Josh,

thanks for the pictures. One can see that your T-825 wing is quite a bit larger than the T-720. It's a little harder to tell how much larger the fuse is. Do you have figures (specs) for wing/stab span as well as fuse length (including spinner and rudder). The T-825 should do nicely with a "modern" RE 61 such as a pumped YS or OS. I imagine the stab is either flat or has about 2" of anhedral - is that correct?

I sent you a private message yesterday. You mentioned you were fairly new to RCU so I hope you received it. Let me know if not and perhaps I can write to you via email.

Thanks, David.

the fuse is 54 3/4" from the nose ring to the edge of the vertical stab. (glass part) horizontal stabs are 14 3/4" the plans call for 3" of anhedral on the stabs. (however if you hold them together it looks like less)

Josh,

It's quite amazing that the fuse length of the T-825 is only ~4" longer than the T-720 which has a glass fuse of ~51" and a total length of ~56" (spinner and rudder included).

Also, you mention plans! If you have plans for the T-825 (Hipo), then cutting cores for it might be quite a bit easier - only the tip and root airfoils of the core would be needed from your left (unwarped) core if they are not also drawn on the plan.

David.

Had a little break here to get pictures of the fuses. The top fuse is the GP/WK Tiporare (720). The 2nd one down is the the fuse for the Tipo + (or 750) depending on how you ordered it. The 3rd fuse is the Tipo Surpass which is designed for the 91 four strokes. (thinking about getting rid of this one). As you can see the major changes took place from the wing saddle forward. The Hipo Tipo goes in between the 750 fuse and the Surpass. I'll fill in the blanks later when I get more time.[&o]

Mark

Josh,

DH put a "+" and a "-" on the tails of the other Tiporares. (It can be a pain to see) The 720 is the only one to have a solid line the marks the where the stab goes. I am willing to bet that your Hippo has the same marks

they are visible on the fuse. they were etched in by hand so i was not sure if they were good!@!!

Mark,

fantastic!

Nice to finally see an almost complete lineup. It's interesting how the canopy progressively receded backwards (or shortened in length) as the models evolved. The Surpass sure is an odd looking bird. If you do decide to part with it, please let me know!

After seeing them all, I have to say that the original 720 has the most graceful lines. However, the 750 might be a better model for the 60's we use today - those 30 squares sure help to lighten things up on the wing.

David.

Well,

after a few weeks of working on wings and stabs, I'm running out of reasons not to join their panels. Although the retract wells are perfectly functional, they are a hair off perfect circularity (cool word) - or shall I say: gibbous wells. This is primarily due to the stub spars lining the well area which prevents a circle of the ideal diameter when using 2.25" wheels on mains. Perhaps a landing gear plate of 3" width would be more suitable to allow the entire wheel well to be encompassed by foam rather than bordered by stub spars. I'll get them perfectly circular on the next wing.

For those interested, attached are a few snaps of the electric Kraft Multicon (4.8V) & wheel setup (11+ oz [X(]) in the wing cores. Ailerons and elevators are also hinged using Robart hinge points.

Hope all you other Tipo builders out there are making good progress!

David.

If you are like me and get a kick out of things like this, have fun with the 1 min movie attached. Save file as Tipo-Multicon.avi

Actuation is accomplished via a double pole/double throw switch powered by a 4s NiMH pack. In the model, the gear is actually operated via a vintage amp (essentially a wheel-less servo) connected directly to the Rx with a few leads sticking out of it. Power for the amp and gear can be supplied from the Rx or from a separate dedicated source. 2.4V gear also existed (earlier models) which today could be operated via a single 1100 mAh A123 cell - fast charge, steady voltage and light when combined with a 2s lipo Rx pack.

Playing with stuff like this can actually delay completion of a build by a week or so...

David.

A couple of snaps of the empennage. Elevator edges will be lined with 1/32 ply once the stab is mounted in order to be certain that they are clearing the rudder. At a glance, it appears that the angle at the elevator root is too shallow. A little wood filler still needed to conceal the wood quality difference at the TE of the stab tips. 1/32 ply inserts are located here to prevent the tips from denting. Elevator TE's are similarly lined with 1/8" mahogany - rock hard.

David.

Those look good David. I must have missed/forgotten that you were building one too.
Are you going to glass it?

I'm glad a redesigned mine with wider sub spars so I don't have wheel limitations. I thought you said you added something to the of the wing and I see a channel but I don't see anything in it. I was thinking of makeing the next one with a foam cut out channel and epoxy some carbon fiber in it, replace the cut out and sand it smooth. It should make a nice light spar.

My buddy pulled out his Dirty Birdy and was practicing stalls when it got into such a tight stall that it wouldn't come out and he lost it so we will be building the next one together or he'll choose the Tipo also.

Yah, one more week till I get caught up at work and back to the build

Tim

Thanks Tim.

As your thread has become a great exchange of info on Tipo's I thought I'd post some progress on mine but I still feel awkward about it and considered pulling the posts and putting them in a thread of their own as perhaps might be more appropriate. Again, just drop me a PM if you'd rather keep your thread uncluttered - but we've been there already.

Yea, widening the stub spar width to 3" strikes me as a good idea leaving you 1/4" on either side between the well and the spar. I don't really see a need for wheels larger than 2-1/4" on a ship this size but then I don't fly retract classics off grass.

If you look carefully at the picture of the root chords you'll see some black strips just above the stub spars under the sheeting. Likewise on the wing tops (under the sheeting) centered between the spars. These are 1/32" (maybe 1/64 in) strips of CF that span 3/4 of the panels (see photo attached for how this is laid down). I really do like how the CF makes the unsheeted cores stiff. I like to use laminating epoxy for sheeting - once that's done, the wings are for all intensive purposes unwarpable.

