Any body ever convert a control line model to rc? i found a control line stunt plane from model aviation feb. 1984 that has clean lines. its called the phoneix. thanks for any advice in advance, mike

Yes, it's been done. CL planes usually have rather short tail moments, so I would lengthen the fuselage if you are building from scratch. You may have to increase the vertical surfaces as well. Plug in wings might make it easier to transport. Also make sure both wing panels are the same length.

yeah this plane is short coupled and the wing is fairly wide to, thanks for the help, mike

I can't imagine why you couldn't. The pitch and yaw characteristics are more critical for R/C than for C/L. Ailerons could be a real challange but doable. Heck, there was a time in this hobby's history when C/L ruled but somebody had to break the mold and fly R/C. I actually gave serious thought to converting the Hyperion Super Chipmunk electric R/C to either electric C/L or fuel C/L.

Have at it but build LITE!

Bill

It will be faster, as there's no drag from the control wires.
Go down in motor size.
A .25 instead of a .35, for instance.

Topflite did a RC version of the Nobler a famous cl stunter of the 60s. It might be worth your while looking for a plan to see what modifications they did.

I have built and flown a RC version of a Peacemaker which was good to fly although not a beginners model.

While yes its has been done a lot actually both ways (Also RC to controlline). Controlline to RC can present a few more problems than RC to controlline and one of them that you must watchout for when selecting a controlline design for conversion to RC is asymetrical wings.

Asymetrical controlline wings (A longer left wing than the right with more area) are quite common on controlline stunt airplanes and of course this must be corrected for RC flight.

Another consideration is controlline airplane typically will use a more forward center of gravity than what would be used with a free flown RC airplane and this must be accounted for sometimes by shortening noses and so on.

The last consideration is you find equipment packaging more difficult and controlline airplanes tend to have much more narrow fuselages compared to an equivilent sized RC aircraft so you must be prepared to get more creative in packaging of the RC components.

John

thanks guys for all the advice, mike

Well i found the phenix. A control line airplane out of model aviation from 1984. They still had the plans available so I have them in my hands! I am going to make the changes as outlined above. Shoul I change the cg itself? I am going to extend the fuse out back as it is really short coupled. The design is based on the Bob Palmer thunderbird heritage. It allready has semetrical wings.

I'd start with a minimum of 25% center of grav on the wing

Yes do plan on 25% MAC which is likely further aft than the controlline version.

Many times I have found the tail surfaces to be too small also. Especially the rudder.

Wm.

I love the looks of old control liners, so i just happened to have some plans to the Zilch from the 50's that I converted to RC. Here are some of the items I modified. increase tail moment, increase width of fuselage a bit, installed strip ailerons, moved landing gear back a little. Increased rudder size, added stearable tail wheel. wings made in two sections for pluging in with aluminum tube. I am happy with the performance fly's like most sport planes and lands slow. I used the same airfoil as original.I still have the plane and fly it a few times every year. Logair

If you want to see a direct conversion plus a scale up of an outline go to my gallery page. The Veco Thunderbird is a straight conversion using an OS 46 for power. It is a great no drama flyer with a very distinctive profile. As someone pointed out the vertical fin and rudder is too small on many models. This one did flat spin all the way to the ground knocking of the gear and throwing the battery through it's bottom hatch. Otherwise it was undamaged.

The other plane is a Pantera which is a KenHi Panther scaled up to 84 inches and powered by a Moki 2.5. It is also a no drama flyer. As I did stretch the tail moment and change the tail plane dimensions it flies like some of the vintage pattern planes. The outlines are a mixture of everyboy's idea of what a WWII fighter should look like.

In answer to your original question it can be done with any controline model including the combat wings. The newer servos and smaller high capacity batteries make the job a bunch easier. Also your conversion won't look like every other ARF sitting at the field.

In 1997, MAN published plans for the Ringmaster. Nick Ziroli started from a C/L plan of the same name from the 50's (Not the Ring master by Sterling) It has a 54inch span and is geared to a .40-.60 sized engine.

I can't say how well it flies, I'm not done building it yet.

I have since found that Lazer-works offers a short-kit for this one

http://lazer-works.com/