RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

hi everybody!!

I thought about building the 33% hostetler decathlon but have went some different projects. I bought one of Lee's very very scale looking cowls from Jim few months back and the plans are unused. I would like to sell them to someone that needs them. I have the plans in the tube from wendell and the cowl is in perfect condition paid around 95.00 for the cowl and 50.00 for the plans. IMO the cowl is better looking than others out there. I am going to post them in the marketplace later. email if interested, thanks! I will take 130.00 for both shipped.

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Sounds like a good deal to me.
Sorry to hear you switched projects. You might want to consider holding on to them.....you know how we all change directions now and then.


Lee

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hey Giz, I know you have to do what you have to do but I wish you would reconsider selling the cowl and plans. Save it for when the time is right to build it. It is one of the best planes that I've built and flown and I've been into giant scale since 1982.

I haven't been commenting much but I sure read all of the stuff you guys put out. Lee seems like painting yours is coming up pretty soon. Glad you finally unblocked the replies.

Jim, I hope the big hail storm yesterday didn't do too much damage. The forecast says the conditions are ripe for another round of severe weather in your area today. Good luck.

Marcus, did you get the load of Jungie photos that I forwarded to you?

Fedex is supposed to deliver my new digital camera tomorrow. For several years I've used a Canon S-100 digital elf and love it but the big drawback for the R/C hobby is it only has a 2x optical zoom. The Olympus C750 Ultra Zoom is 4 mega pixel camera with a 10x optical zoom and additional 4x digital zoom (combined 40x). I've never been a fan of digital zoom. Anyway, I hope to have some great new flying shots to post this summer.

It has been very windy here the last 3 weeks. I hope to get some flying in after the front passes through this weekend.

Ari, did you ever fire up the ZDZ80RV? I ran mine this morning in the backyard just to limber it up.

Good flying all,
Ken

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Ken, I am double sorry for
a) forgetting to confirm and thank you for the Jungie pix - great pix, you're a lucky boy to have contact to the owner...
b) forgetting to greet you on your B'day last monday (sorry, now the news are spread....), anyway, wish you all the best, plenty of Health and Fun, Money as well...

Below you'll find the Citabria I finally decided to copy on my model...got lotsa pix from the original Photographer. Plane is based at Slazburg Aero Club in Austria.

Marcus

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hi Ken et all,

No, the ZDZ is still sitting on my office desk.
Time has been at an absolute premium at my end so I only get a chance to do an hour here and hour there.

The other day, I went out and bought materials to build a test stand for the engine. I have the tank and the fuel tubing.
We have a long weekend coming up in Australia this weekend. It's ANZAC day weekend, but it's dedicated to the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who bravely fought in the two great wars.
Maybe I get a chance to run it this time around.

Happy birthday Ken - even though I'm slightly late. Now you must tell us what you got for your birthday prezzie :)

Ari

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Marcus, I believe that that Citabria is one of the best color schemes that I've seen. That sure is beautiful country side. I guess you would expect that being Austria.

Ari here is one of the photos that I sent Marcus. I'm going to use this color scheme on my new Jungmeister. ANZAC day must be similar to Memorial Day here in the states.

I ran about 2 gallons through my 80 on my test stand following the recommended proceedures prior to putting it on the plane. I feel that proper breakin is very important to longevity of the engine. It sure seemed like 2 gallons took a long time. I took it to our field and did it when no one was there. It was too windy to fly. Birthday was the usual shirts and jeans and out to eat barbque.

Ken

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hey Marcus, what was your reason for chosing that aircraft to duplicate? It's very sweet but you have posted pics of many more interesting SD's. I suspect that you have good overall documentation for that particular one.

