RE: Pfalz DIII resources Photos, Drawings, Plans, etc.
Seth, thank you for your interest in this model. Nice to hear your 10 year old daughter will be a model pilot. When my daughters were at that age, they didn´t want to build airplanes. Together we made wooden horses, a swing in the garden or little houses in the tree.
So let´s begin with the power plant. As I didn´t want to add lead, I returned to the roots of electric flight. Deep down in my workshop i found an old brushed electric motor. Some time ago, is was one of the most high tec things, but times are changing. Its weight is 345 gramms, not far away from one lb. But it still is powerful, relyable and I need the weight in this place of the plane. A 11" x 6 " airscrew is mounted, but it is too small. Next time I shall be going to 12" x 8". The current is about 18 amps, not enough for a 3,5 lbs biplane. should be 25 to 28 amps.
Battery is 3 cells: 11.1 V /3200 mAh. This will last for a 10 minutes flight. The whole dummy engine is removable. It is fixed on the fuse by 2 strong magnets. As you have no vibrations and no oil dust, that will do. (The dummy on my Halberstadt is fixed the same way, it works) So, after removing the dummy, you have enough space to fix the battery with adhesive strips and to connect the battery with the controller.
Yours Henner