Just got my new Towers flyer they show an SE5 Bipe built up NOT FOAM 34inch span recommended power rim fire 28-30 brushless
motor I guess thats the comparsion to a 25-30 glow engine. Having diesels in the 15 to 19 range might make a nice diesel flyer
89.95 with the $10 coupon 79.95 uses 4 serves as electric thus 5 as a diesel (throttle) thoughts ??????? martin

The motor they recommend is only 220W peak input or 3/4 of that output. That's about .22HP. A 9x5 at 10kRPM would be roughly the same amount of power. There is no firewall in it and I would wonder about the strength of the fuselage in the nose area. It's a nice airplane and it caught my eye when I saw it.

Adding a firewall/mount would not be a big deal have done it on some other conversions will see if the LHS has one and will check to see if can be easily done along with a beef up of the fus. martin

I'm sure you could do it. I converted a 38" span PT 19 from Hobby Lobby. I just glued in a piece of plywood for a firewall. That plane was kind of heavy though and would even fly on the .061 PAW I bought for it so I yanked it out and put in a .09 PAW but at almost 30 ounces it flew like a brick. I flew it about 30 flights before I crashed it. That engine still wasn't broken in and it wouldn't idle for long. PAW's must have to run forever to get broken in.

The plane will get heavier after you modify the fire wall and fuel proof everything.

I mounted my engine upside down but I'm not sure they will idle well upside down. Of coures that is what looks best on a lot of scale planes and might look good on the SE5.

I was just looking for a winter project and this plane caught my eye.

I believe what was being discussed was this kit by Great Planes (Electricfly SE5A)

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXMSH7&P=ML


I was thinking that it might be possible, keep it light and power with a PAW 1.49cc. Of course it depends on what you want out of flying, hot, fast and very aerobatic then the 1.49cc probably wouldn't work well but for prototypical like flying it might just be the ticket. A .15 size engine I think might be just on the large size. However I haven't actually seen the kit and with adding a firewall and bit of strengthing the front end, a .15 might be a better choice.

So, has anyone converted one to diesel or glo?

cheers, Graham in Embrun near Ottawa Canada.

Graham looks good being built up construction- should be no issues modify modify a little wood and glue martin

Here is A thread on that plane on another site:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=563818

Graham I have an enya CX11D ASP12 AP hornet 09(the last 2 diesel conversions I think the thing to do is haul them down to the LHS
when they get it and see if a fit also 074 norvel conversion if that will pull it martin

That's a thought Dan.

I don't think size is an issue, my concern would be whether a PAW 1.49 would be enough to fly it. The electric motor that is recommended for the kit is about 150W, gkamysz mentioned that the motor was rated at 220 W peak but really it is 150W motor. An engine turning a 8x4 or 8x5 prop at 11,000 is about 145 watts and that puts the PAW 1.49 right in that ballpark. At an all up weight of about 24 ounces it has a wing loading or around 8.2 ounces per square foot which makes it pretty lightly loaded.

A rule of thumb for electrics is 50 w (input) per pound for easy flying sport performance. 150 watts for 1.5 lbs puts it around 100 watts (input) per pound which would put it in the plenty of oomph category (opinions may differ on the meaing of plenty of oomph)

So something that will spin an 8x4 or so around 11,000 rpm should fly it without much issue. A bit of reserve power is always nice but not always necessary particularily if you want to fly something like this in a prototypical fashion. I read on a thread somewhere where someone had put a alarger electric motor in it than the one recommened and got unlimited vertical; to me that just doesn't make sense as it is not very realistic. To each his own.

So, in a round about way I think my question about power is anwered. I have an OS .10 FSR which would make it a bit more lively if I thought the PAW couldn't cut it.

Bit question however is whether or not the fuselage is balsa without any reinforcement all the way to the front end, ie 1/16 or 3/32 balsa without a doubler of some sort. Adding a firewall and engine mount looks trivial. You can download the instructions from the Tower site which has lots of pictures.

The more and more I look at this the more and more I am tempted.

Would be nice if someone has already converted one. Nice to see what someone else has done rather than re-invent the wheel.

