New Hobby???? Free Flight.....

I didn't feel like mixing up my own lube so I bought a tube of rubber lube from the hobby shop.  I have 20 turn and 5 turn winders, and 1/4 pound boxes of 1/8" and 3/32" of rubber.  I also have lots and lots of building supplies I bought at the old hobby shop where I used to live.  It's an old hobby shop, and no one's bought the FF stuff on their back wall in a long, long time, so the items were still marked at 30 year old prices.   I bought enough stuff to build FF planes for the rest of my life.

The Lazy Mark

Hi all. Still here. Lol.

I have been busy lately so no major updates. Got a few more cross pieces installed in the fuselage. Then the other day, while looking at the bones of the plane, I decided the model room needs a cleaning. Yes, before finishing this. So I have been taking my time with the cleaning as well as doing a couple of small mods to my 3D printer and doing a few small things that need to be printed. Then to put the preverbial 'icing on the cake', I got news late last week that a friend and co-worker had passed that night. So things have just been on a little down for the past few days. But I am hoping to slowly pick back up shortly here.

Plus the other week, I also 'inherited' a bunch of older modelling things. That took a couple of evenings to go through and sort out. But that will be a new thread shortly here....... Will need a bit of help identifying at least one thing.

What kind of duration is typical for a peanut? My son built a MicroX Bebe Jodel D9 and it's getting ~30 seconds, which seems OK. Still stalls on launch so we're playing with it. Cold is coming soon, though.

We had his first build, a Guillows L-19, flying pretty well, even if it was heavy, until it landed in a parking lot and got run over. A HiFlyer Bellanca Rocket does OK. Guillows 16" Mustang is pretty miserable. I may build something this winter. I have a Sig Monocoupe kit which was one of my first builds 30 years ago.

He's also been flying an RC Telemaster scaled to 36" span and doing well.

is this what ur looking for ? >> Note: These are 1969 Peanut Scale rules and were amended slightly for contests.

Models must be built-up reproductions of actual man-carrying aircraft.
The maximum permitted wingspan is 13 in.
The minimum permitted wingspan is 10 in.
Motive power must be furnished by rubber band(s).
Models will be hand-launched.
Timing will commence upon release and will stop when model lands.
Any flight of six seconds or more will be counted as an 'official'.
Three official flights are allowed, and total will be contestant's score.
Peanut size model is defined as having either a maximum wingspan of 13” inches, or a maximum fuselage length of 9” inches. These sizes are recognised by the Federation International Aeronautique (FIA), which is the international governing body of model aeroplane competition.

sooo much about this thread excites me.

Yes, I fly Free Flight
Rubber and some 1/2A

no, I stink at trimming but I am learning

yes, old guys KNOW stuff.   The Don Ross books are fabulous - an old guy recommended it to me.
As a member in good standing of the Oakland Cloud Dusters,   I highly recommend finding a local club if ya can
https://www.oaklandclouddusters.org

Guillows P40 colors? - look at the source???
https://www.guillow.com/p-40warhawk-2.aspx

LOVE LOVE the scratch built.
IF you really wanted a kit?  I cannot recommend the Guillows Arrow enough.   Easy to build, great flyer right off the board.  One of the FEW Guillows kits I've had massive success with - little more expensive, but now LASER CUT!   for super fast assembly
https://www.guillow.com/arrow.aspx


in an attempt to stay relevant, Guillows spent a LOT of money updating their old "Die-Crushed" balsa to laser cut.
SURE - the price is a heck of a lot higher... but?   $20 - $50,   and you cut NO ribs, no sides,  you just clean and sand  
My time is worth that



AND!   I found out, by sneaking around their website,  you can buy replacement sheets - someone cheap,  and make a "short kit" out of it,  works even better if you already have the older kit.

Example:  for the Arrow  Kit 702
if you bought JUST the lasered up rib sheets:
https://www.guillow.com/702kitparts.aspx
sheets 4-2, 4-3, 4-4?  ya out $15 plus shipping    and now have an Arrow short kit.


Before I conclude, have any of you seen the Electric RC conversion videos of the Guillows Lancer?
im not an electric guy,  OR a RC guy
but this is cool
https://youtu.be/yUFVyLOdV3c?si=vy1KIb464Js0GsLz



Me?  I'm currently working on a 1/2A Starduster resurrection with a TD.049
and a goldRush 30" tip launch glider

I want em up in the air

[quote="gkamysz"]What kind of duration is typical for a peanut?



