My Hobby Prior To Fisher FM Receivers...R/C Planes

[IMTubeHead]

Hi All,
Just wanted to post a few pics of my Extra 230(72" wingspan) that I built back around 1993. I flew it only once(I had my friend, who was a whiz kid, stand by in case I froze up or flipped out) and it had my knees shaking because this is in my opinion my very best work to date...and most expensive! I had built about 4 or 5 different planes, mostly from kits before I attempted to tackle this project. It took about 2 years on and off to finish it. I bought this kit from Tennessee Model Hobbies as a ARC(almost ready to cover), it has styrofoam core fuselage, wings, and control surfaces(rudder and elevator). I used gapless iron on hinges on all control areas to increase control effectiveness, high torque rudder(with pull/pull cable) and elevator servos, low profile high torque aileron servos(one built into each wing), and a mini servo for throttle. Engine is an OS 120 Surpass 4-Cycle(with fuel pump) using a 16 oz. fuel tank. The covering is Monokote Metallic Red, White, and Metallic Blue. The cowl and wheel pants were painted with like colors. I stained and varnished the cockpit and put "Mr. Pilot" in there! The wings are mounted onto a piece of 1/2" conduit which mounts in a fiberglass tube in the fuselage. The wing halves are secured/lined up to the fuselage with dowel pins set at the correct incidence and held in place by large thick rubber bands. Yes, the rubber bands hold very well!! The first flight was scary, as the plane was climbing throughout most of the flight. I had done my best to "pre-trim" the controls before I took it up, but it still had a climb to it. I suspect an incorrectly shimmed engine mount as the culprit. I had just gotten married around the same time I finished the plane, so you know how those things go. I still have her on my bed in the spare bedroom of my apartment. I still smile every time I look at it, and it was fun putting it together to snap these photos I'm posting. Hope you all enjoy these. I took several. I had a hell of a time trying to jockey the plane around just to snap pics because my living room is way too small. I managed, though...

John

 

[IMTubeHead]

Just a few more pics...


John

 

[carcrazy]

Very nice! I have often thought about getting into that hobby as well. It looks like a lot of fun. A tiger moth would be very cool as kit as well. You did a great job and it is nice to see that she survived her maiden flight.

 

[IMTubeHead]

Thank you for your nice comment. I started out with a trainer and worked my way up gradually to a low wing aerobatic style. My absolute favorite plane was my Super Chipmunk from Carl Goldberg Models, which are now defunct I think. Had a 63" wingspan and I installed functional flaps on it for realism. This thing flew gentle as a baby, but then you could perform almost ANY aerobatic stunt when called upon. I had a four stroke OS 91 Surpass engine. Sadly, I sold it. I built that one just before I built the Extra 230. I had pics but I somehow misplaced them. R/C planes are VERY cool, and it's a great hobby if you're able to accept a few failures along the way(crashes caused by dumb thumbs on the radio!!) oooh, that hurts the ego!!

John

 

[IMTubeHead]

I forgot to add descriptions to several of the pics I had posted yesterday, so here's the poop. I'll number them from 1 to 10(pics from Post #1), beginning with the first 3 thumbnails below my signature;

