Episode 10: Updates #3

Announcer: RC Plane Lab is a podcast for anyone interested in RC airplanes. We share tips and tricks for building models and talk about successful flights, epic crashes, and everything in between. Visit RCPlaneLab.com to join our email list and ask questions. You can also text us or leave a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please rate and review us in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for spending time with us today. Now, here are your hosts, Ron and Tom.

Ron: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. This is Ron and Tom. Today we’re sharing updates on what we’ve worked on and accomplished during the past week. First, I had a chance to 3D-print some wing ribs—an experiment we mentioned in an earlier episode. I printed the ribs and took them to Tom for his opinion.

Tom: To look at and, what did you think of them. Well overall I gotta say, structurally speaking these things are really really stiff I would have no no problems whatsoever with, you know assembling a wing out of these, a first impression though honestly was it, it was a little heavy,. But granted there are no lightning holes it’s just a solid you know rib with this weird little doohickey.

Ron: You put in the middle of it what was that about, that that was, not a doohickey I put in the middle that was actually a rib I think that was a center rib off of, the ford tri motor plans that we were talking about doing. Okay and if I remember right I think that was I think that’s where the.

Tom: Servo goes for the engine I think oh I could be wrong. Okay you’re talking about the cut I’m talking about this weird octagonal interlocking puzzle piece looking thing you put in the middle why’d you do.

Ron: That okay so that one, I have a small 3D printer it’s not huge, and that was actually that was actually a pretty big wing rib if you look it’s probably what 12 inches it’s. Yeah it’s, maybe 14 it’s a 10 and a quarter. Okay so I was way off but anyway, 10 and a quarter inches. Well you know this is six inches right it was a little wider than what I can do on the, on my on my printer. So what I had to do is split that in half and that was kind of like a little puzzle piece to where you. Can and can glue that together, okay so yeah I understand it was heavy,? Yeah there was there was no there was no light there was no lighting hole or lightning holes or anything that I put in, right you know if we wanted to continue and try it again, I can work on, lightening it up a little bit I can put,, I mean I can just do an outline let me ask you this fillers. Okay can it be.

Tom: Printed thinner I mean this is this is fairly what is this 3 16 or. So yeah it was supposed to.

Ron: Be 3 16 according to the plan it was oh. Okay okay yeah the the original plan said, 3 16 balsa. So I just went with the same thickness, so that’s the reason that was. So thick what, I know there are some thinner wing ribs and stuff that are probably what eighth inches is fairly common I think eighth.

Tom: Inch is usually yeah eighth inch 332 depending on the on the airframe for the sport type stuff that you know that I fly it’s it’s usually eighth inch balsa. Yeah and I mean you can print whatever.

Ron: Thickness you want it just has to do with how you design it, I just went with whatever was was on the on the plans on that one, I gotcha. So yeah maybe if you want to revisit that I can do another one and and lighten it up a little bit make it a little bit thinner and and maybe find a smaller, a smaller rib to try and just do a single piece what do you think of that. Yeah I think,.

Tom: I think I’d like that, did it take long to print. Yeah that was what I was going to say that’s the.

Ron: Problem with it though it, I think that one took about three hours to print,. Okay so you’re not. Okay so the the good and the bad with that it took three hours to print. But I don’t necessarily care that it took three hours to print. Because I’m not working on it for three hours that’s true, the only you know you can you can set it to print and. Then go to bed or you can set it print and. Then walk away and do whatever you need to do and. Then just come back and and start over next time for another one, and that’s pretty easy to do. But there is quite a bit of time in it the nice thing about it though is it’s fairly cheap, I think if I did the math right that was about 14 cents is all it costs to. Do that one, okay I don’t know I don’t know how that compares price-wise to like balsa,? But if we’re if we’re going to be thinning it out too you know it’s not going to be first off it won’t take nearly that long to print, it’s not going to be as much material. So it won’t be as expensive, and if we lighten it up too, even with with holes or with or with whatever else we can put in there,. Then that’s really gonna speed it up also, well I mean a couple of things that come to mind.

Tom: Just just kind of looking at this and thinking about the differences between this and balsa,. Yeah definitely cheaper than balsa I think, I think a, an eighth inch by, let’s just say three inch by 36 inch sheet of balsa is probably depending on where you get it from you know let’s just say it’s let’s just say it’s three bucks for a sheet it’s probably less than that. But, with shipping and everything it’ll just call three bucks and you could probably lay out, I’m thinking. You could probably lay out maybe eight of these, if you you know strategically place them on the sheet. So yeah definitely definitely cheaper than than a sheet of balsa and another thing I’ll mention is that, I think probably less waste I mean we usually end up when we start cutting parts out of balsa sheets we you know there’s no matter how good you are or efficient you are at laying out parts there’s always going to be some waste of that of that really expensive balsa. So yeah there’s there’s.

Ron: Not a lot of waste yeah no waste when you do that and that that does make it nice,. So that’s I’d say.

Tom: That’s a that’s a pretty, a positive feature but you know honestly for for me I mean I’m looking at this and it does look like there’s going to be you know some cleanup you know you’re going to have to do some sanding here where the where the two, pieces of this particular rib made up,. Because it looks like there’s a little bit of a mismatch here on the on the on what would be the top surface it’s not a big mismatch. But if you you know you lay a sheet of balsa over it like our you know like a wing skin, it would create a hump in the skin. So you’d have to sand that down and, for for me. It’s not that I’m made of money or anything like that. But I think I would probably spend less time. Cutting cutting this out of balsa and getting you know probably less time involved with the cleanup than than with this plastic one and for me, the the value of time is, you know I don’t want to say time is worth more than money. But in my case I don’t have a lot of time to spare. So you know if I can if I can do something a little bit quicker usually I don’t mind paying a little bit more is kind of what I’m saying. Okay so don’t do it again do it again but no I’m I would like to. No no I would like to see one of these done an eighth inch with maybe some lightning holes and let’s see, you know I’ll compare it to a you know I’ll pull a I’ll pull a rib out of one of these kits I got. We’ll kind of compare them weight wise, but really I mean if if we could get this and make it work I have no problems no problems using using these in a wing. Because they are plenty strong that’s for sure I mean I’m trying to to break this thing and it’s it’s resisting way more than a piece of balsa wood. Yeah okay and there’s no grain to this too which is another you know interesting point. Because this is probably going to have strength the same strength in all directions you know both torsually and sheer strength and you know bend strength you know balsa has strength. But usually and you know has more strength in one direction than the other. So a nice thing about this is you don’t have to do a lot of planning with you know with grain and and trying to figure that into your design which that’s kind of handy that could save some time. Yeah okay well we’ll try that yeah I’d.

