I have never built an RC plane before and right off the bat I am going for a big one here.

Starting a design from scratch - not a scale of an exsisting airplne.
Powered by 100% ethanol engine.

It will be a long time from drawing board to construction, but wanted to start early with this question.

Where do you guys/gals get your supplies. Any good websites or stores that are good for someone custom building.

It was posted:

>>>I have never built an RC plane before and right off the bat I am going for a big one here.<<<

Oh dear! Before we send you on the path to self destruction, have you ever flown an R/C airplane?

Ed S

check the yellow pages for a local R/C hobby shop,also ask hobby shop for flying field.
Have a goodun,John.

C5, C5A?

Good luck, and Godspeed!
Tower-
Balsa USA-
Lonestar-
Your local hobby shop.
In the mean time get a trainer and instructor and learn to fly or your Giant scale visions will be giant scale kindling!
This is all just good natured ribbing!!!!!
Seriously though I once had a "NEWBIE" tell me he wanted to build a .25 size P-51 with a .40 so when he "Got into trouble he could put it straight up and fly out of trouble"!!!!!
Jetts

Hi C5, I think you are jumping the gun a bit. Scratch building has its challenges, even for flyers that have built several kits. If you haven't built anything before then I hope that you are building just for fun and not for something that you actually expect to fly! If you want to build a plane that is big and will turn into a great flying plane when you are done will require you to look in your phone book under "Hobbies" and see which hobby store sells RC airplanes. Buy a kit from a manufacturer called Sig and the airplane kit is called LT40. It has a 70" wingspan, is easy to build, and will be more than enough challenge for your first plane. The instructions make it easy to figure out how to put the plane together and teaches you stuff that you will need to know if you intend to stay in this hobby. It will also be a nice flying trainer when its completed. Flying RC planes isn't difficult to learn with help. Without help, your plane most likely turn into a broken pile in less than a minute. If your lucky, no one will get hurt in the process! If you want to learn to fly the safest way to start is to find an RC club. Most clubs offer free instruction just by joining the club. Your local hobby shop that sells RC airplane will know where the nearby RC clubs are and will be able to get you contact phone numbers. Hope this helps!

I used to work on C-5 Galaxys!

But back to the original thread... Listen to what people are telling you. There are things about building airplanes that the average person is not aware of. Build a kit first. If you want BIG, there's always the Senior Telemaster.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/srtele.htm

Thanks a lot for your posts.

It is hard to express in detail when typing of ones intent. So just to make my self very clear... I am not a cocky S.O.B.

Ok, with that said i can know say all this

Im a third year at Baylor University in the Institute of Aviation Sciences. My future career is completely based around this kinda thing. Only in the future I hope it will be on the REAL airplanes and not RC. Completely noted when you mention how tuff a task it is, even for seasoned veterans that scratch build.

Im not a genius, or some prodigy kid that was born with aerodynamics tattooed in his mind. The other thing is I havent been apart of the RC world... so your advice IS IMPORTANT to me.
It isnt really about having a fun airplane to fly... more about getting something to fly the way I want it to. No I have never flown an RC airplane before (well probably shot myself on that one). I do fly airplanes though - AND I KNOW THAT FLYING THE TWO ARE A LOT DIFFERENT.

Before I make this post longer than it needs to be.... I want to close with this as my main intent of talking to you guys. I have a task in front of me. You have the experience in the field concerning PART of my task. So dont be afraid to say what you think. Im young and sometimes ignorant... so lay it on me!

http://www.kevinlangley.com/rc.htm
try this link out, he has allot of info listed. I say go for irt, just make sure that you calculate the proper 'G' force that will be applied to the aircraft. Nothing like the maybe .5 G or maybe even 1.5 G that you will experience in full scale aircraft, we really turn and burn these things. Just make yourself a plan and follow it, when you run into more trouble, we'll be right here waiting for you. If you need someone to test fly whatever you are building, give me a ring and I'd be glad to take her up for you.. Good Luck Dude...

Thanks...

There is an RC club where I live. Central Texas - they call themselves Heart Of Texas Flyers or something like that. Beautiful airstrip. They are a huge group... always people out flying from what I hear.

I was hoping you were some kind of aviation major. Please excuse our gusto in shooting you down, but we get a lot of crazies in here (You know, kids that just heard about R/C planes, so they want to build an F-16 and bomb their school).

Tell us more about your project, and we can help you along the lines of construction technique etc.

C5galaxy,

I understand where you're coming from. I am in a situation similar to yours: my background is in aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, and mechanical engineering, but I have limited hands-on exposure to R/C planes, having flown a crude 'indestructible' trainer and built and flown one trainer from a kit. This means that the R/C airplanes are conceptually very straightforward for me, but on the implementation side, I have a lot to learn. This is an important distinction to make. Your training should enable to you to decide on the performance targets for your airplane and design to achieve them, but implementing the design using the typical modeling materials and methods also involves some learning in and of itself. My advice to you is to start working on your design, and at the same time build a kit, preferably a trainer that you can learn to fly pretty easily. Building the kit will teach you a lot about the practicalities of working with the usual materials, adhesives, available hardware components, engines, construction methods, etc. Any engineer changing fields needs to learn about best practice in the new field. Your situation is no different. After you build and fly your kit, you can gain further experience by modifying it, rewinging it, etc. After that kind of experience, you will be much better prepared to successfully implement your design, using available materials & methods. Knowing how to achieve design goals using available technology is the heart and soul of engineering, in my opinion.

