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January 2012
Volume 2, Issue 1
Special Expanded New Years Edition
2
3
IN THIS ISSUE
Carl Goldberg -
Mr Modeling by Rich Kacmarsky
Mouse Racing
Part 1 by Paul Gibeault
Ernst Udet’s
BF-109 Racer
by Rich Kacmarsky
The Little Brother
Across the Pond
By Den Saxcoburg
Kids Having Fun
By David Nyce
What’s Happening Down Under
by Warren Leadbeatter
Our Readers Models
October 2011
Volume 1, Issue 4
Page 4
Page 23
Page 17
Page 15
Page 7
Page 25
From the Editor
With this issue we
launch the second year
of the Half A Flyer, and
it is jam packed with great reading.
For starters we learn about Carl
Goldberg, a member of model
aviation‟s Hall of Fame and the creator of many iconic designs.
A model of the famous Udet 1937
Messerschmitt racer shows that scale
aircraft don‟t have to be big to
contain loads of detail.
For those feeling the need for speed Paul Gibeault starts a three part
series on mouse racing.
And David Nyce writes about his
project to bring control line flying to a
great bunch of kids. Read this one
well. If we don‟t bring the youngsters into the hobby, there won‟t be much
left of control line in a few years.
Just look at the ages of the people
you see in the magazines if you doubt that!
And finally we have a plans feature
and reports from our colleagues in
the UK and Australia. Enjoy!
- Rich
On the Cover:
Carl Goldberg, model builder and model manufacturer
The Half A Flyer is published quarterly in January,
April, July, and October by Black Hawk Models. Copies are available in print and electronically. For
subscriptions or to place an ad contact Larry Rice at
[email protected] or call (562) 728-5661
Page 12
Page 19
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Carl Goldberg - Mr Modeling By
Rich Kacmarsky
Dubbed “Mr. Modeling,” by American
Modeler magazine, Carl stands as the
shining example of the expert model designer and builder who successfully
turned his passion for his hobby into
a successful career. Yet unlike many
of the other legends of model
aviation whose manufacturing and marketing efforts overshadowed their
modeling pursuits, Carl never lost his
enthusiasm and remained an active
participant in the hobby he loved.
Like many of his contemporaries, Carl
began building airplanes as a boy.
His first effort at age 13 did not fly. He saw this as a challenge rather
than a defeat and proceeded to
design a better ship – an attitude
that he exhibited throughout his life.
Two years later he flew a single propeller pusher for about 65 feet.
In 1928 he attended the Nationals
flying a twin pusher and received an
honorable mention for his efforts. From then on there was no stopping
him and Carl participated in every
Nats thereafter until his death.
Taking an interest in the indoor models that he saw at the Nats, Carl
devoted his designing and building
talents in this area. Several years
later, he was rewarded with a first place in this difficult event at the
1934 Nats. Carl‟s open class C indoor
record plane posted a duration of 23
minutes and 29.3 seconds.
Never a showman like Jim Walker,
Carl let his innovative designs speak
for him. In 1930, he introduced
polyhedral wings to replace the
traditional vee-dihedral universally
used up to that point in model
airplanes. 1931 found Carl attending the University of Wisconsin. To earn
money, he founded a business selling
microfilm solution, rubber lubricant,
and brown rubber via mail order. He also designed and sold two 10-inch
all-balsa models.
Carl left college in 1934 and moved to Chicago where he opened a small
hobby shop with his Mother‟s
assistance. Although now in the
workplace, he remained devoted to his model building. Continuing his
interest in indoor models, Carl
became expert in creating microfilm
planes and in 1937 was the national
indoor champion flying three-gram rubber-powered models.
During the summer of 1935, Carl became one of the founders of the
Central Gas Model Plane Society and
also formed the Chicago Aeronuts
club. In an era when modelers tended to be secretive about their
designs and techniques, Carl was an
advocate for the sharing of any
information that promoted the hobby. He was an experimenter and
The Zipper
5
innovator and happily taught others
how to get more out of their efforts.
