I was getting ready to prime the fuse when I started messing around with more and more glazing putty.... and realized that the vertical stab is weak from side to side. I thought about going inside just above the horz stab and put in some foam sheeting and light fiberglass coat to firm it up... Jim or Randy... any ideas or am I thinking to much? It just seems weak enought that if is handled in the wrong way.. the fiberglass will crack or the paint will be damaged.
Bill R.

. .............any ideas or am I thinking to much? It just seems weak enought that if is handled in the wrong way...........
==============
Well, if you're thinking too much, we must both be guilty of it! I thought the same thing. I wasn't so much concerned about breaking it as possible in flight flutter, or the application of rudder making the stab sway back and forth. Here's two pics of how I reinforced mine, maybe you can tell from the pics. I put three vertical pieces in the stab to get the sag out of it. the forward one pretty much follows the angle of the front of the stab. The second piece goes straight up and meets the forward piece at the top. and the rear piece is of course the trailing edge of the stab, where the hinges are fitted. I then glued two cross pieces on the bottom across the opening, which you can see in the pics. This stiffened it up substantially. I used Elmers Polyurethane. Makes a mess, but holds like the dickens. Hope this helps.
Randy

Bill:

It is a Quality Fiberglass kit.....

I would try the take off w/o flaps first. If things are set up correctly it should fly off. Use a long runway. I can't say enough about reliable engines on the first flight. The landings without flaps will be fast. Practice a approach over the field to see how the plane slows down. Power off it slows quickly. I made a steep first landing power off (combat assult landing) and in the flare it slows down and a blip of power to slow the sink rate. It will flare and grease in.


NORMAL flying. I use full flaps at take off and DON'T pull them up until you are at a safe altitude. I usually pull the power to about 7/8 of full after airborne 50' or so to keep the engines cool and increase reliability. When at a safe altitude you can pull the flaps up,, Expect the plane to sink so pull the flaps up about 1/2 and see how much up elev you need for level flight. Then if this is ok,, pull the flaps up and check again. I did this and noted the trim on the first flight, then set flap to elev mixing so when I lower the flaps the plane won't sink or climb.

Landing I use 50% flaps. Full flaps will kill the speed in the flare and if you don't add power quick enough it will drop like a stone.
I did drop in on my second flight and the wing flex caused some delamination of the sheeting. I had to split the trailing edge of the wing and inject epoxy to repair the sheeting.

1st flt info.

Watch for porposing on final,, don't land if you are porposing go around. Also I have 15 minutes of fuel on board but after 3 minutes in the air I set up for the landing just to get some practice. The plane is easy to fly in the air. The plane will take off very scale with nose lifting then the mains. After the mains lift it will tend to overrotate. Watch for this and ease the nose to a lower attitude to prevent stall. If you do get a stall after takeoff,, (I did when #1 engine surged),, lower the nose is a must. I pulled power back in the stall a bit and lowered the nose and it flew out in a shallow climb.

Main landing gear in grass will tend to drag the plane due to the belly low to the ground. I raised my gear 1" to get more clearance. Without this the rear gear would scoop grass into the fuse.

I know this is repeat,, but just don't get nervous. Flies like a telermaster when reliable engines and trimmed out. Best of luck.

Remember "3 turning 1 burning and going home.."

You are right the vertical fin is weak in side to side. If you look closely you will see the curvature is more on the left side than the right. Hope this was built in to help with right rudder on take off. I used a spruce spar in the vertical fin at the trailing edge with two 1/8" plates to stablize the side to side. Pic attached

Thanks Jim for the flying tips. I hope to make the first true maiden flight in the next few days. All of you guys have been very helpful with your replys and posts.

Hey , Jimcork is in model aviation with his c-130 or was that model airplane news.

Gunny

Nice

Hi Guys i have enjoyed all the posts and information about building a C-130. I am really interested in building one myself and was curious as to what plans you all think is the best. Palmer / Mast? It looks like the Palmer plan uses balsa frame and the Mast uses foam. For those of you that built your fuselage out of Fiberglass, what plan did you use. Did you use foam to make the plug?

