I've decided to blow off the dust on my vacuume baging machine and going to use the modern technique of wing skinning with EZ-LAM EPOXY. Just a piece of mind.

[8D] OK, guys, first post for me as a brand new member to RC Universe so will have to see how this works out. I just got a set of Palmer plans for the c-130, 11foot wingspan, and am starting this construction you have all been talking about for the last 6 pages of posts. Yes I have read each and every one of them! I am a firm believer in using everyone else's experience to make mine just a little easier.
Sure looks like a lot of balsa to make a c-130. If no one has seen Palmers plans they are five sheets of paper measuring 3'x6' each. These sell for just under $100.00, that includes postage, if anyone else is interested in buying a set. My experience in kit building,plans building,and flying consists of trying to do all this while also puttting in 20 years of work as an aircraft mechanic for the USAF. Five years spent working the C-130E, so hence my desire to build her now! I am currently finishing a Top Flite C-47, my first twin engine.
If anyone is interested I have four pics of the plane I worked on during my five years with 7th Sp.Ops.Sq. at Ramstein AFB,Germany. I can email to anyone. One of the pics is really remarkable for anyone wanting to build a Constellation as I have my Herky taking off, above the connie sitting on the ramp, from the runway in Athens. A sneaky pete 130 over a spy sneak connie.
Thanks for all your inputs to this thread, hope you all don't mind my asking advice as I build this thing, and/or just plain ole chattin about how everything has gone for all of you. Is everyone up and flying by now? OK I will get out of here, made this long enough. Comments and advice will be greatly appreciate. Mark

Most of the kits we have been discussing here are American Eagle (I think). I also have the Palmer plans, and really did not want the to get that complicated. The fiberglass kits that are mostly seen in the pics here are much simpler. Although I am looking at the retracts being used on the Palmer. The problem with me is that between family, work, and grad school, there is little time for construction. I have made my landing gear box and am ready to mount it....... time, time, where is it?
Good luck on the C-130 though.
Bill Richardson

Welcome to the C-130 thread Mark. I guess I've hogged up a good bit of the space. Feel free to pick our brains about whatever you want, but as Bill said, most of us are building/ have built the fiberglass/foam version. I have a set of the Palmer plans for the smaller version Herk, and I shuddered when I looked at them. A tad too much work for me. Since there were some other theads you may not have seen, Jimcork was a Herk driver. All I got to do was ride half way around the world on one. Nice ride, though. Got to see how big the Pacific Ocean was from 20,000'.
I finished mine as a AC-130 Spectre gun ship from the 70's, named "Thor". I got a lot of good info for building mine from Jimcork. He was getting in his first flights just as mine was arriving. Mine is sitting in the basement now, awaiting some decent weather. 20 degree weather just don't suit for testing. Have to do some engine tests yet and it will be ready.
Coincidentally, I also have a TF DC-3, done up as AC-47 "Spook 71", the one John Levitow was in when he won the MOH.
What size engines does your plan call for on the Herk?
Randy

Randy, Thanks to you and Billy for the welcome aboard with a Herky construction. I have read all the posts here in this thread back to Nov of what 2001 or 2002. I feel it is good to use as much experience from others before starting any task like this. Yes, appears big to me, too. Five sheets of plans 3'x6' !! Palmer suggests 4-49CC MVVS, rear exhaust, engines for this airframe. I have about 16 inches for each propeller on the front of these engines.
I am in the process of finishing the c-47 and have the Large, 10 foot, Telemaster in construction , too. Being retired does have its advantages.
Lets see if I can figure how to get some of these pics attached. Ok they uploaded, wonder how this is gonna work or have I messed up the whole thread. Guess we'll see.
Ok, gotta get off, talk to you all and good luck with your birds. Well guess I didn't do to bad with these pictures even if they are all 8x10's on my files. Hope you guys enjoy them. This was the bird I worked on, cared for, and flew with for five years. Any questions ask away, in the meantime I hope I can recreate this acft.
Mark

The more hercules the better.

Yes, welcome aboard to this thread 46Marcus. I am also building the American Eagle fiberglass kit version. I too was reading this thread way back in november, and just recently joined these fellows on rc / universe. I can feel the creativity flow among us in this c-130 forum.

