Well, she's about as finished as she's going to get. There are still so many details I could add -- and I might eventually -- but it's time to get this bird out to the field! Here she is in her transportation crate. Tomorrow I'll shoot some final "glamor" shots and then on Saturday head out to the field.

More pix are on the way...

Here's good luck with it.

I believe that it was Dave Platt that said "a scale model is never finished, you just decide to stop working on it".

Les

Here's another EIII builders good luck wishes for the maiden flight!

That bird will look fantastic in the air!

Here are the photos from today's photo session as promised. It may or may not take to the sky tomorrow!

...and a couple more...

And once more with a little bit of Photoshop magic...

...

Looking at that last pic I can only try and imagine the dismay of an unfortunate DH2 or Nieuport 11's pilot as he turned his head to the perforation sound of fabric and splintering of struts. Especially when that fokker scourge was diving out of the sun.

Looks just great! Attention to detail is remarkable! I can only compliment you on the finish job. It's probably beyond what I could achieve.

Who will do the flying tomorrow? Anyone taking pics or filming even?

Btw, tnx for the radial engine tips, I'll have to see where I can get some styrene now. What's it called in german anyway??

Trev, first things first. SHE FLEW!!! So strange to see the model up in the air as opposed to on my workbench! I had the club president who also happens to be our resident ace fly it. He has competed in several national scale championships often being recruited to be the pilot for someone else's plane. After checking it out -- and everything checked out perfectly -- he took it up for two 10 minutes flights. The throws were fine and the CG was perfect without any additional weight in the nose. CG was about 3" back from the leading edge. This was without the dummy engine so with the dummy it'll be just a bit further forward. I quickly shot off 3 rolls of 36 print film but focus was a problem and I'll be lucky if I get 2 or 3 sharp pix. If any turn out I'll post them. If not well there's always next week.

Now on to the flight report. Carl says the plane is a challenge to handle. At 8 lbs it seems to be underpowered with the 52FS turning a 13/5 prop. Maybe I can squeeze a bit more power out of it. But I might also eventually consider whether I could be using a Magnum 70FS. Carl says you have to be willing to allow it to climb out very slowly and to use the rudder A LOT! He just tried lazy patterns around the fileld and nothing fancy. With all the drag you also have to keep the throttle up and fly it onto the runway. When he cut power it came down fast. He said he doubted that it would fly with a scale airfoil. All in all, he recommended that I get a bit more flying experience before I try to fly it myself and that's perfectly OK since in two weeks I'm off to Japan and the EIII isn't coming with me. It'll give me something to shoot for.

All in all building the EIII has been an immensily enjoyable and educational experience. I feel that I've finally after years and years of looking at scale planes finally got my feet wet just a bit.

One your question about styrene, according to one English-German dictionary site "styrene" is "das Styrol" though it's probably used in one of those incredibly long German compounds like "Heerengruentischkugelstossspielanlage" (which apparently was once used as a substitute for "billiard" during a period of German nationalism when they sought to replace French terms with "native" German ones (others "sauce" - "ueberguss", "trottroire" (sp.?) with "buegersteig"). Anyway, you ought to be able to buy styrene sheets in any well-stocked plastic model shop or maybe online.

Oh, and here are a couple of non-flying shots at the field -- Southern Cal is pretty dry this time of year (and all year long if we weren't constantly sucking the *** of the Colorado River. No grass field take-offs here. Maybe I should have done the EIII up in Turkish colors and imagined it was flying in Ottoman Palestine!

A note on that last photo. It was taken on the local high school football field at about 7pm with my two sons (aren't kids useful!) holding up the two wingtips. I was lucky to have had a perfect sky as the background. The photos were done with a CoolPix 5400 digital camera and then imported into PS where I adjusted the levels and added the rotation of the engine and prop (draw selection around prop and engine and then apply rotation blur). Then, the flare was rendered and finally I added the fire with one of the Alien Eye Candy filters. All in all, I'm very satisfied with this photo. I imagine the photo will last considerably longer than the plane!

Congratulations on the successful maiden flight! Hardly anything comes close to seeing one's labor of love actually perform and come back down unharmed!
Seems it was a wise decision letting your club president take it up for you. His flight report does sound a tad daunting though, I sure hope mine would fly with the scale airfoil I'm using.
I might have to invest in a larger engine though, if your eindecker is underpowered with a 52 FS, then this would certainly hold true for mine at approx. 9 lbs and close to 2m wingspan with only a 40 FS.
These considerations of mine must seem a bit amateurish, and that's exactly what I am.
This project is my 4th rc build and first scratch build project. I got into RC through my dad while I was in my teens (which is not that long ago, approx. 10 years).
Learned to fly on a CG piper cub and progressed to a magnatilla which was a bit of handful sometimes but got me interested in WWI scale (along with a computer game called red baron)
While I was still in high school (or the german equivalent) I obtained plans for a Rumpler CIV.
It was built during the summer holidays with some help from my dad and I actually managed to take it up. It flew, but mostly just strait ahead...was nearly impossible to initiate a turn unless copious amounts of rudder were used.
As I wasn't (then and today) such an experienced flyer this resulted in some slight damage to the lower wing during a desperate landing attempt. The aircraft was shelved and not flown again to this day.
Once I started my uni studies here in germany I simply hadn't any time to invest in this hobby.
A few months ago before the start of my MSc. thesis, I had some weeks off, managed to get the piper flying again for the first time in years and was foolish enough to think I could take this project upon myself. (I had being eyeing this aircraft for years but never had the initiative).
Most of the work you've seen so far was actually completed within about 3 weeks, thereafter I became occupied with thesis work (and currently am still) so progress has nearly come to a complete stop.
The way things stand, it will probably be well into next year before this bird will be completed.
I realize most people that are more actively invovled in the hobby would be frustrated working like this. The advantage to this 'slow' approach though is that I needn't be in a hurry and can learn a great deal of new skills and techniques, not least profiting from this forum and projects like yours. How to achieve a good scale finish for example is one thing I still have to learn.
Well at any rate, I'd definately have to get in some flying experience before I even dare taxi around the eindecker when it's completed, either that or have someone with real experience take it up.

