newby questions

[beaz]

I have been flying gas R/C since 1983, gas pylon since 1988. I saw Jerry Small's article in MAN and that pushed me over the edge. I bought his plans, subscribed to Microflight, joined the indoor flyer SIG, now all I need is some direction. I don't want to reinvent the wheel and I don't know of anyone in my area to draw upon their experience. I am trying to drum up some interest in my local rc club for some indoor activities but we have no electric flyers. I think I can get some people interested but I want to keep the learning curve as short as possible(good luck). I realize that the GeeBee of Jerry's is probably not the place to start, I'm wondering about an arf to geet my feet wet while the GB gets built. Any suggestions? The stick type planes seem interesting but I've never seen one fly and am skeptical of ads. Any advice as to airframes, radio equip, motors, batteries? Thanks in advance.

[Ralph B]

Beaz:
Glad to hear you have joined the indoor/ slowfly fraternity-welcome abord.
I have a couple of suggestions for you to consider as a first indoor/slowfly model. The Light-stick or Pico-stick is a very inexpensive place to start. The NIRAC web page has some information, and pictures of this model. Be sure to check out Bob Wilder's article on the Light-stick in the Nov.2000 issue of R/C Microflight.
Another good choice is the Skooter available from Hobby Lobby or New Creations. I beleive Hobby Lobby still has it on sale. I bought the skooter to use as a motor testbed, and I like it very much. The quality is surprisingly good for an ARF. I have seen this model fly very nicely on the Light-stick gear drive which is selling for around $20.00. Good luck with whatever you decide to do, and have fun.
Ralph B.

[Jason Nowell]

Beaz:

Welcome aboard! I'm the webmaster of NIRAC and moderator of this discussion group. I think a Lite Stick is definitely the place to start. As an experienced flyer, it will soon bore you, but it will get you used to the walls. I too am an avid outdoor flyer, and my Stick was all I could handle the first few trips to the local gym!

When I got done with my Stick, I used the motor on 3 different scratch built airplanes and had a ball. The only thing I would tell you about a Stick is ADD SOME DIHEDRAL!!! We do this by streching a string (Spyder Wire fishing line works well) between the tips and pulling quite a bit of Dihedral in. This makes your turn radius much smaller and easier to deal with in the confines of a basketball gym.

There are many nice planes out there, and scratch building is a breeze for indoor. Many of us have a new "experiment" almost every week. We build twins using the Wattage B-2 motors (one guy has a 24" b-25) and I've converted a Herr Stearman Bipe (28" span) that flies nicely with the Stick motor on it.

Think under-cambered on your wings (or don't cover the bottoms on a built up kit) and keep your wing loading low and you'll be fine. The GeeBee flies great, I built a Corsair minus the gull wings using the same plan, it's in the Plan's of the month discussion board under GeeBee.

Good Luck, and let us know if you have any other questions.

Jason

[beaz]

Thanks for the responses. I'll definitely give a stick a try. I'm glad to hear that the motors can be switched to another plane. I've got a P-30 FF rubber job I'm dying to try to convert at some point to indoor electric. Thanks again and happy landings Beaz

[SLOW FLYER]

So you won't be disappointed with the performance of some of the planes available, go get a Dave's Aircraft PF6 from Todds models.

With your experence flying Recips the PF6 will be just the ticket.

I use 8 700mah AAA NiMH cells on mine. Started with the motor that it came with, the MG-1. It still works well after several crashes and over 100 flights.

It will ROG in about 3 feet and fly inverted with rudder and elevator only. In fact I can actually fly it in circles while inverted which is unusual for a plane without ailerons.

It will both inside AND outside loop from level flight.

The plane is very durable and easy to repair.

It slows down enough (even with the heavy wing loading of 8 cells)to fly indoors and will fly real slow with a 6 pack of "double time" NiMH cells.

I use an MPI recevier, HS-55 servos and a
JMP HF9 60 MHZ MOS-FET CONTROLLER. All the cases are removed and all the wiring is replaced with small wire and JST connectors.
The servo wires are soldered directly to the receivers PC board. I even replaced the internal wiring in the servos with smaller wire.
This adds up to a considerable savings in weight which I'm sure adds to the plane's capabilities.

I have a Lite Stick, Pico cub and several other small electrics but I usually end up flying the PF6 as it makes all the others seem like slugs.(except for my modified Tiny)

I just ordered a TR-389 motor/gearbox combo from Todd. According to him it is stronger than the MG1 motor and it only cost $25.00.

Here is the URL to Todds.
http://www.toddsmodels.com/

He is one of the BEST in the business. I've spent over a grand in the last year with him.

Good luck and contact me if you would like some pictures.

Curt Knight
Slow flyer

[beaz]

I picked up a pico stick w/ the gws pico flite pack and have been flying it in my front yard when wind allows. I am using the 6 cell 115 ma pack and have gotten flight times up to 9 minutes. It's a hoot to just walk out the front door and fly. I would like a little more performance and appreciate the input. Rather than re-invent the wheel with the lite stick I probably look at the tiny or pf6. I am trying to locate an indoor facility and generate some interest amoung the recip flyers in our club. I'd love to have some indoor pylon races. If any one out there can give input on how to get a free or cheap indoor place to fly I'd really like to hear how. Thanks

[Jason Nowell]

Beaz:

Here are a few suggestions for indoor flying locations.

We have had the most luck with Skating Rinks and indoor roller hockey/soccer arenas. These are easy to get, but generally cost $50 to $100 for about 4 hours of flying. We usually have 15 or 20 flyers, so we just pass the hat, everyone chips in a few dollars, and it's handled.

We also have had luck in using basketball gym's at places like Boy's Clubs, YMCA, etc. These can be scheduled for free. Another good source of free locations are aircraft hangers. Since many RC'ers are pilots, this can work once you get some more guys flying indoors. We have a hanger that we meet at, push all the airplanes outside, fly, and then put everything back where we found it.

I think with a little work, you might be able to get a university basketball gym also. I can tell you from experience that public schools are near impossible, no-one says "NO" but no-one will give the official OK either.

If you like aerobatics, the Tiny will give you hours of fun, the IFO's from Dan Kreigh are also fun.

Good Luck,

Jason Nowell

PS - NIRAC will be holding an AMA sanction indoor event w/ Pylon, Combat, Balloon Bust, etc. in April or May, keep watching www.nirac.org (http://www.nirac.org) for details.

[gjohnson]

All the info on the lite stick (Nov issue of Micro Flight, and "MARCEE" Minn Electric Fliers, etc) have all been helpful. Everyone says to increase the dihedral. I saw one reference on the MARCEE site to cutting off the wing mounts and replacing them with short aluminum tubes, bent to give more dihedral. I think I've found a better method, which I used on the GWS Piper Cub I built this weekend (everyone has Lite Sticks). Drive two nails into a board about one-inch apart. Soak the ends of all four bamboo wing supports overnight. Then, repeatedly soak them in boiling water. Put the end of a bamboo stick against the first nail. Bend the stick against the second nail. Continue bending (you don't need much, and you don't want to break the stick). When you have enough bend, drive a third nail into the board to preserve this bend. Insert and bend the three remaining sticks. Use your heat gun (or hair drier) to dry the sticks. You now have four wing supports bent to increase the dihedral. This means it's easier to take the wings off the plane for transport. Plus, you don't have unsightly wires between your wings, and the plane looks better with straight wings, rather than bowed wings. The key here is you have to do this modification before you build your plane, rather than retrofit it (like wires between wing tips) after flying it and discovering that everyone is right, that it needs more dihedral. Hope this helps.
--Gordon