The Internet is becoming quite popular not only with individuals but with business as well. R/C Modeling has entered this arena early this year. There are many web sights and several news groups pertaining to R/C aircraft. News groups, which is text based, provide a forum where modelers can exchange ideas and experiences. The web pages are graphic based. Many individuals have web pages that pertain to modeling as well as many R/C companies. Be sure to check the IMAA web page. It is a good place to start with links to many other R/C pages. Keep in mind that those links generally have links of their own. You will be able to visit pages that will keep you entertained for hours upon hours.
My e-mail address is geebees@sound.net. This is a great way to forward your ideas to me. You can also attach your graphics to the e-mail. I can read about any format for the PC. Photographs will still need to be mailed. I receive e-mail within 24 hours and usually within a couple of hours. On another note, I would like to apologize to David Byrd, of Johnson City, TN, for calling him Larry in my last article. David sent in those great ideas about Air Lines and Fittings, E-Z Connector Fix, and Onboard Air. Larry Byrd has sent in several tips in the past and I happened to mix his name up with David's. Sorry David.
Here are a few more of David's ideas:
Airports that have a body repairman to replace a panel
of aluminum on an aircraft use a clamping tool called a Wedgelock
that fits around a little clamp. When you squeeze the tool, it
will depress the spring on the clamp. The jaws open about a half
an inch. Aircraft maintenance personnel use them to hold aluminum
panels keeping them from slipping while they drill holes for rivets.
There is a similar clamp that has an alignment pin in the lower
jaw as well as a clamp that feeds into a drilled hole, spreading
out and holding the aluminum together as the clamp is released.
Imagination will find many uses for these clamps. Keep your fingers
clear as these clamps provide quite a bit of pressure. New or
used tools can also be found at AirParts, address at end of article.
The clamps come in a few different sizes.
Scratch builders who build aircraft from blue prints often find a pattern drawn on top of a larger pattern to save paper. This pattern has to be cut free before it can be put on the proper wood size. Before cutting the pattern free from larger pattern, place a piece of paper under the pattern to be cut free. After the pattern has been cut free, remove the pattern. While the blue print is still laying flat on your table, tape the piece of paper that was placed under part to the blue print. Place tape all around the cut out area. This way your larger pattern won't lose its shape. When David cuts patterns from blue prints, he marks on back of the pattern what the wood size is and the name of the pattern. Pin the pattern or patterns on a large board with the dimensions showing on the back of pattern. Spray 3M Z-77 contact glue on the back and wait 13 to 15 minutes. Remove the patterns and place them on the proper size wood, taking into consideration the grain of the wood. By waiting 13 to 15 minutes before placing the patterns on the wood, you can remove the patterns before you glue the part in the air plane.
David has a K & S wire bender and coil winder
for making spring coil on 5/32" music wire for nose gear
and retracts. When he used this bending tool, he found he could
not make a good coil because the wire being bent had to be raised
up and over a socket head bolt to bend the 5/32" wire around
the metal peg to form the coil in the wire. He took the bolt out of the block of steel it was
screwed into. He then clamped the steel block in a vise on a
drill press. He placed a 1/2" dia. drill in the chuck and
set the depth gauge to 3/16 inch and drilled the hole. He then
used a 9/16" dia. rasp bit to ream the hole out to 9/16 inch.
He now screwed the socket head screw back in the
hole where it was removed.
Now he could screw bolt down into the hole where the convex curve would be level with the steel block. He doesn't have to raise the wire up over the bolt and in return is making better landing gears.
Here are a couple of quick tips from Leet Wilson of Apple Valley, MN. Included with VHS video tapes is a sheet of labels that are adhesive backed. They are used to mark your tapes. On this sheet are numbers that are just the right size to mark your servo connectors. Marking your connectors according to the channels will make it a bit easier and quicker to plug the connectors into the receiver.
Fill a small glass bottle, with a screw cap, with acetone. If you don't have a glass bottle place it upside down and let it stand this way overnight to test to see that the bottle will hold the acetone. Now take the extension tips that you use on your C/A glue bottles and place them in the bottle of acetone. You can store them here and always have clean tips when needed. Remove the caps with forceps or tweezers.
John Fredriksen has compiled a list of over 10,000 plans, kits, photographs, scale drawings, and sources. These are divided into 5 volumes that sell for $15.00 each, or $55.00 for all five, postage paid. The volume breakdown is: Vol. 1-WWI, Vol. 2-Golden Age, Vol. 3-WWII Axis, Vol. 4-WWII Allied, Vol. 5- Jet Age.