Thanks in advance for any advice that you guys may have.

Rich

For my money the Quality Fiberglass is the best deal. I thought it was well worth the money. But, I'm not much at building from plans either.
Randy

Hello Gunny,, Yup,, I'm caught, that was me, Herk and the ACE Micropro 8000 in Model Aviation. There was a complete article in Model Aviation about a year before with all the specs. It was posted in our AMA flying district in Model Aviation.

Just an update on the Herk. After much discussion and publication on the incident. I have reset the horizontal stabalizer on my Herk. I now have the horizontal stab at Zero and the wing at 1. This is what I had recommended after flying mine and recommended to others who have flown successfully. So now back to the Test Flights. I have been invited to a Scale Fly In in Mobile next month and will not take the Herk if it doesn't have test flights and retrim. The saito's have been flawless after finding out I have a gallon of off quality fuel. I run only cool power 15% now and the engines all turn within 200 rpm of the average rpm. Typically on a 10x6 Master Airscrew 2 blade prop they turn 10,000 average. The plane is very reliable and hopefully this stab/ trim change will improve it even more. Happy Flying.. Jim

Jim
and the engines?

Enrique

The engines are set at 0 0 and are saito .30.'s

Has anyone built or flying the JHH C-130? I am about half done with mine, just would like to hear a flight report.

Well Guys, I flew my C-130 today, no problems. The LA 40s makes this a very fast airplane, a little less than half throttle and it flys scale like. I was concerned about the weight, 23# flying weight, but not problem. It handled the 10 to 15 winds very well. Jim, you were right, it does land like a trainer. I am so happy that my part of this project is finished, the other guys are still working on theirs. You can view our progress on our club web site at okbarnstormers.com
I'll post the pictures soon on the web site.
Thanks again for the help from all of you.

Congrats on the successful flight. Fun, ain't it!!. I imagine your plane does scoot along with .40's on it. Mine does a fine job with .25's at 17# dry weight. I can also fly at half throttle. Haven't gotten to fly mine for awhile, we have had our typical "fall crosswinds" here the last two weekends. Having to fight 20kt crosswinds just takes the fun out of it for me.
Keep us posted on the progress. By the way, that's one superb web site you have there. Who are you using for web hosting, if I may ask?
Randy
AC-130 Spectre

Thanks guys and Jim. I'm going to have to get cracking on mine.

I cant wait.

gunny

It looks like http://www.doteasy.com/ according to the domain records

Jim:

Well have decided to finish up the C-130 I started a couple of winters ago..Going with 4-40's Evolution engines..Believe the Herky will weight in around 25-27 Ibs...I managed to squeeze in 10 oz. tanks in the nacelles..It has retracts,3 sectional flaps, cargo door.....Need to order new cowls for it because of the engines I will be using...Got a undercoat on it ( Silver), and am using prefect paint...Last plane that I will be using this type of paint on..It's not available anywhere...Have tried Tower Hobbies and Sheldon hobbies,and what I need to complete the paint job,is not available..What I'm in dire need of is One can of " Dead Flat Clear", brush or spray, and One Qt. of "Thinner"..If anybody in this forum knows of anybody or anyplace where I can purchase these items, please let me know...Would like to complete this project this winter...Shore would appreciate it....Thanx again.....

Sorry I don't know where to get the flat, you might check online auction's?

Also I know the Evolution is advertised as easy to operate, and I have no experience with them. Just make sure they are dead reliable. So far noone on this 130 link has flown engine out but me. There might have been but I haven't heard. I have flown and have a pic of the landing engine out and you can clearly see how much rudder I needed to make the landing.

jwrich, Congratulations to the new C130 airborne. It makes a great show plane. You didn't say if you used flaps in the landing.

