Model Aviation Youth Success Story

Saturday May 5, 2018 was a great day at the Victor Valley R/C Flyers flying field located in Hesperia California for the Youth Foam Plate Rubber Powered Plane and Hand Chuck Glider event.  Over 50 entries total and 19 in the new AMA Alpha class. Winners were awarded plaques and merchandise. Many families attended as can be seen in the images. 

These award winners are the students with best scores. But all of the students gain a great deal of knowledge each year. Jokingly I was told that my classes had enrollment of over sixty per class for next year. I was not laughing. I may need to franchise to fulfill the demand. Ronnie Espolt

This blog post will be short and quote from comments on the Facebook group that Ronnie Espolt started the Youth and Education, Model Aviation Group. Ronnie works harder than anyone I know of in teaching model aviation to kids through classes at schools and to different groups. Quoting in a recent email from Ronnie gives an idea just how busy he is: “I have just a few things to work on now. County Fair in two weeks, buddy box this Saturday another for Millionaire Minds Kids Club in June. National Night Out, National Model Aviation Day, Youth day at Planes of Fame Museum.” Ronnie Espolt

Ronnie and I communicate almost daily and we have both been working with the ideas in building rubber powered model planes primarily out of foam plates but using a balsa stick for the fuselage. This past year the Academy of Model Aeronautics made available a really slick looking plane of this type with a rubber winder included for a great price known as the “Alpha”. One of the Alpha models had a 3 minute flight at the contest. Rick Pearson a member of the Victor Valley RC Flyers took many of the pictures.

Quotes from Youth and Education, Model Aviation Group

“I tried an idea that worked well. My traditional contest has been an 18" Hand Chuck and a Foam Plate Rubber Powered Plane. All the students from the school come with families a long with my youth club. So each year we have had kids at the field with no planes to enter. These kids have always felt left out. This year I added the AMA Alpha Class and sold the kits with winder. We sold 19 for the contest at the event. The remaining Alpha planes were used as prizes for contestants. This kicked our entry count to over fifty. I have 38 new youth AMA memberships to send into headquarters.” Ronnie

Jim N. “Ronnie, what a fantastic thing you do all just because you can and you have a tremendous heart for the future. These kids would most likely not been exposed to model airplanes let alone all the little things that come along with it; science, math, and history. YES, history. Talking to kids about the different roles different planes filled both in peace and at war.  There are so many kids out there with no solid role model. Ronnie you deserve a huge thank you from everyone who cares about our youth. The best part is; Ronnie knows nothing of this. He's just a great guy and thought, hey, cool. I have kids that like to play with the same things as I do.”

Related Links

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1203658726314035/   Victor Valley Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/196015354190463/  "Youth and Education, Model Aviation Group"

http://www.modelaircraft.org/shopama/product.aspx?id=F1BDE4073CCE4464B797DB89ACC24A02&d= Purchase the AMA Alpha

http://www.amaflightschool.org/alpha  AMA Alpha & Postal Contest

https://www.modelaircraft.org/joinnew.aspx?s=google Join Academy of Model Aeronautics

https://freeflight.org/  National Free Flight Society   - I recommend highly

https://www.facebook.com/groups/425811714235246/ Simple Foam Free Flight Airplane

https://ideas-inspire.com/fantastic-foam-flyer/  Detailed instructions on building rubber powered foam plate model airplane on my website.

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/20-4418118 About Millionaire Mind Kids (MMK)

Details Matter in Model Aviation

Becoming successful in model aviation requires that one be detailed oriented, a very good skill to have but not always a trait that comes naturally to many people. This statement in an article in Inc. Magazine I found applies well, “Details often make or break accomplishments.”  Although I feel if one tries to become too perfect all at once it can be overwhelming and frustration will follow. For example I am learning the hard way when model plans specify a certain weight of wood and type of grain of wood, there really is a reason the designer specified that. In the past I might have used whatever I found at the hobby shop. Often the plane ended up too heavy to fly well but more recently I have used wood that was too light for the particular spot on the airplane.  

Bad Axe Embryo has Fuse DT 

An example of this was on the fuselage of a contest winning embryo design the Bad Axe from Volare. This was a short-kit which provided the more difficult to cut out sheet pieces but the builder provided the balsa strip pieces in the kit. It is normal practice to use hard balsa longerons for the square pieces that run the length of the edges of the fuselage and lighter wood for the cross members. With too light of wood for the longerons I was breaking the pieces just trying to construct the fuselage, if I added reinforcement in a spot it would just break next to where the reinforcement ends. Trying to cover the model with tissue and not get sagging areas is impossible too. When you try to fly the model it is so difficult to hold the model without breaking a fragile longeron even with a fairly gentle grip. 