Ron: Like to see another one in eighth inch try it. Okay I’ll I’ll do that and see if we can get to it this week, if not it’ll be next week I don’t know and I’m not sure what this week is going to bring yet. So we’ll see, yeah it’s hard to hard to plan right? Now yeah, so one of the other things we, we talked about before is we were going to build, ford tri-motor, we were both excited about it and we still are however yes,. Yeah so we’ve kind of talked and I think we’re going to push that. You know maybe next plane and, I think we’re going to do, duelists. So since you know Tom talked about his, his or in one of the episodes talked about him crashing his duelist, several years ago and he was a little sad about it and I don’t know if he’s gotten over it yet. But maybe, I mean it’s.

Tom: Been a long time ago but yeah I learned a valuable lesson you know those pre-flies are very important.

Ron: Right so we’ll, I I okay so I was just killing time looking on online surfing the internet and I came across plans for a duelist, I don’t know anything about them other than apparently there’s a few different plans I think two or three different ones I found, and. So that kind of piqued my interest and I said hey Tom let’s let’s do this instead let’s you know let’s go with this plane it should be a little bit easier to do you you know what you’re working on you’ve kind of had one. So before and I’m really excited to be honest yeah and for for a first, scratch build slash plan. Build whatever whatever you want to call it it, it would be exciting for me to do too. Because after seeing that plane I really think it’s a nice looking plane it’s very sexy it is it’s it’s very sleek and long and I I think one of the things I like about it too is that the nacelles actually stick out as far as the as the nose,. Yep most planes don’t do that when you see you know like the dual motor planes and stuff that’s kind of stuck or sucked back a little bit and I I I really like the the look of it, right? So yeah what we did, I went ahead and I printed the plans. I have I’m I’m fortunate enough to have a wide format printer here. So, right I printed the 69 which is awesome yeah it it does it does make it easy,. So I printed the 69 inch plans, and apparently those are the ones you wanted. But you wanted me to print another set also, so one of I want to say to you is anybody listening I don’t want to have the printer just for myself if you. Guys need to print anything or want any any plans printed or something like that email me,. We’ll hook you up we’ll get you set up it’s it’s not a big deal to print, I think the widest paper I have right? Now is 42 inch so as long as your plans are less than that drop me an email. We’ll we’ll figure something out if you need something printed. We’ll we’ll get you taken care of and for anybody.

Tom: Listening, I have no skin in his print game okay,. But having now seen the plans you know they’re right here in my in my shop here in the basement, having seen them up close I I gotta tell you they’re they’re very very high quality I mean they’re as good as any plans I’ve seen printed.

Ron: Yeah it’s, it’s a very nice printer, so and it really getting off topic. But right where that printer stands out and you’ve seen them when I have like the the high quality photos and stuff that can be printed on that oh it’s it’s gorgeous, it really is. But anyway yeah if anybody needs print or plans printed or anything like that just drop me an email. We’ll we’ll figure something out I’m I’m you know I’m not trying to make a bunch of money or do anything with it we’re just trying to help everybody out here. So, if you need something let me know so back to these these plans. I was, okay I was very intrigued by the story you told me, behind these plans. So okay so first thing when I when I said that I found, a set of plans for this plane and wanted to print them and wanted to give them to you and and try to build it you you told me when I when I showed you which ones they were that that’s fine,. But there are some errors in those plans and when I ask you how you knew you of course wouldn’t tell me you’re just like oh it’s magic or whatever,. But anyway. So there’s a an interesting story behind these plans so would you fill everybody else in kind.

Tom: Of on how this whole thing went sure yeah I’ll try to I’ll try to not butcher it up. So the dualist was originally designed by dave platt, for anybody that’s been flying for a while you you’ve heard the name I’m sure, was an airplane designer he designed the dualist I think it was 70 I’m gonna say 74 let’s just say, it’s probably plus or minus a year or two. But anyway, dave platt had his own company, at one time it was dave platt models and, he produced this airplane, under his dave. Platt models brand and he had a business partner, and you know sometime after the they produced the dualist and a few other their of their kits, he and his business partner had a falling out and, he actually got kind of booted out of his own company that company continued on for a while and, dave platt of course went on to to,, form pika models, and a lot of those pika. Well I think all of those pika designs are actually a dave platt and dave platt collaboration with other. Designers, but anyway dave platt models once dave was gone continued to produce the dualist and it was a, a 67 inch wing, and it was there was a few weird things about it. But it was a very very, good flying airplane had some weird, thrust angles built into the engines and I think there was a weird, negative I think incidents on on where the wing was mounted in relation to the you know to the horizontal data, at any rate dave platt when he left that company and formed pika models. He redesigned the dualist called it a mark ii, he elongated the wings made it easier to build by refining a few things on the print and. Then the kits, his kits were all built with, at least his dualist kits were built with no right thrust no down thrust everything was mounted straight up including the wing and the tail. So it was an easier airplane to build from a kit and also an easier airplane to build from the plans,. So there’s two sets of plans out there for the dual for the 40 size. I’ll say dualist, there’s the 67 inch wing which is the original and. Then there’s the 69 inch wing which was the redesigned by dave platt. So that he could sell it under pika models, so,. Now we have thanks to your printer we have a copy of both plans, and I’m going to stick with the 69 inch, version. Because it’s going to be a little bit easier to build don’t have to worry too much about the incidence angles as long as we set everything up at zero and, the nice thing about the the the. Original plan though is that the the wing ribs are a little bit more clear and, there’s another separate plan that has all the rib templates out, separately unfortunately the 69 inch plan that we’re going to use or that I’m going to use, all the rib templates are kind of stacked on top of each other on the plan to save space it makes them difficult to draw that way. But we’ll work around it and as far as the errors are concerned,. So on the 69 inch wing I’m not sure if it’s. Because of the way it was printed originally or if it was if it was it’s definitely not a design, dave platt. Didn’t design it this way but the left wing panel is actually on the plan is it the left one one of the wing panels is shorter by just a little bit than the other one I think the difference is like five sixteenths I think overall. So that’s one one error on the plan that, it’s pretty easy to fix. But we’ll.

