Free Flight Sport - 2010/11

142 MODEL AVIATION
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
1/2A Viking One Design
Also included in this column:
• Tom Hallman DT
• Dohrm’s Bird Dog
• Paul Bradley’s P-51
• Nason clutch
• Eric Monda’s Hurricane
“racer”
• New Indoor winder
Gene holds his 1/2A Viking: the One Design Gas Model for 2011. Order your kit from
BMJR Model Products or plans from the NFFS Plans Service. Larry Kruse photo.
The spring that raises the stabilizer of Tom Hallman’s D.VII is
mounted to a vertical plate. A problem was deciding the sequence
for installing the hinges on the front of the stabilizer. Hallman photo.
The great-looking Cessna Bird Dog makes an excellent flier. This
Herr kit has a 30-inch wingspan and includes a pop-up stabilizer.
Crawford photo.
IT’S TIME TO order your kit from
BMJR Model Products or plans from the
National Free Flight Society (NFFS) Plans
Service for the 1/2A One Design Model for
2011: the Goldberg Viking. See the
“Sources” list for contact information.
You can build the original-size aircraft
with the NFFS plans or the approved
smaller version that BMJR kitted, but
either model must use a Nostalgia-legal
.049, a Tee Dee .049, or a .051 engine.
My Viking is the smaller version, and it
flies well in a right/right pattern. I have heard
of others flying left/right or left/left, so make
your choice.
The NFFS Nostalgia Gas Committee has
voted to allow the Galbreath/Nelson head
legal for the Cox Killer Bee. Prior to this, the
only legal head was the Cox 325.
Tom Hallman has developed some
extremely nice DT setups for his Scale
models. It seems like every design needs its
own “tweak”; the hinges on Tom’s Fokker
D.VII were fabricated by using UHU glue
stick to adhere, cross-grained, two small
sheets of Japanese tissue.
A particular problem was deciding the
sequence for installing the hinges on the front
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November 2010 143
The Nason freewheeling clutch is gaining popularity among FF
aeromodelers. The primary advantage of the clutch is that
engagement is automatic at any attitude. Art Holtzman photo.
Eric Monda built these nice models from the Flying Scale Models of
WWII plans book. The scheme on the Hurricane is meant to
replicate the version flown in the 1950 King’s Cup Air Race.
Monda photo.
Plans for this P-51 and
files to print that contain
its tissue covering are
available free online.
Paul Bradley has
converted the P-51,
P-40, and Stinson
SR-7 Comet plans
to CAD. Bradley photo.
of the stabilizer. After serious pondering, Tom came up with a solution.
He installed the two lower hinges inside the fuselage, leaving loose
the ends that would attach to the bottom of the stabilizer. Then he
placed the stabilizer in the down position and attached the top hinge
with UHU.
After all was dry, Tom lifted the stabilizer to just beyond the max
DT angle and attached the loose ends of the lower hinges. When that
dried, he lowered the stabilizer to be flush with the fuselage and was
finished.
Tom did learn that the UHU wasn’t strong enough to hold the top
hinge in place. He solved that by “welding” it in place with a small
amount of CA.
Never apply CA directly from the bottle; you will deliver too much.
Put a small drop on waxed paper or Mylar, dip the head of a pin in the
CA, and then apply it to the surface.
The stabilizer was raised by a length of .010-inch-diameter wire that
was embedded in a 1/8 stick located vertical beneath the stabilizer. The
stick was attached to a 1/2-inch-wide piece of 1/16 sheet plank, which
was already built into the frame. Refer to the picture.
Dohrm Crawford has been very active in FF with the Atlanta group.
His interest has been primarily endurance models, but he decided to try
Scale with a 30-inch-wingspan Cessna Bird Dog that he built from a
Herr kit.
Dohrm said that it is a nice kit, but he was concerned that there was
not enough decalage. He modified the stabilizer mount to put slight
negative incidence in the stabilizer. He equipped the model with a popup
stabilizer in case a thermal gets too possessive.
The Bird Dog has a special meaning for Dohrm, because he flew
one in combat as a forward air controller. The Herr kit is available from
Penn Valley Hobby Center.
propellers, so he could eliminate the plastic ramp. Now many are using
the mechanism on wood propellers too.
The primary advantage of the clutch is that engagement is
automatic at any attitude. Thus no blood and Band-Aids are
encountered at the flying field (only at the workbench). If the power
hiccups, most other clutches will disengage and not recover. The
Nason will re-engage by itself in a half revolution of the
drive dog.
Art experimented with a square bearing tube let
into the hub surface. His original intent was to allow
the claws to be shaped of off the propeller, so that the
propeller itself wouldn’t be damaged during the
bending process.
