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Model pulls up and executes the loop. The loop should be completely round.
Try using full throttle to enter the loop easing off the power as the model
enters inverted at the top of the loop, then reduce power to idle on as the
model descends on the exit, returning throttle to normal as the model returns to
level flight.
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Model executes one-quarter (1/4) loop to a vertical track, performs a stall
turn through 180 degrees, then recovers with another one-quarter (1/4) loop to
level flight in the direction.
Starting from level flight (with wings level) pull up elevator and apply full
throttle (1/4 loop) into vertical flight, gain some height.
Throttle back to just above idle, as model slows apply full rudder, watch model
as it stalls (falls onto its side) centralise rudder and model should stall into
a dive.
Exit by pulling up elevator (1/4 loop) at the same altitude as the entry
applying throttle to maintain normal level flight.
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Model rolls at a uniform rate through one (1) revolution in either direction.
Centre is inverted portion of manoeuvre.
From level flight apply less than full aileron give a slow roll rate, maintain a
constant roll rate.
As the plane approaches inverted, apply a little down elevator - just a short
pulse of down. This will compensate for the nose drop due to loss of lift. The
amount of down required and the timing will take lots of practice to perfect.
Continue to roll through 360 degrees at the same constant roll rate.
Stop the roll immediately at the completion of the manoeuvre by applying
opposite aileron.
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Model pulls up and executes five-eighths (5/8) inside loop to 45 degrees,
hesitates, does one-half (1/2) roll, hesitates, then performs one-eight (1/8)
inside loop back to level flight in the opposite direction as entry.
Apply up elevator and throttle to make the plane fly a constant radius 5/8th
inside loop to a 45 degree inverted dive. You will need to add down elevator and
reduce throttle at the completion of the loop to maintain the 45 degree down
line.
Fly a straight line in a 45 degree inverted dive.
Apply aileron to execute a one-half roll to upright flight.
Fly a straight line. This line is still on the same 45 degree down line.
Apply up elevator to execute a one-eights (1/8) inside loop and return throttle
to normal for a level upright flight.
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The model starts the Immelman flying straight and level, pulls up into
one-half (1/2) loop immediately followed by one-half (1/2) roll and finishes
flying straight and level and exactly 180 degrees from the heading at entry.
Apply up elevator and throttle to make the plane fly a constant radius 1/2
inside loop to inverted flight.
At the top of the 1/2 loop apply aileron to execute a one-half roll to upright
flight returning throttle for normal level flight.
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Model performs one-half (1/2) roll in level flight then immediately executes
one-half inside loop to level flight in opposite direction as entry.
Enter from straight and level flight, apply aileron to roll the model 180
degrees to level inverted flight.
Reduce throttle and allow gravity to start the loop for you (resist the
temptation to add up elevator yet).
Gently add up elevator during the first quarter loop reducing throttle to idle,
maximum up elevator will be needed when the aircraft is pointing straight down.
Gently reduce up elevator during the last quarter of the loop.
Recover to straight and level flight and increase throttle.
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Hints & Tips
Installing Control Horns
When installing control horns onto
control surfaces the screwdriver invariably slips. The result is a hole poked
into the covering material or a gouge in the balsa. There is a simple tool you
can make that will eliminate this damage. Take a small piece of thin plywood
and cut a rectangular opening in it just slightly larger than the base of the
control horn. Place this opening around the control horn base before
tightening the mounting screws. Now when the screwdriver slips there will be
no damage to your new aircraft!
Mark Hinges
When using CA hinges use a marker
to draw a black line across the middle of the hinge. This way you can tell if
the hinge is being pushed into
the wing when you put on the
aileron. I have had some hinges do this and end up with a sixteenth of an inch
in the aileron and the rest in the
wing, not very strong. If you can't
keep the hinge from being pushed into the wing stick a pin through the middle
of the hinge it will not
weaken the hinge at all.
