Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Model Airplane News

ALWAYS LEARNING There are many, many reasons to love our RC hobby. But one reason you may (or may not) have thought of is that you can literally never know everything about the hobby—so there is always something new to learn. It’s essentially a never-ending adventure! Model Airplane News has been around for 94 years (and counting) and so you would think we would have said it all. Yet for every new issue we keep finding new tech, new aircraft, and new build techniques to share with our readers. In this issue we have FAQs for newcomers as well as more advanced tips on running gas engines. We also have the top 10 tools you need for success along with radio programming advice for turbine jets. We appreciate you being…

The Zlin Aviation series of Savage aircraft is similar in construction to a Piper Cub, and its Savage Bobber is a fully customized build that’s durable, reliable, and ready for adventure. Legend Hobby is now offering a 92-inch-span, ARF version with steel metal frame and optional detailed seats and saddle bags. This large model is meant for 35cc gas engines. UNIQUE FEATURES The most distinctive part of the model is undoubtedly the fuselage, which is an all-metal, welded-steel truss-work. It's likely a bit heavier than a fuselage built from traditional balsa/plywood materials, but it is very stout. However, the wings are a more conventional built-up wood and iron on covering, which actually felt a bit lighter than they should. The empennage has similar construction to the wings, however the horizontal…

When casual modelers see a turbine-powered jet, they see a hodgepodge of wires and fuel lines running all over and think “Wow! I could never figure all that out.” The truth about it is that it isn’t all that complicated once you understand what everything does and how it fits into the big picture and contributes to the result, your jet in the air. This article will help demystify the unique steps to configure your radio system to operate a gas turbine engine. Programming for a turbine jet isn’t vastly different than any other model. You need to apply your rates and exponential throw so that you’re comfortable flying your model, whether it be a turbine trainer like a Turbinator or a big scale F-18. Where programming a turbine jet…

Scale and unique airplanes always appeal to me, and when I first saw an article on the full-size Tipsy S2, I knew I needed to model it. I used 3-view drawings from the article to develop my 1/6-scale plans. The Tipsy line was designed by Belgian Ernest Tips in the mid-1930s, and the S2 was powered by a variety of small two- and four-cylinder engines. After doing some research, I found aircraft “OO-TIP” in a Belgian airplane museum; it was powered by a two-cylinder, 28hp Douglas Sprite engine. I loved its “Spitfire” looks with elliptical surfaces and also its attractive red, white, and black color scheme. I also discovered a great book all about Ernest Tips’ designs, “Les Avions Tipsy” by Vincent Jacobs. I ordered the book direct from the…

VIKING MK-I GLIDER Scott Black, Brownsburg, Indiana Scott built this Tom Williams design from a Sky Bench Aerotech kit. The MK-I wing has a flat bottom airfoil for excellent thermalling performance. The Viking was originally covered with translucent orange MonoKote. When that got brittle, Scott re-covered the Viking in a striking neon red UltraCote. Control is provided via a Spektrum DX-7 radio system. The neon red color really pops both on the ground and in the air! Scott is shown with the Viking at the AMA Soaring Nats. F-86 SABRE JET William Jackson, Wooster, Ohio William took a stock HSD Jets F-86 Sabre jet 110mm EDF kit and gave it an amazing makeover. He did a completely new scheme in the 1958 Republic of Korea Air Force and added a…

At Model Airplane News, we get a lot of inquiries about how to get started flying RC airplanes. We love encouraging new pilots into our favorite hobby! For this article, we compiled 10 of the most frequently asked questions, and our pro contributors offered their practical advice. If you’re an experienced pilot who already knows these answers, we hope you’ll share this article with folks who might be interested in the thrill of building and flying RC aircraft. We all know that after that first flight, they may be hooked for life! 1 What airplane should I get first? Trainers come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re designed to take the inevitable knocks and bangs of those first few exciting flights. You can learn with lightweight 3-channel park fliers,…

1 Basic Tool Set Some good basic tools are needed in our day-to-day operations. Needle-nose pliers, hex drivers, Phillips and straight-slot screw drivers of various sizes, and surgical hemostats with both straight and curved tips are just a few examples of what it really helps to have on hand. An LED flashlight so you can see what you’re doing is a must-have as well. Assorted clamps and weight bags to hold parts while your glue is drying are also handy. The longer you’re in the hobby, the larger your collection of tools will become Prices vary 2 Prop Balancer Many modelers just buy a prop and bolt it on and go fly. That works most of the time, but a prop balancer will save you a lot of wear and tear…

A most unusual aircraft made by Zlin Aviation out of the Czech Republic, the Savage Bobber is an original design derived from their previous Savage Classic aircraft and is meant for light weight and easy servicing. “Bobber” comes from the act of modifying and cutting down a motorcycle to only its key components. A “bob-job,” as it was known. In this case, their Cub-like aircraft was “bob-jobbed” of its fuselage covering and other non-essential bits, subtracting a significant amount of weight, no doubt. The company also claims the unusual design is more resilient to side wind gusts and has improved visibility over similar traditional aircraft. These design features along the performance of its 100hp Rotax engine, qualified the Savage Bobber for Light Sport Pilot rules in the U.S., so you…

