HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

You get out of racing what you put in. If you're not willing to put in the time, effort, and money then one should consider other endeavors.

Ed Smith

What you need is an education in building.

Ed s

Hellephant

Sorry I haven't been replying to this thread in a while, so I'm gonna give an update. I've actually listened very carefully to ALL the suggestions made and came up with a plan that I feel will work well with our club. We are gonna kit our own design. The plane will have about a 41-43 in. wingspan and about 350-370 square inches. The wing will be a balsa laminate foam-core type with a semi-symmetrical airfoil. The plane will be a hand launched belly lander and will be powered by a plain-bearing .25 engine. It will be a very simple high-wing design. I factored in a number of things (including input from you guys) into the decision to go ahead and build a couple prototypes.

1. .25 plain-bearing engine. This is a must, there are just too many people in our club with inactive .25FP's. These engines deserve a home!

2. I see where Devon is coming from in his suggestion to go with the quickie airframe but we figure if someone want's to go up to his neck of the woods to race they will want to have a dedicated plane for that, not have to tear apart their club racer every time. Devon, I really do see that this will spark interest in our club and I'm pretty confident that you will be gaining a few more entrants next season....maybe even this one! I just feel it's important that we have to do what works best for our club and go from there.

3. I liked smokingwreakage's suggestions. Our club does fly gnats and other SPADs, so we are familiar with their construction and advantages. But we also cut our own foam wings and i figure we can short-kit these aircraft for a reasonable price and end up with a plane that will fly well with our .25's. Part of the money saving plan has to include what you don't have to buy!

I'll be designing this plane to mimic a quickie 500 plane so I'm sure that I'll be asking alot of construction questions in the coming weeks since I don't own any quickie plans.

Thanks,

Mike

smokingwreckage

Most of my time, effort, and money goes into doing for others who will some day break the cycle of poverty into which they were born. RC is my "other endeavor" and gets what's left over after seeing to the educational needs of my students.

Hellephant asked for fun, quick, and cheap. I gave him that. If you disagree, fine. Say so. However, when the "you messages" from the self-rightous begin, I'll take my leave.

Your mind is like a parachute, it works best if you pack it yourself.

Hellephant,

If you can cut foam and kit your own, and you have the time to build, go for it. You'll have better flying planes than SPADs. However, sounds like even .25 bushing engines might outfly the space available with your airframe ideas. You might need to specify a low pitch prop to limit speeds. Keep us posted on your design development. It sounds like a dandy sport plane for a NIB .25FP on the shelf.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

Funny- that's how Quickee racing started! Glen Spickler designed the original as a club racer for the BARKS club in Bakersfield. Back then, BARKS hosted the largest Formula One race in the world every year. The Quickee was an attempt to establish an entry-level class of pylon. We all ran the same airframe and supposedly stock K&B .40s. I spent many a Saturday of my youth flagging at turn 1.

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

Those that can - do

smokingwreckage

Those that do were taught how by a teacher.

Ed Smith

Do not kid yourself. Many of us learned by actually doing it and learning from the mistakes we made! It is the difference between "Book learning" and real life experience.

Ed S

smokingwreckage

Oh? You've designed, built, and flown all your models completely from trial and error? That puts you way ahead of Orville and Wilbur, who had to study the work of Chanute, Herring, Pratt, Lilienthal, Blériot, and a host of others, to master the requisites of flight. Then, by calculation and imagination, not so much by field tests, the Wrights were able to realize an ageless dream.

Hellephant, are those short kits ready, yet? Pictures? Flight report? Price?

djlyon

Geez If you guys know what you want to do why don't you just go ahead and do it on your own time instead of parking your butts here and debating it. I mean were just a bunch of old farts that don't have a clue. Just go race anything that gives you a kick and gains a following. Maybe it'll catch on maybe it won't. But nobody owes you support or even incouragement. But we applaud you for trying anything to have fun and enjoy racing. We really don't need to justify our kind of racing and building. We just do it and have fun and incourage others to try it.

Ed Smith

But in the end they had to actually get something in the air. At that point, despite all the theory from supposed experts. the Wright brothers very soon realised that they had not mastered the requisites of flight.

I agree with djlyon. Just do it!

Ed S

smokingwreckage

Short kits? Plans? Pictures? Anything, yet?




. o 0 o {Maybe I ought to fire up Rhino and draw my own 80% Quicky 500.}