clockwise dl50
 

hello. i was just wondering if a dl50 can be run clockwise. i have a ziroli p38 which i plan to run a pair of dl50's. the real p38 has one engine running counterclockwise and one running clockwise. can this be done with the dl 50's?

RE: clockwise dl50
 

I am pretty sure all you have to do is adjust the timing. The cylinder shouldn't really know what direction it's running.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

I don't know how the prop adapter is attached on that engine (I know it has 4 bolts holding the prop on, they should be fine turning the other way), but if it's held on by a bolt or nut of some sort, be sure to loctite it well, otherwise the only thing that needs to be changed is the timing, change it to the other side from top dead center (probably either 28 or 30 degrees), with piston ported engines the only thing keeping them running in the right direction is the timing... nitro engines have a port in the crank, so they're more picky... I'd say the hardest part would be finding a matching reverse rotation prop...

RE: clockwise dl50
 

You know that they both turned the wrong way, IE two critical engines?

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Both turning opposite negated the critical engine situation. If they were same direction, clockwise from the cockpit, the left would have been critical. Then again, with props that big and that much torque I would not have been one to enjoy trying Vmc on the critical engine....

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Lefty Gardner did it at Reno :D

RE: clockwise dl50
 

One of the few that really tried. Most that lost an engine in the 38 elected to jump.... Catch 22 when that happened, The tail caught many of them.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

With both turning you don't have a critical engine, it's when one stops that you do. What makes it a critical engine is that the prop that is going down is outboard. The P-38 had two critical engines because it had rudder flutter with the engines on the proper sides, they switched them and the rudder flutter went away, good enough for wartime.:D

It's a good thing the Germans never learned to stop putzing with things and just make a lot of them, only one exception was the 109 which they made 33,000 of.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Good plane but rather narrow legged;)

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Tell me about it. My 1/4 scale ME109G is the trickiest plane I've ever flown. In addition to the difficulty in making straight takeoffs because of the narrow gear and the angle, the scale tail feathers make landings very tricky indeed.

-Ed B.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Now to get this going really good were they ME or actually BF?:);) Ol WIlly up and made some people really angry in the war department.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

In Hartmann's, ( 352 kills), book, (Blond Knight of Germany), he said that when they flew into a German airbase that had a asphalt runway 3/4ths of the planes crashed, they where used to landing on grass which was easier to land on evidently.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

Easier for our tail dragger models as well.

RE: clockwise dl50
 

the 109s narrow undercarriage was very dangerous, That Hartmann book is a great read