I have an AP .15 which I am tempted to convert to diesel after seeing of your comments in older threads. Works reall well as glow engine, I am impressed for such an inexpensive engine.

cheers, Graham in Embrun near Ottawa Canada.

Graham forgot also have an OSFP10 davis head Its brother flew a VMAR cub 400 electric conversion for several years snappy
preformance till the wing failed in a hard high speed turn which it really was not designed for and leaving the struts off did not help
martin wingspan was about 50 inchs martin

Graham just took a close look this has an 1/8" battery tray very well secured that could just be doubled and glued it then would only require a cut back
of about an inch ( slotted for the engine) and a false firewall cut in half glued in under and over it behind the engine would really beef it up, the original
fire wall could be cut leaving a perimeter edge of about 1/4 inch all around the battery tray is structual thats what gave me the thought martin

What is the front of the fueselage like? All balsa with no doubler? Balsa doubler? or balsa with ply doubler of some sort?

cheers, Graham

Looks pretty good balsa with ply plates sides and bottom will add an other one however to "ironside it" would be very light but add
strength martin will try and up load a pix close up

One of those Se5's shoewd up at our field 2 days ago. in the "normal" electric condition. Flew like a brick. In a gentel breeze it was a bear to fly in nice gentle arcs like it is supposed to fly. instead it was jerking all over. On landing, because of this, it made a slight bounce and broke the landing gear, which was quite ridged. Other that that it looked nice . Well made arf and quite light too.
It could be that I am just so used to flying sport aerobactic/3D that these Scale things look feeble.
I'm not sure any increase in weight would be tolarable.

Bill

How much did the model weigh? There is no reason for it to be a brick, unless the equipment was chosen improperly. Maybe the airpframe is heavy.

"Normal electric condition" is outdated. Electrics can fly as well or better than IC models.

---------------


Biplanes suffer tremendously from drag, as you can imagine. Several of mine had the glide angle of a dropped manhole cover when the engine quit and required lots of down elevator instantaneously to prevent them from stalling and spinning in. Once you were used to that, you could discover some of the fun aspects of biplane flying. I was used to sleek pattern ships, so you can imagine the paradym shift that I experienced with my first biplane. Still, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Nope, not crashes - but that was more a matter of luck during the initial flights.

I am a control freak. If the original model's control surfaces look too small to me, I usually double their chord, where possible.

The "new" micro servos offer us an opportunity to fly these models with unprecedented light wing loadings.

Now to find a Diesel conversion head for my two NIB Enya .15 glow engines. This is my favorite size for a Diesel engine. I didn't see any mention of Enya engines in DDD's listing of available conversion heads. Guess I'll have to call.

If I hadn't spent all of the money that I allocated for this year, I would have one of these little DVII's on its way to me right now.


Ed Cregger

Looks like the AP conversion 09 is going in It will need a fire wall a close look at the battery tray reveals an up slope but when cut back and firewall installed it will butt and be glued to it and the sides of the fus.the gear mounting will get a backing block and bigger mounting screws (most likely will go to 4/40 screws and nuts the little screws to hold it on look marginal even as stock electric/ martin

Ok now I am committed made a slice behind the front bulkhead and an other 2 inchs back and a horizonal cut on each side lifted it off
sort of like an old car hood ran the p**s off the dremel and hacked everything out in the way making a firewall and will mount a long hays 09 mount looks like most of the the plastic front radiator can be retained just a few minor cuts and the top of the fus piece
can go right back and made removable with 4 screws to mounting plates on the fus with that little exhaust outlet on the AP hornet
it should look ok that is also a nice feature on the paws no big ugly muffler on the side of the aircraft,this should be a pretty easy conversion room for tank and servo no issues jist a small hole will be needed on the top to stick an allen wrench to the compression
screw and a slam dunk for an extension on the needle again small hole, Cooling still a question plenty of air thru the front will have to fiquire out where to let it out

The new Folker looks nice in the pix have not seen one but sure quite similar in construction DVll some stuff on the 1/2A site is
showing up on both of these a gear beef up mount is needed and some flight handling issues stock as an electric but is a bipe and
a learning curve