building my contender and was wondering what was your reason for changing the rudder surface? I am open to any ideas for improving the plane. Thanks for your time

iflyg450,

The modification to my rudder was done for cosmetics. I just don't like the looks of the stock rudder. If you check out badger5964 post number 6 in this thread he gives a good explanation as to why some others have modified their tail feathers.

Personally, I haven't completed my Contender. I've been side tracked with flying so I can't report on flight characteristics of my modified rudder. However, I do plan on continuing with my build in the near future. Good luck with your build and have fun with it.



Regards
Mike

If you refer to my post #21 you'll see that I modified the rudder and elevator surfaces. Three reasons for this.
1. I like to put my own personal touch into my planes.
2. I didn't like the stock rudder config.
3. Control authority... This turned out being a great mod... This thing will snap and spin at blistering speeds... yet on low rates it's still a baby.

thanks for the info have any dimensions for what you put together, looks great!

I don't have the dimensions off hand but I'll try to remember to measure it up and post for you in a day or two.

Has anyone built this plane as a tail dragger? My flying field is not tri gear friendly! I think my tank could fit through the #2 bulkhead and mount the gear where the tank access panel would be. I haven't started the fuselage yet. Or if I let the main stay on the wing would putting a slight amount of weight in the tail put it down onto a tail wheel? Do these planes build tail heavy? what do you guys think any thought would be great! Thanks

You would have to move the mains forward to probably within 1" of the leading edge of the wing. I personally don't
think with the configuration of the tail lower fin extending to the rudder that a tailwheel is really practical. It would
have to be driven by a control arm extending from the side of the fuselage or a rod inside the fuselage running down thru the lower fin on the fuselage. Then you have the extended control linkage from servo to the rear.

I don't know what kind of field you have, but these planes are flown from grass all the time.

Could it be done, yes. But, I think the character of the plane would be diminished.

Personally I wish I would have bashed mine into a tail dragger... don't add weight to the tail. To make it a tail dragger you will need to move the main gear forward so that when you look down from the top of the plane the axles of the main gear will be approx. inline with the leading edge of the wing. I would think you could move the gear blocks just forward of the main spar (cutting new notches etc...)... might need to do a little fussing around to get the angle for drilling the hole for the gear just right.
For the tail wheel... double up the lower fin and mount a sullivan tailwheel which uses a simple wire spring to attach to the rudder.
If you look through this thread you will see a post where I cut a bunch of lightening holes in my fuse, you might want to do something similar to offset the doubling of the lower fin and the tail wheel weight. My fuse is strong and ridged and showing no signs of stress from doing this.
There's my .02

The rudder at the bottom edge from the hinge line to the aft most point is 6 1/4".
The counter balance for the rudder from the top of the tail fin to the top of the rudder is 2 1/4".

The elevators from the hinge line to the aft edge are 2 5/8"
The counter balance for the elevators are 1 3/4" wide at the hinge line.

Hope that makes sense....???? [&:] [8D]

Yes Sir plotted it out and looks great thanks for your time.

Thanks for the tips. Sadly I already sheeted the area forward of the spar and installed the gear blocks. I might experiment with bending a spare set of gear wire forward abit or more? Thanks for your time.

I know OTE has seen this pic but this is what I bashed the kit into .... a "T" Tail

New to RC universe. But ran across this thread (if still active).

I bought my Contender in 1975+/-. Flew it with a Fox 35 and it flew great, though a little slow. Original colors were chrome for the wing and dark blue for the fuselage. I agree the chrome is hard to see, but boy did it flicker when rolling. Crashed it.

Stayed in my garage and moved around a little, then I decided to re-build it. Wing was intact, so stripped the monokote. inspected without finding any damage, but re-glued the joints anyway and recovered with yellow. Took the plans and re-built the fuselage using ply and tail from the old fuselage. Flew it with a Fox Eagle 60. Flew great again, with plenty of power. Crashed it. Broken fuselage, wing intact with covering.

