Jester241

I'd like to hear of some good proven planes that you guys are using for these conversion engines? I want to get another cheap plane or two to put a couple engines in. I'm just not sure what I want to put them in. I wanna hear what planes you guys have used that will handle the size,weight,and sometimes excessive vibration that some of these engines have. I have a nice 31cc and a mean 54cc that has tons of torqe and has already broken a wooded test stand mount. I'd like to get some planes for these engines,and I really dont have a preference as to what type of plane I want. I just want something dirt cheap and tough that will be easy to fly. The size and weight of these gassers kinda limits the plane selections sometimes.....particularly if you dont want fancy expensive planes. Any suggestions on some good cheap planes for conversion engines?

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

I really like my Giant Big Stik for a "knock around" plane, and it will fit a variety of engines. I presently have a 48cc twin cylinder engine on mine.

Otherwise, www.nitroplanes.com is just about impossible to beat for low prices. I have several of their planes, and no complaints.

AV8TOR

jib

Jester,

How about the big SPAD stick on www.spadtothebone.com? It has an 80+ inch wingspan and a Ryobi 31 (33?) was the engine used in the documented build.

Jack

coralcape

My Feedback: (4)

My vote would be, for the 1/4 clipped wing cub. red

frenchie79

Giant Big stik-look for scratch & dent deals. Good from 24 to 40cc.

captinjohn

Sig 4 Star 120 Bashed into the crop duster! Any 4 Star 120 is good also. Capt,n

foodstick

I actually have a toro 25cc on a 60-90 sized GP ugly stick ( makes it MUCH uglier ) and it carries the weight with ease.. I had to cut of some length on the nose of the plane and do some INTERESTING radio installation, but it flies well. and It has never snapped or stalled on me in flight or at landing unless i really threw some serious control inputs in to make it snap....

I have flown the GP super stearman with a toro 25, and now it has a Poulan 46c in it...big fun

GP 60 90 ugly stick toro 25cc

cmp hellcat 25cc toro

1/4 balsa usa fokker d7 poulan 46cc

big floaty ME 109 (BLOWN UP GUILLOWS DESIGN) McCulloch 25cc

Giant stinger rebuilt to stick after original owner trashed it poulan 36cc (inverted touch and go tore off tail..plane climbed to about 30 feet before gravity took over) I actually first flew the stinger aprox. 15 pounds with a stock toro 25cc, and it was FRIGHTENING, like taking off a bomber with a double bomb payload..but gentle controls and no deadsticks ..it survived some test flights !

clocknut

My Feedback: (6)

I bought A old Road Runner at A auction for $20.00 and I have A 40 cc poulan on it.
I also have A sig bravo with a 42 cc homlite.
And I have A lazy ace with A 26 cc homlite.

JIMARRINGTON

Foodstick,

I would like to get some details on your Guillows Me109. I have been thinking of enlarging some Earl Stahl plans to GS size. I have already enlarged a couple and built electrics out of them and they flew really well. I see no reason why a large one should be any different.

Thanks
Jim

foodstick

Well Jim I started it in 1993, Can't remember actually when I finished it? hasn't been flown a lot as I had to sort out a few problems that I caused myself. First of all its 80 inch wing, scratch built glass cowl and canopy, supercoverited, no retracts, and originally had a ASP 75.. when the plane was finished it weighed 9 pounds ! However to get it balanced properly it took 3 pounds of lead !!! ha ha so still a miserly 12 pounds... When we first flew it it had one BAD tendency, it would roll forward very little then leap at a high angle of attack into the sky. I used the same airfoil as the rubber band model, but I had sharpened it even more while i redesigned it on the bench..this caused a scary pitch sensitivity at takeoff.. The plane was flown a few times and just looks and flies great, and slow.

I got tired of the engine getting hot, it was in their upright with bad airflow, and quite frankly I got tired of glow motors in general.. So after a few years I decided to install a smooth little McCulloch 25cc gas in it, The nice thing was I was able to trade two and a half pounds of gas motor for two and a half pounds of lead! unfortunately I had to extend the cowl, and remove more on the bottom for clearence. While I swapped motors I built in a little down thrust..

So, we retest fly with new motor and downthrust.. It was a bit too much downthrust.. the plane wanted to pull the nose into the runway now on takeoff, it flew alright (with trim) but very obviously nose down .... on landing it was flying very tail high, and I was trying to land it, it was slow and ok but with my non scale gear it was obvious the prop was going to hit before the wheels. (the gear is not scale height) I slowly pulled back the elevator to try and level, then flare the plane..but just as it leveled out and slowed down the wing with its sharp leading edge and pitch problem just lifted the plane practically onto its tail then stalled and dropped. We figure the down thrust was over powering the elevator, then as the motor finally idled down low enough I was holding so much stick to pull the nose..that once the engine quit pulling down as hard it just pitched up violently .....Very little broke, the rudder came off mainly.

So, I talked to my friend and the next step was to takeout a little downthrust, and I took some trailing edge stock and mounted it to the front BOTTOM of the wing. I carefully shaped it so that the leading edge was now much more blunt, and from the side it looks like a shallow lobe coming back from the leading edge, and then the wing bottom becomes dead flat again (the rubber band airfoil)..

this time when I took off it was smooth, it flew perfect and the landing was uneventful, level approach, flared with out incident, perfect !

the only problem is I haven't flown it since! My buddy and I are compulsive builders, and once we get something fixed, or to broken to repair, we move on !! ha ha
I do plan on flying it next year though, I always feel guilty how little time my planes get at the field.

JIMARRINGTON

Thanks for the info. One of the things you have to look out for on these free flight models is that the wing will have a lot of positive incidence. Good for a free flight model. Bad for a powered model. My electrics would climb with the addition of power. Needed a good bit of down trim to fly level. The Earl Stahl models have more of a Clark Y airfoil vs the flat airfoil of the Guillows. I suspect the the wing incidence on your model was too high. especially if you rounded up the front of the leading edge. Remember that the incidence of the wing is a straight line from the forward most part of the leading edge to the rearward most part of the trailing edge. When you modified the leading edge, if you dropped the leading edge down level with the flat bottom then you changed the incidence of the wing lowering it. I suspect that had more to do with the change in flight than the change in the downthrust. Just a thought.

Would love too see some pics if you have any. I have often wondered if it would be possible to build a warbird like this with a tamer airfoil and lighter structure and make it easier and more fun to fly.


Jim

JIMARRINGTON

Here are some pics of the Earl Stahl models that I enlarged to 36" and bult for electric. They were great flyers.

Jim

planewrecker

My Feedback: (147)

I've got a Hangar 9 CAP 232 1.20 with a ryobi 31cc. It weighs 15 lb. It flies great with no real bad tendencies unless you use full elevator at slow speed, then it may snap. I take off and land at 1/2 full rate and have had no problems. The ryobi pulls very well but just not enough to hover.
I just bolted the motor on and flew it. I need to cut the firewall back a couple inches to get the cowl to fit right.
These arfs can be found at swap meets or online for CHEAP!

foodstick

Jim I started a new thread here http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_81...tm.htm#8170789

on the me 109 guillows blowup, so it wouldn't thread jack this post..

clocknut

My Feedback: (6)

Well I posted a few planes with conversion engines,but here is my lasted victim.
This is a 89" super decathlon that I'm putting a 31 ryobi on .I will be running this on gas/glow and this way it will fit real nice under the cowling.I hope it will be OK in this plane the plans call for A 25-35 cc gas engine.I have put new bearings and a Frank Bowman ring in it and also A 11.1 mm carb, so I'm hoping it will run great.