1- Assembled and ready to go, baby!!!
2- One of the more tedious parts of finishing the plane was installing the canopy...If you get one drop of super glue on the canopy it's as good as ruined because super glue won't wipe off, plus it leaves a blemish on the otherwise clear plastic. The rubber beading is attached to the base of the canopy, then the glue is applied to the rubber beading. The top rear of the canopy is attached to the backrest using brass #2-56 wood screws.
3- Side view of front fuselage and cowl. The plane is covered with Monokote iron on shrink covering, and the cowl and wheel pants are all paint which I tried to match as close as possible to the covering. In this pic you can also see the fueling valve along with the on/off switch for the onboard receiver/battery, and the charging jack to plug in the battery charger without having to remove the top deck/canopy to get at it. These little extras make it much easier to manage the plane out in the field.
4- Front view showing engine. The cowl is one piece, fiberglass, and had to be cut out and shaped for the engine used. For proper cooling of the engine, it's important to have MORE air exiting from the cowl than entering, as you'll be able to see in the next pic.
5- Side view of the cowl showing the large openings on the bottom and side for airflow exiting to cool the engine. The little bumps on the valve cover are clearances for the tiny rocker arms. These 4-Stroke engines are SWEET, and they sound beautiful when flying.
6- Cockpit showing details of instruments and also stained and varnished floor and instrument panel.
7- Rear side view of control cable for pull-pull rudder and control rod for elevator, and tail wheel assembly. I tried to use the best connectors possible. To clarify pull-pull...Normally there's one control rod connected from the rudder servo to the connector on the rudder. When you operate the rudder, the rod will pull toward the side that the control rod is on, but when you operate in the opposite direction, the control rod will PUSH the rudder, but not equal throw to when it pulls. When you have pull-pull, you connect a cable to each end of the rudder servo arm, and a cable on each side of the rudder. This way the rudder will have equal and maximum throw each way. Also, you have more strength when doing aerobatic stunts which utilize the rudder.
8- Opposite side rear detailed view of the pull-pull rudder cable and elevator control. Note that the gray rudder and elevator control horns have a swivel ball bearing so there's no binding at the connection. The white control horns on the trailing edge of the rudder are to attach the springs for the tail wheel assembly only.
9- Underside view of plane showing aileron controls, with the servos hidden under the rectangular covers. I had to drill a hole through the length of the wing and add an extension cord to each aileron servo.
10- Same as #9, just more close up. Here you can see the iron on gapless hinge used on the aileron, along with all of the other controls requiring hinges.

John

 

[313guy]

Hi All,
... I had just gotten married around the same time I finished the plane, so you know how those things go. I still have her on my bed in the spare bedroom of my apartment....

Is it the plane that you still have on the bed or your wife?

Seriously, nice job. I know a couple folks who have built planes and subsequently crashed them. On one hand, I get why you would not want to fly it for fear of crashing it. On the other, if you don't fly it then what is the point?

 

[2526]

Super nice! Is the pilot a replica of you at the time?

 

[sfox52]

That is a nice R/C model for sure! I've seen Extras at airshows years ago, they are very agile airplanes! I just rescued/inherited a thirty year old R/C 1/4 scale model that had belonged to my dad ( he passed earlier this year). It's a model of a Christen Eagle I that he flew a few times and spent most of that time hanging in the loft area of his hangar. It was built by a long gone uncle around the time my dad was building a full scale Eagle II. This one has an OS .90 4 cycle in it, but it is nearly seized- I doubt it will run again. I never learned to fly R/C planes, the skill of reversing the controls when needed seemed daunting! I don't have the (obsolete) transmitter, and the shrink membrane covering seems fragile in any case.( I had a fingertip pop through the skin on the fuselage when handling it.) This is almost 50 inches across the top wing. I plan on suspending it in a corner of my den/ office. I'll post a picture when I get it up there.

 

[robgmn]

Nice stuff!
I flew from age 9 to 18, pretty much gave it up when I lost my flying partner (my father).
Back then, it was stick-built balsa or nothing (some of the planes I flew even used fabric covering- predating the shrink wrap known as Monokote by a few years).

Be glad the plane was trimmed to climb.
It's a lot easier to deal with than one that wants to dive into the ground before you get it trimmed out

I had posted a pic here before of what's left of my planes, but I'll be danged if I can find it.

 

[Jeffery]

Is it the plane that you still have on the bed or your wife?

Seriously, nice job. I know a couple folks who have built planes and subsequently crashed them. On one hand, I get why you would not want to fly it for fear of crashing it. On the other, if you don't fly it then what is the point?

I compared it to building a fine violin, playing a concert or two with it, then smashing it a la Pete Townsend.

I built and flew pretty much everything from free flight, gliders, control line, and all types of RC (scale, aerobatics, profiles - extreme aerobatics, twins, helicopters, gas, glow, electric, high performance electric, indoor electric foamies).

