Flying High With Electric Power! The Ampeer ON-LINE! April 1999 The Club Newsletter of the Electric Flyers Only, Inc AMA Charter 2354 Walled Lake, MI, USA Editor: Ken Myers Fly the Future - Fly Electric!

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Site Table of Contents

President:	Vice-President:	Secretary/Treasurer:
Ken Myers	Richard Utkan	Debbie McNeely
1911 Bradshaw Ct.	240 Cabinet	4733 Crows Nest Ct.
Walled Lake, MI 48390	Milford, MI 48381	Brighton, MI 48116
(248) 669-8124	(248) 685-1705	(810) 220-2297
Board of Directors:	Board of Directors:	Ampeer Editor
Jim McNeely	Jeff Hauser	Ken Myers
4733 Crows Nest Ct.	18200 Rosetta	1911 Bradshaw Ct.
Brighton, MI 48116	Eastpointe, MI 48021	Walled Lake, MI 48390
(810) 220-2297	(810) 772-2499	(248) 669-8124
Mailed Ampeer subscriptions are $10 a year US & Canada and $17 a year world wide. FREE on-line!
The Next Meeting: Date: Saturday, April 17 or 24 (rain date) Place: Rushton Rd. Flying Field, South Lyon, MI Time: 10:00 A.M.

What's In This Issue?
Another Zagi	DELTA 400 Kit Review	New Product Releases from Great Planes	Snoopy Claus Takes to the Sky	Dr. Walter I. Thyng: Latest Project
Plane Ratings	A Few More Ratings	Junior Falcon: Rebirth of a Classic	Lash Correction	Where to Get a Zipper Old-Timer
The February Meeting	Some Corrections to Gearing Up for Spring	Specialized Model Supply	Cermark Gearbox	New Size Modelair-Tech Belt-drive
Shorts Skyvan	Mid-Winter Electric Speed Runs	Interesting New Receiver	International Covering Materials	Upcoming Events
Send Ken email

Another Zagi
Jean Vautrin, 9916 Fleming Ave, Bethesda MD 20814
Phone: (301) 493 6983 Email: vautrin@codon.nih.gov

Have you heard of people putting a 400 on a Zagy (slope combat EPP foamie)? I have done it and am surprised by the result. 3-blade Cox pusher, 8x500, speed range impressive, lands in your hand, 10 min or so (2 pack constant flying wears you out), Aerobatic and still able to thermal, can't hurt, can't be hurt. It's my best fun/price ratio.

(Sounds great. Enjoy, and thanks for sharing with us. Km)

The Delta 400 is a small delta wing using Speed 400 in direct drive with folding prop and 7x500 mAh cells. WS 21", length 16", all-up weight 15.5 oz. Flat bottom with finger holes, plane is hand launched at full motor speed. First few seconds a little iffy as the delta gathers speed, but then it becomes an excellent and stable flyer. Flights are 5 minutes using speed control. Elevons set with 2 micro servos, ESC is the excellent Pixie 14 (with BEC) from Castle Creations. Rx FMA Tetra required due to very small space. Verticle fin removal is a good feature for traveling with this plane. Plans are fairly incomplete, instructions even worse, so you have to wing-it through much of the build, but result is a fine flying little electric delta. 3.5 stars (***.5) would be 4.5 with better documentation.

A well-respected line of R/C planes in England for several years, Model Designs by Balsacraft is now in America as an exclusive line of Great Planes. These easy-building kits are ideal for intermediate and advanced modelers, and are sized so that they can be kept in the car for spontaneous flying. Besides being easy to assemble, these models feature quality parts and superb stand-off military styling at a very affordable price.
All kits in the line use competition-grade balsa, and are fully sheeted to enhance the finish quality; plywood parts are CNC precision-routed, for a clean cut without crushed edges. CAD-drawn plans, interlocking construction and clearly labeled wood parts take the guesswork out of assembly. Each plane comes with molded plastic parts, including a pilot figure, that adds to the detail.
These models are designed to be flown with electric power (preferably a Speed 600 direct-drive motor).
To preserve the planes' scale lines and improve flight performance, Balsacraft has eliminated the need for landing gear by designing these kits to be easily hand-launched by way of a special grip built into the fuselage.
Initially there are four different kits available: the Hawker Hurricane, the Hawker Sea Fury, the Grumman Bearcat and the Bristol Blenheim Twin. More releases will be coming in the spring.

