Does anybody in the Atlanta are know where to buy 2 inch square pvc to make combat fuselages? The local buliding stores do not stock it .
Thanks

You have got to be kidding me! I live in a podunk town and found coroplast and plastic gutter pipe, and you live in Atlanta! WOW Lowes or Home Depot doesn't cary it? What about some lumber yards? I got mine at a local Ace hardware store.

On a more somber note I built a Spad and promptly crashed it after flying it friday. Crashed today due to bumping the switch on the hand launch. Wide open pealed slowly to the right for about 100 or so yards and blamo. Luckly the ground is just mud because of all the rain. It looks like I will have to build a new wing but every thing except the motor mounts survived. The fuse looks like it hasn't even been crashed! I plan on putting the switch on the top behind the wing on all I build in the future.

I built mine with a 48 inch wing span, regular USA gutter pipe and TT pro 46 engine. These things fly great!

Thank you UCIFLYLOW. The Home Depot and Lowes do not stock it in the 2 inch square. I will try the ACE Hardware.
You are right. They fly great. Mine is about like yours, large ailerons, elevator and rudder.

Thanks for the info

Stewart,
I have been buying mine at Lowe's on Pleasant Hill Rd. Cost about $8.00 per 10 ft. section.

If you want round 2" plastic pipe with 1/16 wall thickness like used on the Baracuda, try Buckeye Vacuum Cleaner Supply Co. Smyrna, (404) 351 7300.

I am in Lilburn GA. where do you fly combat? Check out Hill Top Flyers in Loganville. HillTopFlyers.com for directions.

Truncator

Truncator,

Thanks for the information. I am a member of Conley Flyers down here in McDonough. We do not fly combat at the present time.
I bought the pvc/corban plane at the Perry swap meet. It has a 48 inch wing span, very large ailerons, elevator and rudder. The manufacture made these for a dual purpose. It will fly 3d if left as is ( Aft CG) or by cutting down the flight controls it can be used for combat . I am learnig to hover and the 3D. It is a great flyer.

Thanks again, Stewart

I crashed mine monday due to hitting the switch off on launch! The engine broke off the mount and the plane seperated into wing and fuse then bounced onto an asphault road. The leading edge was busted up but the fuse looked like it hadn't been scratched! I built a new wing today and hope to fly tomorow. I love these things!

uciflylo,
Everyone that flies Coroplast and PVC models at our field are continuously impressed with their durability. During our last club contest I had the ground wire on the battery come loose from the connector and when I launched the plane just did a very big full throttle loop and crashed behind the pits in a freshly plowed field while turning 16.5K. We were fortunate that no one was hurt. The plane was undamaged and after cleaning the dirt out of the engine, it was ready to fly the next round.

You guys with switches that get turned off during launch may be interested to know that most glider pilots or combat fliers either don't use a switch at all or orient it so it "on" when pushed forward. For combat, we just leave the connector wires sticking out under a wing (or wherever) and plug the battery in for flying--very simple.

I keep mine with off forward to shut the radio down (hopefully) when (not if) it crashes.

FlyingGreg,
You are right that a better system of activating your radio is to plug and unplug the battery. Outside of crash damage, probably the single largest cause of radio failure is bad switches. However, Murphy’s Law is always in effect and what can go wrong will. The situation that I described in my earlier post was a bad connection in the battery connector. I was turning the radio on and off by plugging and unplugging the battery to an extension cable connected to the receiver. It may be true that sometimes I am the worlds biggest dumb*****, but I crashed the same airplane 3 times in a row with radio failures. The radio would work fine on the ground both with the engine running and not. I shook, pushed, pulled and wiggled every wire in the system and had other club members check it and as soon as I launched the radio died. After the 3rd time, I threw the transmitter as hard and far as I could. Broke the antenna, busted the case and knocked out the rudder/throttle gimbals. I had 4 receivers on that channel and I bought crystals and moved them to another transmitter. I checked the battery and noted that it was delivering only 75% of its rated capacity. When I was clipping off the battery leads to make up another battery pack, I found the poor connection. When I would plug the connectors together the ground pin would not fully mate with its corresponding pin in the female connector. The locking tab on the pin was loose and allowed the pin to slide back in the connector barely making contact. As soon as I launched I guess that the force of the slipstream caused the connection to open.

I was able to reinstall the gimbals in the transmitter and glue up the case and removed the crystal, battery, and antenna and now the club has another buddy box.

I had previously enjoyed the reputation of being a pretty good flyer and it was getting so that every time I started to launch everybody started to hide under the tables and under their trucks. Bummer!

Truncator:

I have had receiver problems that resulted in crashes. Sometimes we just never know. You were lucky to learn what caused yours, even though you went through a few more planes. It is very frustrating to not be able to determine the cause of a crash.