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Mailed Paper Subscriptions to the Ampeer are No Longer Available
The Ampeer has been available as a mailed paper subscription since 1988. The world has changed a lot since then, and I am discontinuing the availability of the paper Ampeer to subscribers. There are several folks who have subscriptions through 2010 and into 2011. Your subscriptions will continue through your expiration date! I am just not accepting new paper subscriptions.
All Electric Flyer Only (EFO) members who receive a paper version of the Ampeer will still get a paper version, if they need it.
As always, the online versions in Adobe Acrobat .pdf file format and HTML will be available and absolutely FREE.
I am sorry for the possible loss of Ampeer readers, but I need to reduce my "work load", as I'm not getting any younger, and printing, folding, stapling, affixing stamps and getting them to the post office has become a bit of a chore after 22 years.
I appreciate all of the wonderful folks who read and correspond with me about electric flight topics, and this was a hard, but necessary, decision for me to make.
It is interesting to me that I've kept a file with former paper Ampeer subscription names and address over the last 15 years (the data for some of the first years was on my Apple II and IIGS - I've got the disks, just can't read them) and it contains over 500 people from all around the world, on six continents. No, I never had a paper subscriber in Antarctica. (I did have an electronic one though!)
As long as you folks have information to share, and I have information that I wish to share, I will continue the Ampeer online.
Sincerely,
Ken
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"Black Friday" Flying at the Ultimate Soccer Arenas
The Skymasters hosted a special four-hour session from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ultimate Soccer Arenas. This great indoor facility is located at 867 South Blvd., Pontiac, MI.
Pete Foss helped Jim Young get his new parkzone Sukhoi Su-26m BNF ready for its first very successful flight. The plane flies very well, but it is somewhat faster than I expected.
www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ3580
Skymasters' president, Joe Hass, was kind enough to let me fly a couple of his planes. The first one I took up was his E-flite S.E.5a Slow Flyer 250 ARF. It was a real pleasure to fly. I was just getting used to it, when the top wing was clipped by another plane. The "clip" put a crack in the wing right where the "N" strut attaches. Even with the slightly damaged wing, it was very easy to land.
www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFL1925
The second plane that Joe let me fly was a neat little yellow foam Eindecker with a geared brushed motor and Li-Poly batteries. It was a pleasure to fly, and flew quite nicely. Unfortunately, someone put an aircraft carrier in the way when I wasn't looking and I found it on landing, and the abrupt stop at the end of the carrier knocked the motor out. Okay, so the carrier was there the whole time, but it makes a better story, at least from my point of view, to say they put it out after I took off.
The Stealth Carrier
After a slice of truly delicious pizza, purchased right there at the concession stand, Joe had the S.E.5a ready to go again. This time I managed to avoid other planes in the air and the carrier on the ground and had a very enjoyable flight.
Jim Young brought along his beautiful Waco YMF-5. It proved to be a great flier in this spacious arena. Jim has short kits of this plane at:
www.tnjmodels.rchomepage.com/tnjwaco.php
Joe Hass continued his great hospitality when he let Jim Young's son, Tim, fly Joe's parkzone Vapor RTF several times. Tim had a wonderful time floating the Vapor around and searching out its flight envelope. Tim had even more "fun" when Joe gave Tim the Vapor. What a great surprise!
www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ3300
The flying area is large enough to have 3-D flying at one end, helicopter flying at the other and "regular" flying through the whole, huge center area. Magnificent!
I was there for about three and a half of the four-hour flying session. I had the chance to talk with a lot of "flying buddies" and thoroughly enjoyed the climate-controlled temperature. Even though Joe continued to offer me more flights on his planes, my arm was saying, no, sorry, that's it for today. Thanks JOE!
The Skymasters and Joe Hass have acquired the use of a FANTASTIC indoor facility. If you live within decent driving distance of Pontiac, MI, I urge you strongly to attend an upcoming flying session. You'll not be disappointed. Visit the Skymaster's Web site for more details.
www.skymasters.org
One last note, I highly recommend the pizza!
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Aerokote Availability as ToughLon and Light Tex
From Dave Stacer EFO member
I thought this might interest you. I know that Aerokote has been mentioned in past newsletters.
I needed another roll of white and was struggling to find someone that stocks it. I used Aerokote on the Fusion and liked it. It seems easy to work with.
I finally I sent a note to Sig directly. They responded very quickly.