Ron: You know we’ll work around it so what do you just kind of flip the plan over and and and print it. Then.

Tom: Or you you can you can do it lots of different ways, to to save paper I’ve done this before,. So you build let’s say you want to build the left panel first and. Then if you want to build a right panel just. Exactly like it you flip the plan over rub some transmission fluid on the plan and guess what presto change of the lines all transferred to the other side and. Now you’ve got a reverse image of the of the other and you build on that’s a good idea that’s. Yeah that’s one way to do it or you know if you got a nice fancy printer you can just print the plan twice and flip it over and do that. I mean or probably what I’ll end up doing is I’ll just I’ll just fudge each rib on the other panel to make it the same width as the as the panel on the other side pretty easy fix honestly cool. Yeah.

Ron: We’ll try that, I’m I’m guessing if if that’s the one you’re sticking with and I end up doing my own, I will probably also stick with that same kit. Yeah, yeah it’ll be easier with that same plan yeah, and I just. Okay yeah no go ahead I was gonna say so my my question. Then you know I’m an electric guy how hard would this be to to go with electric probably pretty easy very easy. Yep okay?

Tom: Very easy, the the airplane, if I remember correctly, my original dualist I think it was somewhere in the 10 and a half to 11 pound range. So you take off the take off the nitro motors and all the stuff with with that’s involved with those, of course you’re going to be replacing those with with fairly substantial battery packs,. But I think you could probably do if you’re really really really careful about building it and you’re and you’re really conscientious about weight, I think. You could probably build an electric version maybe even a pound or. So maybe more lighter than that, but I think it would make and if you decided you didn’t want to do retractable gear you just wanted to put standard gear in it,. Then it would be even lighter still so I think it would make a great.

Ron: Electric conversion yeah because I just I just pulled up the model or the the plans while we were talking and it says it’s for two, 25 to 40 engines that sounds pretty small you know I think an electric motor you could probably run that off, like a 3s lipo or something even. Yeah each for.

Tom: Each one yeah absolutely yeah yeah you wouldn’t get you may not get you know you may not get the flight time. But, yeah you could you could certainly certainly run each motor on this particular airplane on a 3 cell I don’t see any problem with that 4 cell would be better. Yeah but well we’ll play it by ear.

Ron: We’ll see how that goes but yeah if we do it, you know I I know you’ll be building your kit I would like to also build one. But we’ll see what time does, yeah I mean we’ve got some projects to.

Tom: Finish first too which you know speaking of projects we’ll. We’ll talk about that yeah, but yeah.

Ron: We’ll we’ll we’ll this is probably what we’re going to be doing. So well as of now that’s I think what we’re gonna what we’re gonna say,. Yeah you’re gonna be excited you’re gonna be looking up, balsa making a list on how much it’s gonna be, you know what we need to get, let me know.

Tom: Actually I actually almost have the list together now I’m I got a few things I need to put on there and. Then I’ll I’ll put an order together and see how much it is I’m just going to order enough to do.

Ron: Two so that’ll be that well let me know what it comes to. Because we might double that because it’s always good to have some. Well it’s always good to have some balsa and stuff around the house. Anyway. So I’m I’m I’m getting very low on supplies, I noticed that when I was kind of going through trying to do some stuff on the, on the, telemaster. So I need to stock back up so I have.

Tom: Some stuff sitting here okay yeah we’ll, yeah once I once I get a list together and I get an order together I’ll I’ll, I’ll hit you up and let you know what it is and if you want to double it we will.

Ron: Okay good deal, I’m really excited yeah it’ll be fun I I AM good to have a twin again it’ll be fun to see, what colors you go with versus like what I would do that’s what I’m more yours is going to definitely look like a 70s airplane and I think mine would be more, mine would be more modern.

Tom: I do I do like the the 70s pattern themes I’m I wouldn’t say I’m stuck in the 70s. But.

Ron: Yeah I like them, you might be that’s probably back when you had hair isn’t it.

Tom: Well I used to have hair yeah I mean yeah back in the 70s.

Ron: So I speaking a senior telemaster I got some stuff done on that one,. Yeah I’m pretty much I don’t want to say finished. Because I still have a few things to do but the the hard part is definitely behind me, I did take it outside today and ran it and got it tuned. So that motor is that motor yeah that motor is back to working, sweet. So did you take a video please tell me you took a video I did not,. So I I wanted to talk to you about the motor that’s on there. Okay how how. Overkill is that and should I be using it or should I be looking for a different motor.

Tom: It’s I mean I’ll be honest it’s it’s probably going to be, flying that thing around a quarter throttle most of the time probably, that the reason that the reason I suggested it, I knew it was going to be too much motor I mean I knew that. But I also knew that it was going to need a substantial amount of weight in the nose to to get the thing to balance. Because of that really really really long tail, so I thought. Well rather than add just a bunch of useless lead why not. You know put some motor up there it’s not going to hurt anything I mean that that firewall is super super strong or at least it was, we’ve put a few holes in it. Now haven’t we yeah I had to okay unfortunately yeah. Well that’s okay I mean if you if you want to if you want to remoter it with something else I mean I have a shelf of engines up here that you know we could we could probably you know make work. But I it is going to be it is going to be much more power than it needs.

