Thanks! Yes, I do like the way checkers look on the bottom of aircraft in flight.

The radio installation is completed. I decided to put the antenna on the inside of the fuselage so I installed the blue outside tube from a Sullivan push rod system for the antenna guild. I had originally intended run the antenna outside of the fuselage but decided to add to the clean look by putting it on the inside.

The power switch is a typical installation with a push-pull wire extended to the outside of the fuselage.

The black on the fuel filter is a piece of heat shrink to protect the filter from fretting the side of the engine.

Not much left to do now. I need to install a pressure fitting in the muffler and then recheck all the control linkages, etc

The “Duck” is ready to take flight! The weather is looking bad so it may be awhile before I can release the “Duck”.

Checked the weight again and it looks like I picked up a few ounces while I was completing the final details. The weight is now 5 lb 7.5 oz. ready to fly. It’s still very light with lots of horsepower. It should be a lot of fun!!

I hope this works, as I haven't uploaded pics before.... One of my daughter's friends pointed out the resemblance when I was looking at the Duck pics today. Great job 8178!

That’s pretty good! I need to get busy on the eye trim!

Another fantastic job 8178!!!!! Thanks for taking the time to share with all of us.

BTW: The fish's name is Nemo... Don't ask how I know....

Great Job 8178, hope the weather clears so you can test fly.!!!!



Dan


Carolina Custom Aircraft

Bravo. That's as good as it gets. I'm just curious how a black backplate with the white spinner would look; sort of repeating the black stripes on the fuse. Though, that might make it too busy. If you have a black spinner lying around, you might post a photo just to see how it looks. The engine looks great angled slightly above 45°. It shows off those eight(!) headbolts.

I've never run an antena internally before. Is there anything specific that you need to do when doing this?

Rainday-
Usually you run a nyrod tube down the length of the fuse while you are constructing the fuse.You may have to flush off the end of the tube with the side of fuse when exiting.Cover fuse to suit,then cut the coveringout of the inside of the tube.So the antenna wire can pass thru.The only problem you have to watch for is if you have your servos in the tail, the servo extension wires can cause interference.I had a Miss Los Angeles with servos in the tail,I ran the antenna wire down the side of the fuse and the servos glitched constantly.I moved the antenna wire out side the fuse problem solved-
-Jeffo

Thanks for the positive input everyone!

On 60 size aircraft the fuselage is usually long enough that the antenna does not need to exit at the back of the fuselage if the receiver is located near the front of the wing. It is very important that the antenna is fully extended and not coiled up. As jeffo said, keep the antenna away from the servos and servo leads but also the metal push rod ends . That’s not a problem for me because I do not locate servos in the tail. I also use a piece of masking tape on the antenna at the front area of the tube to keep the antenna from sliding out of the tube. It is best to put the tube in during construction. But, often I install the tube when I’m installing the radio when I cannot bring myself to drill a hole in the fuselage to string the antenna outside. I use spots of amazing goop glue every few inches along the tube to keep it attached to the fuselage. You can put the spots of goop along one side of the tube, then insert the tube into the fuselage and then turn the tube so the glue will attach to the fuselage.

On my Tiporare and Howard Engineering Kwik Fli III I installed the antenna on inside the fuselage but I also put the retract gear air valve and power switch in the nose gear wheel well so the fuselage is completely clean. On the Cold Duck I used the small push/pull wire on the power switch to keep the fuselage clean looking.

The “Cold Duck” flies and does it well! I wasn’t able to get any flight photos or video but I’ll get them next time out. I made two lengthy flights and all it needed in the way of trim was a few beeps of down trim. It tracks very straight, is super fast and feels light with unlimited vertical. Just like the original but the RJL K.61 has a lot more power than my old Veco 61 had! The tapered 18% root and 15% tip wing airfoil cuts through the air like a knife and it flies so fast that you can hear high speed air flow sounds as it screams by. Not as pretty in the air as the original retract gear version but it looked darn good to me today! It was windy so I decided to wrap it up and wait for better weather. The landings were great even with the wind, but I was the only one there to see them!

They say that you can never return home but flying today was pretty close.

