Name The Derelict Plane Contest

derelict aircraft
What is it?
An interesting photo. What is it? Win a Micro Low Stick for being first to provide the correct answer. Photo credit to Thomas Ryan. He is a professional pilot and sends me photos of interesting aircraft from time to time. Visit his website The Building Board

derelict aircraft
Look at that wingspan. Got to be clue there to this aircrafts purpose. Do you know what it was?
Please give us a link to some info on this aircraft with your guess. At this time, I don’t know what it is. You prove it, win a Micro Low Stick Kit.

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Excellent Use of Z Rack N Stack

Dave Baer Writes:

Hey Dave,

Thanks again for your great customer service I really appreciate it. Take a look at how I used your hangers to get a bunch of planes in a spot that wasn’t being used at all. Thanks for designing such a great product!

Feel free to share with others.

Dave

Z-Rack-N-Stack Over Stairway; Dave Baer
Z-Rack-N-Stack Over Stairway; Dave Baer

This is a photo of the finished setup hanging in un-used space over a stairwell. View from 2nd floor, the models are over the treads at the bottom of the stairway. what is the rope thingie in that photo?

Puly and Cleat Setup
Puly and Cleat Setup

Fastened to the header above the second floor stairwell entrance is a pulley and 2 common rope cleats. A simple way to raise and lower his fleet!

Lowered Fleet , Pick Me!.... Pick Me!....
Lowered Fleet , Pick Me!…. Pick Me!….

Here is a shot of the rack lowered to the first floor, ready to for another mission into enemy territory!

Thanks Dave for the photo’s of your setup. 7 Planes all stored in unused space and wherever they were is free’d up. Perfect.

Find the parts to build this project here at: Radical RC

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Mikael Carlson’s Fokker D.VII

This is an astonishing 15 minute video. However, took me longer than that to watch because I had to hear and see a few things over. It’s beautiful. It’s a real lesson on what a WWI could do, size of maneuvers and everything. Take heart next time you get to fly a model of one of these beauty’s. Enjoy!

Visit Mikael Carlson’s website.

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Being A Good Test Pilot: Part 2, Setup

Part 2 in an ongoing series about being a good test pilot. These articals are less about step by step hand holding instructions and more about how to think. We continue….

I always conduct an interview of sorts to fill in the blanks of things I may not be aware of such as level of experience, how long the project took, what the MFG says about CG location, suggested weight, what does it actually weigh and etc…. What your fishing for anything that could be a surprise. After the crash, you don’t want to hear the builder say “I thought 1/2″ behind reccomended CG was close enough?!?!”. Your looking for any shortcuts or oversights in the model. Did they use the reccommended servo’s or at least close? Is the battery large enough? How old is it? If the RX is new, has it been run a while? If the RX has come from another model, was it flying fine or did it’s last flight end in a crash? Has the TX been performing well? Are there any used or harvested components in the systems?

Always check the CG against common sense and what the builder says it should be. NEVER trust that it is right. Hold the model up in the air and check it yourself. Measure if you must. There is NO excuse for crashing over a missed CG check.

Control surface throws: I’ve run into many first time builders that started with a few foamy’s, have built their first sport or scale model and they put throws in the model that look like the 3d foamy they’ve most recently been flying. Not realizing the throws apropriate for a 25-30mph ship will be grossly excessive in a 70mph aircraft. Besides asking about suggested throws, apply your own stink test. If it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t right. I like throws for a test flight just a tad on the high side of suggested first setups. However, you can take this way too far and end up with an over sensitive model. A model that is way out of trim and also way too sensitive is a real handful. Don’t walk into any such traps. Also, if a throw such as the elevator is too low and the model turns out to have an incidence or nose heavy problem, you might not be able to land at a reasonable speed and hold the nose up. Too little therefor can be just as bad a mistake. Try to be reasonable about what’s correct for “this” model. Generally, the faster it flys, the lower the throws should be. Something else to aid here is look for similar level of throws. If the ailerons are deflecting 30 degrees and the elevator only 15 degree’s perhaps the throws will be “out of balance”. Out of balance controls would be one control being sensitive and antoher being soft. This is more difficult to process in your brain when your under pressure trimming out a difficult model. Consider it before proceding.

To Be Continued……..

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RC Hobby Center

RC Hobby Center Building
Address: 2130 Harshman Rd., Dayton, Ohio 45424
GPS Geeks: Latitude+39° 48′ 6.62″, Longitude-84° 7′ 48.55″, (39.801839, -84.130152) ‎
Phone: (937) 436-6161
Website: www.rchobbycenter.com
Email: RC Hobby Center Email (info@rchobbycenter.com)

ModelRama Vendor?: YES

Location:
Located 1.9 miles and 5 minutes west of the US Airforce Museum, just west of State Route 4. Across from Morris Furniture Mart.

What you’ll find:
Aircraft, radios, building supplies, smart slot car track, rc cars/trucks and parts. Service department. Home of Ganster Graphics. This shop puts on indoor flying evenings at the Irvin J Nutter Center throughout the winter months. Sign up for shop newsletter to be informed of dates.

Visual of Location:

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Map & driving directions from US Airforce Museum to RC Hobby Center.

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Street View (image outdated) location of new RC Hobby Center building:

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3D Printed Aircraft Takes Flight

Springfield Ohio’s SelectTech in September of 2011 reports sucessful test flight of the worlds first privately funded 3D printed aircraft. Designed by Frank Beafore and Beth Galang, flown by Jade Lowrey at Springfields Beckley Municipal Airport. Aircraft is powered and guided by electronics from Radical RC. Powered by Himax brushless motor, Castle Creations ESC, and Kypom Lipo battery. The aircraft was manufactured on a Dimension 22 1200 ES Printer which works by fusing together strands of ABS plastic. The printer can make parts up to about 10″ long. The aircraft is an assembly of many sections. The wing panels are made with ribs, skin with a light cross hatch structure under the skin (a Radical RC suggestion) to allow the skin to be made thin and light weight. In each rib with each panel are premade holes to accept the carbon rod spars. Total printing time was about 5 days.

Worlds First Privately Funded 3D Printed Aircraft
Worlds First Privately Funded 3D Printed Aircraft

Generally the 3D printing process is used to make prototype parts to verify designs before making a hard tooling investment. However, SelectTech demonstrates that projects with complex mechanical requirements can be manufactured and put directly into service very quickly.

A story was published in the Dayton Daily News Business section on Nov. 13, 2011.

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