Ken....why don't you tell us how young you are.:D

Lee

ps. marcus they are flooding the Canadian market with ads for your beer presently (Marka Bavaria....spelling?).....Judging by the ads it must be Viagra based.;)

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hey Marcus, you are in the marketing game?? Did you have anything to do with the Canadian campaign??? :D

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Good evening // morning....afternoon...to all!
All is well on the east side of OKC here....we escaped the hail. It was bad all around us. A few tornadoes within a couple of miles but no significant damage. Tonight may be different east of us. THere are warnings and tornadoes in a lot of eastern Oklahoma this evening.
Belated birthday greetings there Ken! I hope everything fit!...and the barbecue was great! Nothing like the Texans for barbecue. I think it is the official state delicacy!
The Jungie pic is nice. That will be a real show stopper!
The Decath has had a few more fuselage things done but no great progress at the moment. Spring brings landscaping, fleas, and ticks here! I forgot poison ivy!
Is it thawing up there yet Lee? We've been in the high 80's (F) a few times here. We have had rotten flying weather for about a month now. 35 to 45 mph winds on many of the days I could have flown.
Ari the Citabria pic is nice there. I have seen quite a few paint schemes on both. Some I have seen on a few of the web pics don't seem to be factory. I suspect quite a few are after market, second or third skin paint jobs. Some seem to have a little more flare than others.
Dinner time here...have a great day to all .
Later. Jim J

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Well, here I go again, off the subject. Since several of you have mentioned my birthday, here is how it all got started. Marcus sent me a photo of a Bücker Jungmeister and here is what I e-mailed him back.

"On a side but, I think, interesting note. The date on the photo is 4/19/03. That just happens to be my birthday, 4/19/42 (62). On my 51st birthday the Branch Davidian near Waco Texas burned to the ground. It was the 51st day of the siege. On my 53rd birthday the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was blown up. How about that for coincidence?"

Jim I'm sure you can relate to that date more than most since you live in Oklahoma City. Sure glad the hail didn't get you.

"This is like a little club of it's own." Lee you are correct.

Ken

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hey fellas
no, I don't have anything to do with beer campaigns. One hint, however: like in Europe beer is always related to the purity of the water, campaigns showing waterfalls, green fields and happy families, in Brazil beer is always related to the 2 most important things for the brazilian: football (you know it as soccer) and samba (which equals carnival which equals barely clad women).
Therefore, campaigns always show some form of sensous action, like sweating, micro bikini clad, tanned babes (can I use this word here??) refreshing themselves with an iced beer. Well, you got the frame...

Back to the Citabria: I have several reasons, which I'll tell ya. First of all, I decided to make it a Citabria, that's no news, I told ya all before. Second, that specific Cit is as 7GCBC which happens to have flaps, which is one feature I like when coming in for landing.
That Cit has the easily recognizable Decathlon-like overall painting scheme, with those hi-viz campaign stripes under the wings, and the starburst scheme. However it's not the run-off-the-mill scheme (Jim you're right) - it has those nice 8-pointed stars instead of the usual 5-pointers. It's pretty much the same concept like John Chevalier's new SD: it has the maple leaves replacing the stars...
The Cit has also some lettering on it's side which is actually the logo of the Austrian Aeroclub, Salzburg section where it's based. Fortunately the Austrian Aeroclub has a nice HP where there is the logo so it's easy to have it vinyl-plotted in the right size. I found the pix while searching the net for Citabria pix, I believe it was PlanesPictures.com, I wrote the photographer, a very kind Hungarian (or Czech) spotter, and he did send me some more pix, which show the plane in all it's glory coming in for a landing at one small strip in Austria.
Lee, I agree that some of the SD pix I posted are somewhat more interesting, but that image, and of course the landscape combined with the colors of the airplane, caught my eyes and bingo, I thought, it's this one.
Besides that, the image I posted is one that reveals almost exactly the correct profile of the Citabria (and the SD as well, since the fuse is the same...) - it's not easy to find such a pic.

Well, nuff said, hope you all enjoy our hobby. I am looking forward to get on my model again - finishing some in-between projects besides that work, family and church commitments take most of my time. Just finished painting my little Vagabond tonight, tomorrow it'll go to the car paint shop for the final, clear, urethane coat. That one I always have a pro doing for me.
Will post pix then.

See ya all around.

