Thanks John for getting in touch with Dustflier...he was very helpful..I send him an email telling him that I appreciated everything....This is a Great site...thanks, Gerry

he is the man with dusts! and jets!

I thought this side view was kind of cool.

get your speed device??

John, you lost me with that question....are you talking about what kind of engine I'm going to use? Gerry

oh, sorry, I meant for dustflyer is going to put a MPH meter in his, wondering if he got in yet is all.

I have a Jett FIRE .50 on my dust and it is incredibly fast. I've had it for a year and a half now and I still shake when I fly it. I talked to Dub Jet himself and told him I wanted the fastest thing I could get for a Diamond Dust. The pipe he sent me is REALLY loud. I have to wear ear defenders when I start it up. The sound it makes when I bring it down the runway 5 feet up at full throttle is like nothing you have ever heard. This thing is like flying a missile around. I don't do any aerobatics with it. It's just to show off the speed! With a more docile engine, you could do some aerobatics. Mine flies for about two minutes on that 6oz tank, but that's full throttle the whole time. I wouldn't be surprised if I was hitting 200 mph in straight and level flight. I bring mine in at a 45 degree dive at full throttle and it HAS to be doing over 200. When I fly this thing, everybody else lands. I don't know if they want to watch, or if they're just scared. Somebody mentioned something about a pinhole in the monokote causing it to come off. This is true. Make sure you wrap the monokote AROUND the leading edge. One one of my first flights, I was doing a high speed pass and saw a flash of red and the plane was flying very funny. I landed and all of the monokote on top of the right wing was gone. If you're going to put a fast engine on, you must make sure that there are no monokote seams hanging out in the airstream! For launching, it's hard to get somebody to help me. I bring two sets of ear defenders for who ever helps me, but it blasts exhaust all over whoever is launching the plane for you. So, I just made a simple takeoff dolly. It's airborne in about 5 feet anyways. Sometimes, I just start the engine, prop it up on something like my field box at a 60 degree angle, stand back and hit full throttle and it goes like a bat out of hell straight up. About the speed of one of those little Estes rockets. Everybody loves that the best! You'll love this plane no matter what engine you put on it! Matt

I've got a half tuned MVVS 40 on mine, i lost the bottom covering on the first flight with the pipe untunned and now use Solartex, top covering is still film, but i have sealer and tape on every joint and wrapped around the L.E
i have no problem getting throwers for me, they love to see it blast off.
As for engines, Webra should soon be 'producing' a 3bhp 50 engine, we get these in the UK next week hopefully and the price so far is £150 for engine, pipe and manifold.
A DD with a fully tunned MVVS 40 ( mine with old owner ) reached the engines/prop max speed, it just couldnt go faster, a very clean airframe this.
For some reason he got bored of it, sold it to someone else, they never did anything with it and gave! it to me WITH ENGINE! when i brought his shrike with engine. very happy me

John,

Just got back from Toledo. The EMS booth had the airspeed data loggers on display but not for sale yet. I put my order in at the special show price and they tell me they should start shipping in about two weeks. I also got an rpm logger as well. Hopefully before long we will not only know how fast my Dust is going but how much the engine is unloading as well.

Also checked out the new Whiplash while I was there. This is essentially a one-piece carbon fiber Diamond Dust. The price is only 150 and it is 99% ready to fly. I'm sure Jeff Gilbert is not real happy about it but I think the Whiplash will be a real winner. I think I'll wind up getting one myself.




KC10 Chief,

Good to hear from you again! Are you back at McGuire? I'd love to see and hear that Dust of yours someday!

DustFlyer, no, I'm not at McGuire anymore. I transferred out of there back in August of 2001 and am currently stationed at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, OK. My dust seems to be a big hit here. I haven't seen any others and most people didn't even know what one was until they saw mine. It's a real crowd pleaser. I never thought I'd say this, but sometimes I kind of miss the East Coast! We have some really nice fields here with lots of members, but nobody has any jets or helicopters. Not like I saw on the East coast. Lots of good people though. Maybe someday I'll make it back to Jersey and have my Dust with me! Matt

what kind of servos would I need on a diamond dust with an O.S. .40 SF/macs tuned pipe?