And to the OP:

That's a fine looking Extra! The OS is a sweet engine, I had a .91 Surpass and it was a dandy.

 

[IMTubeHead]

Thanks guys, for the nice comments. The wife is gone but I kept the plane on my king sized bed! haha
Sfox52, your Christen Eagle is a biplane, correct? if I remember, that's a really fine flying plane, and is known for being highly aerobatic. Those were very popular back in the 90's. The Pitt's Special was also popular but I think it was harder to maneuver because of the short wing span, but it was still a quite capable contender for aerobatics in air shows. I have a brand new in the box Carl Goldberg "Ultimate 10-300" Biplane that I bought back in the mid 90's that I never got around to building. My ALL TIME favorite plane is the Dalotel. It's very much like a pattern plane because it flies by wire practically. I got it as a wreck from a friend who was going to trash it after crashing it. it came with an Enya 120 4 stroke engine. I loved the way this plane flew(after some tedious repairing)....very easy to fly, but had 2 sacks of nuts when you wanted to wring her out! I'm attaching a pic or two of this French designed plane. Mine looked very similar to the red/white/black striped version pic that I posted...Very sharp looking plane in my opinion.
My dad used to fly control line planes, and the covering was silk and dope...the old fashioned way! I'll say one thing, it was very much like the covering on a real plane. My dad had a couple of regular life sized old planes that he had rescued from barns that were in BAD SHAPE. His first was a 2 seater Taylorcraft and the other was an Ercoupe. We flew up to Oshkosh, WI one year to the annual EAA Airshow(in the Taylorcraft), and that was cool! The airspeed was only about 100 MPH I think, but I love flying so it didn't matter to me. Another year we flew to Bowling Green, Ohio from Burlington, WI airport to this Ercoupe owners get together pancake breakfast. It took us a few hours to get there, and my job was navigator, checking the air map for him and we actually flew around a thunderstorm...that was the coolest thing we ever did. I never knew you could do that! My best experience was when dad and I went to the airport in Burlington where he tied down his plane one Sunday when there was nobody there, and he let me do take offs and landings in his Ercoupe(he was sitting right next to me so he could rescue the plane if I choked and tried to crash the plane!) I had never flown a plane before, and I hadn't even gotten into R/C planes either. Taking off was very simple and straight forward, but the landing part scared the crap out of me! When you see the ground coming up at you fast you want to pull back instinctively, but you can't...gotta bite the bullet! I was stoked!! I look back on that as one of my most memorable experiences with my dear old pop! He quit flying many years ago, he's going to be 84 next month, and me 60 in January. Well, enough babbling for now...

John

 

[soundmig]

Impressed with all these pictures of beautiful R/C planes that are all in one piece! You guys must be good pilots

 

[IMTubeHead]

Uh...NOT! I've gone flying with a Sig "Astro Hog" that I built, had an OS 91 Surpass 4 stroke powering it, and it wasn't that old yet, and I thought I would be cute and try to do some really neat aerobatic stuff....well, I didn't have a lot of experience yet and when I attempted to recover from a really neat looking flat spin......well....it didn't recover and crashed almost nose first into many pieces. I almost cried! Stuff like that really hurts my feelings because of the amount of time, work, and money that goes into making a really nice, well performing plane. I learned really quick to have more than one plane on hand just in case so I at least had something to fly if I crashed one. So the poor Astro Hog...or what was left of it, was stuffed into a 30 gallon garbage bag and I salvaged all of the hardware and control rods, servos, etc, and built another one. That plane was ready to fly in January, and my flying buddy had just finished one that he was building. His sister lived by a private lake(for residents only), so we went out on the ice and made our maiden flights. That was a real trick getting the feel of taking off and landing on the ice compared to a closely mowed and rolled grass flying field that we were accustomed to. Ahh, the good old days...Pic attached...not mine but I used the exact colors and stripe pattern on my planes. I also built mine with no dihedral in the wings(on the second Astro Hog I built)

John

 

[John James]

My first was a "Piece of Cake"

. It was designed as a glider but someone altered the design a little so you could put an .049 Cox motor in it. I even managed to fly it inverted one time! (Quite by accident!)

