The Free Airplane
 

This is one of the little things builders can do that those that have only flown ARFs will never be able to do,build a free airplane.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...wink_smile.gif
This is a Daddy Rabbit designed in 1966 and won the class 3 pattern Nats. Iwas given the blue prints, had the left over wood from other builds sitting on my shelf, all the hardwood stringers I cut out of scrap hard wood i found in my wood working clubs left over bin. Ieven ripped the wood for the landing gear blocks with a groove in them.
The only money Iused was for the front steering LG system and two cans of spray paint and one can of red that I used my spray gun with. The primmer I had from when I was painting my old pick up truck.
Engine is an SK .90 Ihad under the bench, servos are a mix of Hitec 5475s and 475s with a Futaba RX. I used a HS 80 for the throttle and an HS 81 for the steering that I have slaved to the rudder, easier then running control rods.
Idid run out of little things like CA and had to go to wood glue, Ieven used the last drop of epoxy Ihad. Iended up having to pull some clevises off of an old plane, I'm even out of those little things.
It's all ready for the maiden now.
Ihave been walking out to my shop and looking for things to do on and off all day. It's building withdrawl. My god, I even put my tools away and swept the floor. Ihave more wood left over!! Ihave a closet full of plans, should I try to build another free plane or install an engine and gear in one of my old wall hangers?? Maybe fix one of my planes that is need of repairs?? So many choices, Ithink Iwould like to be flying but the weather looks like crap for a few more days!!
Oh well, something will come up.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

looks nice....you fiberglassed it?

RE: The Free Airplane
 

No Ididn't use glass, Ishould have but I wanted to try something. Iused sanding sealer then water based Poly-U but left out the glass. Iused three coats with 50% Baby Powder in the poly thinking it would fill all the grain, not so!!! From now on Iwill stick with glassing.
Thing is I have plenty of left over 1/2 oz. glass under the bench too!!http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...msn/crying.gifThat would have still been counted as free!!

RE: The Free Airplane
 

NICE, looks like a tower kaos. sort of.</p>

RE: The Free Airplane
 

HAHAHAHA, you brought up my point exactly. Isent a set of the plans to my friend and building buddy in NY a couple of years ago and he built one right away. He has been on me for years now to build one, I said why bother, I already have a Kaos.
By the way, they are the Bridi Kaos, Tower just got the rights to have them made, Tower used to even sell the 60 size and the 40 in kit form. Just a point of intrest.
The DR was designed for higher wind conditions and flew in 1966, the Kaos was designed in 1970 and won the Nats three times, the DR only once.
The DR is also shorter coupled and the tail feathers are different shaped. Until I fly the two of them one after the other I'm not sure how much different they will be.
You will also notice that all the classic pattern planes look very similar in design and shape.
One other thing, they all fly beyond great!!
Take a little peek at the Ultra Sport, take note of the wing and stab shape then figure out whaer it came from. The US has a much better fuse shape though.
Next time Ihave the Kaos and DR side by side Iwill try to remember to take a photo of them together, you will notice a lot of little diffenences.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f.../msn/49_49.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Very nice airplane gray beard, scratch built for me at least is hard to justify doing all these curves complexity wise...
very impressive.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Pretty neat little history lesson there, I wasn't aware that the kaos was a pattern plane. They sure have changed over the years.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

the Kaos is awesome, I even made one out of coro. I flies like its on rails.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Nice airplane Gray Beard!  Good job.

Don't be so fast in critically analyzing non-glassing and subsequent displeasure of not having a perfect mirror finish, because you may be on to something! 

Aerodynamic properties of laminar vs turbulant flow indicate less drag when a thin layer of air flows and clings to a surface with slight indentations, thereby reducing drag due to decreasing the wake of the airflow.

In other words, I made some of that up, but it will probably fly better than the same plane with a perfect finish!

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Ibelieve that is the principle used when designing a golf ball..http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...wink_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Golf balls generate lift by spinning very fast. Gray Beard, to get the most out of your surface finish, fly it in very tight loops as fast as you can. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f.../msn/75_75.gifhttp://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...ular_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Gray Beard,
After over 25 years in Accounting with 10 in Cost Accounting
I must state that the plane was not free. You actually had to go
out and buy the materials. The plane was not free you just reduced the cost
of the previous planes and moved those costs to the new plane.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. :-)

Nice job and a good looking plane!