Pls post those flight pics btw!

Your model is magnificent!! [sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

Here's a short list of details I didn't get around to:

1. Fuel gauge and housing on top deck

2. Authentic looking double wire cowl mouting

3. Joystick handle

4. Cockpit instruments (I have all these nice photos of the faces)

5. Wing mounted compass

6. "Fokker-style" wing nuts on the aluminum panels (the Proctor ones are too large, too expensive and not quite scale)

7. Rear tank fuel cap (behind pilot)

8. MG ammo belt

9. And lots more I'm sure...


I'm also beginning to realize what a small model this is -- despite the fact that this is the LARGEST I've build!

Trev, sounds like we've got a lot in common -- I started playing Red Baron back in the 70's when it came out as an arcade game!. Is was just green wire-frame views on a black monitor and I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet. I don't even want to know how many quarters I pumped into those machines! Also years ago I scaled up some Guillow's plans for a Rumpler and THAT was going to be my NEXT GREATEST project. Never happened. Basically, my modeling came to an abrupt halt when I moved overseas although I did scratch-build a very small static Nieuport 11 in Kuwait just for something to do. I also bought one of those Hasegawa 1/8 museum scale DrI kits in Tokyo back when the yen was 21- to the dollar thinking that someday I'd be able to do it justice. Well 20 years later I realized that day would never come and so I finally sold it on eBay (for about 4 times what I paid for it) to a dedicated modeler in Germany and put the $500 into RC.

Building this model was a bit of a forced march motivated by my immenent return to Japan. I've spent the last three months of my sabbatical leave involved with this and now it's time to get back to REAL work, namely my Ph.D. thesis which is due to be submitted at the end of Sept. I've already got 300 or so pages in more or less final form (missing one final chapter) but it's still going to be a concerted push to finish in time. And of course, I'll be teaching again.

So all this means I won't have oodles of time for scale building. My next scale project (I can't believe I'm already thinking of a NEXT scale project) will likely be something that extends over several years -- a weekend project with more time spend flying than building. So many planes, so little time!

[sm=crying.gif]

abu - your plane is AWESOME! Good job,

photoniq

Well, they are hardly the most stunning of photographs (high noon is hardly conducive to good photography) but they prove that the plane flew!

And a couple more...

Somehow when I was building it, this seemed like a BIG model. But now that I've got it out to the field it seems REALLY TEENY!!! I guess that next plane's going to have to be either 1/4 scale or a Hanley Page!

I guess I'll also need a larger workspace!

In a word: Magnificient! Really splendid Don! Two tumbs up[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]
Looks super scale in the air, right down to that 3-point landing flair.
Well it really boarders on the impossible what you've achieved in such a short time, with no previous scale experience.
I can fully relate to your desire to tackle a next project already, it's always just a matter of time...or lack of it!

I know I would definately opt for a WWI biplane, preferrably of the 2 seater reconnaisance type, for my next plane...whenever that would be...
I'd quite fancy doing the Rumpler CIV (again) actually as it's got some very appealing lines.

BTW, I do have a bit of info on the Rumpler CIV including 3-views and airfoil. Just let me know and I can email you a few scans.

Super scale EXCEPT for that BIG FAT AIRFOIL! But I guess that's what keeps it flying so I suppose I can't complain too much. Next time I'll have to really work on building super light. Sure would have been nice if this one had been 5 lbs instead of 8-9.

I'd like to add a word of thanks to all the members of RCU who helped me build my EIII. I really do feel like it was a join effort. The work of Trev, John, Art, and Brian (Vue) on their own Eindeckers was a great inspiration and all provided generous advice. The Pipe was also particularly helpful as was Tall Paul on the aerodynamics forum where I first saw modified BUSA A/C and that got me going. But I asked so many questions and got so many good answers I couldn't begin to individually thank all the kind souls who aided a newbie.

Does anyone have any info (pictures etc) relating to the EIII flown by the Ottomans in Palestine?

AWESOME DON!

How about joining us on the "Pilots and Planes" pages of the [link=http://www.bealmear.com/dawn_patrol]RC Dawn Patrol web site[/link].
(BTW-no invitation is required guys).

I just have to say a couple of things about the work done on that plane. WOW and WEE (yeah, cheesy, but it's the best I can do). That thing looks awesome. I do have to say that I was surprised at the size of it once I saw it in context against other things (kids for example). I was thinking this thing was a 1/4 scale effort or something. Oh well, looks great no matter the size.

Also, I have to commend you on your static photos. If you put as much attention into your plane building efforts as you do your setup for those photos, then the photos obviously don't do that plane justice.

Beardking, it actually looks a little larger in person. In the shot with my son I have the equivalent of an 19mm wide angle on my CoolPix 5400 digital camera and that makes it look particularly small. The actually wingspan is 60" and the total length is about 47". It's just a little smaller than 1/6 scale. This size was more or less "inherited" from the BUSA Eindecker I originally started out with -- but abandoned. As I said it looks big on my workbench but small in the air.

As far as the photos, well, I have to admit that I have worked (semi-)professionally as a photographer (mostly travel photojournalism but also a bit of studio stuff). I knew enough to wait until the light was good and how to "see" through the camera. All the shots were done over at the local high school. I only wish I could get some decent in-flight photos. Maybe I'll try again next weekend.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words.