Fibreglass Hint
How do you get the creases or
lumps out of the fibreglass cloth we use to reinforce the centre section of
the wing? This method will probably eliminate them. Prior to applying the
fibreglass cloth to the centre section of the wing, take the time to iron it
flat with your clothes iron. This will make it so much easier to achieve a
FLAT surface. Next, place the glass cloth on the centre of the wing and tack
it down to the surface with one drop of CyA (each corner, top and bottom).
This may require that you have to
pull the cloth taught, but don't overdo it! Now you should have the cloth
resting smoothly on the top of the wing. Now apply the resins (or CyA) over
the cloth. You may find that after 3/4 of the cloth is attached that you now
have puckers along one edge or the other, but this is easy to fix. Lift the
material where you tacked it to the wing (remember I said to tack it down, not
permanently attach it), pull taught, and tack it down again. there you have
it!
Cowl And Canopy Mounting
Glue balsa blocks in the proper
locations desired for mounting your cowl or canopy. Drill an appropriately
sized hole through the cowl and into the balsa block. Drill out the balsa
block to accept a small Raw plug. Press this into the hole and wick thin CA
around it. You now have a very vibration-proof mounting method that will
undoubtedly outlast your model.
Vertical Fin Alignment
To get a fin in correct alignment
with a fuselage, try using thread. Make sure you have an accurate centre mark
near the top-front of the fuselage, and tack-glue a long piece of thread to
the top near the nose, a distance from the centreline equal to half the
thickness of the fin. Run the thread back to the tail, and hold it against the
side of the fin. The thread should touch the side of the fin evenly overall.
If it doesn't, then rotate the fin until it does, then tack glue the fin into
place, reinforcing it later. Last, remove the thread you tack-glued.
Balancing Planes
Here's a good way to balance
airplanes. While building your plane, insert a half-inch square piece of
plywood where the balance point should be. For a low wing, this should be on
the bottom of the wing, and for a high wing this would be on top of the wing
(Note: sometimes something will be in the way, like a canopy, and you can't
use this technique). When the plane is finished, put a small hook into the
plywood and suspend the plane with wire or string. This way you can check the
fore-aft balance AND the lateral balance at the same time (Note: a low wing
will be suspended inverted).
Fibreglass Wing Centres
Whenever I fibreglass a wing
centre section, I've found it's difficult to get the fibreglass cloth to lay
flat after it's been folded in a bag. Here's two ways to make this easier: (1)
Use thin CA to tack it down. You may saturate the whole cloth with thin CA, or
apply epoxy. On foam wings, make sure you use CA safe for foam. (2) Give the
cloth a light spraying of 3M Spray Adhesive, then apply it to the wing. I've
found this method to work extremely well, and it's safe for foam. Then apply
the epoxy as usual.
Control Horn Installation
When installing control horns onto
control surfaces the screwdriver invariably slips. The result is a hole poked
into the covering material or a gouge in the balsa. There is a simple tool you
can make that will eliminate this damage. Take a small piece of thin plywood
and cut a rectangular opening in it just slightly larger than the base of the
control horn. Place this opening around the control horn base before
tightening the mounting screws. Now when the screwdriver slips there will be
no damage to your new aircraft!
Cutting Dowels Straight
When cutting a dowel, it's easy to
make the cut crooked. To help ensure a nice 90-degree end, especially on
larger diameters, try rolling the dowel into the band saw or scroll saw
blade
Firewall Fuel proofing
Firewalls of planes are normally
coated with epoxy to help prevent fuel and oil damage to the wood. On planes
with no cowling, apply a coat of epoxy on the firewall after you cover the
plane with film covering. Make sure the film overlaps a little onto the
firewall. This way the epoxy seals the edges of the film covering. Besides,
most film adheres better to wood than epoxy, so that's another plus.
Installing Triangle Stock
For me, triangle reinforcements
have always been difficult to handle due to their shape, especially if they're
coated with epoxy. Try sticking your Xacto knife loosely into one end of the
triangle. Then lay it on the bench so that the wide part of the triangle (the
hypotenuse) is against the bench top.
Now apply the epoxy or other
adhesive to the sides that will contact the airframe.
