ORIGINAL: GallopingGhostler
You certainly said a mouthful there, Tony. I prefer to fly on longer lines (52', 58') and with a little more power, although my current power the OS .15FP-S is a little bit of an overkill. Did you make your profile fuselages as framed built-ups?
Regarding lightening things up, I've been looking at the possibility of using round hardwood dowels as the leading edges, smaller round dowels as the trailing edges, a built-up profile fuselage, lighter wheels, increasing number of ribs but going to lighter ones, etc. There are no reasons why free flight building techniques cannot be used. The larger balsa wood pieces Sterling used were easier to kit, but it did make for a heavier aircraft. And you are right about the longer nose of it. The unmuffled .15 Foxes, OSes, K&Bs, etc. were considerably lighter than the modern day engines. I could shorten the nose at least an inch.
The RingJr will loop, but at this point they are rather large, but it has been a good trainer for me.
Hello again George, No, I see no need to build profile fuselages using built up structures ..If your wood
selection is appropriate. That means very hard, yet light quarter grained sheet. For the Ring Jr, I used
very light 3/32" "C" grained sheet(about 6lb/sq') for the stab, elevator and vertical fin. For the LE and TE,
I used straight as I could find quarter grained stock(5/8ths sq and 3/4" by 3/16 I think). The ribs are 6lb
"C" or quarter grn. If I ever can post a few pics of my latest Jr, you'll see that I narrowed the side profile.
Also remember, these mods are specific for a .080cc(.049) Diesel.
I again remind you that I think you should choose another model; 300-390 sq"s of wing area for your OS .15FP.
Free Flight construction experience will guide you in building lighter, yet reliable models. Be wary of building
too light and creating a fragile model. All of my prior FF experience has colored my construction efforts.
I built and competed in indoor and outdoor HLG, indoor and outdoor rubber, and FF gas 1/2A, A, B, C and FAI gas.
I also built and flew A1 and A2 Nordic gliders. So I know how to build light. But, I've made some mistakes; such as
fabricating 1/2A and Fast Combat ships that were extremely light but too fragile for Combat.
Tony