Terry McGill - (talking about previously imported versions) I bought two of the models, the Bearcat and the Sea Fury...but did not get the CNC parts offered at the time. Good looking models; reports from England are that they are all great fliers. The twin is on my list, but you know my list....

Merry Christmas from Snoopy Claus and the Red Baron (who was kind enough to loan his aircraft to Snoopy on Christmas eve, so that Snoopy could deliver presents all over the world). (Okay, you can see I’m running a little behind. KM)

The aircraft is a just completed (12/21) TopFlite Elder 20, powered by a geared (Liesure 2.5:1) Astro Flight 035 and 7 cell 1700SCRC packs. All up weight with 1 ounce removable (velcroed) Snoopy Claus is 50 oz., first (and only, thus far) flight lasted 8 minutes, with power to spare.
Modifications were made to keep the weight down and clean it up aerodynamically just a little, most noticeable was the decision not to add the 3/4 round, balsa cowl. Provisions are made to add an optional, removable Coke bottle cowl later.
In order to make the wing easily removable for exchanging battery packs, I installed nylon threaded studs in the fuselage and use nylon wing-nuts (isn't that why them call them wing-nuts?) to hold the wing on (see close-up).
Snoopy was originally a hanging Christmas tree ornament, and was purchased along with Charlie Brown (ground crew) and Lucy (nurse) for about $7.
I also have the optional Elder Float kit, which I will construct very soon. The floats would also work very well on snow (which we suddenly have lots of right now).
I will send a plane rating on this aircraft when I have more opportunity to evaluate it's flight performance, right now it seems like it could be a 4 star rating. Take off from grass easy, and climb-out was good. Loops from level flight have been performed. And of course, landing was a cinch, slow, predictable, and right on the money.

(Hope you all remember Walt’s E-Hog conversion from a Sig kit. It was done up in similar colors to his H-Hog (Harley, ya remember?) KM)

Thought I'd give you a little info on my latest. It is a Midwest Mustang 60 with Robart Pneumatic retracts, dual aileron servos (flaperon option), finished in a Bob Hoover-like scheme. The final power system is not yet settled (Tom Cimato and I are discussing g/b ratios), but with my MaxCim, MEC superbox and 18 2000mAh cells it weighs just under 8 lbs., which shouldn't change. I'm a little disappointed in the weight, but I did not re-engineer as radically as I did with my E-Hog. No flight info yet --too cold!
My next project is a 1/4 scale Bud Nosen Citabria. I picked it up off a consignment table at a shop in Illinois. I traded a few bucks and a couple of out of service planes for a geared Astro 60 to go in it.
Rough numbers say it should fly well.

As promised here is a zipped version of the DXF drawing for the speed 400 powered Gee Bee Model D. You indicated that the zipped DXF file was the most popular download for the W-1 plans so this time I will only send you this type of file. (It is now posted to the EFO site on the Keith Shaw, Tom Hunt, et al page. KM)
A note of caution. I have not had the time to build from the above plans. However it was designed on sound RC design principles and I am confident that it will fly well. I will be eager to hear from the first person to build from these plans and to know how they made out.
The forward half of the Gee Bee is made up from blue or pink foam insulation then covered with brown paper (3M masking paper). This allows the contours and the fillets to be made in a scale manner. I know this works extremely well as this past summer I built a 1/7th scale Hawker Hurricane using the blue foam and brown paper exclusively (not complete yet and no plans).
When I first started selling plans for RC aircraft I thought it would be a good way to support my hobby. As it turns out, not that many plans are being sold (none in the last 10 months). However I get just as much satisfaction hearing from people who have built from my free plans. I hope time permits and I will send you more plans for free, if you will take them. (You bet!)
Many Thanks, Carlo Ciarniello
(Note: plan photo. KM)