Next, by using the knife handle,
insert the triangle into position in the airframe. Press down with your finger
onto the wide side that has no glue, and carefully slide the knife out of the
piece.
This way you can cleanly install
triangle stock, and not get any glue on your fingers.
Rib Maker
Cut two ribs from 1/16-inch steel.
Drill two holes along the centre line, one near the leading edge, one near the
trailing edge, for 1/4-inch bolts to pass through. Make sure both steel ribs
are identical.
Use a steel rib as a template to
draw ribs onto balsa sheet. Leave room around each rib. Cut each rib "block"
out of the sheeting, and drill the holes in each.
Assemble all ribs on the correct
length bolts, and sandwich all between the steel ribs. Using nuts, tighten the
assembly down, making sure it's straight.
Now, using a belt sander (a disk
sander will work too), remove the extra wood around the ribs down to when the
steel begins touching the sander. Cut out the spar notches with a hand saw,
and clean them out with a file.
This will make all the ribs for a
wing at once, and they'll all be identical, resulting in a straight, uniform
wing. It can also be used for a tapered wing (with all the ribs of different
size), and bulkheads and formers can be made using this method too.
Curving Balsa
Get some ammonia, found in the
household section of the supermarket. Put some in a spray bottle, and spray
both sides of balsa sheet liberally. Carefully bend the sheet to the right
shape. You can even tape it to a form, such as aluminium soda cans, and let it
dry. Once dry, it may be used as turtle-decks, etc.
Addendum:
To soak wood, get a piece of PVC
pipe the wood sheet will fit in. Cap one end, and stand upright. Fill with
water (You can't buy pure ammonia, the stuff on the shelf is low grade, water
works fine) and drop in the sheet and cap the top if it floats out.
Wing-Tail Alignment
Get an old (but straight)
telescopic antenna, the same type as on transmitters. Use it as an
adjustable-length measuring rod to compare critical measurements on planes
during construction. I use this idea to compare the distance from one wingtip
to the stabilizer, and to make sure this distance is equal on both sides of
the plane. This ensures that the stabilizer is parallel to the wing.
Engine Mount/Nose gear
If you have a small plane with a
very tight engine installation (usually resulting from a very streamlined
cowl), often there's no room for a nose gear assembly. Try drilling holes
through the engine mount to accept the nose gear wire, and hold it in place
with wheel collars. The steering arm can be placed below the engine, even on
the outside of the plane. This will work with most engine mounts, even the
two-piece ones as long as the engine is rotated 90 degrees.
Servo Blanks
Here's an easy way to make sure
your servos will fit in your plane properly, especially helpful with
scratch-built designs: Take the measurements of your servos, and make a few
from wood, identical to the real ones. This may be easy if the manufacturer
supplies full-size drawings of the servos. I made my servo blanks from pine
blocks, a little plywood for the mounting hole piece, and a dowel for the
motor shaft. These servo blanks will not only help in drilling the holes to
mount servos, but will assure adequate clearance on all sides. In addition,
the dowel is the correct size to press on an actual servo arm, which will help
in aligning pushrods or cables. Using this method will help keep your real
servos safe and clean during the building process.
Poke a Hole in You Covering
Why would anyone want to make a
hole in their nice new covering job. Well holes for wing bolts, switches,
hatch screw holes, pushrod openings, etc come to mind. Sure you could cut the
hole/opening with a Xacto, or razor blade, but then you have to adhere the
fresh cut covering to the surrounding wood. The solution; get an old soldering
iron tip (pointed preferably) and cut the hole/opening with it. I use a 25
Watt Weller, and it cuts through the covering with ease, and makes a perfect
seal. Once you try this you won't want to do it any other way. One word of
caution, clean the tip after each cut. I use a wet sponge like that used for
soldering, but use a different sponge as to not foul the clean tip used for
soldering. If you don't clean the tip regularly the burned covering will cake
on, and not only smell really bad, but will inhibit the cut, as you will not
have maximum heat. I thoroughly clean the tip with a wire wheel after each
use. After it completely cools of course.