Ron: Well I and I only probably had so I put a 16 by 6 prop on it and. Okay that’s pretty small for that motor well I can’t fit anything bigger on it. Because if I went up no clearance yeah if I went up to like an 18 and you hold it straight out you’re going to be hitting the grass and and. Okay even like with this one if you tip that tail up just a little bit too much you’re you’re really close to the ground too close for for my comfort. Okay, I mean that thing was originally designed to fly on a 40. Right that’s if it’s designed to fly on that and this is a 30 or 32 cc whatever gasser right, it’s it’s a lot of motor,. So even even with the prop that size which is apparently small for that, for that engine. Yeah it, it throttle or it, at idle it really wanted to roll like I had it tied to the golf cart. So it wasn’t taking off on me and going anywhere. And you know I tried to tune it down and get it and get it running. Well, and it just it did not want to, didn’t want to stay there. So that’s that’s my only concern did you take an rpm reading.

Tom: Did you put a tack on it to see where it was idling no I didn’t I kind of ran out of time?

Ron: Tonight I was it was excited to get out and get it done you know I wanted to hear it run see if it would work and stuff and. So I I you know I had enough time to do that,. But no I didn’t take in any, any rpm it sounded good, like I said it needed a lot of adjustment on the needles. Because it was running really rough at first but once I got that tuned a little bit better,. Yeah it was.

Tom: Running pretty good sounded good yeah well maybe you know maybe. We’ll take that off of there and we’ll save that maybe for for you know a bigger project down the road and, maybe maybe. We’ll compromise and we’ll put like a I’ve got a 90 I think it’s a 91 two-stroke up here probably be just perfect for that, 91 is going to turn a 14 inch prop. So you’ll get more ground clearance.

Ron: Yeah and that might that might, might work a little bit better for it. But we’ll we’ll see.

Tom: Yeah when all this when this covid thing is all over I’ll, I’ll package it up and I’ll bring it out next time we come out. We’ll kind of look at it and you know maybe we could invert it and put a nice clean cowl on it 3D print. Yeah or something yeah that would be nice the cowl that I have to make.

Ron: For this or that I would have to make for this is is going to be huge I mean it’s like from, from the inside of the propeller to the the actual firewall I mean you’re close to eight eight and a half inches I think. So you know that’s, that’s a lot to make up with a that’s a lot of cowl. Yeah yeah so I don’t know we’ll see once, I said once all this is done and and you come out. Then we’ll we’ll do a little bit more with it and. Now I did find it funny too though that since this the last episode we were talking about receivers and we kind of warned about feedback with, gas motors. Yeah this. Has a lot of feedback and, we’re gonna have to do some some figuring out on that? So every time I went full throttle so my plan actually was to take it and untie it from the golf cart. So that I could actually you know kind of taxi it around the the, the yard and stuff I didn’t have wings on it. Okay but I wanted to be able to taxi it around the yard and stuff just kind of you know see how it how it behaved. But I I couldn’t do that because anytime I went to like half to full throttle for some reason the, the elevator went completely up and the rudder went completely right? Oh yeah that’s not yeah not good at all so as soon as I saw that I was like all right? Well I’m not going to taxi it around or do anything. But I’m yeah I will you know I will run it up and make sure it’s running right,. So I don’t know if it was you know I don’t have anything installed in there yet and it was all just kind of thrown inside the fuselage. So, yeah there might be a little.

Tom: Spektrum is usually pretty good you know about about noise and and rf noise and things like that, you know I’ll be honest when I converted that engine I never actually put it in an airplane I only ever bench ran it and, I mean you’ve seen the video of it that I had on youtube for the longest time. But, yeah if I recall there’s a lot of well in most of these big gas two strokes you know they they do vibrate a lot and they do cause a lot of noise. But yeah if it’s if it’s causing causing you. Know servos to to go full lock like that then. Yeah we definitely would want to investigate that before.

Ron: You risk flying it that’s for sure yeah absolutely and it’s I mean it’s it has everything to do with the running of the motor. Because when the motor would died or when it was off you know going full throttle and all that didn’t change it at all. So when I first saw it I thought well maybe there was a mix in there something with throttle you know somehow, you know a mix with throttle and. Then the other the control surfaces but I was like no way that this is a fresh fresh bind and a fresh model. So that that should not be in there, and then as soon as it was turned off it stopped. So I was. Like okay so it had nothing to do with that it’s feedback we’re done pretty much with with working on it for today. But it is you know it is all together it’s running,. So that’s a plus I did you know we we talked about putting a choke out the front, I could not find any way to to run any sort of, wire out like the front, of a cowl. So I did have to put that on a on a servo oh. Okay that was I mean that’s okay yeah it worked. Okay I I hated losing another channel to that. But there’s just no way there’s no way oh you you mean you ran out of slots on your receiver. Not yet I think I still have one more but I would like to have a couple extras just in case. Okay but yeah so that that’s where I stand on on on that. So yeah when all this does down you can come out and. We’ll look at it and try and figure some stuff out. We’ll look into that. About, any other progress, yeah so my oldest one oh. Well I’m gonna go ahead and try and draw this out a little bit. Then, fair enough I mean not not too much, my oldest kid was talking about wanting to kind of get back into flying and learn to fly a little bit one of his friends wants to oh. Yeah that’s right so I’ve got to go through I have a, an airplane here that hasn’t been touched for several years it’s an old trainer, I don’t remember what it is. But it’s a habaco. Something or another, so I’m gonna have to go through that and and kind of make sure it’s working, the motor on it is it’s a, it’s a nitro motor. But it’s very tight I mean it still spins.

Tom: So is that something I need to worry about or. But maybe, but maybe not if it’s been sitting a while more than likely it’s just gummed up from the the oil that was in the fuel that was probably in it, probably my guess is somebody didn’t put, you know a proper after run oil in the motor, which. We’ll talk about in one of our other episodes but, probably it’s. Okay, it was just probably put away with fuel still in the engine and. Then that fuel the oil that was in it congealed. And it tends to stick parts together when it varnishes. But it’ll come it’ll come clean I’m fairly.

Ron: Confident as you’re running it’ll kind of work itself out. Then yep yeah once you once you fuel.

