Link to CEF on Airplanes & Rockets

Need to shoot him a note and get him on here...if he has the time! Used to trade E-mails a lot a few years ago, and still have my 'RF Engineers' mug.
To this day, I still ain't got a clue what all the charts and graphs on it mean, but I sure feel smart when I'm drinking coffee from it !

thread BUMP. Lots of cool stuff.. and also a source for model plans/drawings.

That is a neat site Roddie…. I’ve visited before but just the surface…. A wide variety to keep things interesting and also a little techy stuff to chew on if you like that kind of thing….. Thanks for bringing it back up

rdw777 wrote:That is a neat site Roddie…. I’ve visited before but just the surface…. A wide variety to keep things interesting and also a little techy stuff to chew on if you like that kind of thing….. Thanks for bringing it back up

Our member overlord (Lieven) introduced me to that site.. back 8+ years ago when I was searching for info on the "Topper".. a C/L model that my uncle gave me.. and which was (and still is..) unfinished. The Topper is listed in the plans directory on that site.

Here's a photo of my Topper. Never kitted; it was originally designed by John D'Ottavio and Eddie Elasic in the early 1960's.. and used a Fox .25 engine.







The plan and an article was featured in the March 1962 issue of American Modeler magazine.

Topper article

OVERLORD wrote:Oh yes, I remember that. It's never too late to restore that model. Is the link to CEF still on kirt's website?

Time certainly fly's doesn't it Lieven? I had originally needed to know the shape/profile of the fin/rudder for my Topper. As per the plan; the parts are of 3/16" (4.75mm) balsa. Maybe this thread-bump will give me the ambition to at least make and attach them to the model.

I perused the Airplanes and Rockets site.. and did not see a CEF link. I thought it might be in the COX section.. but I didn't see the link there.. and I also checked the ENGINES & MOTORS section. It would surprise me if it got removed. There "is" a HOMEPAGE ARCHIVE where it could have originally been.. but not carried-over when a new homepage was created?

I was looking at the plans and I see John D'Ottavio as the designer. I knew John and he was a wonderful person. John was 93 and a few of us went to lunch with him. John told my son that before he passes he was going to fly the pattern one more time. Unfortunately, John never did that. He certainly was one of the greats and many of us miss him. Ken

Ken Cook wrote:I was looking at the plans and I see John D'Ottavio as the designer. I knew John and he was a wonderful person. John was 93 and a few of us went to lunch with him. John told my son that before he passes he was going to fly the pattern one more time. Unfortunately, John never did that.  He certainly was one of the greats and many of us miss him. Ken

Ken, you had some neat relationships with some of the great designers, I envy you.

I've downloaded a number of plans over time from this website that aren't available anywhere else. One is the Grumman F4F full fuselage C/L plane, thought it would be neat to downsize to half-A or A.

I now see the resemblance between this profile and John's JD Falcon. The JD Falcon was a full bodied plane. I could be totally incorrect on this but I think these are based on a Nobler wing. Roddie, if you ever finish that plane don't use that tank. Those profile tanks are horrid. While the concept is correct, they never feed well up top and usually burp or shut off leaving one with the lines raining down on top of them followed by the plane.

 George, I see Bob Hunt usually once or twice a year. He says something when there's a crash which is true but it makes me laugh. He says that if you can pick up the pieces and are able to put it back together, you built it too heavy.

Ken Cook wrote:George, I see Bob Hunt usually once or twice a year. He says something when there's a crash which is true but it makes me laugh. He says that if you can pick up the pieces and are able to put it back together, you built it too heavy.

I think he is not too far off. Key to good stunt flight is building light. A kind, generous individual gave me his personal plans for a super lightweight Ringmaster S-1 that he won contests with. It reminds me along the lines of reverting a C/L structure to that of a rubber powered plane, you might say, "Guillow-izing" it.

I know he is not too far off, because some of the earlier successful C/L designs were indeed lightweight.

But, few fly well enough to retain any airframe a reasonable length of time, hence sturdiness wins over flyability, no doubt.

Most of us including "I" fit the latter category, IMO. Reminds me of an old pilot's saying, "A flight you can walk away from is a good flight."