KW_Counter

RE: The Free Airplane
 

A lot of the wood was given to me as guys left the building side of modeling for ARF flying so it was a lot colser to free then not.
There is a Classic Pattern forum here on RCU and if you go over and take a look you will see a number of planes that you may or may not have seen before and not known there history.
Today a lot of folks are competing in SPA flying {I may have that wrong?} that uses the old style pattern planes like the DR and Kaos. For the most part these are flown with .60 engines just like inthe golden age of patternbut there are a few rule changes to allow things like four strokes.
This is mostly flown from the mid west to the east coast, Ihaven't found any SPA in Calif. or NV. Anyway, it's worth a look and read to find out more about this sport and the history of these planes. Imay build the SunFli next?? Istill have a bunch of left over wood. Imay need to make up a sign out of cardboard stating Iwill work for modeling parts, my bulilding box is running really low and I'm about out of good servos.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

So will hail damage make my car get better mileage?http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f.../omg_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Actually, while Joe Bridi designed the Kaos in the early 1970's, the entire Bridi kit line was sold to Great Planes in the 1980's. The Bridi Kaos became the Great Planes Kaos 60. The current Tower Kaos is an ARF version similar to the Super Kaos 40, which was a later design than the Kaos, but also by Joe Bridi before he sold out to GreatPlanes.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Bill,
Did they buy back the rights to sell them again??? http://www.bridiairplanes.com/

Ken

RE: The Free Airplane
 

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f.../lightbulb.gif Probably only if you hit it with a giant sand wedge and got lots of backspin. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...ular_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Ialways wondered about what the contract was like when Tower started selling the Bridi Kaos. You could still buy the plans from MAN or you could go right to Joe. The hobby shops were still selling Bridi kits. At one of our last IMAA events held at Castle Joe cut us a run of the 60 size Kaos kits for the club raffle plus several for the attendent raffle. Back then the price was only $75.00 so I'm pleased to see the kits haven't gone up in price very much. Iwas told that Blue Jay was Joes son but it was just pit BS and Inever bothered to find out. Istill have my 60 and 120 Kaos.
For myself I don't care who is selling this plane, it is and always be a Bridi. Tower has just been blessed to be able to sell them.http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...wink_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Gray Beard,
Same thing goes with the Ultra Sport. Great Planes bought the rights to produce the kit, but RCM retained the right to sell the plans. I do know that the way the deal is written is the plans can only be used for personal use (making a plane yourself), and that anybody cutting kits from the plans and selling them is voilating the copyright on the Ultra Sport. I know of a kit cutter than got in big trouble because they were cutting short kits from the RCM plans. Hobbico had a REALLY nice chat with him about it!!!! [X(] :D</p>

Ken</p>

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Ahem... getting back to dimples on golfballs, * I won't do this again, mods, I promise...*

<font face="arial,helvetica"> The purpose of the dimples is to create a rough surface that promotes an early transition to a turbulent boundary layer. This turbulence helps the flow remain attached to the surface of the ball and reduces the size of the separated wake so as to reduce the drag it generates in flight. When the drag is reduced, the ball flies farther. Some golf ball manufacturers have even started including dimples with sharp corners rather than circular dimples since research indicates that these polygonal shapes reduce drag even more.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...cs/q0215.shtml

I kind of thought that bird looked like a Kaos. Isaw one fly last weekend. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...eeth_smile.gif


</font>

RE: The Free Airplane
 

HI  the plane was not  FREEjust paid for far in advance- very very nice plane saw my first one at the field  two years ago and did notice it was much like a kahos-i have the good fortune to have a midwest  60  size  SUPER KAOS- it is an amazing flying planetruly does fly on railsit was a the  insperation for me to build my 60 size  ULTRASPORT many years ago (won the kit at a club raffel ) when i realized the ultrasport is a kaos with a turtle deck -i have been very very happy with the performance of both planes for many years now they both are one of the best flying 60 size airframes a person can fly

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Is the ultrasport really a refined kaos? I understood that one of the P-51 kits had a wing that was essentially an ultrasport wing, and was supposed to be a great flyer.

RE: The Free Airplane
 

That's the secret. The Ultra Sport has the same wing as a Kaos. The difference is that the Ultra Sport has a turtledeck and a bit more refined fuselage that gives it the knife edge performance the Kaos doesn't have.

Ken

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Ken, a friend and one of my old students came by tonight to take a look at the new plane. The question that came up was what was I going to do next?? Iwent into the closet and pulled out some plans and showed them the Sun Fli, another Joe Bridi design. He kept looking at the DR and back at the plans then asked the waited for question, what's the difference?? Ihad to hunt myself but I started pointing out the little things like stab sizes and shapes, fuse shape, just the little things. All of the really good pattern planes over the years have been similar in shape and design.
Sort of like looking at the new jet fighters from around the world, function in the form.
For those that don't scratch/plans build and still want an outstanding stunt plane, theyshould take a close look at the Ultra Sport. It's a lot of bang for the bucks and after building the kit it may turn an ARF person into a builder.
It's never too late to come away from the dark side!!http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...wink_smile.gif

RE: The Free Airplane
 

Gray Beard,
When I was at Joe Nall last week I was talking to the guys from Balsa USA. They said they are shocked with the amount of people building now. They said their sales are WAY up. Guess people are staying home and building now instead of spending $150 every weekend for green's fees!!!</p>

Ken</p>