Originally posted by Russ Verbael
Yup! No doubt about it, a Telemaster 40 will fly with (3) .40's...
I bought a garage sale Telemaster with a Fox .40 in it and decided to do a twin....but first, since the Fox .40 was already installed, I thought why not build nacelles/lay in a pair of LA .40's and not bother to remove the original Fox engine....(1 plus 2 equals 3 engines!!)
And it worked! The little beast rolled about 10 feet and was airborne at a 60 degree climbout angle. Rolls, loops, stall turns, etc and then back into the landing pattern. A couple of slow flybys for the vultures watching and then a landing followed by a return taxi to the pits.
A second hop confirmed that this was really happening.
Technical stuff: nacelles slung under the wing with individual mini throttle servos and individual 6 oz fuel tanks. Tanks and servos are fully serviceable for fine adjustments. Engines are O.S. LA .40's with 10 x 5 props. Aircraft set up as a tail dragger. CG was set 1" behind the leading edge of the wing. 1100 ma power pack.
So there you have it.
The aircraft went back into the shop and I removed the original Fox engine and stripped everything down for a fresh layer of Monocoat and a return to the flight line as a Twin-Telly.
This multi-engine stuff really is fun.
You might like to know that some many years ago, I built an original 8 foot telemaster with no engine in the nose but rather I installed two K&B .40 on the wings and rebalanced the airplane with added weight in the nose. Tha airplane weighed 17 lbs and it flew like a DC3. On one of the flights, I lost an engine but didn't know it for quite a while until all the other airplanes had landed,
It was a good flyer.