Thanks,

Gunny

Thanks for the pics- I'm familiar with both those aircraft. The Connies flew out of Udorn Thailand when I was there, and several guys on a vetrans net I'm on were pilots/crewmembers on them.
The Herk with the whiskers has the Fulton Recovery System on it, right? I used to watch them practice pick ups in the 60's at England AFB, La. They used dummys then to test with. They would do a pick up between the active runway and the ramp. Interesting thing to watch. Somewhere out there is a model of that Herk, I've seen it on video, just can't remember on which tape. that should make a great looking model.
I have a Senior Telemaster and have two wings for it-one standard and one flat that is swept back. You won't be sorry of having a Telemaster. It's my all around favorite plane. I've had 3 Telemaster .40's and two Seniors. (That's why I have the spare wing!)
Randy

HI Mark, I am scratch building 102" C130 and you are right about the balsa , I have used about 40 sheets of 3/32 X 4 X 36 so far, 90% done on the sheeting, I use 3/32 " because of the lumpy bumpy way my sheeting seems to turn out I end up doing a fair amount of sanding, I did some thing different with the fuse construction, I cut some thin strips of wood, 1/4 wide, 3/32 thick and slowly fed them into a crockpot until the were pliable then put them round and round in to a five gallon plastic pail and let them dry, I then made a simple jig and made up all the frames, it looks neat to look in the fuse and see all the frames in place, good luck with your bird Mike

Mike,
Thanks for the welcome aboard. Did you see my pics on page 6? This is the aircraft I would like to build out of my Palmer Plans, 133" wingspan 130.
So you used your round 3/32" sticks as the formers around the interior of the acft and then sheeted over them? right? My plans call for four different formers (half moon shaped) around the rectangular interior, meaning about 15 different former, then sticks from nose to tail to be sheeted over.
I can understand your use of all of the 3/32" balsa as my fuse and wings are all supposed to be covered with it. I have been toying with the idea of buying myself a saw and cutting 3/32" out of thick boards of balsa, if I can find reasonablly priced boards. Then I would cut all of the spars, etc, for the rest of the construction, too. Don't know if I would pay for the saw or not. But would be set-up for scratch construction for the rest of my life!
What size engines do your plans call for? Mine are to be 49CC rear exhaust MVVS. These plans show the exhaust directed straight out the back like the full sized acft. Think that will be kind of neat but don't have any experience with the MVVS engines.
I have a professional builder friend (probably won't be friend after my 1million questions) that says most designers preplan for more strength then required and he suggested cutting back to 1/8" sheeting and lightening all of the ribs, etc. Trying to make plane as light as possible. His one vote of confidence was , "Well, if you crash it will be a nice explosion of parts anyway, so build light" I love his use of the word "explosion"!! Yikes. I hope not.
Ok, better get out of here, keep me posted on your bird and if there is anything I can do for you, hollar. I'm sure we'll be on this thread for sometime to come.
Mark

Mark re balsa, that is what I did, I found that they sell balsa planks at a building supply store, I got a long enough piece of 2X6 that I custom cut my spars full length, the fuse and wing sheeting are full length for each panel, my bird is scratch built from my own plans, 4/25s for power, still hoping to come in under 15 lbs Mike

More questions for you real time C 130 guys, how does the ramp hinge ??At the floor line with the lower section retracting into the fuse, what color is the inside of the main fuse, What happens when you guys did an airborn drop? Did it change the attitude of the bird, is there a huge vacume formed ?? The mains must have really been something, just to carry the weight of the plane and then load in those huge cargos, it really still comes down to 4 tires on the ground Thanks MIke

Here is an couple of pics for ya, of the rear loading door.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-130-4.jpg

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-130-18.jpg Loadmaster to capt : Capt , I think we might have to move that battery pack behind the CG now. The tail has become a lot lighter. But in all serious, the skills of the aircrew to drop an tank out the back of the a/c and maintain flight is remarkable!

Grinder.

Found another pic of the loading ramp.