Tom: It up for the first time you know we’ll pull the plug out of it,. We’ll fuel it up put a little squirt a little fuel on top of the cylinder and, as you turn it over that fuel will sort of dissolve if you will and loosen up that old varnish and and oil and, once that once that loosens up. Yeah you’ll you’ll get some lubrication to the bearings and, it should be it should be.

Ron: Fine I I bet I bet it’s fine okay well that’s good news. Then I won’t have to worry about that, yeah so I I know I’m gonna have to put some packaging tape and stuff on the wings there’s a few holes in it,. Yeah this is one of those this is one of those ugly planes that really is a trainer and if anything happens to it you’re just like eh you know no big deal it’s it’s not a, it’s not going to win any beauty contest or anything. But it’ll do what it needs to do and and hopefully it’ll serve it’s purpose. Yeah hopefully get both of them in the air and and hooked on the. On the hobby kind of like we are, yeah I hope. So other things he’s flown before though yeah it’s been several years he hasn’t, he hasn’t been into it for several years. But I think he’s he’s kind of after hearing the podcast and and seeing all the stuff we’re working on kind of hopefully getting back into it, I think there’s unfortunately whenever you have kids a lot of the times what dad does isn’t cool even if it is cool like this you know kind of thing. So yeah a lot of things skip.

Tom: A generation but we’ll we’ll see how it goes yeah I tried to get I tried to get my kids involved. So many times and the last thing they want to do. Now is look at RC airplanes that’s okay yeah it is I mean.

Ron: You have to have your own thing I guess but it would be nice to to have it be a family a family it would be. But it’d be very cool yeah we’ll see my my youngest you know she’s three. Now and she loves watching me do stuff and she was out watching that airplane running earlier and stuff and asking me when I was going to fly it and all that stuff and I told her. Well not today you know and then she’s like oh that’s awesome she’s a little disappointed. But yeah she’s excited for that kind of stuff so hopefully. We’ll get her in you know maybe in a year or two we can get her some sort of. Like easy to fly either quadcopter or something simple you know she can fly inside the house and learn she’ll be at that age that’d be. So awesome so yep very cool other thing I wanted to ask you on this,, on this little trainer I need to go over. So servos the servos that are in there I don’t know anything about them I I don’t even actually think I’ve ever flown this airplane I don’t even remember where I got it or where it came from,. Okay how okay so if I put receiver in it and put battery in it and all that kind of stuff and the servos work are you pretty much. Okay or should I be concerned. That I know nothing about them and should I just replace them for as cheap as really as you can get.

Tom: Servos, so me personally, if if I if I’m getting an airplane that’s already got servos in it or if I get a you know go to a swap heat not buy a mess of servos or whatever, here’s what I do to test them, I’ll hook up you know a spare receiver to a you know to a fully charged receiver battery I like to use these five cell, nickel metal hydroids I know I know everybody’s using lithium ion. Now anyway, I’ll hook them up to my radio, and I’ll try each servo in every channel of my receiver. And the reason I do that is because, so the proportional channels you know your you know let’s say the gimbals on your transmitter those are proportional. So I’ll run the servo slowly through the entire range of motion of that particular channel and. Then usually when you get to either channel five or six on the Spektrum that’s assigned to the flap switch or the gear switch on the transmitter and on my DX8 I think the flap switch is a three position switch and the gear switch is a two position. So I’ll hook it up on those channels and I’ll run the switch you know one two three or. One two and it’ll make that servo go from full lock one way to full lock the other way and if everything sounds good and everything looks good. Then I’ll put the servos away in a ziploc bag and that way whenever I pull a servo out of that ziploc bag I know that it came from you know a sale or whatever and it has not been in one of my airplanes yet any of the servos that come out of my airplanes I I usually don’t take servos out of my airplanes they usually either you know stay in my airplane or. Yeah they just stay in my airplane, yeah, but anyway when I put them install them into the project I will do a thorough range test range test excuse me with both the engine running and the engine not running or if it’s an electric I’ll you know cycle the power and make sure that. I mean that that’s really all you can do is just test them under conditions like that and even. Then sometimes, it’s never a guarantee a friend of mine, I think it was last summer, had spent a lot of time on a, on a newport kit from balsa usa I think it was a newport. Anyway a big world war one biplane you probably know who I’m talking about, and he had servos that he they were his they he had bought them when they were new. But they were older servos and he had taken them. Out of other airframes or whatever and put them in this new project and range tested it range tested it with the engine running and this was a gasser. So it produced a lot of noise, electronic noise and it passed all of those and. Then once he got it in the air the right aileron servo, I can’t remember if it if it went full lock or if it was just going nuts,. But eventually he got the airplane back but it was a it was a bad servo and we had done everything we could to test it ahead of time and it passed all. Those tests so unfortunately you know you never know for sure a hundred percent. But generally speaking if if if a servo will pass a static test you know we’re just with the radio on the bench and. Then also a test a dynamic test let’s call it with the engine running and everything as if you were getting ready to fly it nine times out of. Well 10 you know 99 times out of 100 it’s probably going to be. Okay yeah I hope it’s better than 90 percent yeah. So I mean you’re you’re never going. To be 100 sure but in a case like this with with it’s an old trainer plane and you’re already not you care about it a little. But not a lot, if it passes if these servos pass those two tests.

Ron: You’re fine okay yeah I’ll have to try and do that also in the next couple weeks. Yeah yep and I mean.

Tom: You can do you can do the same thing with receivers you can do you know with with receiver battery packs. They’re going to fail when they fail you know sometimes they’re not going to give you any.

Ron: Kind of warning you know I’m saying yeah and sometimes it doesn’t even matter if they’re brand.

Tom: New exactly I was just getting ready to say that. Yeah I do understand that it’s unfortunate but.

Ron: Okay well that’s good at least I know what to look for when I when I start to go over that one. Yeah.