"Actually it is no longer being sold as Aerokote. It is being sold by Airborne Models. Here are the links to their webpage
For the Light www.airborne-models.com/html/productdetails.asp?ProductID=79
For the regular http://www.airborne-models.com/html/productdetails.asp?ProductID=80
This is a World Models Product and they have decided to distribute it themselves. The part numbers are even the same.
Best Regards
Mike Lee
SIG Manufacturing Company Inc.
1-641-623-5154"
As you can see, it was from Airborne Models and not really a Sig product. I ordered directly from Airborne. Their shipping cost was around $8 so I ordered several rolls. More that what I needed, but now I have covering for some future models, so it looks like I will need to build some more to use up the covering I purchased.
It is $10.99 for regular and $8.90 for lite, so the price is very reasonable.
My other issue was remembering what color/part number I had. I know you don't have that problem since you always use the same colors. (My biggest problem is remembering whether I used Econocote or Towercote. They are not quite the same color of red and Cub yellow. KM) Then I remembered, as I opened each roll, the part number sticker was on the end, and it would fall off, so I stuck them on the end of a shelf on the work bench. I looked and the stickers were still there. The part number problem was solved. They have three different variations of red and a couple different blue's so finding the stickers was a good thing so that I got the correct ones ordered.
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Li-Poly Equals Bad?
From Phil Alvirez philalvirez@hotmail.com
Gentlemen, harmony!
After reading the October Ampeer newsletter, I could not resist making a comment on Randy Smithhisler's mention about a plane that, he says, its Li-Poly battery overheated and the plane lost power and got damaged.
It gives me the impression that he is saying that Li-Poly batteries ARE BAD.
I believe that statements like that MUST BE substantiated with all the necessary facts, like: what plane (size, weight), motor size-esc-prop-pack capacity and number of cells, flight time, if the plane had proper ventilation for the motor and the esc, what kind of charger was he using. Otherwise, no matter what issue you are discussing, it is an unfair way to comment on it. It is, to me, like gossiping; talking about any matter without presenting facts without any proof, and this destroys the reputation of anything.
From the beginning of 2007 I have been using exclusively Li-Poly batteries in all my planes (even in my transmitter) without facing ANY problem.
Yes, I use what I think is the only safe way to charge a Li-Poly, a balancer-charger, a device that, from the beginning of charging, starts balancing each cell, so no one cell goes out of balance, and never overheats or catches fire. I also have learned what it takes so all the components match each other, and the motor and above all, the ESC), have a proper flow of air to cool them off.
Making mistakes like using an ESC or a pack that has a lower capacity or "C" rating than the motor, not having proper ventilation for motor and ESC, not charging Li-Poly batteries with the right charger, eventually will lead to failure, and this should NOT be considered reason to point fingers to anything without providing all the essential data (not only in this case, in any case), because it may lead to false conclusions.
Now, if anyone likes better to remain using NiCads or whatever instead, it's fine with me. It's his own prerogative to choose his own way. But we always should consider that 'it is only my way', 'it ain't necessarily true'; that for others may be other ways, other ideas that suit them better.
Wow, very interesting comments Phil. It certainly demonstrates that one gets out of what they read only what they think the author is saying. I never got that at all from Randy's note, not at all. For me, I was simply amused and surprised that in this day of the Li-Poly batteries a NiCad battery powered plane could actually best one at something on one given day. Phil, your thoughts about Li-Poly are "right on", at least as I read them. KM :-)
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Spektrum AR6000 Report & Question
From Phil Alvirez philalvirez@hotmail.com
I am a regular user of the Spektrum DX6 and AR6000.
I purchased mine in early 2007 and have been using it since, with one AR6000 receiver per plane (8 so far) flying as far as I dare, without problems. That is, until one day...
I fly small, light planes, alone at dawn, and it could happen with no witnesses, but the day it happened was at the Mid-America Electric Fly, with everybody watching. That day I brought with me 7 of my planes, and 6 of them flew fine, but then, when I launched the 7th, it flew out of control. Nothing I did could fix it, so I turned off the motor and 'landed' on top of one canopy, fortunately with no harm to anyone or to itself.
I checked everything and tried again, this time at the far eastern end of the field, but the same situation persisted, and it landed on the bush (again unharmed), so I did not try it again.
Once at home I checked it; nothing seemed wrong. After that, I flew it for several days without problems until one day, after climbing for some 30 seconds, it changed to a gentle dive that I corrected, but I had to keep feeding 'up' for the rest of the flight.