In my case, I am working on getting my first trainer back in the air so I can improve my flying skills, while I build my next plane, a more capable low-wing. My medium term goal is to gain enough experience building & flying to be able to implement some of the cool ideas suggested by my aero. background.

Good luck,

banktoturn

I am actually really glad you suggested building a trainer while I work on the design of my original plan. Kinda one of those comon sense things I overlooked.

Yea, this field is tuff. Once you solve a lifting problem you mess up something else you figured out already... and then have to rework that... and then probalby rework the lifting design again... and so on and so on. But I guess that is what makes it so fun.

http://www.eren.doe.gov/power/tech_a...ation_fuel.cfm

This is where my beginning came from. Both of the airplanes are in our Baylor hangar and the pilot/creator of the airplanes is my Mentor/Professor Max Shauck. He works more on Air Sampling now than he does with Ethanol testing, but he will be my main source of information concerning the powerplant Im putting in my design. Pure Ethanol Baby.

-------My advice to you is to start working on your design, and at the same time build a kit,------

Banktoturn, you really read my mind on this! The full balance of your post is right on, (IMHO).

C5, I both envy and admire you. As a 'practical engineer' with 20+ years of mechanical design experience, and a newbie to this hobby myself, (hope to solo this weekend) I wish I had the vision and the ambition twenty years ago that you seem to have today.

Go for it.

Fever

C5,

Building a kit was also going to be my advice!!!

Since your new to this field I just wanted to pass on a little advice. You don't mention how large an aircraft your are planning to design but keep in mind that the bigger it is the more expensive it will be. Some of these giant scale planes take years to construct and cost thousands of dollars!!! Not trying to scare you off just stating a fact so you can better understand the cost differences in creating a 60" 5-6lb model vs a 160" 40-50lb model

Good luck enjoy... Who knows after building a kit you may become addicted like the rest off us!!!

Ad-d-d-dic-c-c-cted-d-d?

M-m-m-me?

I can q-q-q-quit any t-t-time I w-w-want to! (Pass the CA, damnit!)

minnflyer,

Somehow I seriously doubt that!!!

Well maybe if we take away all your kits and give you nothing but ARF's to build

Ewwwwwwwwwww!

The Fat Lady has sung on THAT line of thinking!

Yea... your advice on the size to cost ratio noted.

Its hard to explain... but it probably will be a fairly large aircraft.

I was chatting with some friends of mine that are in my field of study at school. They both have been flying RC airplanes for a couple years, (not really all that long I guess). But anyways, I was talking to them and they had the EXACT idea that I have been having. So long story short I think I just picked me up two partners. Cost just went down and they have experience with RCs already. Seeing as we want to build an airplane from our own ideas... having three minds will probably help with calculations... muhahahaha.

The only problem with that is that it triples your chances of being wrong.

heh.. good point.

NO BULL you said so i wont give you any go to www.horizonhobby.com and get one of those new alpha trainer you'll be already to go with a jr radio for $300.00.

That is the other thing.... radios.

Im more nervous than all crap about finding the right one. Again it will be a ways off... but are there radios that are just flat out better than others?

get a jr or a futaba anything else is a waste of money and don,t let anybody tell you otherwise. Because God knows they'll try

Big plans are fun! But practical?

May I suggest that you go get an ARF and start from there, because that is enough to allow you to feel "as if you're doing something" and it'll allow you to realize just how much can go into these, and also it may help you realize how easy they are to loose control of.

In other words, go for it if you want to spend your time designing a plane... that's totally cool! BUt why don't you (in addition) go out and buy an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) or a RTF (Ready To Fly), during your building project.

It'll give you the experience in flying an RC model, and give you some design ideas on how to make some practical improvements... not to mention you'll be amore able to take your time "designing" rather than wishing it were done so you could go fly it (without the alternative), or worse... you could crash it.

I just got mine up in the air today and already have plans for my second plane, a Carl Goldberg Super Decathlon. But if I didn't have this experience, there's NO WAY I'd want to take the risk of loss for not knowing even the simplest of things: http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=330116&forumid=22 read this thread, please!

Good luck in your venture, but please take the advice of others.

And one last note: You'll soon find out how this can "nickle and dime" your way to spending a ton of cold-hard cash.

MacAirr

Cantfly,
You should have added- IN YOUR HUMBLE OPINION-
I have been at this for almost 16 years non-stop, and have had every kind of radio on the market, and some that are not anymore.
The only radio I EVER had a problem with is a JR- while flying inverted at 10-12 feet the left stick came out of the gimble-no sh**! Needless to say the outcome was NOT GOOD!
Yes I still have a JR- it came with the ALPHA TRIANER I use for my students.
Futaba is good too.
However Hitec RULES!!! IMHO!!


Jetts