Radio Control Giants
Sal Calvagna [email protected]
Season's greetings to all. It's that time of year again; the holidays are upon us and most modelers have their RC Giants put away for the season—unless you're fortunate and reside in the warmer South.
Now's a good time to make those repairs you've put off, update a model, or even start a new project. I have selected a few products and services to feature. With the holidays around the corner, these would make great gifts for someone special.
42-Percent-Products
Ken Anderson of 42-Percent-Products frequently adds innovative items to his line. A few recent offerings:
- Mini Thor
- A second-generation Thor ignition controller that operates from the receiver battery. Much smaller (33 x 21 x 6 mm), it eliminates the need for an extra switch harness and allows you to kill the engine electronically from the transmitter—a great built-in safety device.
- Seiko Servo Switch
- Designed to work with the Tonegawa Seiko PS-050 “monster” servo (up to 1,800 oz-in torque). The Seiko servo uses its own battery pack, normally requiring an additional switch harness; Ken’s electronically operated Seiko Servo Switch eliminates that harness so rudder servo power is only available when the transmitter is on.
- Air Jockey
- Drops landing gear on pneumatically operated systems when air pressure falls below a set minimum. Another useful safety device for costly giant-scale models.
For more information, see the Sources section.
Oregon Scale Aviation (OSA)
Oregon Scale Aviation was formed in 1997 by Buz Hampton and Lee Cundiff while building a highly detailed F4U Corsair. During construction, Buz developed several products for RC aircraft:
- MicroGear Ultra
- Allows scale actuation of landing gear and gear doors without complex mechanical linkages. Controls speed of mechanical landing gear and doors, and is compatible with mechanical and air-driven systems. Supports Corsair-style doors that remain open after gear deployment and P-51-style doors that close after deployment.
- All end points are programmable and stored in non-volatile memory—no setup before each flight. It can sense a switch indicating the gear is up to prevent doors from closing prematurely and can detect if the transmitter gear switch is in the up position at power-up, requiring arming by moving the switch down before raising the gear.
- ThermaCowl Ultra
- Senses engine-compartment temperature and opens cowl flaps proportionally based on engine temperature. Fully adjustable and stores settings in non-volatile memory. Enables quicker warmup and constant temperature control throughout flight. Features coupling of wing flaps and cowl flaps for ground demonstrations and preflight checks; all endpoints and behaviors are programmable. Electric modelers use ThermaCowl to sense battery temperature and open a cooling flap. It is very sensitive—adjustable to open from just the heat of a finger.
- WingMan
- Electronic controller for wing-folding servos and wing-latch servos from a single transmitter channel. Endpoints and folding-sequence speed are programmable. You can program a delay between wings to simulate prototypical hydraulic systems used on many WWII aircraft.
- MicroSynch
- The first twin-engine synchronizer on the market using modern microcontrollers. Maintains twin-engine synchronization and, if one engine is lost, automatically throttles back the second engine to prevent snap-spin. Allows setting a minimum RPM after synchronization to prevent engine stall during long idles.
For more information and additional offerings, see the Sources section.
Camden Custom Cutters
Camden Custom Cutters (CCC) of Camden, South Carolina, is a new company formed by Roger Marshall and Ed Grossheim to serve the modeling community. Together they have more than 75 years of experience building and designing RC models.
Camden’s specialties include unique, seldom-modeled laser-cut kits for discerning builders when plans exist but kits are not commercially available. Examples and services:
- Sopwith Triplane short kits available in 1/6-, 1/4-, and 1/3-scale based on Jerry Behrens’ 1976 prize-winning model. The 1/3-scale laser-cut short kit is available for $225 plus shipping; in some cases CCC includes construction plans with short kits when allowed by designers.
- Conversion of plans written in metric to English units, and cutting parts to English standard so US-available spars, stringers, etc., fit bulkhead notches precisely.
- Precise plan and kit enlargements or reductions using AutoCAD.
- Provides 8.5 x 11-inch copies of plans for customer approval before confirming orders.
- Goal is to satisfy customer orders within two to three weeks.
For more information, see the Sources section.
Wolfram Donalies
Wolfram Donalies of Elgin, Illinois, built a seldom-modeled Russian Polikarpov I-16 in 1/3 scale. The model spans 107 inches and weighs 46½ pounds. Wolfram initially purchased plans from Modellsport in Germany but found them unusable and drew his own.
The I-16 is an all built-up structure featuring Wolfram’s own airfoil, fiberglass cowl, tail cone, and molded windshield. It is powered by a ZDZ 80RV gas engine driving a Xoar 26 x 10 propeller.
Construction details:
- Built in approximately two years from balsa, light plywood, and aircraft-grade plywood.
- Sheeted areas covered with 0.7-ounce fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin (West System).
- Fabric-covered parts use 21st Century fabric.
- Wing built in two halves and joined with carbon-fiber tubes.
- Finished with exterior latex house paint sprayed with an HVLP detail gun; insignia and lettering are painted (Russian letters translate to "Death to Fascism").
- Unique struts and landing gear made by Shindin Machine.
- The model required 7 pounds of lead in the nose for balance; Wolfram reports it is slightly underpowered but flies very well and should be fine after engine break-in.
Wolfram is a member of the Tri Village RCers club. This winter he intends to add more details, including complicated gear doors.
That’s all for this month. There are plenty of affordable, easy-to-use, innovative designs and solutions available for our RC Giants. Many of these products are designed to protect your investment and make our hobby safer to enjoy. They also make great stocking stuffers—hint, hint!
See you next year! MA
Sources
- 42-Percent-Products
Phone: (916) 993-9150 Website: www.42-percent-products.com
- Oregon Scale Aviation
Email: [email protected] Website: www.oregonscaleaviation.com
- Camden Custom Cutters
Email: [email protected] Website: www.camdencustomcutters.com
- International Miniature Aircraft Association
Website: www.fly-imaa.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