I've been flying electric for about 15 years (off and on) , and have just recently decided to get a computer and join the modern world. I've had to learn mostly on my own, and smoked more than one motor in the process. I recently found your site and have greatly enjoyed it. I'd like to give you a few plane ratings of my own and I hope you can use them on your web site.
WASP: (RCM plans) *** Astro cobalt 05 direct drive on seven cells, 1200 mAh, 7x4 and 7x6 props. A good flier. Built from RCM plans, which became the Leisure kit.
PIECE O'CAKE: *** Leisure 05-pattern wind, direct drive, on six cells, 1200 mAh, 8x4 prop. Thick airfoil made for slow gentle flight.
GENTLE LADY: *** Astro cobalt 05 direct drive, seven cells 800 mAh, 8x4 prop. ***. Same plane, Astro cobalt 05 geared, seven 800's, 12x8 folding prop. Better climb rate, same glide.
AVISTAR 40 ARF: **** Astro cobalt 40 direct drive, MA 10x6 prop, 18-1400SCR cells, easy take off from mowed grass fields, good climb, moderately aerobatic. About 6 1/2 lbs. A real easy introduction to larger electrics. Same plane with a geared Astro 40 cobalt, 12x8 prop, and same cells flew about the same but with better verticals and longer duration.
SENIORITA: **** Astro super ferrite 40 geared, 18-1700SCRC cells , modified to shoulder wing, ailerons, tail-dragger. Flew great, quick takeoffs, excellent slow flight, moderate aerobatics, and 6 to 10 minute flights.
GENTLE LADY: **** 16 turn car motor, 3.5:1 MA gearbox, 12x8 folder, and 6-1400SCR cells, climb as good as my Astro cobalt 05 geared but at a much lower amperage, thus more climbs and longer flights.
CALIPH: **** The Ted Davey kit, but much modified, shoulder wing, ailerons, no landing gear, triple vertical fins, and no rudder. 16 turn car motor, 3.5:1 MA gearbox, 9x6.5 Aero-naut prop and 8-1700SCRC cells. Excellent plane, good aerobatics, outside as well as inside, flies inverted easily, duration is superb, 8 to 13 minutes. This includes loops, rolls, stall turns and the occasional bounce and go on the shorter flights. Of course the longest flights are mostly just cruising around the sky with only a few power intensive maneuvers. My favorite plane so far.
I'm still waiting for that 5 star plane to come along.

I have a couple of new plane ratings for your site and some information on my latest project. I've included pictures of Mini-Viper and the Cloud Dancer.
Mini-Viper, Graupner *** ½
SP400 6V motor, APC 4.75x4.75 prop, 7 x 500AR cells, Viper MD102 ESC, Hitec 535 RX with Maxx Products MX-50 servos, flying weight about 17 oz. An excellent Graupner kit that's easy to build. It's not really competitive with the current crop of pylon racers, but it makes a great sport plane that's not a handful to launch and land and is rugged enough for rough fields. Plenty of room inside for the radio gear and battery. Unique looking in the air with it's forward swept wing.
Incidentally, I really like the new APC props, they don't break as easily as the CAM props and I get more run time on the Mini-Viper with them.
P-38, Ryan Aircraft ****
SP400 7.2V motors wired in series, Graupner 6x4 props, 16x600AE cells, Viper MD100 ESC, Hitec 535 RX and HS-80 servos, flying weight about 40 oz. A nice flyer that builds fairly easily, the laser cut pieces are superb. Worth building just for the sound of those 2 motors singing along. I always get comments every time it's flown. One minor gripe: no cooling for the batteries is provided, they get really hot in the center pod.
Ace Cloud Dancer
Here's a picture of my latest project, yes it's yet another Cloud Dancer 40. This picture was taken just before I glued the nose blocks on. The motor is an Astro 25G in a Pasquito motor mount. I plan to use sixteen 1400SCR cells in it. The kit I purchased had reasonably light wood, so I didn't make any substitutions. I decided to save weight elsewhere by using a 270 mAh receiver battery and a Hitec 535, one servo in the wing instead of two, and Kavan's light wheels. Flying season's still a couple of months (Written in January and it has flown very nicely now. KM) away here in Northern Illinois, so I've got plenty of time to finish it. I'll let you know how it flies.
Keep up the good work on the Ampeer. I'm looking forward to Mid-Am '99!
Regards,
Brad Evenson - phone: 815-522-3344

