IRRESISTIBLE SOPWITH CAMEL (don't even think about trying to resist!)
 

:D FIGHT ON THE FRONT LINES . . . . . . with the most famous Allied fighter of WWI! WHAT FUN!!!

Below are some pictures (see url) of my new Sopwith Camel and some tips that I have found to be useful for successfully trimming for flight, enjoying greater crash resistance, and more successful ROG landings.
CALL TO GLORY!
http://community-2.webtv.net/RICHARD...ORY/page4.html

The "entertainment center" picture shows the prominent position occupied by the Sopwith Camel along with the world famous Spitfire. The Spitter is a back up aerobatic fighter plane for arguably the greatest "milestone in modeling Corsair" temporarily placed in this shot. Except for special occasions the F4U is always brought to the flying field for all fighter sweep missions. As of this composition it is my best flying warbird.

Carbon fiber reinforced plywood can be seen through the clear covering in the landing gear area that replaced the "weak" stock structure that failed to survive a full throttle torque roll crash on take off. I have learned to be a little more careful when throttling up the Park 450 Brushless Outrunner motor that has enough power to easily pull this plane straight up with every eleven inch prop I have tried! The plane weighs 22-23 ounces depending upon which 3 cell battery I use.

Positioning the gear 3/8 inch ahead of stock has made a positive difference in landing performance. My next WWI bird will have its gear a full one half (1/2) inch ahead of stock - I really don't like flip over landings very much. The plane is so tough that flip over landings don't seem to be that big of a deal though. I do recommend learning to fly four channel airplanes first that are recognized to be easier to fly than biplanes before attempting to win WWI in the air!

The two quarter ounce elevator servos are located on the left side in the forward compartment and the rudder servo is right beside them. To make the two elevator halves operate independently the connecting elevator wire is removed. All of my fighters enjoy this redundant safety system. The receiver is located on the right inside of the back compartment using Velcro. With a little battery adjustment no wing tip weight is necessary.

My handy "bullet proof bend adjustable" horns and pushrods can be seen in the tail shots. As usual, the horns are twisted 19 gage soft steel wire. One stock pushrod can be seen with a "V" adjustment that can be useful to make everything work right. I really enjoy the "infinite adjustable horns" that easily allow very precise deflection angles to be "dialed" in.

The two aileron horns are stock. The pushrods are 19 gage wire with "V" shape bends that easily allow useful adjustments to be made.

:D Looking forward many dawn patrols!

madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
[sm=cry_smile.gif]
____________________________________________
Modeling Promoting Blog:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...g&memid=266748

Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.

RE: IRRESISTIBLE SOPWITH CAMEL (don't even think about trying to resist!)
 

;) MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (Yes, I know that this title is politically incorrect but I find it irresistible when it fits so perfectly.)

Today's sorties proved my original ideas about the Sopwith Camel! So much so that I have dropped the requirement for a more powerful motor for use on the back-up WWI Spad that is on order. Except for portions of the climb out before the flying machine was trimmed up, the half throttle or less E-flite Park 450 Brushless Outrunner motor was perfectly comfortable power for the entire flight.

Looping and ailerons only rolling at low power levels were easy and beautifully realistic on the low rate control setting. Stability in the air was nice enough that like my WWII fighters I could enjoy flight with hands off, and easily fly through turns with elevator and ailerons only, keeping my cold left hand in a pocket while controlling the ship with the right gloved thumb only. The wind was 5-10 mph. No problem in the air, but combined with my poor ROG skills I did end up on my nose a lot and completely flipped over a few times on the grass field. Powered hand launching works well at around 2/3 power and will always be used when the grass is too high for ROG. Unlike my other fighters I found that un-powered hand launch gliding for initial trimming purposes to be inconsistent and undesirable.

I added two degrees of extra up elevator deflection to improve the looping turn radius that seemed a little too soft on my last mission. The most important trim adjustments were to add about a third of an ounce of plumbers putty to the front bottom inside of the cowl and adjust all ailerons for about three degrees up deflection at neutral control. Besides being a little tail heavy and difficult to control in pitch on its first flights, the drag caused by the descending ailerons during turns caused the plane to yaw so badly that without rudder control some turns were almost impossible. Today, rudder was not even needed to get "nice" turns. Too much aileron down deflection can cause a lot of very detrimental drag as I found out on those early flights.

The really great thing today was that there was no loss of orientation in spite of the cloudy, dreary, low light, no color visible conditions that can be a problem with my other fighters. With its big wheels and unique shape combined with its slow speed the Great Planes Sopwith Camel is truly a GREAT PLANE!

I can't wait to get started building my new Spad!

madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
[sm=cry_smile.gif]
____________________________________________
Modeling Promoting Blog:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...g&memid=266748

Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.

RE: IRRESISTIBLE SOPWITH CAMEL (don't even think about trying to resist!)
 

:) FINAL REPORT

This report is late as a result of the influence of experiences with too many other planes. It seems I just can't get in enough of the kind of flying I need to feel completely comfortable about making conclusive statements about airplane performance sometimes. After deciding to park the Sopwith Camel on the living room entertainment center to be enjoyed as a piece of aviation and historical art in order to practice with the SPAD it became obvious that I was neglecting to share my conclusions about the Sopwith Camel.

Final tests show that the Sopwith Camel is now fine tuned to fly very much like the SPAD. A little extra prop down trust was added and the ballast that had been installed earlier to the nose was removed.
A small amount of wing tip weight was also added to the left bottom wing tip.

Because the SPAD not only has stronger landing gear struts and lands better with its "America's Ace styled" landing gear (see pictures on page 5 of my CALL TO GLORY web site) it will be my primary WWI flying fighter until I develop better landing skills. If my new "Red Baron" Dr-1 Triplane can be made to fly as well or better than the SPAD it could become my main WWI flying machine with the SPAD being used only as a backup. The Sopwith Camel could then possibly fly only on special occasions like my Spitfire and ducted fan F-15 Eagle do now.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR GOOD FLYING WEATHER!

madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
[sm=cry_smile.gif]
____________________________________________
Modeling Promoting Blog:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...g&memid=266748

Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.