Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Alas, the day has come.

Ordered today, from Bob Parkinson, the Regal Eagle kit, along with foam wing cores and jet skins for the wings.

An OS .91 VR-DF smallhead is sitting at the LHS, waiting for me to pick it up. Plans are to mate it to a dynamax fan. Bob's retracts will "complete" things.

Still wrestling with an overall color scheme/look. I have a special attachment to this aircraft, and a few folks who have flown her. My heart very much wants to decal and cover/paint the aircraft to match one of a couple of prototype candidates. My brain, of course, recognizes that USAF Eagles are painted specifically to make them DIFFICULT to see, so common sense argues with a more colorful, if less scale, scheme. Ah well, that decision does not need to be made for a while.

This will PROBABLY not turn into a detailed "build thread", but rather sort of a "journal" of the trip from ordering the kit today to the maiden flight.

By all means, any of you with ducted fan, regal eagle, or jet experience in general, please feel free to jump in and make fun of me, or point out any pitfalls you see me blundering into. :)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Hi Gboulton,

I am looking into getting this model too for marely to get ideas on how bulkheads, formers are designed and glued in, i need this to construct these parts for my current build on TGA F15, fellow in houston cant get hold of Steve Gray who designed and produced the TGA DF kits, I am powering my model with OS 91 VRDF engine with byron fan and tunepipe. I am going to paint mine in USAF's early Air superiouty Blue with day glow triangled strips across wings, fins and engine intake for visibilty....TGA F15 is alot better looking and much more scale looking F15 madel then compaired to BPM "Reagle Eagle", one thing i have been recommended by many fellows more then anything else is to Add Inflight fuel mixture valve that runs with seprate servo to control fuel mixture while in flight, you really dont want to run lean on DF engines or you'll blow hole through the piston very easily...

Sammy

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

i will follow YOUR journey carefully ; i think that Bobs jets are the best value of the ducted fan market AND EVERY BODY HAS TO RECONIZE THAT HIS JETS FLYS ROCK STEADY!!!lot of bad things have been told about Bob parkinson that had keep me away from purchase a Blue hornet from him; hope everything goes find for you,cause tilt khow , from what t i heard , the biggest chalenge you have now is received your kit !!!!!!

good luck

pecojets

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

The Parkinson Reagle Eagle is a completely different bird (Pun Intended) than the TGA Ultra Eagle. The formers and gear mounting are completely different.
What do you need to know?

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

I did my TGA F-15 Pro like the F-15 #2 prototype. It's a scale look that shows up nicely in the air.

Joe

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

The Regal Eagle is a great flying airframe. Good luck with it. I've built several of them.

Here are some pics of the last one I built. Included is one pic of the jig I used to build the bifurcated thrust tube. I would go with a single thrust tube out the middle for simplicity.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

here are some pics of my first regal eagle the first thing i did was throw away the wing spars that came with the kit mine were 3 ply soft wood (junk in my opinion) that you need to bolt together to the fan mount i made new ones out of 5 ply aircraft ply that is a one piece seeing that is your fan mount (for a byron fan) also your spar for the wings i wasnt going to chance it now would be a good time to buy stock in wall street for balsa (pun intended) cause your gona need a ton of it i bought mine from lone-star balsa in texas they had the best deals that i could find look in the bundle deals it may not be contest balsa but your building a fun scale jet and buy a little extra just because you will need it i did buy a few pieces of 4 inch 3/16s balsa but for the most part i used 3 inch wide wood the rudders and elevators are drawn with 4 inch wide wood i used 3 in. and added a peice of scrap (you will have alot of scrap that are good sized) to finish it off and the cost difference was enough to build 90% with 3 in. wide wood
good luck with the regal eagle you can p.m. me if you run into a problem (the prints dont show everything) i have a buddy that has one i had to look at his to problem solve donniercjet

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

I have the Parkinson F18 and it flys great! I doubt that it is any harder to fly than the Regal Eagle.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Thanks for all the input, guys! :)

Couple of comments on some of the things I've read:

1) The pictures are awesome...I'm sure I'll refer back to them as I move along. :)
2) Thanks for the offers of help...while I have a VERY experienced builder (LHS owner) who's going to be at my side, the extra help and resources sure will be appreciated.
3) Balsa is NOT a problem. :) Many years of MRR-ing have left me with more balsa than you can (sorry...I HAVE to do it) shake a stick at. ;) Additional plus: Much of the build will be done AT the LHS, so should their be a need for an extra piece, it'll be at hand.