After checking it, and with no sign of anything wrong, I launched again, and it did the same, so I took it home for a thorough check. Nothing seemed wrong again. This time I decided to use it only for bench testing my motors for a while. It worked fine, until suddenly it just did not light. I replaced it with another receiver that ran fine. Trying it again, no go. It was dead for good. It could happen during flight. I think I was lucky that I decided to quit flying at that moment.
Has anybody experienced anything like this?
(The plane has been flying fine since, with another AR6000.)
I am a faithful user of these products, and will keep using them, hoping this will not happen again, but I guess this is one of those mysteries of the electronics that we have to live with.
Please don't read Phil's comments on this one receiver as anything but a report on a problem he had with one receiver out of eight! If anyone has had a similar problem, and would like to share it with us, we would be interested though. KM
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More on the E-flite Stearman PT-17 15e ARF
By Ken Myers
In the December 2009 issue of the Ampeer, I wrote an article titled "The E-flite Stearman PT-17 15e ARF: A few words of caution". If you read my article, the way that I intended it to be read, you'll note that my problem was with the information in the manual and not the airframe itself or even how well the plane flies.
On Monday, November 23, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Goldsmith. He is the designer and team leader of this project for E-flite/Horizon Hobby. We discussed several things regarding this plane and my word of caution article.
Peter noted that some of the folks who had some initial flight problems with the plane were low time pilots. If you read the RC Groups thread, as I recommended, you would see that that is a fair statement.
On the box the plane comes in and the Horizon Hobby Web site it notes, "In the air the Stearman PT-17 15e's flat-bottom airfoils and light wing loading translate into exceptionally scale-like flight characteristics that everyone from intermediate to advanced pilots will instantly fall in love with." This clearly indicates who should be flying this plane, but if a person missed it on the box, where it is not easy to spot as it is mixed in with a lot of other text, or the Web site and look only at the manual, p. 27, top of the left column, "Flying the Stearman PT-17 ARF is a bunch of fun and will be enjoyable for all skill levels." they would not realize what skill level the plane was intended for.
The manual, p. 27, left column, second paragraph says, "Verify that your CG is at the correct location as per the manual..."
As was demonstrated with the anecdotal information from RC Groups, 3-3/4" behind the leading edge of the supper wing, as stated as the rear most CG in the manual p.25, is too far back and has caused some initial flight problems. Peter noted that he flies his personal PT-17 balanced a bit further forward than 3-1/2" from the top wing leading edge.
Peter told me that the designed down thrust is 2 degrees. I noted that my model has just shy of 1.5 degrees of down thrust. We discussed that many times there are variations between the plane as it was designed and the production version. Several of the anecdotal comments from the RC Groups thread noted adding a washer under each of the top motor mounting lugs. This increases the down thrust to a little less than 3 degrees.
Peter and I also discussed the need for down elevator trim. The down elevator trim is addressed in the manual on p.25, center column, last paragraph, "Due to the lifting nature of the flat-bottomed airfoil, your PT-17 may require a few clicks of down trim for level flight, especially at higher power settings."
Unfortunately it is not in bold type, which would have been nice. It is also addressed on p.27, near the middle of the third paragraph, "Trim the model for level flight at half throttle. In most cases the PT-17 will require a few degrees of down trim." It would be helpful if that information were contained in a separate paragraph using bold print.
When we were discussing this issue, Peter agreed that a bit more positive incidence, like one more degree, could have been designed into the horizontal stabilizer.
I told him that I came up with a wing area of about 555 sq.in. and asked him how he came up with 608 sq.in. We both included the "hidden, non-existent area" of the lower wing in the fuselage, but he included the area of the cutout in the top wing. I didn't. Adding the about 15 sq.in. of area in the cut out to my 555 sq.in. is still only 570 sq.in.
Peter said that he doesn't feel that wing area is important to a "kit" buyer as they just want some idea of its size, and noting the wingspan is useful for that. While I agree with that, I find it useful to have the wing area and RTF weight so that I can use wing cube loading to predict the flyability of the plane.
We also discussed the quality and design of the kit. I told him that I was very impressed with the overall design and ease of assembly. Most of the major components just bolt onto the fuselage. He said that he really worked hard to make this model work as a biplane. It does. The overall design is very clever, very nice and eliminates many of the headaches associated with biplane assembly.
Peter is an extremely warm, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable guy. I thank him for sharing his firsthand knowledge of this plane with me. To learn more about Peter Goldsmith, do a bit of Google searching. He's one fascinating fellow.