With drone delivery services in the news lately, most people have been wondering when—and how—they’ll get their first packages. RC’ers, however, have been wondering whether drone deliveries will affect their flying. We asked Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing—a drone-delivery company owned by Alphabet Inc., which is also Google’s parent company—about the process. In 2019, Wing became the first drone-delivery company to receive approval from the FAA, and since then they have delivered hundreds of thousands of packages. Model Airplane News: Where are the drones currently being flown? Adam Woodworth: In the United States, Wing is delivering packages by drone in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and in Southwest Virginia. We also operate in a number of locations in Australia and Europe. MAN: How does the process work? AW: Deliveries are…

There are a handful of mistakes that nearly all recreational RC pilots make that stem from not having a plan before flying. This article is aimed at addressing the two bad habits that probably lead to more damage during landings than any others. Indeed, most pilots will immediately experience improved landings if they can correct just one of these two bad habits. DON’T DIVE TO THE RUNWAY The first bad habit goes back to the way pilots first learned to set up their landings, and it’s why no two landings have ever gone the same since. Most pilots never give thought to flying a specific landing pattern to set up a landing. Instead, they loosely fly downwind, turn around, and try to get lined up and lose altitude before arriving…

NON-SPILL BOTTLES If you have small bottles of glue, kicker, paint, etc., that are prone to tipping over and spilling their contents, this trick is for you. Use a little bit of hot glue to secure them to a scrap wood base. You can still easily use the contents of the bottle, yet they are very stable and resistant to tipping over and spilling. Orin Humphries Lynnwood, Washington DUAL SERVO CONNECTOR If your aircraft has more than one aileron and/or flap servo, it can be a hassle to connect the wires every time you attach the wing. To make this easier, CA the two female plugs together at the fuselage, making sure that they are both aligned perfectly. Next, glue a 1.5mm-thick spacer between both male connectors, back far enough…

GETTING STARTED Gas engines are fairly easy to operate. If you can operate garden equipment and chainsaws, there’s no reason you can’t properly set up and run an RC gasser. Your basic gasoline engine operates using the “fire triangle” principal, meaning it needs air, fuel, and heat to run. Take any one of these away and it will not run. These three fire elements are brought together using the engine’s ignition system, carburetor, and spark plug. I like to install a new engine on a test stand and adjust it before bolting it onto my airplane. It is then much easier to work out the linkages, fuel line attachments, test various propellers and set the top end for maximum power using a tachometer. ENGINE TYPES Gas engines use either a…

Model Airplane News: Tell us about building the T-34 and its history. Will Berninger/Mike Barbee: The T-34 is a derivative of the widely successful Beechcraft Bonanza series aircraft that were built starting in 1946. The T-34 is an aerobatic capable, military trainer made as a two place aircraft with control sticks. This model was designed by Bob Patton using 3-view plans from Beechcraft. Mike and Bob laid the fuselage up together using fiberglass cloth and epoxy. Mike took the plane solo from there, making all the remaining parts except for the 25-pound electric landing gear, which Bob designed and built. It has commercially available linear actuators and is powered by a custom-made controller and 14-volt A123 battery pack. It’s finished with CNC-machined wheels, pneumatic wheelchair tires, and pneumatic-driven disk brakes.…

Night flying is fun, different, and pretty cool. I’m lucky to belong to a club, the Ravenna Thunderbirds, Jetway Airport, Ravenna, Ohio. We can fly until 11:00 pm at our field and we have multiple club organized night-flys during the year. To fly at night, you’ll need an illuminated plane. There are a few ways to do this: • Light up the inside of the plane.• Shine an LED on the plane, e.g. from the stabilizer tip to the rudder, or the bottom fuselage to a wing tip.• Put LED strips on the outside of the plane. You just see the shape of the strips in the dark.• Combinations of the above. LED LIGHTS Always shop around for LED strip lights, as there is a pretty big price and shipping…

The world’s leading manufacturer of commercial thermal imaging systems, FLIR, announced a major new initiative in the drone space with the unveiling of SIRAS at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas. While the company had previously offered the Black Hornet—a palm-sized helicopter intended for military users, its new platform is aimed at the broader industrial and public safety market for small uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). “The payload incorporates our Boson thermal camera core, with a radiometric 640-by-512-pixel sensor,” said Kelly Brodbeck, the company’s UAS product manager. The radiometric designation means that the camera is able to return accurate and reliable temperature measurements, which will no doubt prove to be a valuable capability for industrial inspection deployments. “The thermal sensor is paired with a 16-megapixel visible light camera in normal…