Lighter Guillow's Super Cub Flies Well

Building a model that is too heavy is not good either and easily done. Several years ago I built a Champ kit that just had too heavy of balsa in the kit. No doubt this can happen even in what would appear to be a quality kit. It was easy to cover the model with tissue as the structure was rigid and it did not seem terrible heavy lifting it as it was a small model. Trying to fly the model it was difficult to adjust and it always appeared to me to be flying at the edge of a stall, I added more rubber which helped but now it was flying faster and crashing harder. Each repair added a little more weight and after major damage I gave up. I had trouble with a Guillow’s Cessna 180 also so when I built the smaller Super Cub kit which has the same basic structure I built it lighter by building a lighter tail with balsa curved around a form. The plane did not need any nose weight and it flies well.

Champ was too Heavy

In a more current project I believe my airplane came out too heavy for the wing area and the amount of rubber the model was carrying. I wanted to try a new to me electronic DT system that added 9 grams which does not seem too heavy but when you are on the edge it might be. Test glide without the rubber motor and tiny amount of clay for balance looked good.  Reduced winds test flights were a constant battle with a stall after the rubber ran out. I added right side thrust, down thrust and right rudder tab. To me the 16 strands of rubber seemed like a heavy load. Before destroying the fuselage the last time I had glided the model from a small hill, the glide looked flat but not diving. When it landed gently, it broke the vertical fin. I will rebuild the fuselage and use a fuse DT this time.

Gollywock Crash

Bill Kuhl

Related Links

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2017/03/bad-axe-embryo-thermals-do-not-care.html

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/06/herr-champ-first-flights.html

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2014/07/herr-champ-update.html

 http://www.dave-cushman.net/aircraft/balsa_selection.html

 http://www.modelaviation.com/balsa

http://www.nclra.org/Programs/BalsaDensity.php

Free Flight Hand Launch Glider Story

One of the most important things my model aviation hobby teaches me are those tiny little details can make a big difference to an outcome. Last winter I built a really nice looking free flight glider kit with the intention of adding a hook in front to make it a catapult glider. All the parts were included, very nice manual, carbon boom, and it included jigs to set the angles for the polyhedral wing. As I have had trouble getting the glider to fly properly I am not mentioning the kit name.

From the start, and I started flying it over snow, the glide was fine; the issue was getting a smooth transition from launch to glide. Normally with this type of glider if you are right handed you launch with the glider banked to the right and the glider transitions to a left circle at the top of the launch. This glider refused to do that, often it quickly turned around and dove towards me after launch. I kept trimming off the tiny amount of left rudder but any amount of left rudder would cause the plane to spiral in.

Seeking out the advice of people with more experience I tried their ideas and some of my own. First I put in washout in the tips, good idea but did not seem to help much. I thought maybe the vertical fin was too large so broke off part of that, I think that was needed. If you launch it with a very slight left bank it would transition to left circle now. Flying it over some wet ground helped to cushion the crashes but the front of the nose finally broke off from being wet. I taped a dime to the nose and tried launching again and it improved the launch a little more. Now getting more desperate for a solution I broke off some of the rear of the stabilizer, that helped a little more.

Nice Manual

Back home I rebuilt the nose shorter and added a hook for catapult. Fiberglass cloth was used to cover the nose and the catapult hook. After some hand launching it now seemed that the glider would transition from a straight ahead launch to a left circle. Next I started catapult launching and I was having pretty good results but still it would not take a launch to the right. On one flight the glider was circling nicely in a thermal and headed right over where another model had landed on top of a truck trailer; luckily the glider DT’ed just before reaching the truck trailer. When working with trying to get my airplanes trimmed I lose all track of time, finally around 2 pm I took a break for lunch. Just before that I glued a small amount of rudder back on the vertical fin.

Shorter Nose with Hook

After lunch I flew an electric RC glider and found good lift, at least a couple of times it climbed until it was a speck in the sky. With the glue dry on the free flight glider I tried it again, now it was launching more like it should. On a good launch it hooked a thermal, around and around it circled. It was slowly drifting over an area with blacktop roads. The circling glider started to pick up speed and then the glider was circling in a spiral towards the ground. I was sure hoping the DT would trip, but it hit the hard surface before that. Pieces were flying but the damage was easy to repair.

