the fOllOwIng hangar reports are
from Steve Brown, who continues to
develop his FID55 models using mostly
half-motors.
Steve reports the need for “tiny”
propellers—19 inches in diameter, with
pitches between 24 and 27 inches. After all,
.6 grams of rubber is roughly what we used
to run on Easy B!
Thanks, Steve!
• Famous Site Lost: The gymnasium at
Bedford Boy’s Ranch in Bedford, Texas has
been the venue for many Cat. I records
during the past 20+ years.
An outside door was left unlocked
recently, with the air-conditioning blowers
turned off. When the air-conditioning was
turned on later, a unit froze up while trying
to cool the building.
Building management has decreed that
the blowers will not be turned off for any
reason, so the site is no longer usable for
model-flying.
• Tustin Reprise: Despite earlier reports that
Hangar #2 was to be demolished, it hasn’t
been. Both hangars are quiet and dark, and
the base is populated by military police and
weeds.
Indoor fliers currently have no avenue of
access, so one of the world’s best sites
stands unused.
• One Hangar Left! Thanks to hard work by
George Xenakis and Herb Robbins, the
NASA hangar formerly known as the
Moffet hangar is available on a generous
schedule.
George often shows up with a large
number of kids who fly A-6 and similar
models. This hangar has several internal
obstructions that make it difficult to fly
65cm FlD models, but FlD55 airplanes fare
well.
Indoor list: My register of Indoor fliers’
E-mail addresses continues to grow. When
any Indoor-related news or activity comes
up, a group mailing is sent to the entire
roster.
If you want to enroll, send your E-mail
address to [email protected]. Join us!
SLIM (Southern Louisiana Indoor
Modelers): Carl Bakay has published two
issues of this new club newsletter, which
concentrates on Indoor modeling.
Circulation is fairly low so far, including 10
fliers and five exchanges with other
newsletter editors.
Bud Tenny, Box 830545, Richardson TX 75083
FREE FLIGHT INDOOR
Swing-arm tester has onboard microcomputer to record values. Tenny photos.
Interchangeable motor sticks—one for each propeller—bolt to plug-in bracket.
Tester’s sliding rear hook accommodates test motors of different lengths.
144 M ODEL AVIATION
The first two issues were very well done.
Not only does Carl have modern publication
software and hardware, but the articles are
well-written and they cover many of the
topics new Indoor builders need to know
about. I expect good things from this effort.
Some of the impetus for this activity
began with the March 2000 Science
Olympiad at the University of New Orleans,
where club members gave away several A-6
airplanes and motors to entrants.
The club members feel that Science
Olympiad is a huge opportunity for fliers to
bring young people into the hobby. Carl
hopes to give demonstrations in school
classrooms this fall and spring.
Carl and five fellow club members are
also looking forward to an A-6 shootout this
fall with the Pensacola Free Flight Team.
Good luck, guys!
Contact Carl Bakay at [email protected] or
Scientific Drilling,
www.scientificdrilling.com.
electric free flight: The Buffalo Bills’
practice site is the venue for an annual
Indoor contest, which is one of the first to
offer an Electric Free Flight event.
The event had few restrictions in 1999,
and Clarence Hurd posted a 30-minute flight
using an Ni-MH battery.
In the 2000 meet, the event rules limited
power to two 50 mAh Ni-Cd cells, which
matches the power specified by the AMA
rules proposal currently under consideration.
Unlike the AMA proposal, more limitations
were imposed:
1) no inflight recharging (i.e., solar cells)
2) no electromechanical devices other than
gearbox, charging jack, and on/offmotor switch.
Jack McGillivray won the 2000 contest with
20:50, and Clarence Hurd’s model, with a KP-
00 motor with stock gear ratio, did roughly 7:40.
Jack flew a model configured like a
Pennyplane, except that the motor was mounted
in pusher configuration on the rear wing post.
The model was covered with Polymicro, it
had a 24-inch span, and the wing chord was
5.5 inches. The 10.7-inch stabilizer (average
chord 4.4 inches) carried twin rudders; stab
offset was used to make the model turn.
The KP-00 motor, with a 4.2:1 gearbox,
drove a 3.6-inch-diameter, three-inch-pitch
propeller, hand-carved from .25 basswood.
The propeller blades had a maximum width
of .58 inches.
The two 50 mAh Ni-Cd batteries were
charged separately, but connected in parallel
for flight, and were mounted on a sliding
track to adjust the model’s center of gravity.
The model’s flying weight was 14 grams.
Jack initially test-flew the model in a
school gym with a 21-foot ceiling.
At the Buffalo Bills’ site, the winning
flight only reached approximately 50 feet of
altitude, despite a flight with half-charged
batteries that reached 40 feet of altitude and
lasted roughly 14 minutes.
One of the most important things Jack
said about his experiences with this model
was that the propeller size is critical. During
his testing at the high site, he was worried
that the model might outclimb the ceiling
and get into the girders.
Jack cut down the prop diameter by .125
inches, only to have a fully charged flight
climb to approximately 10 feet and a flight of
roughly 10 minutes. Jack glued the tips back
on the prop, and the next flight was the 20:50.
We have much to learn about Electric
Free Flight; Jack’s pioneering efforts should
help us get started more easily.
balsa lamination: The following article by
Steve Hales, “Steve’s Method of Laminating
Balsa Outlines,” was published several years
ago in Field & Slipstream—the newsletter
of the Scale Old-Timer Society.
Following is a method I have used for
several years now, but first a little history.
Before trying to laminate balsa I read
everything I could find on how to do it. The
accepted method was to first soak your
strips in ammonia, then attach to the form
and let it dry. After it dries, glue each strip
together. I did this and found that it was a
real chore using water-based glues as the
strips would open up and would have to be
reattached to the form. Also, on light balsa
the glue would be hard to sand compared to
the balsa.
Then I started using cyanoacrylate
glues while the balsa was still on the form.
Boy, did this make them hard to sand,
added a lot of weight, and half the time I
glued the darned thing to the form, even
though I protected it with wax. But it was
faster!
After all this experimenting, I decided
that what I needed was a one-step
soaking/gluing process to make laminating
much easier. So I started testing all of the
water-based glues for compatibility with
ammonia. Most of the glues would curdle in
ammonia, but I finally found one that would
dissolve! After more experimenting, I found
that it didn’t destroy the glue; after the
ammonia evaporated it would still bond the
wood together.
This was perfect! The glue is Wilhold
industrial-grade woodworking glue. It is a
white glue in a bottle with red lettering. It
looks very much like all of the other white
glues.
Instructions:
• Get everything ready to laminate, cut
strips etc.
• Mix a small batch of ammonia and glue to
a water consistency
• Take a paint brush and paint the mixture
onto the strips
• Wrap and attach the strips to your form
and let it dry
• Take them off the form and install on your
model
Benefits:
• The ammonia dries faster than water
• The finished piece has a very even texture
• Even when using 4 lb. balsa I can’t tell the
finished piece is laminated
• It sands like regular balsa
• It adds very little weight
Try this method and let me know if it
works for you.
Downloaded from FREEFLIGHT on the
World Wide Web.
When I originally wanted to try Steve’s
method, I couldn’t find the referenced
Wilhold products.
I recently tried this laminating approach
with good results, using ammonia with each
of the Elmer’s® brand of yellow glues.
The best results were with the
Carpenter’s Wood Glue and the Carpenter’s
Wood Glue for Exterior Use. MA
