boring.

I will build a .25 Warthog next!

Then a Herr P-82 with .074's. Too many
projects, too little time.


Johnny C! Out!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Man, that thing does look cool. You took all the complexity out and made a great looking airplane. That's somethin' to respect!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

purty..purty purty purty

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Very Cool!

All I would like to see now is a fast fly by with sound!

Nice looking plane!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Hope you dont mind. I figured I would share a pic of the scratch built hog Im building. Some day I will get the money to finish it. 51in wingspan EDF 70mm fans

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Jonny C! that thing is the coolest! You need to get us some video with sound! What kind of speed do you think you are getting out of it? I have a GWS A-10 that I've been thinking of hacking to 1/2a pusher..but that thing is WAAY cool. I do personally think you need to paint the fan units though! VERY NICE JOB!! Todd

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

I have an old digital camera that will do
15 seconds of video, so I'll try to get
some video, next time out.

I don't know how fast it is, but it's
fast enough to be a lot of fun! I would
guess that it goes as fast as my HOB
P-51 with a .20 FP.

The DF units are plastic, so I don't
think they would hold paint, especially
with all the oil from the .061's. I
won't paint them.

Thanks for the comments!

Johnny C!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

JC!! & UC, nice to have you guys here to liven things up and show us some great projects! You guys can donate those Warthogs to my museum of model flight anytime........

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Ha Ha Thanks CP first I will need donations to finish it:D Then I will first have to donate to the air gods.;)

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Johnny C, that thing looks great! I thought about doing a twin with a pair of the Kamdax fans too. Glad so see that it works.

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

I have plans for a twin 1/2A wart hog (for TD .049) from Joe Demarco prints. PM me if anybody wants a copy and I'll see if I can arange to have the plans duplicated and sent out. They are printed front/back and in two colors, so I don't reccomend this as a beginner scratchbuild, but anybody could build it with no problems if you've done one before.

I believe they came as a centerfold in MAN back in the mid 80's or something, I've been meaning to build the thing for ages now. Perhaps when I get home I'll get to cutting up some balsa.

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Man, what an inspirational project. Thanks for posting this.

Maybe we need to organize a ducted fan contest or something so we can start seeing more stuff like this.

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

I'm as open minded as the next guy....but a twin Kamdax powered plane is gonna take the average guy about $200 to power up. The same power in electric [batteries, ESC included] would have to kick that up another notch. I'll just sit back and watch, I gotta start saving for retirement somehow. Too much neat stuff out there that I can't have.

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

I started the Hog right after I banged up my P-51, 2
weeks total build time (and I was gone for 4 days!), but
I didn't have to build the wing. It was kind of hack job,
so I'm not afraid to fly those kind of planes.

As I said, I had to add a lot of nose weight, so I
think a pusher would be really difficult. 2 .061's
pulling with tractor props would get the CG closer to
something more reasonable, & remove the need for
DF's. That's what I will do with the .25 size Hog. I
have 3 wings left over from my Hanger 9 Advance
days, so again, I can shorten the build time.

I'm sure there are plenty of the DF's left over from all
the Migs that were sold last year, so there should be a source,
if you're willing to dig around. I needed another shroud (mine
was broken), so I bought a complete DF from the boards. I
wanted some spare parts anyway.

Jack, I wouldn't mind to get a copy of the plans, just to file them
away. LMK if you make some copies. I was going to use the same
plans from the 1/2A to build the .25 (scaled them up already), but
after having to add all the dead weight, I think I'll order the set that
MAN has on file, to see how they did it.

Thanks for all the comments! I didn't know it would create such a stir!
Maybe this will inspire me to fly the 1/2A'ish B-25 (2 .10's) that
I built a few years ago. I built the fuse way too heavy, so I'm really
nervous about that one. I used the Herr P-51 wing kit for that plane,
as well.

Maybe my son & I will make a pilgramage to the next 1/2A Fly in!

Sorry to ramble!

Johnny C!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

The challenge I would have on the A-10 from Demarco would be to find two suitable 1/2A fan units for TD .049s. This would make a great lekky DF to be sure, but without twin screaming TDs what's the point? I may just do a lekky simply because the LHS has fan units ready available for cheap. Or maybe I can figure out a way to use sure-starts instead of the TDs? Hmmm, I feel the need to buy some balsa......

From what I remember of the plans (which as I stated are two sided/ two color overlap and hard to read clearly) the plane itself has a long nose section and the fans are near the wings, so balance shouldn't be a problem. There are no real surprizes to the construction, pretty standard "former and sheet" type stuff.

Crap, now you've gone and got my scratchbuilding bug all woken up now and I've barely finished my Eindecker (I'll finish the build thread, promise!), let alone there is NOTHING I can do RC right now. I'll get my SWMBO to take the plans to Kinkos and have 3 copies made, first come first serve!

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Don't worry TJ, the electric DFs make plenty of noise.;)

RE: 1/2 A Warthog Flies!!!! YeHaaaaa!
 

Yes, the EDFs sound just like when I edge the lawn next to the sidewalk.