Hardening Mounting Holes In
Balsa
To harden small holes in balsa in
order to better retain wood screws or threads, use thin CA. Sometimes the CA
will get on a finished surface doing this step. To prevent getting CA on the
outside surface, use Micro Brushes. If you do not have Micro Brushes handy in
the shop, you can also use one of the plastic coffee stirrers cut at a sharp
diagonal to form a thin point. A drop of CA in the cavity at the sharp tip can
be used to place a small amount almost anywhere.
Alignment Of Wings And Tail
Surfaces
A very important task in building
an RC model is alignment of the flying surfaces with respect to the fuselage.
Most of the time there is no absolute reference which will allow you to
measure the mounting angle and be certain that it is square. One method is to
mark a point at the nose or tail (depending on whether you need a reference
for the horizontal stabilizer or the wing) at the centre of the fuse and
measure to the tips of the respective flying surface until it is properly
centred. If your aircraft model is in the "bare-bones" stage, using a large
heavy straight-edge can easily create hangar rash even before you have done
the finishing. Here are a couple suggestions to avoid the large metal
straightedge problem.
One is to use a length of ordinary
lamp cord. If you get a piece of it fresh off a roll and hang it in your shop,
with a small weight at the bottom end, for several days it will be straight
enough to ensure accurate measurements. Put a piece of heavy tape around one
end (about the last 3/4" or so) and use a pin immediately in front of the tape
and through the centre of the cord to locate the reference point on the
aircraft fuselage. Then hold the other end at a reference point on each end of
the stab or wing to compare the two measurements. A small piece of duct or
masking tape will mark your measurement on the lamp cord while you make
adjustments to the mounting location of the airframe component.
Another trick is to use what home
builders refer to as a "story stick". This is merely a small piece of wood
(carpenters use a 2 x 4 but that could be as dangerous as the metal straight
edge) possibly a long, 1/2" dowel or similar sized piece. Drill a hole about
1/2" from one end which accepts a heavy building pin to use as the locator.
Use the other end to mark wing and stab locations. This can be a good
reference tool to ensure your wing mounting is secure. Mark the dowel with the
name of the plane next to the final dimension to the wing tip and check your
model after several flights.
Locating Engine Mounting
Holes
Engine thrust angle can be
affected by small errors in the location of the mounting holes. To ensure the
mounting holes are properly located on the engine mount, the most important
task is marking the holes to match the engine case lugs. One good way to mark
these holes is with a machine screw of just the right size to pass through the
hole in the mounting lug. Cut the screw so it is just a few thousandths of and
inch longer than the thickness of the lug, and, cut it on an angle so there is
a sharp edge which extends just through the lug. Now, use two small pieces of
double sided tape to hold the engine temporarily in place while you rotate the
cut-off screw in each of the four mounting lug holes. This will leave a mark
which is the exact diameter of, and in the proper location for, the mounting
screws.
The next part is to get a true
centre mark for this mounting hole. If you have an automatic centre punch, you
may be aware that some of them come with replaceable tips. Buy an extra tip or
two and grind them so they just fit through the mounting lugs and use them to
centre punch the holes.
Dust collector
Next time your wife yells about
the balsa dust from sanding steal one of her large fluffy bath towels and use
it to sand on. It not only protects the airplane from dings, but it will trap
a huge amount of dust. When done sanding fold it carefully then take it
outside and shake it out.
Note: see disclaimer above, I am not
responsible for what happens when your wife catches you doing this!
Cutting covering
When cutting sheets of plastic
shrink covering nothing beats glass for a surface to cut on, it will not dull
the knife or slow it down when cutting. The covering material will kind of
stick to the glass if the backing is removed all by itself for easy cutting.
You can also use low heat to make it stick even better for critical cutting.
You can use solvent to put together large panels of covering without it
sticking to the work surface. The best place to find a suitable piece of glass
is at the flea market. Look for an old glass top coffee table. The rectangle
ones work super if you have the room. Stay away from non-safety glass it
breaks too easy.