Carl did not display the flamboyant
personality associated with other
notables of our hobby, and it was his
models that took the limelight. In 1936, he designed the Valkyrie. This
10-foot wingspan free flight was his
first gas-powered model and
introduced the widespread use of a pylon-mounted wing. Carl credits the
concept to Alvin Anderson, but he is
the one who popularized the design
through his series of beautiful models that ultimately replaced free flight
cabin models. Interestingly, one can
still find disagreement today between
those advocating performance-
oriented pylon mounted wings and those promoting more scale-like
cabin designs.
In 1939 after several years running
his hobby shop, Carl became the chief designer for Comet Models. He
worked at Comet for six years and
produced a series of successful
designs such as the Clipper and the record-breaking Zipper free flights
plus several control line designs. It
was noted that Carl‟s designs always
looked as good as they flew. During World War II, Comet contributed to
the war effort. Carl designed and
developed a classroom wind tunnel
and also made the plans and kits used by modelers to create
identification models used for
training. They also made the master
patterns for the black plastic-injected identification models that were used
for at U.S. bases around the world.
1945 saw Carl start the American
Hobby Specialties company along with Mike Schlesinger and Sid
Axelrod. Their main product was the
line of Top Flite and Power Prop gas
model propellers. This prompted the eventual change of the company
name to Top Flite Models. During his
tenure there, Carl created the Zing,
Cumulus, Trainer, Glo-Bug, and Rascal. He also launched the famous
series of Jig Time beginner kits.
With a good deal of deserved success
and recognition now under his belt, Carl went into business for himself in
1955 with the opening of Carl
Goldberg Models. With the help of
his family, he started with a line of inexpensive sheet balsa kits and
expanded his line of kits to include
such well known designs as the
Blazer, Ranger, and Swordsman 18. By 1960 his company had fallen on
hard times when in true Carl
Goldberg fashion, he turned things
around with another successful design, the famous Shoestring
Carl and one of his original Zippers in 1963
6
Stunter. His company grew from
then on offering such noteworthy
planes as the Falcon 56, Senior Falcon, Eaglet, Eagle, Sky Tiger, and
Junior Tiger.
Carl moved to California in 1976 for a well-deserved retirement, but still
kept in contact with the company.
He remained involved in all of the
new product developments and personally designed, built and test
flew the prototypes for the Gentle
Lady two-meter sailplane. Carl
followed this by obtaining a full-scale glider pilot‟s license in 1981.
Carl‟s contributions to model aviation
cannot be overstated. His designs
are still being produced today and his
ideas, willingness to help others, and humility in giving others credit for his
own success are legendary. So too
are some of the stories surrounding
Carl‟s competitive exploits.
Dave Thornberg relates such a story
from 1938. “Carl Goldberg, after
winning indoor again, came skipping onto the Wayne County field just 10
minutes before the final bell in open
gas. He had under his arm a curious
little plane with a Dennymite up front. It looked dangerously
overpowered. According to legend,
the design came about as the result
of a bet that he couldn‟t fly “60-60” – a .60 engine in a 60-inch airplane.
The Dennymite was only a .46, but
the model had just 46-inches of wing.
If it flew, he’d win the bet with 10
inches to spare. For reasons that
soon became obvious, Goldberg
dubbed the final version of the
strange-looking airplane the Zipper.” Model Airplane News magazine
editor, Charlie Grant continues the
story. “One of the most remarkable
flights was made by a little six-foot
model which literally tore off the ground and spiraled itself vertically
upward at an angle of about 60 to
80-degrees. Actually, it acted like a
helicopter, the propeller pulling it nearly vertically. It climbed to an
elevation of about 600 feet before the
motor cut.” Carl won his bet!