Tom: Yeah and and when you when you run them through the test you just listen you know you want to listen for any weird grinding or any clicking especially like clicking is the first you know as it’s running through it’s motions if you hear a clicking noise coming from the servo. Yeah just just throw that servo away or buy a new gear set for that servo if you can,. Yeah because those gears are just plastic so most of them. Yeah yeah I mean there’s a lot of metal gear servos out there. Now but, yeah plastic plastic gears they will definitely make a clicking noise to tell you that,.

Ron: Hey we need some attention yeah but I I understand I mean I I get there’s a lot of the metal ones. But usually those are going to be bought, you know for a specific purpose and. Then you’re not going to find a lot of those on these older, airplanes that you get like at swap meets or something like that which might actually be where this came from I wish I could remember where I got this I do not remember where it came from,. But yeah so I I like said I don’t know anything about where that one came from and it’s it’s old. So I’m sure it’s going to be just a plastic gear. So yeah yeah just. Listen when they’re when they’re moving they’ll tell you okay? Okay so I think that is all that I have. So now I turn it over to you it is your turn finally tommy all right what did you get done this week. So nothing no I’m just teasing, oh we’re out of time guys sorry gotta go.

Tom: No I got some more work done on the horton kit boy I’ll be glad when I’m when I’m done with it. Because I’m so excited about the dualist project I’ll be honest,. But anyway I did that I did hold.

Ron: On I I do want to interrupt so that’s the only problem with this dualist thing I thought that would be something kind of fun for us to build together. But I think you’re going to be too excited and you’re going to have it completely finished by the time we’re off this lockdown thing and. Then that’s what you’re saying so that that’s my only concern. Because we still have what, it looks like, almost three weeks left on the on the official lockdown unless it’s extended. But you know who knows I don’t know how it’s going. Now so within three weeks you will probably have everything ordered you need you’re going to get your wood delivered and. Then it’s going to be. Sitting there and you’re going to be like well I’m just going to put this together and. Then you’re.

Tom: Going to be well no no no no I I have I have made a deal with myself I AM not starting any projects until I AM done with this until I’m done with my part of this horton project and to be honest I’m not. Exactly sure when my part is done and in the oh the aircraft owners part begins I’m still a little fuzzy on that. But anyway okay yeah I promise there might be some hope I will not start another project until this thing’s done, and speaking of this thing, I did get the. Left, sorry the right wing panel I get confused because this thing is built upside down the right panel is all sheeted, I have that the servo access hatches cut and fitted I have the drag rudder installation done I just need to once I cut the sheeting away to expose the the pocket I just have the linkage to run and the push rods to make I have the control surfaces cut away from the wing and I have the aileron hinged, with the freeze style, hinges if anyone remembers the frustrations with. That on the last one on the other wing panel,. So I made I did make some progress and I’m hoping to make,,. But by the end of this weekend by sunday night I’m hoping to have all of the surfaces hinged and hopefully a good start on the finishing of the drag rudders and. Then when that’s done then I can give both panels a good sanding, final sanding I’ve got a few little dings and some mismatch,, sections that I need to kind of smooth out with a little with a little putty. But hopefully, next week I can have these panels ready to mate with the center section for the very first time and with the lockdown that’s going on I’m not sure how that’s going to happen. Because the center section isn’t here it’s at the aircraft owner’s house. So hold on aren’t you making my.

Ron: Point that you’re going to be finished with this you’re going to have all the wood for the doula.

Tom: Sitting there and nothing on your desk well I’m not going to lie I AM going to probably have the wood ordered for the for the doula’s projects, right I’ll probably have it ordered honestly if not tomorrow probably sunday, and. Yeah I’ve got the plan sitting here and it’s very very difficult to not clean off this this mess of a bench I’ve got and lay those plans up here on my building table.

Ron: But I’m resisting well maybe you can just go ahead and build yours. And then when all this is over you know you can come out and help me build mine.

Tom: Okay so I’ll work through the kinks first whatever okay all right? Now we’ll see we’ll see what happens I really really want to finish this, this horn project though. Because it is a neat it has been fun to build. But I’m I’m I’m ready to be done with it. Yeah it’ll be nice to kind of get it,.

Ron: Get it off your desk and move on to something else. Yeah so and I’d like to do some flying sometime.

Tom: Soon too but now I’m working you know where I’m working. Now, through this, the covid response here I’m seven days with no days off. So I don’t I don’t have as much time as I had you know last.

Ron: Week when I was working at home yeah that’s seven days with no days off. But that’s not just one week that’s multiple weeks in a row. So it’s not like you just yeah it’s not like you’re just on for seven days you’re on for two three weeks at a time who knows yet. So yeah I think yeah I think my,.

Tom: My orders, I think they’re they’re cut all the way through the 29th of this month I think. So.

Ron: Yes it’s gonna be that for a while yeah so this is friday the 10th that we’re recording this. So yeah you, you still have, 19 days looks like. So almost three weeks right just just to make you feel better three weeks. Thanks I appreciate that way to go, yeah so that’s cool have you have.

Tom: Anything else, I did actually manage on the, on the other project that I started before this one before the horton, the, the linear invader I did I did get it finished it’s it’s actually ready for paint I decided to paint it and I think I I think I may have mentioned last time that I was going to go for a kind of, vietnam camo. Yeah, so it’s ready for paint all the installation all the stuff is done, everything has been taken back out of the airframe, in preparation for paint. So. Yeah when I get some time I’m going to probably go to lowe’s or menards and find some latex paint that, that looks about the right color and. Then, and then spray it with my detail gun and.

Ron: And then come back and put a clear over it, that’ll be nice I’m looking forward to that one too.

Tom: I AM too I, it looks like it’s a really neat looking airplane I I mean for being a plastic.

Ron: Molded fuselage it looks it looks kind of cool yeah. So okay so you have that one I know you’re working on a sop with camel too. So how many projects now why why did you have to mention that. So how many projects are you in the middle of I’m just curious. Because I know what I’m in the middle of and I I’ll tell you if you want to know, all right? But what what are you what are.