The propeller is normally drilled and the cross tube
adhered in place with CA. Then the claw wire is inserted
with the first claw already formed, leaving the second to
be formed in situ.
On Art’s first propellers, when he thought the claw
needed to be beefy, that variant made sense. He has since
discovered that the claw wire need not be large, so he has reverted to
the round bearing tube.
The prop shaft on his Aristocrat Bostonian is .032 and the claw is
.025. The claw could easily have been .020, and it would still have
worked fine. The advantage of the lighter wire is that it could have
Paul Bradley, the “Small-Field Flying” columnist for MA, is an
excellent model builder. As do many of us, he enjoys the old Comet
plans. He sent me a picture of his P-51A.
It spans 18 inches and weighs 22.5 grams less rubber; the threeblade
propeller and nose plug contributes approximately 5.7 grams to
that total. The rather heavy front end compensates for the weight of the
rubber motor, so the CG is close without added weight.
Paul found that a single loop of 3/16-inch rubber is perfect for power.
The tissue is white domestic. Color-and-markings was applied with an
ink-jet printer. Some weight could have been saved by using a better
grade of tissue, but the model flies well anyway. The tissue was sealed
with two coats of 50/50 clear nitrate dope.
Paul has converted three Comet plans to CAD: the P-51, P-40, and
Stinson SR-7. Both the plans and color tissue patterns for all three are
available for free on his fabulous Web site. He also has available many
No-Cal plans and plans for the old Jigtime series of models, complete
with printable color patterns.
I mentioned the Nason propeller clutch in the November 2009
column; Tom Arnold used it in his Ki-100. Several modelers sent
questions regarding the clutch, so I obtained some additional
information from Art Holtzman, who is an ardent fan of the device.
Art said that George Nason designed the clutch for use on plastic
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144 MODEL AVIATION
The scheme is meant to replicate the Hurricane
flown in the 1950 King’s Cup Air Race.
Yellow markings were cut from tissue
and glued over the basic blue finish. The
model’s empty weight is 25 grams without
landing gear. Eric achieved these striking
results without benefit of an airbrush.
If you have spare time, check out Chuck
Glider’s Model Aircraft Jotter Web site.
As the name implies, the content is
heavy on the side of Hand-Launched and
Catapult Gliders, but other aircraft types
are included. There is a particularly fun
video of trimming flights on a Senator
rubber-powered design.
Indoor fliers will be happy to know that a
high-quality winder is again available. Tim
Goldstein of A2Z Corp is producing a new
winder with dual outputs: one is 20:1 and
the other is 10:1.
The case and crank are CNC-machined
from aluminum billet. The winder features
seven ball bearings, is hard anodized, is
laser engraved, and features an integrated
receiver hole for a mounting foot.
The winder uses the same gear system
as the Wilder Winder, which was made in
two versions: a 20:1 and a 10:1. I have a
10:1 version, and it easily winds any of my
outdoor Scale models. MA
Sources:
BMJR Model Products
(321) 537-1159
www.bmjrmodels.com
NFFS Plans Service:
National Free Flight Society
www.freeflight.org
Penn Valley Hobby Center
(215) 855-1268
www.pennvalleyhobbycenter.com
Paul Bradley plans:
www.parmodels.com
Chuck Glider
http://chuckglider.blogspot.com
A2Z Corp
(877) 754-7465
www.a2zcorp.us
easily been formed after the bearing was
installed in the propeller.
Now Art inserts a round tube and puts
some small (with the grain) slits on each side
of the tube using a #11 blade. The slices
create paths for the CA to penetrate better. He
estimates that the claw wire can be close to
two-thirds of the shaft diameter and will
satisfactorily take the load of the rubber
motor.
Enlarge the components when using the
Nason for a larger model. Art modified one
of his old Senator propellers for the Nason.
The shaft is .055 and the claw is .048, riding
in a .063-inch-ID tube. The sloppier the fit,
the better it works.
CA around the cross tube makes the
whole installation as strong as nails. Art had
no problem bending the second claw.
Many aeromodelers enjoy finding unique
airplanes to model. The next best thing is
finding a unique finish for a well-known
design. This past winter the FF Cookup group
elected to build aircraft from the Model
Builder plans book, Flying Scale Models of
WW II.
Eric Monda constructed both the
Hurricane and the Zero from the book’s
plans. In a switch from fighter livery, he
elected to finish his Hawker Hurricane in the
post-WW II air-racer version.
Its paint scheme was inspired by the racer
“Last of the Many,” flown by Group Captain
Peter Townsend and sponsored by Princess
Margaret (an interesting story in and of itself).
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Director of Publications: Robert Kurek,
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