Grinder.

http://aircraftwalkaround.hobbyvista...s/herky_05.jpg

I studied the idea of the rear ramp being operable, but the way I see it, the tailgate would have to be made longer than the full size one to get enough opening to drop something out of it. On the full size versions part of it swings up and the tail gate lowers. It would be a real show stopper to see, but I can't see doing it without adding considerable weight to the tail section, resulting in more weight being added to the nose to balance. Right now, mine has balanced with no additional weight in the nose. I did, however build a ply platform to fit the nose to hold the battery pack, so that counted as some weight in addition to the battery. (2700mah). Maybe you guys who are building the balsa version can keep the weight down inthe tail section to offset the addition of the mechanics to do this. I wonder if a sail winch servo could be used with a cable/pulley arrangement to do this-or, maybe some robart air cylinders to do the job. The servos/valve/tank could be kept forward and just run the air lines back to the cylinders.
Just some food for thought.
Randy

Hey guys,
I found some really neat pics of different c-130's in this part of the net. Thought you might like to access unless you have seen them allready.
Mark
AOL Search: Results for "c-130 pictures"

re tail gate, I have used a Senior Telemaster for years to do candy drops, banner tows, ribbon towing and all kinds of stunts and my dream ( fantasy ??) was to have a C130 do a major parachute drop, or do the low level cargo drop and the ultimate was to be able to land and have some little radio control vehicle roll down the ramp, my thought would be to counter balance the ramp and do what Chip Mast did with a servo with a long servo arm MIke

My bird, just click on the JPG # MIke

On the left of the pic you will notice a laser level, guys, I must tell you this is the neatest toy I have ever had for building big models, it transmits a bright horiizontal and vertical line, I jig the bird up and you can "shoot" in all your frames stringers, wing incidences, tail planes are a cinch, you can be sure the rudder and elevators are in perfect alignment, I set it up in front of the bird and line up all my motor mounts , the good ones . with the tripod stand sell for less than $100, Mike

re pictures Did you notice how much down elevator that bird has got as he drops the tank ???

Ok,, now who took my pic of the airdrop? That is called Lapes.. Low ailtute parachute extraction system.

But now to flying the model. I reset stab to a lower incident and found little change on this move. I have done power off stalls and with the control settings I gave prior, the 22# bird makes a slight left wing drop (engine torque possibly) and then the nose drops, I held up full elev. to see if it would approach a spin, but with the nose drop it began flying again and the nose lifted up and stalled again. Very soft stalls. Possibly my rounded blunt leading edge helps. I have a 7 Meg QT movie that I haven't figured out how to post or zip. Cool take off pics. Who will be next airborne.

Remember,, MIX the aileron to the rudder. This will really help in turns and engine out. I also mix flap to elev. The bird will baloon with flap deployment and then when raising them it will drop like a stone. If you mix you can even this out to nice flying.

PS.. when doing an air drop of a tank the plane would pitch up then down. The pilot only monitored the elevator when a tank was exiting the aircraft to prevent it from hanging on the plane on the way out. If it were to hang, part of the plane would be removed. Besides have you ever seen a tank that was Lapsed a bit too high nose in and then roll end over end.. what a site,, It will also remove pine trees very quickly.

Mike,
Very nice picture of your bird under construction. Gawd it makes me shiver as to how far I have got to go. LoL. But exciting. Thanks for the view.
Mark

re drop, Jim I remember seeing a video once of a C130 on Lapes where the cargo hung up and the whole bird just stopped in its tracks and fell about 20 feet straight down in a huge cloud of dust and the wings folded, hey Marc that is only the SMALL 102" bird Mike

Marc, if you want to E me at any time to discuss scratch building this bird feel free my E is [email protected] Mike

Mike,
Ya, I know only the 102--trhat is why I am still shivering. ha
Don't know what a c-130 would do with a hung up load, BUT, I had a loadmaster friend that was on a Caribou that had a hung up load. They were using a grapple hook to catch the ground/a line, and the rope was taut, after the load had moved back unto the ramp, and the hook popped loose. Acted like a sling shot back into the airplane and wedged between the load and ramp rollers sticking the load permanently right on the ramp. The aircraft nose went straight up into the air about 500 feet, stalled, turn over to the right and went straight back down into the ground. Jay was the only one that survived that mess. That was during training in Florida at least back sometime before 1968. I take this to be a true "loadmaster" story as I knew Jay quite well and don't think he would tell a tale, but of course was not there so can only go by others words. Sounds logical tho, if you were to move the CG that far aft on any airplane. Nasty way to ruin ones day!!
Mark

Hey MultiMike. Whats the name brand of the laser level and where can I purchase one? Does Home Depot sell them? That's a great idea and a good tool to have in the shop or around the house.

Thanks

Gunny