World War I
Golden Age
Walter Spilis: "The Rex Scout has flown. Only incident was a motor problem (timing). Found out she really slows down in a glide. Stalled her about two feet off of the ground. Remarkably she stalled wings level and dropped her nose. Minor bending of landing gear that was it! Used an E-flight 400 4200kv in runner, E-flight stick mount gear box 6.6:1 ratio, 2000 3S1P Li-poly and a 11x7 E-flight slow flier prop."
BEN BENJAMIN: "Power is an MP Jet AC 25/35-20 with a 4-1 gearbox and a Master Airscrew 12-8 wood electric prop. An APC would be a bit more efficient, but the MA looks great sanded down and stained antique brown. I am using a 3S1P 1500 mAh Kokam LiPo and my new Airtronics RD8000 radio. I needed three ounces of nose weight even with the relatively large LiPo, but the airplane does not mind at all.
Covering is a double layer of dyed silkspan. The markings are from AerodromeRC files, computer printed onto white silkspan and doped in place. Finish is non-tautening nitrate clear dope from Aerodyne. The Vickers gun is scratch built from odd shop scraps.
I included full working closed loop cable controls on the rudder and elevator. IMHO, nothing else looks right on a vintage airplane.
I had her out for some exercise yesterday and fine-tuned everything. At least in the case of my airplane some pretty heavy exponential on elevator and aileron helps keep everything smooth...in any event she flies really World War I scale."
Al
CLARK :
"I
purchased your 1/8 scale Sopwith Pup kit last December. After 5 months of off
and on building, I finally got her finished, and test flew her this afternoon.
After some adjustments to the controls and waiting out a few rain showers, she
was flying very nicely. Speed is pretty close to scale, and the motor has plenty
of extra power when needed. It was overcast today plus we have smoke in the air
from the Florida and Georgia fires (Spring 2007), so not the best conditions for
photos. I'll take some more when we get some sun. It looks great flying overhead
with the light coming through the covering. My flying buddy took some airborne
shots which I will send in a separate e-mail.
My Pup ended up weighing
29.8 ozs, including 2.7 ozs. of lead in the cowl for balance, although I might
be removing a little of that because I think it's just a tad nose heavy now. So
that gives a 7.7 wing loading - very nice for scale speeds. I am using the following
equipment in my Pup:
- E-Flite Park 450 outrunner motor
- Castle Creations Thunderbird 18 ESC
- Thunderpower 3S 2100 mah Li-Po battery with Deans Ultra connectors
-
APC 11 x 3.8 prop with ends rounded to scale shape
-
Spektrum DX7 radio with AR6100 Microlite RX
- Hitec HS-55 servos throughout
- Covered with Coverlite (applied using SIG Stix-It) and 2 coats of SIG Litecoat dope thinned 50/50
- Silver is Pactra Aerogloss dope
- Roundels made from Solite and ironed on. Tail stripes (red and blue) also from Solite and ironed on over the white Coverlite.
- Lettering is home-brewed on the computer using Microsoft Word and Powerpoint and printed onto Inkjet waterslide decal paper.
I made a spar carry-through for the lower wings so that the top wing didn't have to carry their load. I added a few items to enhance the scale fidelity including the "egg crate" structure on the forward fuselage sides under the covering, cable operated tail controls, and wire rigging. Doors on front fuse side panels are put on with a Sharpie marker. Engine is fake and is from a photograph printed out and glued onto a 1/8 thick balsa plate which is attached to the cowl.
I
get a nice long run using the E-Flite Park 450 and 3S 2100 battery, at least 10
-12 minutes (still had battery left when I quit so it's likely closer to 15 minutes)
since most of the time I am using 1/2 throttle. The Park 450 has a nice power
range and at full throttle will nearly haul the Pup straight up. It's nice to
have that extra power if you get caught low and slow! But it is perfectly happy
running at 1/3 to 1/2 throttle which gives a nice scale-like speed.
The
Pup is quite well behaved and not at all sensitive to the controls. In fact I
ended up increasing the control throws. It has a fair amount of adverse yaw, which
I expected, and I have mixed rudder with the ailerons to correct that. I haven't
gotten it to spin yet, but that's probably due to my balance point being a little
far forward. Loop, rolls, and hammerheads are no problem.
I
just returned from my second test flying session with the Pup. I moved the balance
point aft quite a bit to 3.25" from the LE on the top wing. By my calculations
that puts the plane's balance point at 28%. She handles and flies much better
now, taking a lot less back stick and less power for slow flight. The landings
are easier now since you don't have to maintain as much throttle to keep the nose
up. I could not get her to spin before, but now she will, although I had to increase
the rudder throw to the maximum allowed and increase the elevator throw some more.
Even with the increased control throws on the tail she is still quite docile handling
and easy to fly. I should also mention that I have mixed in a fair amount of rudder
with the ailerons to counteract the adverse yaw, which was expected since most
of the older planes have a lot of adverse yaw.
I believe the balance
point could be moved even further aft to 30% or 32% with no problem, which would
make spins even easier, but then I would have to add tail weight! As it is, I
have no nose weight and the all-up weight is now an amazing 27.2 ozs, giving a
7.0 wing loading. Very nice for scale-like flying speeds
I spend most
of the time at 1/3 to 1/2 throttle and have found that the 3S 2100mah battery
will last a long time, around 27 minutes if I run it all the way down. So, even
with more touch and goes and higher throttle settings the flight times with this
battery should be at least 20 minutes, which is really nice.
I have built
more than 120 RC models since 1971 and this is one of the most pleasant to fly
models of all. Really a lot of fun and being scale adds a lot to those low, slow
passes and overhead passes with the sun shining through the covering. Thanks for
going to the trouble of kitting it!
John Oshust : "How about the Russian variant of the Sopwith Triplane???"
Gary Ritchie: "This SPAD VII was built from Kay Bengtson's AerodromeRC short kit. I covered it with two layers of doped silkspan and painted it with Benjamin Moore latex paint matched to authentic French WWI colors. It is patterned after the SPAD VII flown by Lt. Decaix of Escadrille Spa.150. Lt. Decaix, as unit commander, painted his vertical stabilizer with a checkerboard pattern. The unit marking of Spa.150 was the Condor. All markings, roundels and details were hand painted. The kit is powered with an E-Flite 450 brushless outrunner, E-Flite 20-Amp controller, Cellpro-3s 1,500 mAh lithium polymer battery and a 12x6 propeller. The power system draws 14.1 amps and generates 132 watts of power. The aircraft weighs only 28 ounces. Kay has hit another home run with this gorgeous little warbird!"
Walter Spilis: "The Spad VII uses the Ultrafly A/30/24 brushless motor on the Olympus gear box swinging a 10x4.7 slow flyer."
Tom (evdo on RC groups): "I went with the Axi 2826/8, 12x8 APC, 3s4200 lipo, AUW was around 60oz with the bigger lipos and cowl/firewall extensions. I maidened it this morning and wow what a great flier. I didn't want to push the 2826 too much w/ the 12x8 but even at half throttle it flew with authority. I didn't even have any issues with the wheel pants on landing (which typically happens on our grass field) All in all it's a very stable design with great performance. Thanks for the tips and information from everyone, also thanks to Jim Young who was kind enough to share his decal files from his beautiful '44. It does make a very odd sound at higher throttle settings due to air through the dummy engine. It's not a bad sound, just an interesting one that is clearly air beating through the dummy engine and out/around the cowl venting.
Brian Williams