A few months ago I shared pictures, in the Ampeer, of my 1971 glow version of the Carl Goldberg Junior Falcon. Having a new 1975 version of the kit in the basement, I decided it was time for this smallest member of the Falcon family to take to the air again.
At first I just toyed with possible power systems in my mind, and then I decided that I should "archive" this kit for the future. I spent the better part of a week’s vacation, drawing up the parts layout in CAD, using Ashlar DrawingBoard. This was a very time consuming task! I felt it necessary, so as not to lose this great plane.

Russ: I just read the article on suggested setting of lash on the NEW Astro gearboxes. When you say NEW, do you mean the helical cut gears versus the old straight cut gears?
Ken: Sorry I wasn't clear. Yes, the helical cut gears. I forget that not everyone was around when the straight cut gears were used and referring to them as new and old wasn't probably a good choice of words. Hope this clears this up.

Bill had written looking for a source for this kit. km
Ken -
I found a kit with machine cut or finished parts by P&W Model Service. It's a good thing they weren't snakes or I'd be dead by now. They are available from DARE Hobby Distributors who advertise on the inside front cover of Flying Models. The next-to-last item in the P&W section. They even identified a hobby shop about 10 miles away from me! Thought you might like to know for future use. Thanks for your efforts.
Sincerely, Bill

The February meeting was held at Ken’s house. The main theme of the evening was timing the large Astro Flight motors. Keith Shaw demonstrated how it is done and did several 60s and a 90. Note the glove on his hand.
Ken demonstrated how he has been gathering motor data.
Richard Utkan shared some info on his B-2 from Hobby Shack and even ran up the motors.
Paul Bradley was a guest. Paul was up from Texas on business, and it was really nice to have him here.
The members also watched a video from Glenn Stucker on several of his multi-foamies. Very interesting. We also watched a part of the old video "Power for Performance", featuring Keith. Hard to believe that it is over 10 years old now!
Refreshments were served, and it was a pretty good evening for all.

It has been my pleasure to share information with Bernard for the better part of a decade. The newsletter he edits has been a major source of great information for the Ampeer since its beginning. I always appreciate his input. Here’s the info from Bernard.
The Mini-Olympus S400 gearbox is a GEAR box, not a belt drive. It's one that requires a bit of fussing to make work smoothly, too.....
The MEC small planetary gearboxes are gone - sold out.
You missed the most common spur gear size for MEC gearboxes: 60T. It is this one, coupled with a 10T pinion, that is the "standard" 6:1 ratio on their Turbo 10 systems.
What's a "MaxCim Nano-15"? (from bottom of MEC discussion). MEC also resells the MaxCim MaxNEO motors under the MEC "Turbo 10-20 brushless" label.
Okay, the Nano is the one that Tom decided not to market, since it ran down the battery in an extremely short time, but was really powerful. Of course I meant the Neo-13, oops, and where the number 15 came from, I‘ve no idea! Km

Greg Kamysz has a nice gearbox for Speed 400 motors. It is available with ratios of 1.72:1 and 2:1. It features all metal construction, setscrew pinion gear and prop adapter and weighs 0.9 oz. Greg can add bearings to it for $5.00 per gearbox. It is made for Maxx Products. It will be redesigned to allow larger ratios, possibly up to 3:1 and to make it more compact, standard with bearings. He can also get the larger 05 gearbox of similar style.

Tom Hunt introduced the new H-250 drive at the WRAM’s show. It lists for $44.95 list...(with prop adapter.... same one as MEC/MAS/ H-100...3/16" shaft) It is available with ratios of 3.14:1 and 3.66:1. Information should be up on the Modelair-Tech web site at www.modelairtech.com by the time you read this. Tom will have them at Toledo, where I’ll get mine!