Charles I. Kilvans remembers Carl for
his mentoring skills. “I remember
him most as a teacher. We would
meet in the Gage Park Field House
regularly before being caught in the draft (for World War II). Either the
members were too young or had
exemptions, which soon ran out. At
the time, Carl was married and probably over age. He would start
the meeting with an aerodynamics
lesson then we would have a low
ceiling hand-launch glider contest with the winner receiving good balsa
wood (a rare commodity during the
war years - RJK). You had to throw
the glider so it flew in the rafters without hitting. Over 22 seconds
usually won.”
In 1960, Goldberg Vikings planes
swept free flight gas at the Nats
Carl launching his Valkyrie
7
being held that year in Dallas, Texas.
This feat was repeated in 1961 at the
Nats in Pennsylvania. One Viking returned to earth via dethermailzer at
7:10 in the evening following a noon
launch – a flight of over seven hours
in the stormy Pennsylvania skies! Another Viking, flown by Carl‟s son
Bob, tied for first in class A Free
Flight with a perfect 15 minute flight.
It is no surprise that in 1968 Carl
Goldberg was the first inductee into
the AMA Hall of Fame. The purpose
of the Model Aviation Hall of Fame is to highlight outstanding leaders of
the hobby and their contributions to
model aviation, and Carl certainly
deserved this recognition.
In July of 1981, Carl underwent
open-heart surgery. One of the things
we take for granted today, the
testing of donated blood, was not being done in those days and Carl
acquired an HIV infection during a
transfusion. Although he battled the
disease for 4 years, he finally passed away on January 21, 1985 and a
great designed, teacher, and
competitor was gone.
Mouse Racing - Part 1
By Paul Gibeault
It is the purpose of AMA Class 1
Mouse Racing to fly up to 3 models in
direct competition in 50-lap
preliminary heat races leading up to a 100-lap feature (final) race. A
minimum of 1 refueling pit stop is
required in the heat(s) & 2 pit stops
in the final. The winners are those with the best scores (times) in the
feature race. The engine requirement
allows any reed valve engine with an
integral tank. This means 99% of
racers use some form of a Cox Black Widow .049. It has always been a
favorite of mine because no
machining equipment is required to
be competitive.
There is no restriction on aircraft type
other than it must be able to take off
from the ground (ROG) with a fixed
landing gear. It's cheap to fly but oddly enough, cubic dollars have little
to do with how you place in
Carl Goldberg in 1975
Happy mouse race finalists from the 2010 Northwest Regional C/L Championships. L-R: Mac Ryan & Todd Ryan (Team Ryan), Paul Gibeault (aka Mr. Mouse), John Thompson & Mike Hazel (The Nitroholics)
8
competition. The deceptively simple
looking Cox .049 engine has been
known to stump even the most experienced modelers, causing great
frustration. The following article
represents much of what I have
learned in my 35+ years of competition in this event. It is my
hope that those wanting to fly with
high performance Cox reed valve
engines will find it useful. We will
start with the engine.
Crankshaft & Crankcase Assembly
Problem: When pushed really hard Cox .049's are prone to breaking the
crankshaft. Usually the crank pin
parts company from the crank throw
web.
Solutions: The use of the Cox “race
car” crankcase assembly reduces this problem as the crank throw web is
noticeably thicker on these variants;
but they are noticeably slower so
that's not so good. Davis Diesel cranks can work BUT you really must
bench run them first! The reason is
due to tolerance mis-matching, many
DDD cranks run very slow & give
very poor starting & running
characteristics. It's a real gamble.
The safest bet is to use Cox “Killer
Bee” cranks, for greatest longetivity & speed. However there is one
provision. You must use a 5-40 prop
stud screwed all the way into the
crankshaft. You will then need a Cox (or equivalent) spinner to hold the
prop on. If you use the standard 1"
Cox prop screw, the crank will shear
off at the spines later on down the road. The fitting of a prop stud
seems to have cured the crank
shearing problem (see photo).