I then built a "Yardstick" from planes I bought from Tower Hobbies. A local builders supply donated 40 wooden yardsticks that were used for the frame of the fuselage.

It had a wingspan of 9 feet. I regret that I never did fly it. Probably a good thing considering the inverted "Piece of Cake"! (BTW, the images are from the 'net, not my actual planes.)

 

[kaplang]

I did RC for several years when you could still build from kits and be proud of your acoumplishments. Now all you can find are those almost ready to fly ( ARF ) kits that require very little building skills. New people coming into the hobby don't want to build. I tested for a no code ham license so I could fly my planes on 6 meter. I still have a J3 cub with a 4 stroke 80 Sato built from a kit hanging in my garage. Doudt it will fly again.


I started in the model plane hobby flying Free Flights Planes for those of you that know what Free Flight is.

 

[sfox52]

Here is a phone pic of the Eagle model. It's a replica of one of the three Eagle show team airplanes that flew many an airshow years ago. I hated to see the model disposed of since the hangar it was in is being sold. The appraiser placed a value of $25 which I gladly paid.

 

[squirrelnest]

 

[IMTubeHead]

Here is a phone pic of the Eagle model. It's a replica of one of the three Eagle show team airplanes that flew many an airshow years ago. I hated to see the model disposed of since the hangar it was in is being sold. The appraiser placed a value of $25 which I gladly paid.

NOW I remember this plane!!! WOW, that is a beauty! I knew a couple of guys that had models of this. Much cooler looking than the Pitt's Special, in my opinion. Have you flown it? I'll bet your knees will shake when you do!! Mine would for sure....me with my dumb thumbs flying a primo model like this!! Your pic sure brings back memories! Thanks

John

 

[IMTubeHead]

Too Funny!!! Secret Squirrel...

John

 

[IMTubeHead]

I did RC for several years when you could still build from kits and be proud of your acoumplishments. Now all you can find are those almost ready to fly ( ARF ) kits that require very little building skills. New people coming into the hobby don't want to build. I tested for a no code ham license so I could fly my planes on 6 meter. I still have a J3 cub with a 4 stroke 80 Sato built from a kit hanging in my garage. Doudt it will fly again.


I started in the model plane hobby flying Free Flights Planes for those of you that know what Free Flight is.

You SHOULD get that Piper out and fly it! That's a really nice flying plane. It's not quarter scale, is it? Well, not with a 80 Saito on it...must be a bit smaller. You know, today's generation really gets me....everything has to be RIGHT NOW!! No patience, can't wait, if it doesn't work, throw it out and buy a new one. I enjoyed building a LOT, because then I could change whatever I wanted to make it better or more functional. I added flaps to my Super Chipmunk and it was SO COOL to fly at almost a standstill with very low throttle and about 1/4 to 1/2 flaps down. Landing was so mush easier. Flaps are a really useful addition to any plane that has to land fast to be stable. I only had one ARF in my flying career, and I had SO MUCH fun with it! I put an OS 70 4 stroke on it and got really loose with it...reckless, whatever you want to call that attitude. I didn't care if it got wrecked, so I did stuff with it that I'd NEVER do with one of my nice planes that I spent months building. I gotta tell you about it...I was out at our flying field with a few people, and my close buddy George was there too. So I'm goofing around with this ARF, and I'm doing really low fly bys and George says, "Hey John, why don't you see how low you can go inverted? So I start grinning to myself and say, OK, here we go! So I come down inverted and just about 1" from the ground and all of a sudden the wind or something made the plane drop a hair too low and SMACK$%!! The flight ended somewhat abruptly, breaking the prop and engine mount...plus it had clumps of dirt all over the engine. I just laughed it off, and so did everybody else. I just went to my Chipmunk and flew it....but with much more respect! haha.... Enough babbling,,,I guess I just enjoy recalling some of my good old days back in '92-'93..

John