Working with this glider has been a little frustrating but also very fun. It makes me realize that what appears to be a very simple design might be brilliant in that the proportions of the model are closer to optimum. I feel it has forced me to practice more aerodynamic theory than if I had built a model with a string of contest wins.

Bill Kuhl

Viscous DT on Blue Ridge Special Rubber Model

For a long time I have had this idea about installing a viscous DT (dethermalizer) system on a sport rubber powered free flight model. My first experiment installing a DT system was to install a fuse on a Guillow’s Lancer. This worked well and gave me experience handling a fuse but I wanted to try a viscous system because I wanted a system kids could use without playing with fire. Presently I am writing a couple of articles on viscous DT systems so this would be a good time to try a system on a smaller airplane.

Previously I had built a Blue Ridge Special from plans but lost it this winter on a frozen lake, I had the Volare two plane short kit so decided to build one and install a tiny rotary damper system using the E2 style rotary damper, the price is under $3. To keep the weight of the airplane as light as possible I used really light wood, which the instructions caution against. The leading edge started to bow in but I warped it straight, the problem came back when I covered the plane with Esaki tissue. All the covering was ripped off and laminated a piece of 1/16” square to the leading edge. Recovering went better except now the trailing edge was too soft. When I build the second model I think a light plastic will be used.

To make a timer I referred to Manuel Cisneros article; you remove a plastic gear, slip a tube over the shaft, and place a pin through the shaft. My particular rotary damper appeared to take more force to turn it so I slipped another plastic tube over the first tube to increase the torque. On this same model rotary damper on a glider it turned fine without the extra tube. The rotary damper was mounted on top of the fuselage because I was afraid it might interfere with the rubber motor if mounted on the side. Instead of popping up the rear of the stabilizer I decided to pop up the front of the wing. 

Coming Down from DT 

Recently I purchased a couple of small needle nose pliers with rounded jaws, this tool works good for bending wire in nice looking loops. All the wire used was from a common straight pin. The hinge in the rear of the wing would have a good deal of stress on it so I used a small strip of fiberglass cloth over it. Two sides of 1/16” balsa were used to make a small pylon, a short length of 1/8” square balsa under center of the wing in front slides into the groove between the two pylon sides. This should keep the wing from shifting in flight. A toothpick made a good peg for the DT line to wrap around. 

Everything appears to work fine on the ground, waiting for better weather for test flights. The weight of the plane without rubber was 11 grams, the rotary damper only weigh 3/10 of a gram. When I am happy with how this works I will build the other kit and do a better job of covering the wing.

Bill Kuhl
http://www.ideas-inpire.com


Related Links

https://volareproducts.com/BUY/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_18&products_id=1096    Volare Short-kit 2 Pack

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2013/10/rigid-construction-for-simple-rubber.html  First Blue Ridge

http://store.easylift.com/frt-e2-400-g1/ rotary damper used

http://www.oaklandclouddusters.org/resources/Documents/Articles/In%20the%20Workshop/Rotary_Damper_Timer_Build.pdf  Manuel Cisneros article on rotary dampers

http://scienceguyorg.blogspot.com/2016/09/i-have-short-fuse-on-guillows-lancer.html Fuse on Lancer

https://youtu.be/2hifn3N3OZY video of Lancer flying and fuse DT

New Gollywock Build Report

What fun would it be if I did everything the same? At least that is my excuse for trying a new covering method and new DT system on my build of a New Gollywock this winter. Building another larger rubber model the Wilbur the previous winter, taught me much about building a rubber model larger than a p30. Again I ordered a prop blank from Volare and I knew what I needed for prop assembly hardware. Several people have suggested that I should try the tissue over mylar covering method, this time I gave in. I also ordered the Will Hubin electronic timer for this plane.

New Gollywock

Gliding from Small Hill

Along with the Jim O’Reilly plans I had ordered the Bob Holman laser-cut ribs for this plane. Construction was easier than the Wilbur that had the angled cross members in the fuselage. Covering with mylar I had done once before in building the Polecat X p30. What I wasn’t paying attention to when I ordered more ¼ mil mylar was that it was silver in color. The bottom of the wing was covered with clear mylar but then I had to use the silver mylar for the top of the wing. No doubt the silver is slightly heavier. 