Marcus

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Marcus,
thank you very much for the pix.I need to get some updated pix of the S.D. up,the test flight's have been going great.Have more than enough power to do any maneuver desired,hover at just under 1/3 throttle,sustained flight at 1/4 stick,very smooth and predictible stall's and spin's starting to check positive and negitive snap's. Oh ,we can't forget flat spins and the all mighty BLENDER.
Donnie

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Sounds like your puting her through the paces Donnie...great stuff.

Marcus that explains a lot. To be honest I didn't recognize it as a Citabria. For a Cit that is quite a flashy scheme.

Lee

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Donnie, have you actually been doing flat spins and blenders with the SD? With everything else that I fly, except the Corsair and PT-19, I do them but haven't tried them with the SD. Upright, inverted, or both?

Ken

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Mine had 3 flights saturday. Takeoff weight was 16,5 kg, the ZDZ160 running rich on 4% oil.
Very nice flyer, takeoff less than 10 meter if given full throttle,
almost to much power as it was climbing out of hover at app 1/3 throttle.
Vertical uplines with snap is no problem, inverted flatspin very easy, both getting into and to recover from.

This is a engine with only 15 mins of runtime on it.
Can't wait to get a 5 meter in the other end of the towline.


Maybe some video later ...

Sam

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

MAYBE some video?!...come on Sam, don't tease us:D

Let's see some vids.

Lee

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hello Lee, I saw your reply and agree! Sam that 160 must be plenty of power. I think the 100 will do well. What size prop are you using and how much prop ground clearance is there? I planning on a 100 and found a three blade prop to help with the clearance situation. Sam, is your Decath the Hostetler plan Decath? I think it is but I am not sure. I forgot if I ever knew....age does that kind of thing. I did look back to about page 39 and found the one pic where you are cranking it up with the 160, no wings on that pic.
Back to "work" here. Have a great week end to all. I am anxious to see the pics of yours Lee. I think you have been working hard on the scaleness perspectives. On the cowl, did you do a separate lay up for the two piece or do you think that splitting the one I have from you and putting a lip on the lower section would work. I have done that on a couple of cowels, laying up a lip on the inside bottom portion with a none "stick" material around the inside of the "upper" "half" then splitting it after I the "lip" had cured for a few days. Let me know if you think that might work. I have three, two of yours and the other I had ordered before your masterpieces showed up.
Have a great evening to all. Keep the thaw coming up there Lee. Spring can't be that far off. It was 94 in south east South Dakota...I think that was last week. They had some violent weather after that.
I am at a slight stand still on the Decath. I have the upper fuse portions figured out and all but not glued up yet. I had a little time trying the figure out for sure what was depicted on the plans but I finally put some grooves in the F15 so I hope that was the right thing to do. I will have to take some time out now and do the cockpit detail...it looks like this is the best time before I get it too closed in.
I am considering doing a "hatch" on the underside behind the cockpit to put all the servos in there and do pull pull to the back of the ship. There is plenty of room back there to surface mount or slightly subsurface mount but I wanted to keep it clean on the tail end. The weight maybe needed back there though.
Sam, where did you put the servos for the tail feathers? The front end shouldn't be to bad with three for the engine up front
somewhere under the seat maybe ....ignition kill, throttle, and choke servos.....everyone use two receivers?
Have a great evening to all! Jim J

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Jim,
It's getting warmer up here and there has been no snow for a month or so now. Still not consistent but it will usually warm up to summer temps by mid May.
No I didn't make a second layup for the two piece-just cut and lipped the cowl as you were shipped. A word of warning, it is a lot of work and cutting it releases some tension on the shape so more work needs to be done than you would think. You have two so it wouldn't be the end of the world if you tried and didn't like the results. Now that mine is split and finished it would make much more sense for me to make a mold instead of others cutting theirs but I have zero time for doing fiberglass work right now.
The two piece really eases entry to the engine and looks really cool sitting on the tarmac showing off the twin but other than that a great looking simulation can be done for much less hassle as Ken has done.
My servos are located mid cabin as Ken has shown in his pics before. I'm only using a single Rx.

