Hi all,
I am considering the Proctor Eindecker for my next project and would appreciate any input from those who have built and flown this kit. All comments are welcomed, both positive and negative.
Ease or difficulty of construction, flying characteristics, finished flying weight, tips and hints, gremlins to look out for etc.
Thanks in advance for any and all info.

Thanks again
Steve

Hi Steve!

The eindecker is a great kit and nice flying machine. There are only a few changes, we did:

Change the steering for the wing-warping to a scale version. I highly recommend to use a lare servo, because there are big loads on the warping, but it does nice rolls (for what you would expect from a EIII )

Take some time to think about the rigging of the wing, to make it easy and reliable.

Ours flew very nice with a 7 cyl Seidel radial.

Best regards,

David

David,
Thanks for the reply and your input . It seems there are not many that have built this particular kit as you are the only person to respond so far. I have ordered a set of plans and the building manual from Proctor and will look them over before I make a final decision on this kit. I had imagined a larger than standard servo would be needed for the wing warping. Thanks for confirming that part. For power I was thinking of using the Saito 220 and kit bashing one of Mick Reeves 1/4 scale LeRhone radial kits to look like an Oberursel as I did with my scratch built E-III shown below. Was there any particular part of the construction that presented a significant problem for you or did things go pretty much as expected? Again, thank you for your input.

Best regards,
Steve

Hi, I have built just about every kit Proctor has. There is no better crafted kit anywhere at any price. If you are even thinking about cutting the kit yourself...don't be foolish. The Proctor kits are so well cut you can't do the same job with out their tools and jigs. I'm sure you will be happy with anything you buy from Proctor. There the best kits out there and their blueprints are just that..blueprints. If you have a couple of stick kits under your belt then you should be able to build this kit. They are really more fun building then flying to me.

Thanks for your input SoCal. There have been only a couple of responses to this thread but both have been positive. Thats encouraging. Now all I have to do is convince my wife that I reeeeeeeeeeeeeally have to have one.

Steve

Steve, I think you might find at least one Proctor EIII build over on RCScalebuilder. And on the aerodrome site you can see Achim Engel from Fokker Team Schorndorf building a full-scale replica.

One of the regular builders over at RCSB (or at least he used to be a regular) was "scratch-building" a Proctor Jenny from just the plans. I asked him once whether this was going to work out cheaper than buying the full kit. His answer was that because he had lots of materials lying around and because of his years and years of building experience, he'd probably be able to do it cheaper himself. But then he was a true master of improvisation (and Scottish to boot).

My impression of the Proctor kits (and for that matter the other premiere kits from designers like Mick Reeves and Glenn Torrence) is that they are sort of like a really REALLY elaborate Chinese woodblock puzzle. All the pieces of the puzzle are provided (no matter how small) and they fit together with incredible precision. They have everything worked out for you. For example on the Proctor Nieuport they have even "pre-bent" the fuse longerons. It's almost like they build the model and then disassembled it for you to build again.

Now that's a bit overboard -- and it certainly takes a ton of skill and patience to do a great job -- but the "Chinese puzzle" metaphor captures what I see as the essence of the construction process.

Me, I'm an inveterate kit-basher. I like having to work things out for myself and I like changing stuff around. So I've come to suspect that the deluxe kit route might not be the best for me. Or maybe I'm just to cheap to spend $500+ all at once.

BTW, it's much easier to slip modeling costs past the wife $10 bucks at a time!

Proctor kits are not an easy build but that are some of the most exact and beautiful reproductions you'll ever find. The set the bar very high for anyone trying to compete with them.

Abu,
Thanks for the info on the RCSB build. It appears that you are of the same mind as I with regard to kit-bashing. I can't recall a kit that I have built that I didn't modify in some way and I enjoy scratch building but I am not about to attempt cutting the E-III kit from proctors plans as SoCal suggested,I dont have near the skills for that. I am familiar with GTM and Mick Reeves kits.Both are top notch. I finally recieved the plans and manual from proctor and will be looking them over and doing some reading from the manual for a while and then decide. Thanks also to those that have taken the time to help this old fool try to come to a decision.


Steve

Has anyone converted this model to electric?

Believe it or not, I did end up scratch building this plane from Proctor plans. I reduced them 20% so I ended up with a 80" wingspan. I had 2 flights on it with a Saito 115 for power and after cleaning all the "glo snot" from between all the wires decided that electric power had to be the way to go.

She is now powered by a Turnigy G-60 500 through a Turnigy 85 amp ESC using 5S, 4000mAh, 40c batteries. It is a very good and smooth flyer with very solid response to inputs.It's not what I would call an "every day" plane due to the amount of time required to assemble and disassemble all the wires and such but it gets a ton of attention at the field and is a real pleasure to fly. Forgot to mention that the all up flying weight is only 10 lbs.☺

Cheers
Steve

Joe Topper (of Proctor) built an E-III with electric power.