Exercise Your Tee Dee .010 !

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:41 am

Is your Tee Dee .010 getting bored and flabby? Has it got cobwebs in it's fins? Well then, give it a workout with this tiny WW I Liaison Biplane!

My hero, Dave Robelen designed this Sperry Messenger in 1969 for single channel radio control...but it could be easily adapted to U-Control with a bellcrank and some Spiderwire to fly in it's own 15' circle.

The full sized plans appeared in the June '69 issue of M.A.N., and fired my young imagination. The directions call for an exhaust restrictor to help control the horsepower (???) of the mighty .010, and make it docile enough for the magnetic actuators used back then.

The full-sized Sperry has only slight dihedral, so you could build it that way, or go ahead and build it to the angle shown in plans...think the Messenger would fly well either way. Dave actually used the warping tendency of dope on balsa sheet to give the wings their "airfoil"...which appears very close to scale.

nitroairplane Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:46 am

look at this,
http://www.fmkmodels.com/buzzbipe-010-radio-control-rc-model-kit-cox-010-aeroplane-balsa-micro-maf-miniature-aircraft-factory-20-p.asp
Well Kim do you have proper full size plans for it?
It looks lovely what the w/s
I love your new signature it is so true.

nitroairplane Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:51 am

or this little gypsy moth if beefed up could be a lovely .010 flyer.
http://www.a2zcorp.us/store/ProductDetailNP.asp?Cguid={E066128C-0117-406D-8427-51257C78ABA4}&ProductID=4284

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:16 am

The wingspan of the magazine's plan is 11 1/4 inches. My model spans almost 14 inches, but should have been enlarged more...at least to 16 or so. It flew more like a hyper Pitts Special than a puttering floater!

Note: The magazine page IS the full-sized plan !

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:32 am

nitroairplane wrote:look at this,
http://www.fmkmodels.com/buzzbipe-010-radio-control-rc-model-kit-cox-010-aeroplane-balsa-micro-maf-miniature-aircraft-factory-20-p.asp
Well Kim do you have proper full size plans for it?
It looks lovely what the w/s
I love your new signature it is so true.

Cool...there are several that would take the .010. This Sperry Messenger fascinated me back everyone was wanting bigger, faster stuff...NOW...it's suddenly cool !

I endured my high school gym class by imagining this tiny biplane doing slow touch and goes across the basketball court!

Also, thanks for the compliment on my signature...simple words---simple truths.....

SuperDave Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:19 am

Kim:

Slick! My TD .010 is quivering at the prospect of actually taking flight.

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:19 am

Thanks. Yeah, just thinking that it could be also be built REALLY quickly as a small C/L profile model.

I still have the one in the photos, but it's a little rough around the edges, and am trying to decide whether to put a bellcrank in it, or try for some more R/C flying. The small radio gear I have now makes my 15-year-old Cannon sets look like behemoths!

PV Pilot Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:33 am

lol. That controller in the photo is bigger than most labtops.

Neat little biplane.

**RknRusty** Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:47 am

Kim wrote:but it could be easily adapted to U-Control with a bellcrank and some Spiderwire to fly in it's own 15' circle.

A 15' circle, really? You mean 15' lines; right, a 30' circle?

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:48 am

Yeah..a flashback that reminds just how good we got it today !

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:52 am

RknRusty wrote:
Kim wrote:but it could be easily adapted to U-Control with a bellcrank and some Spiderwire to fly in it's own 15' circle.
A 15' circle, really? You mean 15' lines; right, a 30' circle?

Yeah, I meant 15' lines...sometimes, things look OK in my brain and strange in print! Thanks! More Folgers !

**RknRusty** Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:18 am

That sounds like a blast. I might be able to fly that in my yard. So what weight range can a plane be for a reedie .010? Reedie .020? I doubt there is a tiny TD in my future. My Li'l Satan weighs 2.6 oz without the engine. How much lighter than that would I need to have?

Kim Fri Oct 21, 2011 11:36 am

I don't really have a clue. In moments like this, I rely on the time-honored discipline called "TLAR", or "That Looks About Right". If you build one, and it flys too fast, build another one and make it a little bigger!

While I figure that this is a classic version of apples vrs oranges, my Cox .020 Mini Stunt weighs 3.5 ounces, where the Sperry, with a tanked .010 and prop weighs in at 2.6 ounces. Don't know if this will help...I just like to use my scale !

**RknRusty** Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:20 pm

Haha, I've never flown anything quite that cute. Seriously though, I'd love to give it a try.

andrew Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:10 pm

I tell ya, that little Sperry is cuter than a speckled pup under a red wagon.

nitroairplane Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:29 pm

RknRusty wrote:That sounds like a blast. I might be able to fly that in my yard. So what weight range can a plane be for a reedie .010? Reedie .020? I doubt there is a tiny TD in my future. My Li'l Satan weighs 2.6 oz without the engine. How much lighter than that would I need to have?

Cox never brought a reed valve .010 into production.
But an frv .010 can pull a 7 oz around the sky nicely.

shell shock Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:29 pm

@NA

didnt they have a few prototypes?

microflitedude Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:44 pm

shell shock wrote:@NA

didnt they have a few prototypes?

Yep - Mudhen has some pictures of the glowhead, copper reed, and spring starter. The actual engine(s) have not been located.

microflitedude Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:45 pm

Courtesy of Warren's Wiki page -

"A little known fact was also this: One of the things Cox wanted Atwood to do was make him a .010 engine. Cox had already tried to halve the size of the Pee Wee .020 but couldn't get it to run for some reason. The suspicion surrounded a problem with the tiny reed valve. Atwood found that the front rotary valve worked well on the .010 size hence the .010 was born. Why? Because Leroy Cox wanted one."

shell shock Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:57 pm

oh cool to know!

nitroairplane Sat Oct 22, 2011 3:52 am

RknRusty wrote:That sounds like a blast. I might be able to fly that in my yard. So what weight range can a plane be for a reedie .010? Reedie .020? I doubt there is a tiny TD in my future. My Li'l Satan weighs 2.6 oz without the engine. How much lighter than that would I need to have?

A reedie .020 can pull 11 oz

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