If you haven’t already figured it out, I guess at this point I should admit that I am the designer of the “Cold Duck”. When I designed and built the original “Cold Duck” back in 1969 I flew the heck out of it enjoyed every minute. Latter on, RC Modeler Magazine published my “Cold Duck” article in June of 1971 along with my plans. Back in those days articles were written with pen and paper and it was not easy to do! My wife did the writing for the article and I wanted to keep changing stuff in the building sequence after text sections were completed. It was tense but we got though it and are still together after all these years!

Occasionally I would meet someone that had built one or wanted to build one from the RCM plans so the “Duck” been with me for a long time. Back in 1969 I never dreamed that in 2005 – 2006 that I would build and fly another “Cold Duck” so it was pretty neat to see my design take flight again.

If there is a classic pattern aircraft that you really liked in the 70s or 80s you can build one again. It’s not that hard to do and it is a lot of fun!

Congratulations! I had no doubt that it would fly well considering the amount of attention you pay when building. Hopefully she'll give you many years of enjoyment. So, now the big question: What's next on the building table and when are you going to resume teaching us the fine art of construction?

Congrats again and can't wait for the video!!

Tim

It doesn't really surprise me that you are the designer. Your subtle knowledge of the design and certain things you said here and there made me wonder at times.

Congratulations on the successful first flight. Though I don't think anyone doubted it would fly great. It's an awesome model.

I hope some of the people that are new to R/C come across your build threads. Designing and building are the foundation and the heritage of what this hobby is. Thanks.

Great build Mike Dailey. Can't wait to see the video's on RC Universe of the flights. What's next, the retract version of the Cold Duck. How did you come about naming it the "Cold Duck" ? Built in 1969, published in RCM 1971. Should have noticed from your opening text that you were the designer.

I'm not at all surprised it flew well on the first flight. I was there when the original flew and it too was a great performer. Like good wine a good design just gets better with age.

Another great addition to your 'fleet'. Congratulations.

Tony

Thanks for the great input everyone! Tony, I remember that you saw the Duck fly for the first time and many other flights too!

I’m not sure what to build next. I’ve been getting all kinds of email messages from Tower Hobbies about discounts on stuff but when I went to their website and looked at their flyer I cannot find a single kit that inspired me.

Hope to get some video and in flight pictures of the Cold Duck Friday.

Well, I'm currently drawing up a set of Perigee plans in Cad format that I'll gladly email to you when they're done. If anyone has the building expertise to do that plane justice, it would be you.

I'm at work today and thought I take a quick peek on RC-Universe and I stumbled across your Cold Duck build thread. I didn't stop until I read it all the way through and I'm sure I spent way too much company time doing it; I just had to read it all. This has been an inspiring project for me to follow and I must compliment you on your great craftsmanship. I don't think anyone read this without learning something about building. In my case I learned a lot. Thanks a bunch for a great experience!! (I hope I don't get canned today for goofing off. []) -K01S

I’m glad you found the build interesting and helpful and hope you didn’t get in trouble.

We took some in flight images and video today. The video guy missed the landings but we got a good landing photo. The video is at http://media.putfile.com/The-Cold-Duck-Takes-Flight The engine was running on the rich side during the video flight because it is new. On the next flight I leaned it out more and it is now running very smoothly. One of the images shows the Duck half way through a very slow roll from one end of the field to the other. I have some better in flight images that I will add latter.

Flying low and slow! Check out the up elevator used to fly nose high and slow enough for the pictures.

I like this image. You can see what it looked like flying with retracts!

Cold Duck was a popular wine in the late 60s.

8178

Thanks for the video.... one thing I'd like to add for everyone who takes videos of their planes. Our wonderful video cameras, (both analog tape and digital) all have a wonderful feature called autofocus. This is just fine when you are taking pictures of relatively stable objects such as an Easter Egg Hunt... however... when you want to take videos of R/C planes, turn the autofocus OFF and set the focus of the camera to infinity...(can't find the little symbol)... when you do... everything beyond 15 feet or so will be in focus and stay that way. This is what causes the blurr when the plane starts to turn or is changing it's distance from the camera quickly. Gotta get back in the shop...

take care,

Dan

Carolina Custom Aircraft