Tom: You in the middle of okay so I’ve got the horton project, the linear is invader is almost done. But that’s you know that’s a project it’s not finished I do have a an old vk kit a sop with camel that I’ve been working on for I’m gonna say years. Okay, I think I started actually building the thing about five years ago,. But it’s such a it’s such a pretty kit, I almost hate to cover it if anybody’s familiar with vk and proctor enterprises, their kits are museum quality, most of them and they. They’re just beautiful to look at with no covering on them,. But that I mean that’s the excuse I’d like to say why it’s not covered. But it’s not covered because I’m lazy to be honest. Well do you.

Ron: Think you’re ever going to actually cover it too covered or do you think you want to might leave or you might want to leave that one open and actually have it be just like a display thing.

Tom: Oh no I want to fly it I mean I’ve spent too much money on on the running gear it has a sato.

Ron: Three-cylinder radial did I mention that yeah see that’s what I I want to hear that run. So I’m I’m excited for that but my excitement has kind of dwindled over the last several years.

Tom: Right, but no so so I’ve got that project and. Then, and then I got an email from somebody who was listening to us that,, kind of sparked an interest in another project that I had actually kind of forgotten about I’ve got a house of balsa, p51 it’s a combat mustang it’s a half a sized mustang, that I I should probably I mean it’s almost finished I mean I just have to put some trim on it and,. Well probably now I have to replace a battery because it’s been in this state for probably. 10 years, but anyway that’s that’s it it’s just those it’s just those four everything else I have.

Ron: Is flyable what’s half a size because I I remember seeing that one like when I walked down there and?

Tom: It’s pretty small from what I remember it is yep. Yeah so half a refers to you know honestly I don’t know what half a means. But it was a it was a a term that was used to describe anything that was kind of powered by a cox 049. So we’re talking 0.049 cubic inches yeah, so that was kind of in in what we called the half a class maybe somebody can send us an email and say hey half a meant this,. But but it refers generally speaking to a very very small size, airframe and these particular airplanes. They were designed for combat you know they were I think they were designed for two channel. Because cox, 049s, didn’t have a throttle so you basically had elevator and rudder and you you actually tied streamers to the back of these things and you could either combat them, they made several they made an messerschmitt I think 109, they made the p51 there was a chipmunk that was part of this, scale,. But yeah they were they were just small airplanes designed for for two channels. Mine has three I put a, a 10 an os 10 fp in it,. So it has throttle and I did away with the rudder and I went with the ailerons oh I can see that. Yeah that makes sense yeah so and one of these days, you know it wouldn’t take much to finish it honestly in fact I could probably replace the battery. Now fuel it up and I could probably fly it as it is it’s completely covered it just doesn’t have any trim or markings or anything like that on it. Yeah I just it sticks out in my mind of being.

Ron: Small and like not decorated so that makes sense and if. Yeah if it’s just perfect sense yeah yeah so that’s why I just remember almost hitting my head on it when I walked down there. So that’s yeah that’s why I think that one sticks out. So much right but yeah it’s interesting yeah I really need to do.

Tom: Something about my airplane storage situation because yeah I hit my head on the on the poor kristin eagle down there, you know transitioning between my shop and the laundry room,. Yeah that poor airplane’s got more hanger rash than than most of my other ones. Yeah well that which speaking of the kristin eagle I I ordered a battery for it. So, I was I was at one time thinking of converting it back to glow. But, I bit the bullet and ordered a battery cool where’d you get that. So I’m almost ashamed to admit it I’m a cheapskate, I ordered that battery and. So just real quick, I was going through all my batteries you know getting ready for the flying season you know going through airframes and batteries and I discovered that most of my lipo batteries, due to neglect on my part and not storing them properly, had gone off and gone off I mean they didn’t explode. But, most of them wouldn’t take a charge, most well all of them were puffy. So I decided you know? What yeah I’ve had these batteries a while I’m just gonna go ahead and replace them, these little three cell 2100s are cheap enough from hobby king,? So anyway I ordered a bunch of batteries and I.

Ron: Ordered them from hobby king I went the cheap yeah I don’t see anything wrong with that I mean that’s where I’ve gotten a lot of mine before and they they have been good batteries for me. Yeah I I to be.

Tom: Completely frank, I have knock on wood I have not had any issues whatsoever with any of the batteries that I’ve bought from hobby king. Now I will say I’ve had several issues with servos that I’ve bought from there. But I mean when you’re paying two dollars for a servo I mean you gotta kind of expect that.

Ron: Yeah whenever I buy like the nine gram servos from them I I I double up I figure on one being bad for.

Tom: Every one that I I use yeah and the one and the one issue I think I mentioned in the,. Transmitter episode I think it was, about going cheap on the receivers I did go cheap on the receiver once and it came from hobby king it was one of those orange ones, and that’s the one that you know ultimately caused the demise of that of that pretty red and yellow extra,. So but aside from that it.

Ron: Operated flawlessly until that flight that wasn’t that wasn’t an extra was it what’s that that wasn’t an extra was I thought that was an edge was that the one that you got from me. Yeah it was yeah okay?

Tom: I I get the two confused I’m sorry but yeah it was the it was the red and yellow edge. Yeah I do too I really like that airplane I miss I did too I’d love to find another one that was a great flying airplane.

Ron: You know it’s amazing actually the more we talk the more you know you always talk about I never crash I never crash. But you’ve gone through a lot of planes like that.

Tom: I mean let’s because I’ve been doing it for such a long time oh maybe that’s it. Okay so in the last 10 years I’ll just put it out there in the last 10 years, five airplanes of mine have crashed and you notice I said five airplanes of mine I didn’t say I crashed five airplanes only one of those really was pilot error the other ones were equipment failure does that include the one of mine. You wrecked yes okay pizza box yeah yes it includes that one. Okay I’ll I’ll give you that one not being.

Ron: Your fault but I will also say that all the times I’ve flown it which was a lot I never had a problem. Thanks that doesn’t make me feel any better well no that’s fine. But I’m not blaming you good because I don’t feel guilty. Well you shouldn’t it was like a dollar fifty worth of foam. Yeah but no I’m okay so you’ve got five I’m trying to go through and I don’t remember and maybe I’m blocking them out you know purposefully not remembering things. But I can only think of like two or three in the last 10 years that I’ve gone through oh man. Yeah I can remember every single.

