Greg G14

So after about 33 years of inactivity in the sport due to life , work and another hobby, Covid and retirement has brought me back and I am working on a MK Blue Angel kit that I started in the 1980's ( had just started fuselage build) I have a NIB Super Tigre G60 ABC with Ring that I had planned to use with it but do not have a tuned pipe for it only a strap on muffler Any recommendations? I do not have any retracts and have attempted to find the recommended MK ones to no avail I am thinking about using Rcskylite(air) ones any recommendations? I have read the whole Blue Angel build tread that Mike (8178)posted and love all the tips and info. I have forgotten how much I enjoy building these(balsa) models, I am a fair builder and a not so decent flyer !! I do not enjoy the re-kitting aspect of the sport though. LOL All of my radios ( my newest radio is a Futaba PCM and Airtronics Quantum stuff and oldest is an old Kraft) are well out of date any recommendations for a new system? I was much more of a builder than a flyer due to time and working but hope to get much better now when I can. I have several birds still ready for new radio Big H-ray, Falcon 56, Skylane, Big Stick This is my first pattern build

Thanks for any help
Greg
AMA 266

jester_s1

Honestly, there isn't a bad radio on the market as long as you stick to the well-established manufacturers. In no particular order, there's Futaba, Spektrum, JR, Hitec, Graupner, FRSky, and others. FRSky makes inexpensive stuff, but it's reliable until you break it.
Weston in the UK should be able to help you with a pipe. There aren't many makers for them left.
Spring air or Robart for air type retracts.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

There are a ton of options depending on which direction you would like to go. First off Jester is correct about radios. Currently the most popular brand among sport fliers is Spektrum so if you go that route you will always be able to find help. I use the Hitec Aurora 9 channel which unfortunately is no longer in production but come up on the classifieds all the time at very reasonable prices. IMO the easiest to program radio out there. Servos, again stick with relitivly known brands as there are many brands out there right now. Futaba, Savox, JR, MKS, KST are brands that I feel comfortable suggesting. The one common thing that I suggest with the 2.4 sets is to use a 6.6V LiFe RX battery.

Retracts, on an old school bird I still prefer mechanical. Linkage is a pain but with the newer, more powerful servos available it gets a bit easier. You may want to investigate electric retracts. Just google " servoless retracts " and you will get a good range of options.

Engine. Things get a little sticky here. I don't like many of the current production engines. IMO we had better quality engines in the '80s. I would be searching the R/C classifieds for a period correct engine or the only modern engine I would consider would be the OS 55. Obviously on a Blue Angel it will be easy to go nose heavy with an engine such as a Rossi or Picco. Maybe something like the Enya III .60 but with a muffler?

Speaking of pipes and mufflers. Pipes are getting hard to find and bring big money when you do find one. Then you need the correct header with the right amount of drop then you need to tune the thing. You may want to google Jett Engineering. They have a line of mufflers that are simply bolt on that will give very close to the same boost as a pipe. They also have engines ( their 56LX would be a great match for the Blue Angel ) but are a bit pricy. That said they are worth every penny IMO.


So like I said, options. If you have any questions about the items I mentioned or anything concerning your project I will be more then happy to answer them as best I can. Good luck and welcome back.

jester_s1

FWIW, SPA pilots flying planes like the Blue Angel have reported a noticeable number of nose gear failures using electric retracts. I've heard about two sets of Robarts going bad. The unproven theory is that the pots can't handle the vibration.
Of course, electric is an option on these planes now. You can get every bit the power to weight ratio from electric now that we got from glow. For future builds, some redesigning can save significant weight with electric too, allowing for bigger batteries. Speed is your guy for into on that, both making electric work well and building specifically for it.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Jester, not quite sure what you are asking there, can you clarify please?

jester_s1

I wasn't asking. Was mentioning nose gear failures with glow engines.and suggesting that if the OP was interested in electric you would be a great resource.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Gotcha, thanks

hernan2861

Hello everybody,
I´ve found a nice plan of a Blue Angel 40-SR plane. Good thing about this plan is that all profiles are atached!. One thing worries me: the wing profile seems to be perfectly symetrical and the wing atack 0° wich may result in no lift at all.
Could anybody confirm if the profile are actually symetrical, how is the atack angle and how the plane behaves with this configuration?? (maybe the stabilizer intervenes giving the wing the correct angle).
Thank you!

jester_s1

You're right, the plans do call for a 0 degree wing incidence. Lift in a 000 setup is provided with elevator trim.

hernan2861

Thank you Jester. With a 000 setup you mean 0° of engine, 0° of wing and 0° of elevator angle right? One last question: I´m planning to mount a thunder tiger .40 size engine. Will it work right? Thanks again.

jester_s1

That's probably a little weak. It will fly it, but probably not well. I had a .40 size Kaos for a long time. It started with a Magnum .45 which flew decent, but it would struggle on big verticals. I then switched to a Thunder Tiger .46 Pro. The .46 was enough power to pull it through the maneuvers well.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

The 0-0-0 setup like Jester states will require some up elevator trim for level flight. This will have a negative impact on every attitude except for level flight. A much better setup is to add 3/4 degree of positive wing incidence and a 1/2 degree of down thrust. This together with a fairly neutral CG will greatly improve knife edge, inverted and vertical flight.

hernan2861

Thanks for your replies, I´ll have them on them on mind. As for the engine, another choice is an OS .61 SF but I believe that´s maybe too much. Greetings

HansenTsang

.40 Thunder Tiger is a bit too small. OS 61 SF is ok if you use a muffler and the plane does not come out nose heavy. The better engine choices will be a good .45 to .55 engine. The OS .55AX will be a perfect choice.