Sm Tall alk A
t the time of this writing I’m get- ting ready to pack up and head over to Little Rock, AR for the an- nual SMALL gathering. I’m really
looking forward to meeting up with the reg- ulars again and meeting some new friends too—not to mention getting to fly some real- ly cool airplanes. One thing about the SMALL fly-in, you won’t find a better bunch of modelers gathered in one place anywhere who are more willing to swap ideas and share their work. It’ll no doubt be a great time!
Modeling is changing In the meantime, it appears to me that the
trend in small modeling is starting to go from the larger Park Flyer types back to the smaller, simpler, indoor type models. With the vast and rapidly growing selection of Mi- cro ARF and RTFs out there it appears that the availability of extremely small, light, components have become readily available off the shelf, and for some very reasonable prices to boot. But what’s even better: those components are also available when stripped out of the broken, battered, or simply worn out airframes that lurk about the shops of many R/C modelers and flyers out there. And with that availability, for those who
love to build, there are an infinite number of possibilities for models to be built. The early, lower powered Vapor system will work great in many of the 18–20-inch freeflight kits. Then to go a little larger into the 24-inch range, the more powerful brushed motors from the Mustang and others in that family from Hobby Zone will work well too, and for those who’re looking for more than just a sim- ple 3-channel setup, those radio systems are capable of setting up a 4-channel model in- corporating ailerons into the models as well. If you have a larger indoor venue available
to fly in, the Beast and other similar aero- batic models are set up with brushless pow- er systems that will fly non-aerobatic civil-
by pat tritle You can reach Pat Tritle at 10313 Snowheights NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 or via e-mail at
patscustommodels@aol.com
PHOTO: BOB ABERLE
Bob Aberle’s reduced Schmaedig Stick is a perfect size for both indoor and outdoor flying and has proven itself to fly very nicely in both venues.
ian type models in the 28-inch range with power to spare. And at that larger size, the models can be easily flown outdoors as well, as long as the wind gods are on your side, making for an even more versatile platform. In the past, when the more typical servos,
Rx, ESC and brushed gear-motors were still “state of the art”, I was doing 30-inch span Dumas freeflight kit conversions very suc- cessfully in the 3¾–4¼ ounce range, but now with the more capable sub-micro units avail- able I’m betting that models in the same or slightly smaller size range could be done at two-thirds the weight and fly great. But here’s the fun part: I was probably the last guy on the planet to finally break down
and set up a model with a brushless power system, and didn’t delve into it until the cost of those motors had come down to a truly practical level. And now, I’m probably the only guy left who still doesn’t have a sub-mi- cro model in the stable, but with the cost and availability of these ultra-light components well in line with a modeler “on a budget”, I think it’s time to start dabbling in this area of modeling too. It’ll be fun to see where it goes ... and who knows, maybe one day I’ll even break down and get my own cell phone!
Great stuff from the readers Let’s kick it off with Bob Aberle’s Schmaedig Stick. Bob has the 200-square
PHOTO: BOB ABERLE
Bob Aberle based his 200-square inch version of the Schmaedig Stick(above left) on a larger design originally flown with a replica Anderson .65 on ignition. The smaller e-powered model is well suited for both indoor and outdoor flying.
58
PHOTO: LEN ROZAMUS
It’s not common to lose the prop (above right) on your model in mid-flight, but to catch it on film is even less common. Fortunately, the model survived the event completely unscathed.
AUGUST 2012
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