Saturday, January 23, 2010

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

Sunday, January 10, 2010

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