Dear Fellow Modelers,
Just thought I'd share with everyone the obsession that has maintained my sanity while cooped up all winter in a small apartment in the middle of a big, hectic German city where you can't do much of anything but sleep, work, and drink coffee in cafés -- and spend money at internet cafés.
This is my winter project. Final assembly will be done in Oregon/USA this summer. The Shorts Skyvan was built from a plan by Jonas Kesseler and provided free in the September '98 issue of FMT (Flug- und Modelltechnik). This is my first non-kit model built strictly from plans. Will it fly? It should.
The wing span is 1350mm (53”) and all-up weight is roughly 1250g (44 oz.) with eight RC2000s. (Mine isn't fully finished and outfitted, so I don't know the exact weight yet.) Wing loading is 72g/dm2 (23.6 oz./sq.ft.). I plan to install Speed 400/6v motors with Graupner 6,5x4 scale props running off 7 cells; might try 400/7.2v motors and 8 cells later. Controls are 4-channel: aileron, rudder/steering, elevator, and motor. Covering is normal Oracover and Orastick (nice stuff!) The Busy Bee decals were scanned from the plans and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop, then they were printed on clear contact paper (actually plastic) made for ink jet printers. The printer was an Epson Stylus 740, the computer an Apple. (Photos shown here are from a Casio digital camera.)
The wing, tail, wheel fins, and struts are more or less taped together for these pictures. They must come apart for postal shipping, but permanent assembly should go quickly this summer. The front roof, wing deck, and struts are the only parts that still need to be trimmed and/or sanded, and then fitted and/or covered. (The struts are primarily for optics. It can fly with or without them.)
Busy Bee airlines is a Norwegian regional carrier and my model is a virtual exact copy of the one presented in FMT.

The following is courtesy of "Peak Charge" the newsletter of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego, Editor: Steve Belknap at Let1Fly@aol.com

San Diego: Thomas Pils, the current F5B World Champion flew an electric model through an instrumented speed trap today at 204+ mph 2-way average speed. Details will wait for the check of paper work and timer calibration. Trap entry was level flight and the flight was level within the trap. There was virtually no wind. The model was his earlier (slow, he says) F5B airplane that he took to the world champs in the Czech Republic. It is powered by an Aveox F5B motor direct drive, on 27 cells. We will not apply for recognition because of the FAI requirement for automatic electric timing on any speed above 180 mph. Now that we know it can be done, however, it makes more sense to invest in timing system development. And Oh, by the way, the rest of the Mid Winter Electrics went beautifully. The weather was gorgeous which the sunburn on my face will attest to. This one was fun.
The following results tallied by Steve Neu
S400 class planes:
1) Doug Cronkhite Skat 97mph
2) Troy Peterson Skat 92mph
3) George Joy Switchblade 89mph
4) Mike Lee Switchblade 78mph
5) G. Gonzales Triffik 75mph
6) Bill Knoll T-33 EDF 69mph
The speeds listed above are the average of upwind and downwind runs over a 300 foot course. FYI the fastest one way speed was 113mph of Doug’s Skat.
FAI Class planes:
1) Thomas Pils F5B Tornado 204mph 1815/1.5 Aveox (27*1000scr)
2) Steve Neu F5B Verminator 172mph 1406HC geared Aveox(27*1000scr)
3) Jerry Bridgman F5B Verminator 170mph 1406HC geared Aveox(27*1000scr)
4) Troy Peterson F5D Avocet 155mph 1406/1.0 Aveox(7*RC2000)
5) Wayne Walker F5B ?? 105mph F10LMR Aveox(10*1250scr)
Speeds were measured over a 200 meter course. Entry was from level flight (100 meters). Planes climbed to 500 feet or so and made a dive with the motor running then leveled out to enter the course. Fastest one way speed recorded was 224mph by Thomas.

Chris True mentioned this one on the eflight list:

If you read international flying information, you might like to know the following about iron-on coverings. It was posted to the eflight list by Jim Ryan:
Oracover is the same as Goldberg Ultracoat.
Profilm is the same as Hobby Lobby SuperKote (and several other low-temp films).
FibaFilm is (I think) the same as Coverite MicaFilm, which is now very hard to come by.
There are very few real film manufacturers, and most of the brands you see the world over are private label versions of the same few products.