My Entry for Kit Bash of the Year!

[Jason Nowell]

Here is my P-51 Stick...that's right, I said Stick. It's nothing but a Lite Stick kit with two peices of foam for a fuse and some....minor modification :)

http://www.millenniumproductions.com/P-51.jpg

[frankenfoamy]

You got my vote

[pease1]

I'm not worthy!
You win.....

[wwagner]

Looks good jason,
One question though . . . Where did you get the green carpet . . . just kidding the plane looks very cool!!!! :)

[Jason Nowell]

News flash!

May 19 LiteStik pylon race winner at the SWAC.... you guessed it.

Gary Jones begged me to fly it in the race, so I let him. He cut on the takeoff roll (because there is no rudder) and so started the race one lap down.

On lap number seven, he lapped the other racers and held the lead for the finish.

More later...

[esox]

Jason, that is a work of art! :)

[esox]

Jason, that is a work of art! :)
Nice job! I am going to use that pull-pull system for a couple of my projects.
Thanks for posting the pics.

Jack Wheeler

[pease1]

OK, I've started my kitbash - went for something close to my heart - DH-2 WWI pusher biplane. I'm only 33% done but so far it looks like it will come out nicely. I'll end up using 2 lite stik kits to get enough wings - does that disqualify me?

http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/aew/rc/misc/DH-2-stik-1.jpg

Al

[ 06-02-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[losiboy]

Thats awsome, you have my vote! (no offence Jason =P ) What is the fuse made out of thought ?

[pease1]

fuse is pink house insulation foam. I cut the profile, sanded then sliced off the sides. Then I took the middle and cut out the 'inside' so when I glue the whole sandwich back together I'll have a hollow cavity to mount radio, esc, motor and battery in. The only down side is I'll either have to be creative with my pull-pull controls or the servos will have to mount under the top wing near the booms. I'll decide that when UPS brings me another stik kit for my top wing.

Oh I did all the foam cutting with a woodland scenics hot wire tool bought at the local model railroad store.

Don't be too quick to choose this over Jason's bird - his flies. So far mine only looks good. :D

[Jason Nowell]

Allan:

Nice work, the DH-2 is also close to my heart. It'll fly fine, and it probably will look more scal and less like a Lite Stick than my P-51, so you'll probably get my vote also :)

Maybe later on, I'll talk my NIRAC buddies into having a mail in "Kit Bash" contest. i think it would be a blast! Plus, we could give away Lite Stick kits for prizes and the winners could start all over again!!! :)

Can't wait to see it airworthy, Allan, you need to move to DFW so I'll have some "insane as me" company....ever since Gary Jones moved away, i'm the only freak model builder around :)

[pease1]

I'd love to be part of your 'Freek Club' but I'm a New England Yankee through and through. I just never could get used to eating grits and biscuits and gravy. I'll be glad to challenge, inspire and learn from you via the net though!

I'd love to do a mail-in kitbash contest. I've got tons of ideas for stuff to do with lite stik kits. One rule should be that contestents would have to send in pictures or movies of it in flight though. Maybe we can get RC Microflight here to sponsor it. It might be a good way for them to draw some new subscribers. Contest for subscribers only type of thing?

The only challenge on my DH-2 will be
getting the prop small enough but with
enough pitch. I'm thinking of making a 4-
bladed prop from 2 stock props cut down and
repitched. That may work. I've got enough
room for a 7.5" prop - no bigger. I tried to maximize the boom angle to allow for the
largest prop I could without things getting
too weird looking 7.5" is all I could manage.

Allan

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[ 06-03-2001: Message edited by: Allan Wright ]

[Jason Nowell]

I'd be interested in hearing about your 4 bladed GWS prop. Sounds like it just might work. I measured my Dymond 3 blader that works so well and it spans right at 9"...oh well.

NIRAC and RC MicroFlight are already running 1 mail-in contest. We're calling it the "Going Postal Series". bob Wilder and Tom Atwood put it together, it's a weight lifting contest and is going well. I'm sure more will follow.

Too bad you're a yankee :) Guess I'll have to talk Gary into moving back to Texas, he says it's too windy in New Mexico.

[pease1]

Windy in Utah? Heh - try it here on the New Hampshire coast - averages have been over 15mph all month! If it wasn't for the lights in the High-School parking lot across the street from my house being on all night I wouldn't get ANY time to fly! LOL :confused:

Hopefully when things warm up it will get better though. I know I'm always cursing that there's no wind when it's really hot out.

If I could find a section of ridge near the beach that didn't have million dollar houses on it I'd go slope gliding!

Al

[pease1]

Well I got my extra parts (second lite stik kit) for the DH-2 Stik. Mounted the top wing on the booms and temporarilly attached the fuselage pod with motor and battery installed. It seems a bit tail heavy which means I'll be mounting the servos in the pod not under the wing. I think I'll use pull-pull controlls similar to the real thing by mounting the servos in the fuselage wall with the horns sticking out then routing the control wires to the booms. I should be able to get it all to work with clever use of some nyrod tubing I hope. Also I still have the landing gear to mount which will be forward and I can always go to a larger battery if I have to get it to balance.

Question: I have the wings set with no stagger, just like the original plane. Where would the CG theoreticly go on this arrangement? Same as a single wing?

Thanks for your help.
Al

[gjohnson]

Allan, your WWI interests are showing. Nice job. Have you thought about using two of those Gunther type props that come with your Road Kill plane?
--Gordon

[pease1]

Yes, That's one of the things to test. I'll need to make up a test jig to see which of the 4-bladed options work best. I'll definately be reporting back on this part.

[Jason Nowell]

Allan:

I tried to learn as much as I could about bi-plane setups recently. From what I learned, you'll balance it just like a single wing without any stagger. All of the really good flying bi-planes I looked at had a little more incedence in the lower wing than the top (higher angle of attack). I never got an understandable reason for this (it came in the form of Lockheed aero-dynamics engineers and ex air-force mechanics) but it does make a difference (I hope it's not to late for that tidbit, you probably already knew it though :)

They say you get 80% of your usable lift from the top wing, that's why the balance point doesn't look like it's where it should be on a stagger (I thought you would put it right in between the CG positions for the two wings, but it's actually closer to the true CG position of the TOP wing).

Now that I've rambled way off topic, have fun, and keep us posted...I just started a new one, it's one of my classic "Shouldn't work, but I'll try it anyways" projects. Plus SOMETIMES they actually DO work!!!!

:)