Your description of splitting the cowl sounds about right. Just make sure uou have your engine mounted and thrust angle set before you mount the cowl and draw your split lines on the cowl. The split must be dead on strait with the centerline and stripes that will be painted on the fuse later or else it will look goofy. Then take it off and cut away. Expect it to seem to shrink after you do this so if it fits a little loose before cutting it should be just right once split. Cut and then paint on some mold release to the top half where you will be laying in the flange. Tape the two halves together and lay in your flange. Make the flange quite thin (maybe single layer) initially. You can add more layers later if needed. You'll also want to add some small metal squares to the flange where the scale screws will be used to hold the two halves together. The fiberglass alone won't hold the screws for very long.


Lee

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Jim J:
It is the large Weiershauser kit, the prop is a Menz 32X10, ground clearing is plentiful, Im considering a 34X8 to reduce speed a bit ..
4 Servoes for the tail, is in the tail. All Hitec 5945's.
Only one receiver, but Im not drawing any power through it, I have a separate powerbus. It is not much room for interior as I have two large JMB canisters .

Newflee:
As I obviously was a bit busy flying the thing, I had no controll over the filming. There was however, probably more cameras than planes at the field yesterday, and as soon as somebody send me a vid, I tell you guys. :)

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Thanks fellows! I think I'll do it stock to start Lee. It sounds like one of those things that might be easy to mess up. I will do the servos as per pics. I will look back I find those pics. I know I have seen them on here somewhere. I have most of the pics printed on contacts so I will look at those first and take a look.
Sam, that is a fun sounding plane. I will look up the plan details somewhere. I thought the 160 was a little stout for the 33% . I will look back through for more details. Thanks for the pics and I will be looking forward to the vidoes one of these days.
It is one beautiful day here today...first in several weeks, so I am going to the field here in a little while. 9:30 am here so will wait a couple of hours. Flying our field in the am is blinding when the sun it out. We have a N/S runway and face east from the flight line. Like yours down there Ken. I bought it up to use the material you did on your runway Ken but we have too much vandalism. The city we lease the property from doesn't allow fences or barriers so crazy guys with 4 wheel drive monster trucks abuse our runway regularily.
Have a great day to all and thanks again for the input on the cowl, Lee. We'll keep sending the sun north!
Later. Jim J

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Jim you are right, one burn out on the Geotex or other runway fabric would ruin it.

I'm not sure Jim if you are wanting a 2 piece cowl for servicing the engine or for looks. If it is for looks then here is an alternative. On my Bücker Jungmeister I wanted a 2 piece look complete with latches while not cutting the cowl. I cut a strip of 1/64" ply 1/8" wide and CA'd it to the cowl. I then add a thin layer of Bondo spotting putty to the upper side of the ply. After it was very dry I sanded the Bondo back down to a taper, primed and painted. This gives the illusion without all of the work.

Ken

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Hi Everyone! A great day of flying here today. It was fantastic....just about a 10 to 15 cross wind...direct across the runway. THe Taylorcraft performed well. The cross wind is a little bit of a tease. I have had good luck with the Fuju 32, it idles like a dream running the 18/8 prop and flies pretty scale.
Back to the Decath, thanks for the input on the scale appearance there on the cowl. That work you did on the Jungie cowl really looks sharp! I think it will be a nice detail on a lot of different applications. I was looking for both functionality and detail. I want to do a good baffle job on the cooling and that seemed like it would be easier with a split cowl.
Thanks for the help on the cowl.
Have a great week ahead. Jim. J

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Probably not what some of you guys think of as a maiden :D
And the takeoff in less than 10 meters was very pessimistic.



Its close to 40 megs...
http://www.lomcevak.net/modellfly/vids/Sams_SD.mpg

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

That was fun watching...the music looks like it was a pretty good fit. I liked to watch the TOC free styles. They always did a "ballet" to music. Have a great evening to all. Jim J

RE: Hostetler 33% Decathlon
 

Marcus:

CD arrived today, great pics
Thank you. :)

Sam