Clear Mylar

Silver Mylar

When shrinking the mylar I got a little too much heat on it with the heat gun and it started turning brown in a couple of spots but never burned through. I tried to cover this up with the tissue colors that went over the mylar. Doping the tissue over the mylar I do not think I followed the proper procedure which is to use thinner to soften up the nitrate dope surface and attach the tissue. I attached it by brushing in the nitrate dope into wet tissue. Most places it worked fairly well but other spots mainly one fuselage side, there are spots that the tissue sags. I left the tissue off the upper side of the wing tips to save weight and try the silver-look.  On the fuselage I sprayed Design Master Floral paint over the orange tissue because it did not look good with the silver base. The fin was covered with silkspan and painted white for visibility. 

Mylar on Fuselage

From a few feet away the plane looked fine. The structures feel very rigid and the weight seems to be similar to other Gollywocks. Where I did add a little more weight was the installation of the Will Hubin electronic timer. Weight of the timer is around 3 grams, I found a servo with a case that weighs 1.8 grams, there is the weight of connectors and a 30 ma battery so total weight is around 7 grams. With this electronic timer you have to do the wiring but that makes it flexible as to what can be done. There is a programming box that is needed to create and download a program into the timer. The big positive is you can program to the second when the model will DT.

Will Hubin Electronic Timer

Programming Box and Testing Setup

So far the model has been test glided without the rubber from a small hill which looked straight ahead and a few real short power flights with a rubber motor and 40 turns. Adding rubber did change the CG but then I noticed the wing was sliding ahead with no stop on it, this has been corrected. With power it appeared the model would climb rather steep and go left. I am going to add the recommended thrust adjustments before more test flights.

Bill Kuhl

Related Vendor Links

http://retrorc.us.com/fftimersforelectrics.aspx  Hubin Timers at Retro RC

https://www.jimoreillymodelplans.com/  New Gollywock

https://volareproducts.com/BUY/index.php?main_page=index – Volare Products prop blanks

Spring Flying and My New Stuff

Last weekend I was still cross country skiing and flying model airplanes over the snow but this weekend looks to be snow-free and low wind. There is still much I want to do as far as building new models, the last part of projects always seem to take the longest. For quick builds I had built a couple of small catapult gliders from J&H Aerospace and have been test flying over snow and this week grass. Small gliders take tiny adjustments to get flying well, I am learning. The gliders I built are the Aleda and Carbonette 8.  I did get in some test glides of the New Gollywock I built from O’Reilly plans, glide looks good, time to braid a rubber motor.

Extreme Closeup of Rotary Damper for Building DT

Close-up of Plastic Clock for building DT

Carbonette 8 Catapult Glider

New Gollywock Test Glide

My home computer was getting really old so I purchased a new Dell pc that is really tiny but powerful. I want to make more videos and a computer cannot be too fast for that. I am learning the Corel Ultimate video software which is similar to what I have used but yet different. For more electronic toys I purchased two different USB microscopes. The first one seems to only focus really close but the next one I purchased will focus farther away.  As I am working on an article on viscous DT timers I took many close-up pictures of rotary dampers and springs. On researching viscous DT I found many people build timers for rubber powered free flight model using what Hank Nystrom calls a “plastic clock” and other people refer to as Tomy Timers. Someone sent me a sample with the pendulum made from a quilting pin, with the spare pin they sent I created my own and it runs really well.

Timer Sample and One to Build From

As an investment in my model building I have purchased several items. For my health in the airbrush painting I am doing I purchased a respirator mask. For bending music wire I purchased a small needle nose pliers and a new wire cutter with longer handles. After so much use the old wire cutters become just about worthless. 

For Spray Painting

Witch Hawk 500 Stab

BMJR Streak

My first large glow powered free flight the Witch Hawk 500 is coming along well. The wing and stab were covered with Polyspan and then I used the dye Larry Davidson sells. It went on better than I thought it would. To finish the Flying Aces Moth rubber model I have to build a freewheel device and install the DT. One of the two ½ A NOS models I am building requires just the DT installed and another is ready for covering.


Related Links
http://www.bmjrmodels.com/  Witch Hawk 500, Streak, and Smarty kits

http://www.modelflight.com/larrydavidson.html  - Polyspan & Dye

http://jhaerospace.com/  Aleda and Carbonette catapult gliders

https://www.jimoreillymodelplans.com/  New Gollywock

http://www.texastimers.com/  - Plastic Clocks

https://www.videostudiopro.com/en/products/videostudio/ultimate/?sourceid=vsp2018-xx-ppc_brkws&x-vehicle=ppc_brkws&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1q3VBRCFARIsAPHJXrHtvYxDaJLa9j0uxZVQnpc9ad4EfbVIICfH1BxOcKr_0bwALYQ7yDoaArp6EALw_wcB  Corel Video editing software