Tom: One in the last 10 years mostly because they were. So painful because they were such nice airplanes.

Ron: Yeah see I remember, I don’t remember what it was. But that that one I got from you that we talked about before that I I crashed. Because, it didn’t behave the same way I expected it to the katana thank you there was that one, I know I crashed a super sportster and that was completely my fault, when I was flying at home, before I moved the the runway to where it is. Now it was a lot closer to where you literally had to land, probably within 20 feet in order to get. Stopped, before you literally were flying right into a row of trees and I didn’t get stopped and landed when I was supposed to and I overshot the runway a little bit and went into the trees and it just it folded the wings in half, that’s the the the fuselage I have the the tail end of it hanging up in my dining room you know you know that one yes yes the decorative wall art piece I can’t believe I put that up as a joke and that’s been like seven years ago I know it’s funny. I know I keep expecting like my wife to yell at me and be like why is that still there. But she is so cool she hasn’t said a word about it maybe she doesn’t see it anymore I don’t know. Because I guess I don’t really pay much attention to it either it’s been there. So long that you just don’t see it anymore but. Yeah so those is that is that all I all I can really think of actually I’m sure.

Tom: There’s there’s been more but, yeah we can’t really count the you know don’t don’t count the foamies that aren’t really crashes you know when you door come in and you put a piece of tape on and you fly it again that’s not really a crash we’re talking about crashes where you’ve destroyed an airplane to the point where it’s a major rework to to get it going again. Well even like that that.

Ron: First, that first airplane I ever had that the three-channel, super cub even when I got rid of that it was still on the original fuselage and original wing I mean I never I never messed that one up badly, I mean we we we know some people that have folded those in half and stuff on landing and stuff. But I never did, so I I don’t I don’t know of oh god I’m sure there’s other ones. But I can’t think of anything else so your your number is much higher than mine. Yeah well I mean I’m going back 10. Years so well me too because that’s I mean that’s that’s since I started the hobby. Yeah I mean you’ve only been in for 12 not even no eight. Because I started in 2012 and it’s 2020 now so. So that’s.

Tom: Pretty good your entire career that’s pretty good but your entire career is eight years my entire career.

Ron: Is well more than that yeah but you’re only talking 10 years? So I don’t know but I mean if we were going.

Tom: By careers then you know then you’re double digits percentage wise. Yeah I think I’m in pretty good.

Ron: Shape but anyway yeah well yeah you do fly a lot of other people’s stuff too I mean they come to you.

Tom: A lot to to have them and I will say I feel pretty good about the fact that, none of the crashes in the last 10 years have been I think I did crash one of the club members, maybe maybe I’ll have to revisit that. But anyway, yeah generally speaking yeah I’ve been I’ve been pretty good, got a pretty.

Ron: Good record with club member airplanes which is good yeah and I I’ll I’ll give you mine, to maiden most of the time too I’m I I think one reason I don’t I don’t want to say crash. But one reason I don’t crash as much or have as many problems I’m very careful when I fly and what I fly if it’s you know if if if there’s anything just a little bit too wrong or. Yeah if it’s too windy or something like that I I won’t do it you know I’m not I’m not. So gung-ho that I have to go out and take chances. When I know I shouldn’t so that’s that’s probably one that you are very cautious? Yeah yeah that’s probably one thing that’s helped me before too I mean there’s a lot of times. We’ll go out to the field and stuff and you’ll be like here you want to fly this plane I’m like no and you’re like you’re fine you can do it and you know you’re not going to crash it and I’m just like no that’s. Okay it’s yours yeah have at it you know I don’t like flying other people’s stuff either. So yeah just because I would feel bad if I did something. Then I would have to you know feel like I owe them another airplane and have to go replace it and if it’s not an airplane I would buy for myself I definitely don’t want to.

Tom: Buy it for somebody else yeah no I I understand it and you know it’s I don’t I don’t experience, I don’t want to say no guilt you know when I fly other folks airplanes. But usually it’s, it’s usually somebody I know really well and either I’ve done some work on that particular airplane or I know in my head that if I don’t fly it it’s not going to make it back in one piece. Yeah if that makes sense yeah I understand, and I’m not bragging I’m not I’m not like an expert pilot or anything like that. But we do have some of our older club members, that, you know they you know let’s just say their reflexes may not be what they used to and on a on a maiden you know you you want to be pretty.

Ron: Sharp yeah you gotta you gotta be ready for whatever’s going to happen right? So I’m still.

Tom: Young enough to where I still have some some reflexes left. So there yeah I had to laugh because.

Ron: In those pictures we posted online I did okay so the pictures we posted online when I when I when I went through and was looking at them all I saw in most of the pictures there were your cheater glasses sitting right on the table. Yep yep yeah so I I laughed a little bit at that when I was like oh.

Tom: He’s getting old yep busted but yeah yeah so I I wear contact lenses. But in order to see you know detail up close. Yeah I’ve got I’ve got my cheaters so yeah so contacts and glasses that’s great yes.

Ron: Yes yes oh well I I just looked at the clock and we’re going on, around an hour and I was not planning on I was not planning on doing that at all tonight I was thinking we’d be over in about 20.

Tom: Minutes or so so we have that’s good I mean I think I I think I got I think I got all the updates and.

Ron: You got me all sidetracked on all my projects so, this was fun though I enjoyed this, anything else you want to you want to talk about or cover before we we say goodbye nope no I think I think that.

Tom: Pretty much, covers everything we’ve got accomplished here this week all right good deal.

Ron: Then, we’re going to get busy on some more stuff and hopefully have, more to report next week and, until. Then, I’m Ron and I’m Tom goodbye goodbye we hope you enjoyed this episode of the rc.

Announcer: Planelab podcast for topic suggestions to ask questions or to give any feedback connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either Ron at rcplanelab.com or Tom at rcplanelab.com you can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe rate and review us on your favorite podcast app until next time may your landings be gentle.