Will Hobbies 120 Size Zero RC Warbird

Just finished putting together my new Will Hobbies 120 Size Zero ARF Warbird. Although I am not a perfectionist when it comes to scale model aircraft(more of a semi scale guy I would say) This model looks good to my eye. I opted for retractable landing gear over the fixed gear material supplied with the kit. The 60-120 gear legs that I installed were to short fit the wheel wells and had to be lengthened by about one half inch to fit properly. I accomplished this by using a pair of Dubro Axel fittings which was a little unorthodox in its application. I threaded 6-32 bolts into the threaded hole at the bottom of the fitting, intended for the axle locking grub screws and fitted regular axle fittings to the screws. The Engine mount set-up allows me to run a 120 four stroke inverted or a 90 two stroke side mounted with a pitts style muffler located at the bottom of the cowl. The pictures show an Enya 120 four stroke fitted

Guillow's Spirit of St. Louis NYP Model Airplane

This old Guillows stick and tissue model airplane, of the world famous 1927 Spirit of St. Louis aircraft, flown by Charles Lindbergh and credited with accomplishing the first non stop solo flight from New York to Paris. The Spirit was a highly modified Ryan M-2 Mail Plane. The model featured in the video clip, was once flown with a Cox .020 Pee Wee nitro engine and, has been resurrected and converted to brushless electric power. Using a 45 watt Indoor type, outrunner brushless motor. Radio Controlled with Rudder, Ailerons, Elevator, and Motor control, using a GWS micro radio with 50 gram servos, round out the set-up for this tiny 70 mm 34 inch WS model.....can hardly wait for the weather to warm, so that I can try flying it. The design is not that stable because of it's lack of wing dihedral angle and small tail surfaces. The Spirit was not always one of my favorite aircraft because of it's lack of windscreen or cabin windows. In time it's unique classic looks won me over and now I can say, it ranks away up near the top. I have a 7 foot WS model that I would fly from time to

time on special occasions (May 21), and as I recall it was a bear to control, requiring coordinated rudder, aileron and elevator just to get it to turn, without falling out of the sky. As for the Guillow's version, I have seen several videos on YouTube that demonstrate they are perfectly capable of controlled flight, and I have embedded one of them below, for as they say "your viewing pleasure."  


See One Fly Here

Guillow's Bf109 Model Airplane Converted to Brushless Power

This old Guillows stick and tissue model airplane which was once flown with a Cox .020 Pee Wee nitro engine has been resurrected and converted to brushless electric power.Using a 45 watt Indoor type Out Runner motor teamed up with a 10 amp ESC and 400 ma 7.4 volt Po-Li battery. Radio Controlled with Ailerons, Elevator, and Motor control, using a GWS micro radio with 50 gram servos, round out the set-up for this tiny 70 mm 27-1/2 inch WS model.

PAW 2.49 CC RC MODEL AIRPLANE DIESEL ENGINE RUNS ON HOME MADE FUEL

The PAW 2.49 CC Diesel(19 size) has been the most reliable and easy starting engines in my collection. I was so impressed with it that I ordered two more to power a scratch built JU 52 tri-motor (another unrealized dream of mine). The first big drawback with diesels is a source of fuel. Living here, in North America we have almost no access to commercial Model Diesel Fuel for running our model Airplane Engines, so ......What can we do???? I found that common, easily obtainable items like; scented lamp oil, castor oil and cold weather Quick Start (ether), when combined in approximate proportions (60% 20% 20% respectively), will make a acceptable, alternate source for model diesel fuel. I have since found, that these three ingredients will work very well in combinations up to equal parts, of 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3. You can see one of my engines running on the 60%, 20%, 20% mixture by clicking on the this object.  The follow link  gives ignition temperatures for several  fuels and chemicals and can be used as a guide for selecting  ingredients  for your home made fuel

Fuel Oil No.1

210

410

Number one fuel oil with an ignition temperature of 210 degrees C, looks like it would be a good candidate for replacing the lamp oil in my mixture. It may even work without any ether. I have read elsewhere that another name for fuel oil number 1 is kerosene. I recently bought a can and I plan to experiment with it soon.  

George (jojo) Chaulet's Synchrogyro Giro Copter-Autogyro

Modified SYNCHROGYRO Model Airplane as published in Model Builder Magazine in September 1979. Designed by George Chaulet to be flown with 2 channel RC control for the engine and rudder and said to be simple to fly. This is not what I have found. I managed to get into the air on one windy day but, found that I could not control it. The ship climbed away in an ever increasing right hand turn that eventually developed into a spiral dive when I throttled back because I was fearing the inevitable. Since that time I have increased the rudder area installed elevator control and added a headlock gyro to add some directional stability on the ground and hopefully in the air should that occasion ever arise again. Taxi testing proved that the headlock gyro will hold a heading, now I have to train myself to keep my hands off the rudder stick and let the headlock do it's job before attempting to fly it some windy day.It seems strange for an RC flyer to be hoping for a windy day to fly..... Maybe I can figure a way to spin up the rotor mechanically or use an electric motor perhaps. Watching my video I learned that I was hand spinning the rotor in the reverse direction during the ground trials. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a helicopter, it's an auto gyro.....it is supposed to auto rotate in order to develop enough lift to fly. The rotor takes energy form the air like a windmill or a sail boat.

Testing continues as the wind speed increases from 5 to 15 kph. The copter manages a takeoff during ground trials but, a blade strike on landing caused the testing to be suspended while design changes are contemplated.I have come to the conclusion that maybe Cierva was right when he stated that the rotor must be of the articulated type for successful controlled flight of an autogyro aircraft. Initially I believed that since the Synchrogyro had two inclined rotors, it would be capable of controlled flight in the same way as a fixed wing airplane with high dihedral was rudder controllable. Now I am beginning to look for a simple way to modify the Synchrogyro rotors to articulating type.