A proper CF tube could be inserted into the core centers to make them stronger but this would be overkill on a joined and center glassed wing. I'd think it would be better suited for a plug-in wing going through the fuse. The channel that you see in the center is for the retract leads. I could have used a 1/4" bore but didn't have a tube that diameter. Using a 1/2" bore makes things a little easier in terms of passing the leads and removes little extra weight too. The channels near the top of the wings are for the servo leads - I made these only as deep as necessary. The recesses were then covered with balsa prior to sheeting.

This wing will be glassed and painted in the center section while the outer panels will be covered in MK (likewise on the stab). I'm actually building two Tipo's - the next one will be all glass & paint.

Sorry to hear about your friends' DB. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

David.

Can't upload photos properly now so will do so later.

It shouldn't really apply to any scratch built projects with freshly cut cores but it serves to mention, for others who may have GP kits, that I had a manufacturing problem with my first set of cores:

The root airfoil templates were dislodged (in all likelihood) on passing the bow through the foam. This seems to have been a systematic problem (probably the first few runs) as the exact same error is introduced in each core. The LE expands in thickness toward the root (last couple of inches) and since the core panels are all cut single sided, one ends up with a LE which is overly thick on the top of one panel and on the bottom of the other. This leads to unequal incidences in the panels when joined.

In order to correct for this, I had to sand out the excess thickness in each panel leaving me with even thickness LE's. I'll have to check but hopefully the roots will now bond squarely while producing equal incidences.

The second set of cores, produced 5-10 years later, has another set of issues but I haven't gotten to them yet. I'll probably try to fix any problems with those at the core level prior to wrapping them in wood.

I suppose this is an example of lack of proper QC in the early days of Great Planes. My original '82 Tipo kit (described above) was one of GP's first production kits given GP was founded in '82.

David.

This isn't an Illusion is it? http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemid=510848
I don't think it is, I just saw the belly pan.

Tim,

no, I was trying to figure out what ship that was too. That ship also has a top pipe tunnel which I would imagine was intended for the engine to be mounted inverted with an S shaped header (Magic style) or possibly upright. For some reason the builder began to install the engine mounted sideways perhaps because he didn't have a RE engine. If I were the buyer I would correct that and build the plane around a RE engine as it looks like it was designed for.

Many classics had belly pans. There is actually very little difference between the Tipo and the Illusion fuse wise. The primary difference is the higher wing location (hence the belly pan) and the longer front bottom with the less angled chin (see photos). By the way, these photos are of a late Illusion cast as can be seen from the light coloured glass and the choice by GP to remove the pipe recess in the belly pan. Also note that there are no glass longerons down the fuse sides. Early fuse casts were darker, had the stiffening longerons, had the recess in the belly pan and were heavier.

At some point I should be able to take some pics of my two glass Tipo fuses showing their vintage.

David.

Not much happening here. I got the new Kaos which I believe is legal for SPA which is in September? It needs the stabilezers put on and covered as well as the ailerons and electronics and it will be ready. I need to sell some stuff of to purchase a .60 as my fun budget is going to scale models.
Since it's almost done I'll post the Kaos in the Kaos thread.

Tim

hipo tipo for sale in classifieds

On RCU? I can't find it, gotta a link?
Chris...

David, what is this BHE engine mount you mentioned here?

Mark,

BHE stands for Bridi Hobby Enterprises. Joe, made some nice mounts back in the day but they are now discontinued. BHE mounts had the mounting holes drilled in a square arrangement so that you could bolt on the mount in any direction you wanted once the holes were made in the FW. The crankshaft remained in the same position regardless of the orientation of the cylinder.

Nowadays, one of the standard glass filled mounts is the Dave Brown mount which doesn't have symmetric mounting holes - the bottom two are closer together than the top two. What's nice about the DB mounts is that the holes in the mount are arranged so that you can get a ball driver at those locations even when the engine is installed without it interfering with it.

When building a Tipo fuse in wood, the BHE mount is helpful in the construction of the nose although not mandatory. Modelers have never lacked creativity in finding solutions!

Photos attached - BHE 60L mount (e.g., OS 61 SF) and DB 4650 (e.g., YS 45).

David.

P.S. Are you building a wood Tipo fuse?

Ron, I've always wondered exactly what color did Dave use one these Tipos... almost seems like it's brown or orange but that might be due to color shifting of the photos. Any ideas?

I don't know the exact color Dave used on his models, but even if you bought the same paint color as Dave used, you'd probably be hard pressed to get the exact same color. Dave is an excellent builder and a master at lightweight paint jobs. He would fog on one coat of color and get it extremely even. If he had sprayed a second coat it would have been a lot darker. When he was done it looked like a metallic brown. Don't know if they still make it, but Top Flite made a special color that was supposed to match the brown on Dave's model. I used it when I built the Challenge 2 for him that he flew in the 1985 Worlds.

I was lucky to get a Phoenix 7 from Dave that I flew in the 1978 Nats in what at the time was called Masters but is now considered F3A. I also lived in Dave's home for three months when I moved to Cinci to work at World. My first real pattern contest was in Cleveland in 1976. I was flying Novice and had never been to a real meet before. I was hoping to sit back and watch a bit to see how it was all done, but of course I got picked to be the first up in the first round. Dave saw I was a little confused by it all and came up, grabbed my model and called for me that flight. To say I was star struck would have been a huge understatement!

Thanks Tony!