That's what people always guess. Either that or "missionary." Fact is I'm a professor at a Japanese university. And prior to that I taught in Mexico, the Sultanate of Oman, Kuwaiit, and Saudi Arabia. [8D]

At $140 for only the sound module (and over $300 for the full package) I think I'm going to have to stick with making motor sounds with my lips.

Gotta be a cheaper way to make sound. I'm shooting at you Don, do you hear me? Maybe use IPod stuff some way.

DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!!!

Somehow I just can't get thrilled about the prospect of spending a couple hundred bucks to cover up an ugly whiney electric motor, that's still just as expensive as a gas engine. But as Tim says, electric is just about perfect for multi-engine models particularly at the smaller scales. If I ever do a Gotha it will definitely be electric.

what do you teach im biology chem and physics! im doing my b-17 and a royal 1/6 scale 133% BLOw UP OF THE PLAN. i HAVE ONE OF THOSE WILLIAMS BROS wasp engines and must go hacker to get the narrow shaft. I agree that I like the sound of a good runnig motor but for twins there is no comparison! also my corsair will have the sound as i agree a whine wont do it for a corsair.

You've all seen that video of the jet missing its landing on the aircraft carrier, right? The hook misses the cable and the plane just sort slides over the forward edge of the deck. Kersplash. Well, that's exactly what happened to the Cub today. Without the kersplash.

At the end of a longish flight, it went deadstick at medium height directly over the strip too high to let it just go straight ahead which would have put it into an impenetrable ravine (think machete and jungle on a 60 degree slope). The only choice was to turn it back. I had enough height and speed to do this successfully. But I was turning with the wind so it just wasn't slowing down enough. Knowing it was headed straight for the trees on other end of the field, I made a decision about how best to crash. I forced it down towards the ground (which added a bit of speed) but made it onto the ground in one piece. But then the momentum took it the additonal few meters and slowly over the edge of our carrier-like field dropping straight down off the edge about 12 feet to the terrace below.

Yes, it was frustrating seeing the model I had actually managed to land just roll off into oblivion. But I suppose it was a relatively good crash. The engine mount snapped off at the engine flange bolts and the cowl was messed up. But otherwise the model was intact. Says something about my nose repairs that all I'll need to do is replace the mount and reinstall the engine. I've already ordered the parts and they'll be here in about 4 days.

This seems to have been another "out-of-gas" deadstick, which surprised me because I had timed the tank at a full 30 minutes yesterday (15 minutes of flying plus 15 minutes of running the engine at half-throttle to full-throttle). I had fueled up just before this flight and had set the transmitter's timer to 15 minutes and just as it beeped I was starting on a final circuit to set up for a landing.

A bit frustrating. But I had gotten in almost an hour of airtime prior to this and had been practicing long slow crosswind take-offs, stall turns, rudder corrections, spins, cross-controlled slips on landings, and just generally having a great time. Idle was steady as a rock all day.

man that sucks! brakes? i use them on my 310 she lands 40 mph

Bummer - at least you learned that lesson on the Cub!

We had our scale fly-in last sunday, and had an 80cc twin-powered Cub doing knife-edge across the strip, not quite sure what to make of that one!

Here's a more civilized way to fly: (Noisy, smoke on - aahh!!)

Got the Snipe balanced yet?

Cheers,

Cam

Basically. All I was going for before was a rough balance so that I could work out a method for doing the dummy. I'll still need to fine-tune but with some small lead pieces but first I need to do some final build things.

The Cub's ready to go again. So I'll have another chance at the tuning procedure!

leccy power! and brakes

Actually, this is a case where "leccy" wouldn't have been any better. An electric powered model will still go deadstick when you've used up the battery. You can, of course, underestimate the flight times and make sure to get down early which is also the best plan for IC engines. Either gas or electric charge will go faster or slower depending on what you're doing in the air.

My problem came for believing that time engine runs on the ground equated to time in the air. It wasn't. Not even close! I ran the engine for 15 minutes AFTER a 15 minute flight (which was probably mostly at half-throttle or so). The very next day, I ran out of gas in about the 16th minute of a flight where I was probably using a bit more than half-throttle through most of the maneuvers.

But I will conceded the with electric you don't risk the random engine-out problems of IC power and for multi-engine models that's absolutely critical.

I still can't used to the idea that we now actually have disc brakes for RC models! But I guess it's been a idea that has been around from the very beginning of flying. For example, the Albatros CI I'll be doing had a "claw" brake on the undercarrriage sort of like tossing out an anchor!