Paul Samaras, of Lakewood, CO, writes that "if
each modeler could share ideas learned, it could sure make a lot
of difficult jobs easier … that most modelers have not arrived
at 'short cuts' and 'best ways' to do things". Here are
a few of Paul's ideas.
The question of what size wiring to use to supply power to the receiver can be debated. Paul builds his own receiver battery packs and doubles the red and black wires between the battery pack, switch, and the receiver. He uses 20 gauge wire for his battery packs and slide switches. If the switch has 6 poles instead of 12 poles, use 2 switches completing 2 circuits. For connectors between the receiver and the battery pack he uses Deans 4 pin connectors. He comes from the switch to the receiver with two separate leads which he plugs into two unused servo slots located on the receiver.
To further ensure power to the receiver Paul uses a battery back up system so if the main battery pack fails the back-up battery pack will take over. The back up system has a light that tells you the back-up system is being used. Using this method allows you to fly until the main battery is fully drained, thus giving you more flying time. A 1300ma battery pack is used for the main battery and a 600ma battery pack is used for the backup. Paul also stresses that you keep your receiver and receiver battery packs away from your engine and also use a nyrod between the throttle servo and the engine.
Paul uses a B&B exhaust muffler which has 3 pipes
coming out of the bottom. He says it is a bit noisier but has
an increase of about 150rpm. Not satisfied with the standard
smoke setup on the muffler, he uses a standard B&B muffler
which he modifies. He makes a small 1/6 inch aluminum that will fit
into the exhaust port opening and bolts it to the top of the muffler.
To ensure that the bolts don't come loose due to vibration, he
uses a standard 4-40 nut and squeezes it in a vise. This will
force feed it onto the bolt. Next he taps the top of the muffler
(over the aluminum plate) for a 6-32 pressure fitting. This allows
the smoke fluid to spray directly on to the hot plate he installed
earlier. Good smoke requires it to be as hot as possible.
Sullivan is coming with an on board charging system that could well change the way we consider the business end of our radio systems. Sullivan is calling this system Genesys which has no moving parts to cause engine problems and it will run the entire model at 5000 RPM or so. Picture an airplane that does not have to be charged. With this system the plane only has to be switched on and flown. You wouldn't be limited to a certain number of flights. The initial products include the basic Genesys system and three lighting sets - strobe, rotating beacon and red/white/green navigation lights. All Genesys accessories plug directly into the main junction box (called the CCU). There are several more accessories nearly ready for release, including a radio operated switch, a high power strobe and night flying light sets.
In addition they have tested the double transformer arrangement (doubles the available output) and should have the high power version ready in a few months. This would be ideal for our large aircraft. Because of the many different engines used for giant scale airplanes, Sullivan is trying to devise a system that can be easily adapted to our style of engines. In a nutshell Genesys will recharge your flight pack batteries and keep them fully charged while you operate your model. Supply the current needed to run your on-board receiver and servos. Recharge a separate battery pack. Operate such optional Genesys accessions as navigation lights, strobe lights, rotating beacon and radio operated switch without draining you flight pack batteries or using a separate battery pack. As part of the fail safe design CCU connects the battery port directly to the receiver wire to provide power in case the engine stops or any part of the system is disabled.
The CCU has five accessory sockets and two spare battery sockets. The accessory sockets are regulated at 5.0V and are limited to 1.0 amp total. They only operate when GENESYS is supplying electricity. The spare battery sockets are connected directly to the battery and are either a 4.8V or 6.0V, depending on the battery voltage. These sockets are used for accessories that draw more than l.0 amp for a short duration or accessories that must operate if the engine stops. The main components are a magnet ring, transformer, CCU, and clamps. Base price for small glow engines is $90.00 while units for giant scale are still under development.
Manufacturers mentioned in article:
AirParts Inc.
2400 Merriam Ln.
Kansas City, KS 66106, (800) 800-3229, (913) 831-1780
John C. Fredriksen, Ph.D.
461 Loring Ave.
Salem, MA 01970, (508) 745-9849
Sullivan Products
P.O. Box 5166
One North Haven Street
Baltimore, MD 21224, (410) 732-3500.
Contact Kirk Gullach #5004 with your tips at:
16367 138th Terrace
Olathe, KS 66062
(913) 764-1260
E-mail: geebees@sound.net