I do have one quick question...as mentioned above, I did order the foam wing cores and jet skins for the aircraft...anyone have any specific "gothya's" or tips to watch for or know regarding the foam wings?


Thanks again, folks..looking forward to sharing the experience with you.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Not bad.

17 days, during the holliday season.

My Regal Eagle kit arrived today, everything seems to be there, including the foam wing cores and jet skins. What a perfect day for it to arrive, too...the weather has JUST turned actually COLD. :)

Watching the video now. :) BP makes it seem a WHOLE LOT easier than I know it'll be. ;)

Next task (after watching the video another dozen times or so *heh*) is to head up to the LHS's build room, and start some of the "prebuild" steps he mentions.

OS .91 VRDF engine is waiting for me at the LHS, and the owner has lined up resources for the fan, pipe etc...sooooooooooooo

Off we go. :)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Hi,

Get yourself Large Head OS 91 VRDF engine, i have been told small head engine is not what we want in DF jets, ive got myself Large Head OS 91 VRDF engine with tune pipe. This is mostl ikely due to heating problem with small head, larger head will cool faster then small head and will not cause heating problems that have been case with previous DF pilots....

I have got my Parkinson F15 Regal Eagle, its nice and im working when i get time to finish it off for next year...

Sammy

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Large head for pusher fans (Byron)
Small head for tractor fans (Dynamax, Ramtec, BVM, etc)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Smallhead was already ordered/stocked for me. Plans are to go with the Dynamax fan when the time comes.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Hi,

HO Ok i see, i was mis informed then...Thanks Gary

Sammy

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

There are 2 good threads here on this subject..sorry if you already seem it.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_30...tm.htm#3031497


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_23...schemes/tm.htm


Enrique

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Thanks for the heads up, Enrique. I had seen the first thread, but not the second.

The problem though is this...it's not so much a matter of finding a high vis scheme...there are plenty out there, even on the prototype bird. In fact, I have numerous photos that dad took of various schemes from back in the earliest days of flight testing.

The problem is the decision :)

Suffice to say, I have some rather significant ties to this aircraft, and in particular one man who flies her. I'll be happy to share that story if anyone wants, but I figured it'd be kinda boring probably. *heh*

In any event...as I said before...I WANT to do a grey scheme...I just FEAR doing it. :)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Yes, I understand. The grey scheme is very realistic and nice.. but IMO too it is not the best scheme for a r/c model.

I maidened a grey SM F-15 for a friend here, not much time ago and I have some difficulty to see wich side of the plane I was flying. and so my friend too...

To keep the story short, this F-15 wears now a white red and blue bicentennial scheme.

Enrique

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Yes, that's my concern...it will be my first jet, and I figure the last thing I need to do is add to the difficulty by making it tough to see. The desire, however, for a particular scale scheme and numbers is a rather deep, emotional one. :)

Ahh well..I still have months to decide. :)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Couple of questions for those of you who have built one (or more) of these birds:

1) On the construction DVD, Bob mentions that he always uses "hardwood" for the main fuse sides,but does not mention what type. Do you folks use something other than balsa for the main fuse sides, and if so, what do you use?
1a) Any other parts of the aircraft where balsa is specified but something other than balsa should be used?

2) What do you folks experienced with this aircraft reccomend covering the aircraft with if it is to be painted? My current "plan" is to glass and sand the wood sections. Does anyone have experience with the special covering material that Bob mentions in the video 9but does not appear on his website)? Is it superior? is it even still available? is there a better alternative?

TIA

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

"hardwood" refers to Hard Balsa, Not contest grade light weight balsa. Still balsa tho.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Thanks, Terry. I dropped by the LHS a bit ago, and owner said he thought that might be it, but like I, he'd only heard "balsa" and "contest grade balsa"

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Just a bump...still looking for some input on the question above. :)

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

I would just sheet the wings with balsa and cover the entire airframe with Monocote. Of the 4 Regal Eagles I have built, I have Monokoted 2 and glassed and painted 2. Although not a big difference in weight, the Monokoted ones were lighter.

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Thanks for the input, Gary.

As it is, I'm using Bob's foam wing cores, so they'll be covered with his jet skins. Beyond that, covering with monokote really isn't an option, as I'm doing a fairly complex color scheme.

However, you do mention that you've glassed 2 of these aircraft. You say there's not much difference in weight. May I presume from that statement that the glassed models flew well?

RE: Regal Eagle - A Journey
 

Yes, the glassed models flew well. Maybe 1/4 pound heavier. If I were to glass another one, I would glass all of the individual pieces before assembly. Glassing and then sanding the airframe after assembly was very difficult.