mrmarcdude

Hey guys
I'm both new to this forum, AND to powered flight. I have been surfing through for the past week or two, and am very pleased with the friendly enviroment this forum has to offer. So i decided to give it a shot. First, a little about myself

SKIP IF YOU WANT
My name is Marc, and i have been into radio control cars, and planes for about 4 years now. I have gone through many cars (8 to be exact), and i have been flying sailplanes with my dad for quite some time (around 3 years) . I live in California, and i am 17 years old. I was bit HARD by "the bug" back when i was around 13, and in middle school. I had an amazing science teacher by the name of Rocco Ferrario. He has been into the rc scene for years, and years. He truly opened the door for me. Ever since i have been spending gobs on radio control vehicles. Sailplanes are great and all, but seem somewhat limited. So i have made the choice to move on over to powered flight.

THE POINT
I recently purchased a Herr Star Cruiser kit from tower hobbies. while not the most complete kits I have heard that they are great. I decided to power this by a AP wasp .061 engine. I also purchased a 2 oz. fuel tank. I have tons of experiance building sailplane, and rubber powered kits, but am a total beginner to glow powered. Is there anything i should do (i.e. sealing, bracing, supporting) while building the kit that the instructions don't cover? Just little things that will make my model good enough to fly. Also, will this be able to do loops, and other basic tricks? What is a good fuel to use for this engine, and what would be a good prop? Anything else i should buy? Thanks allot, and sorry for all the questions. Sure am glad to be a part of the forum!

Al Stein

Welcome aboard, Marc.

For small planes, Herr designs are outstanding and Mr Herr himself is a fine gentleman and an assett to R/C. We've had multiple StarCruisers around that all did well built by the instructions.

I saw one bad Herr Cub -- but that was because the "builder" broke one of the fuselage sides where it bends to come together, but didn't break the other side to match. (It probably would have been a fine free-foilght airplane... circled with or without a thermal!) I only bring it up in case anything like that happens with the sheet fuselage sides of the StarCruiser... I don't recall there being a place for that to happen on your plane, but if it does, all you have to do is either replace the broken part or break the matching part to keep it all symmetrical and you'll have a good little flyer.

BTW, don't underestimate the limits of your sailplanes -- for instance, the world speed record for an R/C plane was set at something over 240mph over twenty years ago by a sailplane and still hasn't been officially broken. We know that jets are probably getting into that range, but none has proved it yet and there's nothing anywhere close in piston powered planes. As for aerobatics... all that's really required for aerobatics is controllability and air speed -- and we've already covered that.

mrmarcdude

now that is darn fast! lol I keep reading around that i should seal the firewall. What is that, and how would i go about doing that? Also, what is a good type of fuel? I found that a 6x3 prop will work well for me. Thanks again

Crashem

The firewall is located at the front of the fuselage your engines motor mount is attached to it.
It is a good idea to seal the firewall fuselage cheeks and feul tank compartment you can use dope or epoxy thinned with denatured sp? alcohol this prevents the glow fuel from damaging the wood.

mrmarcdude

ok, sweet. I highly doubt it, but would i be able to use my rc car fuel (20% blue thunder) with the .061?

phread59

Absolutely, small engines as my experience goes love nitro. It helps them to idle and run more consistantly. Be sure that the engine has the amount of oil the manufactuer reccomends. Good luck with your first powered plane.

Mark Shuman

FHHuber

The "popular" trend to using more and more nitro is not really that good of an idea...

Higher nitro fuel costs more.
You'll burn more fuel per minute.
The engine will run hotter.. so you have to richen the fuel mix more than with the lower nitro just to prevent overheating.

Yes you will get a power increase... but is it WORTH the costs? To double the speed of a model you need 4 times the power. The increase from 10% nitro to 25% is NOT going to increase maximum level flight speed much more than 5%. Its cheaper to get the power increase by changing from a .40 to a .46. (hmm... maybe that's why the .46 is so popular on .40 size models...)

You can get a STABLE, RELIABLE idle from 0% nitro fuel... 10% nitro makes the needle adjustment much less critical on the low end. The bennefit for idle drops DRASTICLY when you go above there.

********

I have experimented with fuel from 0% to 60% nitro content. Best economy for power has always come from 10% notro on engines 0.10 ci or larger. For .09's 15% was desireable. For .049's 20% or 25% gave much better starting. (just priming with 25% and running on 15% worked very well...)

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

And he's using an 061, so the 20% will be fine. I would check the oil content though. From what I understand, many of the "car" fuels have around 16% oil as a maximum, which is bit too low for most "plane" engines. Manufacturers recommend from 18 to 20% depending on the engine. (I'm not sure about the 061 however. I'm guessing it's a Norvel.)

Yes, paint any exposed balsa with a slightly thinned epoxy, 30 minute works good. Best to thin the epoxy by applying a little heat with a blow dryer or heat gun.

Good luck, and welcome to RCU!
Dennis-