According to the Flying Aces 2018 nats? Scale peanuts reported times of 120!!
but I am thinking 30-60 is probably realistic and average?

https://www.flyingacesclub.com/Results/2018nats/FAC_Peanut_Scale.pdf

FAC Newsletters are FULL of plans, and lots lots of info on Peanuts, scale and embryos

rdw777 wrote:
For just about anything you would ever want to know about rubber powered models, This book by Don Ross covers it….

I initially thought that this book is a few decades old, as it's full of esoterica on rubber power models.  But looking at the flyleaf shows a copyright of 2008, so it's only 15 years old.





Now, rubber powered models seems like a dying hobby and I didn't feel that there would be a huge demand for this book.  I figured I'd get a book that's been sitting in a warehouse for a while as Amazon said only four left in stock.  I ordered it on November 4th and it arrived on the 6th.  The last page shows the print date:




Surprised I didn't burn my fingers from it being hot off the press.

The AbstruseMark

I see that the cover photo is from 1953, obviously giving the illusion of the book being much older than it is.

A couple years ago, I bought a copy for my son off amazon or somewhere. Ex-library copy and they made it a hardcover.
He's almost done with this Euler DII. https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=12376 It's done except for wheels, engine, and prop. Wheels he'll be making following RDW777 recent post. Engine will be lasered in balsa. The plan shows a double row, but photos of the airframe indicate it was a single row. The plan deviates from the 2 photos we found online of the plane, but not much, not surprising all things considered. It's a good looking airplane. Photo when were done.

That is a cool looking FF Bi plane , yes photo when done

Now that is way cool. In regards to the setup on the prop, is that what is known as a Montreal stop?

The Commando looks good and different to me . and using Indian ink is unusual too / where or what gave you that idea ?

It is very interesting and good idea to use china ink on covering.

I used wide chisel pointed permanent marker on balsa sheet. It is lightest coloring technic for balsa sheets.

https://www.sharpie.com/markers/permanent-markers/sharpie-permanent-markers-chisel-tip/SAP_1927322.html

Sorry again for no new pictures just yet, but fuselage is now mostly done. Just got to make the front 'nose' yet. Too much other stuff going on right now that hobbies are not my number one priority, but try to do even a little if I can.

Pictures not worthy of my latest mistake......

So last night, I went to make my noseblock, and that required me cutting out a small square of the 1/16" balsa from the nose and gluing it to a 1/4" piece of balsa to trim for the final shape. The plan was to use the piece cut out as it would fit perfectly, as well as for the noseblock to sit square and 'lock-up' to the nose. Very easy and simple process, right? Well, I was able to single handedly mess that one up in rather good fashion! Cut the piece of 1/4" oversized so I can cut to final shape when the small 1/16" piece is dry and I can line it up and mark it. Easy, peasy! Take the piece of 1/4", rough mark the location for the smaller 1/16" piece. Done! Apply a small amount of wood glue to the 1/16" piece and set on the marks made on the 1/4" piece. No sweat! Think for a second that my clamp *may* leave a mark on the outside of the 1/4" piece, so I put a small piece of hardwood on the face of it. Well, today, I went to work on it and cut out my noseblock. To my horror, when I unclamped it, I was proud of myself for putting the hardwood piece as it did not damage it at all. When I flipped it over and saw the backside, the 1/16" piece was I think less than 1/32" thick now with the added cross grid marks also embossed from my clamp! I sure did not think that it would have been such a problem. So I just cut it off and made a new piece. Clamped and glued, hardwood protection now on both sides as well as a clamp that is not as strong as the previous one. Lesson learned!

Over in the Vintage and Old Timers section of RCGroups they do a build-off of some sort each half of the year. The second half of 2023 was for designs published in AeroModeller magazine or one of its subsidiaries, and at last 50 years old. I only found out about this at the end of November, and decided I'd give it a try. I knew I'd not have a lot of time, and I plain just have too many models hanging around. So, i picked a simple free flight model. I chose this one because it has moveable wings, tail, and nose so that I could use it to learn more about trimming free flight models. Here's the build thread on RCG:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?4456583-Mini-Tutor-for-MagMan2-Finished-and-flown!


The Old Tyme Mark

Nice going, Mark. This is the first time I saw a photo of a PBJ sandwich as part of the build.