I think this is still a technique I am developing. My next flight with the stab incident change will be a test flight. If all goes well I will work on my flap/landing technique. I have 27 flights on the big bird as of today. Jim

Finally I got around to resetting the stab/incident on my herk. I set the wing at 2 degrees positive with the stab at 0 degrees. Test flew the plane yesterday. Take off's were normal and the landing was much better, a grease job,, but long rollout. I guess I still land a little too hot. I usually plan landings so if and engine quits on final I can still land without adding power. Landings are at 50% flaps, take off's are full flaps. The flight was trimmed out and the plane flew well, however it was still too pitch sensitive. After landing I set the low rate to 75% of the high rate. The next flight was much more stable and the plane flew like a trainer. The temps were 90 + F with humidity at 95% here in the south. The take off and landings were both long. Perhaps I need the high rate for rotation and takeoff and low rate for flight. I will test more later. Otherwise the plane flew great. More power would be nice,, The saito .40's would have been better, but they were not on the market when i bought the Saito .30's. Comments on the saito' .30 are that I can start 4 .30 faster than some people can start one. They are great engines with good fuel. The only problem I have had was 1 gallon of off quality fuel and the manufacture apologized and sent replacement fuel. I still use their fuel. 15% nitro all synthetic oil. Total flights on the Herk 29 at 8 minutes each which is almost 4 hr. in the air time.. Happy flying.. Jim

Jim While working on mine I noticed how short coupled the C130 is. Iam sure that will make it pitch sensitive as well as the CG sensitive, A little nose weight might help..
On mine I added 4 inches to the center section so I can run a bigger prop. I am using 52 four strokes on mine. I am just about to the sanding and finishing stage.

jimmybannana,
The local hobby shop here has some dead flat clear and one can of thinner. I just used some other colors on a corsair. Go here for their web site;
http://www.cedarparkhobbies.com/

Edwin

.52 will really help on take off and improve the plane quite a bit.

I have about 28 oz of lead in the nose to get the cg correct. More flying I might try to reduce the nose weight which should allow quicker roatation. But otherwise the plane does fly well. I will be taking it for show to Mobile fly in on 10/30.

Jim

Hey Jim, I talked to the wife about going to mobile to see your C130. Where is the flyin in Mobile on the 30th. Let me know if you are going for sure, I want to come and see it. I am SLOWLY working on mine.... very slowly! But I am making some prograss. Hope to see you in Mobile.
Bill Richardson

Baldeagle,
I have the same plane as Jimcork. Mine is not what I consider pitch sensitve. handles very nicely on take off and in the air. But, it does respond to very little trim inputs when in the air. As far as flying, It doesn't seem sensitive on the sticks. The exponential that i have plugged in may also help that.



........................I have about 28 oz of lead in the nose to get the cg correct...................

Jim,
I'm trying to figure out where the weight differences is in our two planes. Mine finished out at 17#, and I did some things over and above what the plans called for. I used all 1/4" ply inside for the gear box and nose gear mounts, as well as some other stuff. Just wasn't comfortable with the 1/8" stuff called for on the plans. I just went out and checked mine again, and I do not have any lead in the nose. I built a platform/shelf in the nose forward of the nose gear to attach any weight and/or the battery to in order to get it as far forward as possible. Turns out that I only needed the battery pack to balance with.
I do have a few other goodies up there, but not that much, as the picture shows.
From the top of the picture to the bottom, is:

1. Velcro on the shelf for attachment of battery pack
2. Switch on left side for rotating beacon.
3. 9volt battery (for rotating beacon) on the nose gear bulkhead next to the nose gear
4. Door on left side
5. electronics for rotating beacon below door
6. Nose gear servo in the center
7. bottom of pic is the battery pack which is now in the nose.
The tubes on the right side are sleeves for the battery extension back tothe receiver

Maybe the plywood I used made the difference.

Well, DUH! I just remembered that your aft section comes off and you have a flight pack back there don't you? Now my feeble memory is coming back. Anyway, your plane still looks to fly super at 22# according to the videos. Good luck on the Mobile trip.
Randy