Sm Tall alk W
ell, it looks like the “spring winds” have finally subsided and the monsoon rains have come to replace them. The good
news—or bad, depending on how you look at it—is that here in the high dessert the rains are spotty at best and always come towards evening, leaving those calm cool mornings for some terrific flying. Unfortunately, when you’re flying, sometimes things get broken, at which time the decision needs to be made: to repair, or to replace? Decisions, decisions…. When you get right
down to it, unless a crash is really bad, re- pairs can be made to just about anything. If the model was kit or scratchbuilt, you’re al- ready ahead of the game since you know what’s in it, and probably still have the plans stashed away for safe keeping, right? ARFs on the other hand, are a different sto- ry; no plans, no working knowledge of what’s inside, and often little or no building experience to draw from to make the repair. In spite of that, repairs are still possible, so don’t give up too easily. And to make fixing the model as easy as possible, pick up all the pieces at the crash site—they’ll come in handy when the repair begins.
Assessing the damage If it’s a wing that’s broken, peel the cover
off to assess the internal damage. If it’s just a couple of ribs that are cracked or jarred loose a little CyA will fix it right up. If it’s a spar that’s broken, it’ll need to be glued and splinted—popsicle sticks work well there. And if the ribs are broken and pieces are missing you still have the one next to it to use as reference, or in the case of a tapered wing, the one on the other side. At worst, if one side is too far gone to fix,
you can draw a rudimentary plan by mea- suring up the opposite wing and drafting a new plan. Not to worry, a pencil, yardstick, and butcher paper will work fine for what
by pat tritle You can reach Pat Tritle at 10313 Snowheights NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 or via e-mail at
patscustommodels@aol.com
PHOTO: CATHERINE B. SNIDER
A faulty launch resulted in breaking a prop blade off of Al Yuhasz’s Hewitt Phillips compressed air powered model. Fortunately the model survived without further damage.
you’re doing. No need to rush out and buy a CAD program and struggle up the learning curve for a quick one-off repair. Fuselages can be a bit tougher, but again,
use what you have to repair the existing parts, or to make up patterns for the neces- sary replacement parts. And while you’re in there, look beyond the obvious for subtle dam- age like cracked or separated glue joints that might be easily overlooked and make the re- pair there too. Servo mounts are notorious for coming un-done in a crash, so look closely there—it might just save you from having to do all this again.
PHOTO: LEN ROZAMUS
Len Rozamus gathered up a few parts and pieces here and there and came up with his Magnum .36 powered Russian utility airplane. Shows what can happen when ingenuity and scraps cross paths.
26
Starting from scratch Scratchbuilding from plans is once again gaining in popularity among modelers these days, largely due to the lack of available kits. But what do you do when the model you want to build isn’t available in the size or configuration you want? Well, there are a couple of choices: You can draw your own plans, enlarge or reduce an existing plan, or you can do like Raphael Leao did and build it from re-sized 3-view drawings and fill in the structure “on the fly”. Raphael built his 21.25-inch span Pitts Special using a simple 3-view drawing. The cross sections and rib profiles were traced from the drawings and laser cut to build the model. All said and done the model came in at 5.7 ounces and flies very well. The Pitts is powered with a Suppo 2208 outrunner motor and 10-amp ESC with a 7–3.5 prop and 500 mAh Li-Po battery. The servos are 3.7 gram for the rudder, elevator and ailerons, guided by a Spektrum Hobby King Orange Rx. Covering and the hand cut trim is 21st Century Microlite film. Well
done, especially considering there really aren’t any “plans” involved in the build. And as long as we’re working in “mid-air”,
Len Rozamus is at it again, this time build- ing a brand new model conjured up from scrap Uproar ARF parts and whatever else was handy at the time. While rifling through the attic looking for a new project, Len had gathered up the sad remains of the past pro- ject, and by reshaping the fuselage and adding the cowl made from a body cream jar and a spring landing gear with wheel pants had the airframe pretty well together. Then the cover was added and trimmed in the scheme of a Russian utility aircraft. With the addition of the .36 glow motor, the old stan- dard basic 4-channel Hitec radio, and strobe lights in the wing tips, the new model was ready to go. Way to go Len…. Next up is a pair of freeflight cuties from
Bob Langelius. First is the Pee-Pee that was inspired by Bill Schmidt’s PEE-WEE PUP. Here’s what Bob has to say: “I saw an FM article by Bill Schmidt,
where he scaled up the 1⁄2A nostalgia era trainer, the PEE-WEE PUP, for a 30-inch sport U-Control and I did the same thing! I converted it to a full bodied freeflight and that goes pretty well also! It’s a bit touchy because it has a mid-wing with scale dihe- dral, but with a cut down Sig canopy, it looks cute to me! It’s a 30-inch span, sheet wing, and I think flies as good as she looks!” Bob’s next endeavor is the Richtoff, which
Bob describes as follows: “The Richtoff was conceived, when I was looking at a Dave Thornburg plan for a small .020 profile sportster (whose name evades me now)! Like a lot of his designs, it was cute and practical! I thought it would
OCTOBER 2012
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