Stayed in the garage some more, collecting dust. Re-built the fuselage again, this time with a Fox Eagle III 60 (huge motor, long stroke, big props). Flew great a again. Cartwheeled it this time. Fuselage intact, tail feathers broken and loose, wing intact except broke front holding dowel.

Stayed in the garage for 10 years. Re-built it (I've sworn it will be the last time). This time a put an OS FS 70 four stroke. Flys great. Will let you know when I crash it.

From my perspective, this is a great plane for transitioning from trainer to advanced. It will do most any maneuver. It flys super slow and can stay fixed over your head in a 15 mph headwind. It does a beautiful spin and inverted spin, and hammer-head. It is generally so stable you can land it at high speed. I built the plane with stock the symetrical wing tips and with the stock rudder. The stock rudder was claimed to be shaped for balanced aerodynamics, but the first time it was built, I noticed a slight reverse roll, not bad though. Subsequent re-builds have just about totally done away with any reverse roll, and it is still the stock shape, but perhaps a little bigger when I cut it out by hand.

The only thing I have noticed about the plane, and what caused most of the crashes, is that it stalls horribly on dead stick. Seems every time I had a dead stick, I would bring it in high and hot, making a steep turn into the wind. Each time it would power stall and roll straight down into ground without any ability to recover (even at a fairly high altitude, although it might have been my lack of ability). Back in the good old days we would always blame the radio (with good reason), but with more experience, I am now sure that it was a landing stall. So watch steep turns (even at high speed) when you have a dead stick.

Hope everyone has as good an experience with their Contender as I have had with mine. It's been a great plane and still catches the eye of those at the field.

PS: As the oil has dryed and a light film of rust has developed on the rear landing gear, a fast landing will now make the most perfect "jet landing" squealing sound.

Love this plane flying on super tiger .51 and its very FAST!!!!!!!!!!! My throws are as far as the servos will give. Does everything just like any high end pattern plane. If I bust it I will bulid another and another.

The Contender is one fine flying airplane. I have mine two years and Powered with an OS 50sx (which is now out of Production). It is one fast airplane with that power plant. I really believe on a calm day with the right caller you could land that airplane blind folded. I covered it in the same pattern as the TF box but changed the colors to Yellow and Teal. It so is easy to see in all types of sky cover. One thing I did do was to cover the rear fuselage top & bottom with 1/32 planking. It makes covering much easier and looks so much better.

Sledge_78

If anyone is interested... my contender from this build thread is up for sale here on the RCU classifieds.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=321298

Got to thin out my inventory of glow planes to make room for my new giant scale gasser. I'm selling it RTF without the transmitter... althought the transmitter is negotiable. [8D]

After many years away from the sport of building and flying control line planes I entered the r/c field and learned to fly with ARF planes. I now wanted to take another step by building from a kit and decided on the Contender. I share this information to give a little background and hopefully minimize embarrassment by an elementary question. In building the wing the TE is a solid block that has to be shaped so should I attempt to shape it before attachment to the rib tails or after. If the instructions give this information then I am blind because I find no reference to that procedure[sm=confused.gif]

You'll shape it after the TE is attached to the end of the ribs. Be sure not to glue the TE to the wing jig tabs on the ribs.

DJ

Thanks Danflyrc and yes I am blind because I found the answer to my question in the manual. Ok so I had to read past page 11 where I was working to find it on page 14. I am enjoying the build and what a wonderful product that has been developed since I built last and that is, CA Glue.

As usual I'm a little bit late to the party. Here is a picture of my Contender. I just need to finish installing the radio, balance the plane and then it will be ready to fly. The engine is a Jett .46

Nice looking contender iAlex! I think you will like the way it handles. Here's my buddies and my Contender.

iAlex,

Great looking Contender. Good luck on the maiden.

Regards
Mike

Is that a OS 75 AX on the blue/yellow contender?

It's a OS61FX

anybody done away with the tricycle gear, and make it a tail-dragger?