* * * * *
In my original article, I did not mention anything about how this plane flies, as I've not flown mine yet, won't be flying it stock and don't have firsthand knowledge.
If you check the RC Groups thread www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1070110&highlight=pt+17 you will find very positive flight comments such as these.
philipm785, Nov 15, 2009 - I had another fun flight on my PT-17 today.
k4to.dave, Nov 08, 2009 - I had another two beautiful flights this afternoon with two perfect landings.
Nov 23, 2009 - I really like the plane.
Sticky Mickey, Nov 26, 2009 - I have about 20 or so flights under my belt and am very happy with my Stearman.
* * * * *
I received the following emails about the original article in the Dec. '09 Ampeer.
Nov. 23, 2009
Hello Ken,
David Hipperson, he of the Miles Sparrowhawk, in your latest EFO Newsletter, being my regular flying buddy and knowing that I had just purchased an E-flite Stearman, kindly forwarded your newsletter to me to bring to my attention your synopsis of buyers' observations on this model.
Consequently I studied the recommendations and set the CG 3.25" (83mm) behind the leading edge of the top wing by placing 206g of church roof on top of the motor box, added one washer behind the motor top mounting lugs and set the elevator neutral at 1/8" (3mm) down.
The suggestion in the instructions to add ballast to the inner front of that fragile nose section/dummy motor did not appeal at all.
I did not tamper with the incidence of the top wing, because the suggested addition, by one contributor, of washers under the wing at the front cabane mounting, to my mind would likely have exacerbated the pitch-up problem.
I flew the model twice today and found it to be a pussycat, not requiring any more than half throttle. The motor is an AXI 2820/10 driving an APC 11x5.5E prop, feeding from a Desire Power 11.1v 3S 3200mAh Li-Poly. I did have to put in one click of up elevator, so I have now reduced the down setting to 1/16" ready for the next outing.
Thank you for your most helpful article.
Best Wishes,
Frank Curzon
Nov. 24, 2009
Ken;
Nice review of the PT-17 RTF problems. I wonder what the full-scale angles are.
FYI, the AAF trainers of WWII had stall strips, running the full length of the lower wings. They were triangular strips, forward of the 00 coordinate of the airfoil, pointy end forward. We were told that it enhanced snap-roll capability, a maneuver that my instructor called a "horizontal spin".
Happy Thanksgiving,
Warren Plohr
Nov. 26, 2009
The Stearman is certainly a good-looking model. I was surprised to hear that the initial handling characteristics were so far off trim. It is good that you are getting the word out so that those who follow can profit from the difficulty of others. I will be interested to see what else you come up with besides magnetic wheel pants. I have thought seriously about getting one, and in my experience that sort of thought often ends up in actual purchase.
Ned Watts
My email response to Ned.
My intention was to get the word out on the PT-17 so that others would have a very successful experience with this otherwise very nicely designed plane. Once the guys get them flying, they are reporting very nice flight characteristics. It is definitely worth putting on your "want to get one" list. The folks on the RC Groups forum thread have done some pretty neat "detailing" work as well. Mostly they are just simple modifications that add a bit more pizzazz to an already attractive aircraft. Ken
Also from Ned:
Ok, I give up. What does the photo of a wheel pant split with magnets to hold it together have to do with anything else in the issue?
My Response:
The wheel pants are for the Super Stearman that I'm creating from the E-flite kit. Kinda sneaky on my part. ;-)
As for the rest of the Super Stearman, I've been designing a cowl for it. I'm working on a new design now. I designed one, but I could tell that it was wrong and didn't look anything like the cowl on the real plane I'm modeling. If you want a "preview" you can look up N56772 on the Internet. The covering and finishing will be quite time consuming, especially with all of that checkerboarding. Should be fun.
Dec. 4, 2009
Ken; Thank you so much for your article of caution on the E-Flite Stearman. In finishing mine up, I am frustrated at how tail heavy my Stearman is and laid 5 oz. of lead on the nose and didn't seem to help CG much. It's barely level at the 3 3/4" mark!
This is a great plane and I will enjoy it much. I'll use your suggestion of loading the nose with lead, washers for down thrust, a touch down elevator trim, which I always do for maidens, and I'm adding Dubro Treaded Light Wheels which weigh more than the stock foams. Wish me luck and thanks for the tips.
Jeff Jacobsen
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The December EFO Meeting
A Report by Ken Myers
The December EFO meeting was held at my house in Commerce Township, MI. As usual, it was a great meeting with a lot of sharing.