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35 MHz channel numbers
|
35 MHz channel numbers |
|
Chan. No. |
Frequency |
Chan. No. |
Frequency |
Chan. No. |
Frequency |
|
55 |
34.950 |
67 |
35.070 |
79 |
35.190 |
|
56 |
34.960 |
68 |
35.080 |
80 |
35.200 |
|
57 |
34.970 |
69 |
35.090 |
81 |
35.210 |
|
58 |
34.980 |
70 |
35.100 |
82 |
35.220 |
|
59 |
34.990 |
71 |
35.110 |
83 |
35.230 |
|
60 |
35.000 |
72 |
35.120 |
84 |
35.240 |
|
61 |
35.010 |
73 |
35.130 |
85 |
35.250 |
|
62 |
35.020 |
74 |
35.140 |
86 |
35.260 |
|
63 |
35.030 |
75 |
35.150 |
87 |
35.270 |
|
64 |
35.040 |
76 |
35.160 |
88 |
35.280 |
|
65 |
35.050 |
77 |
35.170 |
89 |
35.290 |
|
66 |
35.060 |
78 |
35.180 |
90 |
35.300 |
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A handy prop chart for
your use.
|
2-Cycle Engines |
4-Cycle Engines
|
|
Engine Size |
Starting
Propeller |
Alternate
Propeller |
Engine Size |
Starting
Propeller |
Alternate
Propeller |
|
.049 |
6x3 |
5-1/4x4,
5-1/2x4,
6-3-1/2,
6x4, 7x3 |
.20 - .21 |
9x6 |
9x5,10x5
|
|
.09 |
7x4 |
7x3,
7x4-1/2
7x5 |
.40 |
11x6 |
10x6,10x7
11x4,11x5
11x7,
11x7-1/2,
12x4,12x5 |
|
.15 |
8x4 |
8x5, 8x6,
9x4 |
.45 - .48 |
11x6 |
10x6,10x7
10x8,11x7
11x7-1/2,
12x4,12x5
12x6 |
|
.19 - .25 |
9x4 |
8x5, 8x6,
9x5 |
.60 - .65 |
12x6 |
11x7-1/2,
11x7-3/4,
11x8,12x8
13x5,13x6
14x5,14x6 |
|
.29 - .30 |
9x6 |
9x7,
9-1/2x6,
10x5 |
.80 |
13x6 |
12x8,13x8
14x4,14x6 |
|
.35 - .36 |
10x6 |
9x7, 10x5,
11x4 |
.90 |
14x6 |
12x10,13x8
14x8,15x6 |
|
.40 |
10x6 |
9x8, 11x5
|
1.20 |
16x6 |
14x8,15x6
15x8,16x8
17x6,18x5
18x6 |
|
.45 |
10x7 |
10x6,11x5,
11x6,12x4 |
1.60 |
16x6 |
15x6,15x8
16x8,18x6
18x8,20x6 |
|
50 |
11x6 |
10x8,11x7,
12x4,12x5 |
2.40 |
18x10 |
18x12,20x8
20x10 |
|
.60 - .61 |
11x7 |
11x7-1/2,
11x7-3/4,
11-8,12x6 |
2.70 |
20x8 |
18x10,18x12
|
|
.70 |
12x6 |
11x8,12x8,
13x6,14x4 |
3.00 |
20x10 |
18x12,20x10
|
|
.78 - .80 |
13x6 |
12x8,14x4,
14x5 |
|
|
1.08 |
16x6 |
15x8,18x5
|
|
.90 - .91 |
14x6 |
13x8,15x6,
16x5 |
|
1.20 |
16x8 |
16x10,18x5
18x6 |
|
1.50 |
18x6 |
18x8,20x6
|
|
1.80 |
18x8 |
18x10,20x6
20x8,22x6 |
|
2.00 |
20x8 |
18x10,20x6
20x10,22x6 |
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Engine Size Chart
|
Engine Size Conversion Chart
Cubic Inches to Cubic Centimetres
|
|
CI |
CC
|
CI |
CC
|
|
.049 |
.8 |
.61 |
10.0 |
|
.09 |
1.5 |
.80 |
13.0 |
|
.15 |
2.5 |