Matt,

Oh well, maybe you'll get back someday. We'll be around, give us a holler.


Emissions,

Guys have different opinions on this. There are guys that get away with standard ball-bearing servos, but I think that's a bit light. I would use something like a Futaba 9202 or 9304 as a minimum, they are coreless servos with 69 in. oz of torque. I use JR 8101's on mine, if you can afford 69 bucks a piece I would recommend them highly as they are very high torque and have wide spaced bearings for extra resistance to slop. If was doing another Dust I would use JR 9411 mid-size digitals for the extra holding power around neutral, but they are pricey at about 99 bucks each. These are the servos that the designer, Jeff Gilbert, prefers.

so in other words Hitec 605's wouldnt work too well?

Im running cheap futaba 3003's on mine, but Im not going 200 either

I just got back from Flying my Laser Arrow. I have a rossi 60 with pipe on it. Wow. A friend of my mine from the local sheriff's dept clocked it at over 140. ( his gun topped out there. LOL). I want to go faster though. I am looking at a Dust with my rear exhaust novi-rossi 61 on it what do you think ?

Dustflyer,
I was at the Toledo show and missed the Whiplash. Who is making it and where can I get some information on it?

Check www.aerojetmodels.com and go to the "just for fun" page, more pics are available, and will be posted soon..

Looks like an awesome plane for a great price. BTW, you'll have to get in line after me to get yours. :-)

patternguy,

From everything I've heard a 60 is just too big, not to say it's not worth a try, but it seems that the Jett 50 is the practical maximum.


emissions,

If I'm not mistaken they are high torque ball bearing servos so they should work fine. Servo choice gets into personal preference stuff, I'm a JR and Futaba guy but I'm sure Hitecs are fine. Power is important but so is lack of slop. When I first started out with the Jett 50 I ran FMA coreless high torque ball bearing servos. The specs looked good and they were cheap at fifty bucks apiece. Problem was after a while I started getting flutter, when I looked into it I found I could wiggle the servo arms back and forth about an eighth of an inch, even with the servos powered! The bearings and gears just wore out! I've since switched to JR 8101's with good success.

Is a plan for the DD available from some place that I can buy it? Seems like a very simple plane to build from plans. This suits me as getting this kit to India would cost a lot of money in shipping.

I saw a pic of the bare bones of the DD in this thread. What are the black sticks made of?

thanks,
Anurag

To my knowledge plans only are not available. The kit is only 65 bucks and comes in a small, light box. I wouldn't think it would be too terribly expensive to ship to India.

The black spars appear to be either fiberglass or some sort of composite arrow shaft material.

The Black Shafts are Carbon Fiber shafts. They are the primary reason the kit costs $65 as there is not much wood.

If building it from scratch you might have trouble getting the carbon fiber shafts and kevlar thread.

I fly mine with a Thunder Tiger .36 and tuned muffler (available from www.diamonddustrc.com ) using a 10-5 prop. That combo turns the 10-5 prop 16,000 rpm on the ground and the prop starts going supersonic during high speed runs. It's fast but not obscene. For the first few flights I was shaking after flying it not having flown anthing much over 120mph before. I'm now playing prop games to get more speed. Hopefully I'll be in the 140mph range soon.

Tom

The Diamond Dust is without a doubt a very good design, it flies great, I've owned 2 and had more fun with them than a bucket of tadpoles, but we have someting that goes to the next level of Diamond Dust type aircraft, please check out this site..
http://www.aerojetmodels.com/whiplash.html

So, what exactly do you do with a bucket of tadpoles?

Thanks everyone for all the good information and pictures that were posted. I would also like to thank Gene Greatti for sending me a personal copy of his DD flying...it was awsome...man, this thing flies like a Rocket....truly unbelievable!!!! I truly like this sport...where could you find people that would take the time and their money to send you a tape of their DD....thanks again for all the help and information...this is a awsome sport....thanks, Gerry

And NOT take a red cent for their efforts....in fact, he sent it back!!
Thanks Gene...