I started by showing off my E-flite PT-17 Stearman ARF. Everyone was very impressed with the kit quality and the very thoughtful assembly. They were a little taken back that I am going to strip the beautiful covering job to create my Super Stearman. I have a suspicion that there may be several members with the stock PT-17 come this spring. I reinforced what a good flier it is said to be, and since most of them are intermediate to advanced fliers, they'll have no problems with this cutie.
 
I shared my wheel pants in their rough state.
I showed them the nicely done cowl and engine. I had already used my Dremel with the sanding drum to release the engine from the cowl. I'll be building the dummy engine into the cowl of my Super Stearman.
I also showed them how I "dummied" up a circle of balsawood to do a trial fit for the cowl to the non-circular fuselage before I actually started to build it.
The next step in this conversion will be to complete the design for the cowl and then build it. (It's been done. KM)
Tom Bacsanyi shared his Twin 90 mm Sukhoi SU-27, which he created from an AK-Models laser cut kit designed for a tractor 91 two-stroke glow-power system. As usual, Tom did a lot of his own work made the fans and the retractable landing gear. You can read more about his great work in the thread noted below on RC Groups.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=993159
This plane has a 55-inch span and it is 66 inch long.
The twin Medusa 36-80-1100kv motors on 12S 7200mAh Li-Polys input about 5600 watts. It weighs 17.7 lbs. and the fans generate 15 lbs of thrust through the thrust vectoring fans. The homemade screw driven retracts use a free swiveling nose wheel steered by the vectored thrust. There is a link to the maiden flight(s) in the thread as well as video.
This plane flies great.
Richard Utkan brought in his Foamie Rascal 27. He found the plans for it on RC Groups.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1008310
It is powered by an E-flite Park 180 brushless outrunner and a 2S Li-Poly battery. He did such a beautiful job on the construction that some folks thought it might be an ARF.
Jim Young had a lot to share with us. He and Tim are building a 55" Blu-Baby Foamie. Tim had so much fun flying Denny Sumner's this summer; he just had to have one. It is a pretty neat father and son project!
The Blu-Baby thread is on RC Groups as well as downloadable plans.
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=681556
Jim also brought along his parkzone Sukhoi Su-26m BNF. He'd picked it up used and is very happy with the performance now that he is using a GWS 5x4.3 prop on it. It uses a Radical RC prop adapter for GWS props and the adapter works very well!
We also congratulated Jim on his Turner Special being the featured construction article in the December 2009 Model Aviation magazine. It is a really great flier.
I also shared my new source of magnets. I originally used Magnetix, but they were taken off the market (bottom of photo). I now use Magnext. I got 48 of them in the kit shown at Target for $10 before Christmas. It seems to be a good "local" source.
When we headed to the snack table, Richard Utkan had me attach his neat little camera to the computer and we viewed lots of aerial footage that he had recently shot from several of his planes. The USB camera only costs about $25, weighs a few grams and takes reasonably good video.
As usual, we continued to share stories and ideas well into the evening. A few folks flew my Fusion, which I created for the free FMS flight simulator.
It was a great night. Mother nature had a little surprise for the folks as they left. All of their cars had been dusted with the first snow of the season. Building season has officially arrived in southeastern Michigan.
The Upcoming January Meeting
The January meeting, Thursday, January 7, 2010 will be held at Bill Brown's house. The meeting will start at 7:30. Everyone is always welcome to come.
Bill Brown, 39603 Village Run Dr., Northville, MI 48167. His phone number is734-420-2733. See ya there!
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Another TigerKitten
From Nick Bisonni bizboy1@verizon.net
Hi Ken,
Continued thanks for all your work on the Ampeer newsletter.
Well, I finally finished my TigerKitten. I purchased this ACE kit and the power system about 10 years ago. I thought I'd install the "antiquated" power system and give it a go before the inevitable upgrade to a brushless/LiPo or LiFePO4 system.
Here are some specifications:
Battery Pack - 10 cell NiCad 2000mAH
Motor - M.E.C. Turbo 10 plus w/6:1 gear reducer
Elevator and Rudder servos - Hitec HS-81
Aileron Servo - Hobbico CS-59 low profile
Speed Control - Jeti JES 50 w/BEC
Prop - APC C-2, 12x8
Plane Weight (w/o battery pack) - 49 oz.
Battery Pack Weight - 21 oz.
All-up Weight - 70 oz.
I'll "maiden" the plane this spring as I've just about missed this years' flying season (unless I try some cold weather flying").
Stay well,
Nick
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