Using a modified crankcase with a
bronze sleeve bearing in the
crankcase is a gamble. Unless the clearance honing is perfect, it can be
noticeably slower than stock. My
experience has shown that Cox's hard
anodizing makes for a very good bearing surface, and so the stock
Killer Bee or Venom set up is more
than adequate. It‟s a good idea to
lay some 400 wet/dry sandpaper over a piece of glass, and with the addition
of some oil sand the back of the
crankcase. This will remove any burrs
The recommended prop stud attach method for Killer Bee crankshafts
The Cox Silver Bee, Golden Bee, Black Widow, and Venom (shown with Galbreath head) can all be made to work well in AMA Class 1 mouse racing - keep engines
pristinely clean for maximum power and reliability
9
that might otherwise prevent a
perfect seal with the fuel tank. It's
also useful to use a 2-56 TPI bottoming tap on the crankcase holes
as extra threads in that area help. It
is very useful to disassemble the
crankcase assembly. Thoroughly clean everything, and then polish up
the crankshaft with 600 fine
sandpaper to remove any nicks
scratches or baked on oil that may be present. For re-assembly, use a 5-40
socket head cap screw & an old prop
to draw the crank squarely into the
drive plate. When re-assembled clean and dry, give it a spin. It
should be really free with no binding
whatsoever. On the best examples,
the crank throw will even rock back
to the bottom. The best engines have less than .015" end play on the
drive plate.
Integral Fuel Tanks
Problem: The stock fuel tanks can
be slow and sometimes short on
range. They also may have trouble
holding a consistent needle valve
setting due to leakage.
Solutions: Use one of the larger 8cc
stunt tanks for the greatest range.
These are commonly found on Golden
Bee, Super Bee, Black Widow &
Venom engines. Since the stock needle valve w/ spring arrangement
is prone to leaking, modify the needle
valve assembly as follows: 1) remove
the needle valve; 2) discard the spring; 3) install a #4 flat washer,
and add a piece of medium silicone
fuel tubing. Inspect the tip of your
needle valve to make sure it's not bent. Re-install the needle valve and
you now have one cheap, but
air tight needle valve assembly (see
photos).
With the tank and tank back
together, check that the venturi size is .082" I.D. If not, drill out the tank
and tank back inlet venturi to .082”,
(this is what the record holding
engine used). Drilling out the venturi larger than .082", sometimes
produces an rpm gain, but often your
engine won't run as steady and your
range will be less. To me, it's just not worth it. Next, sand the metal
tank back flat over glass (again with
the 400 paper), as some tank backs
are warped a bit & do not sit flat
Simple parts required for a leak free needle valve assembly
A bent needle valve tip like the one on the
left gives much trouble
10
when bolted to the firewall. If you
wish, you can use a Dremel tool to
grind away the screen holder from the venturi area of the tank back. It
looks racy, but I doubt that it makes
any difference.
The fuel pickup must absolutely be
located at the outboard corner of the tank. The normal neoprene tubing
arrangement is prone to moving out
of place & giving an unstable engine
run, so I bend a piece of 3/32" O.D.
soft aluminum tubing & make the pick-up one solid piece. I file a
chamfer at the bottom of the pick-up
tube so that it fits perfectly into the
back plate. Attach it to the tank back with a short piece of tight fitting
silicone tubing. The net effect will be
that the pick-up stays perfectly
positioned. You will notice greater range & stable running from your
engine, with a properly positioned
fuel pick-up tube (see photo).
The next step is to prevent the
integral tank from leaking. This is a
must if you wish to hold a consistent
needle setting, and have the engine shutdown properly. In some cases it
may be necessary to wrap a piece of
1/2A Dacron line around the entire
peripheral groove of the tank to help
seal it. Hold the Dacron thread in
place with saliva or oil for final assembly. It may help to lap the
metal tank & tank back joint instead
of using thread. The use of a thread
gasket is not necessary if you‟re using one of the newer nylon tank
backs. However it should be noted
that the metal tank backs are much
more durable & will often survive a crash without breaking. The newer
nylon back plate is more fragile and
will often be damaged the very first
time you crash. Metal back plate fitted engines finish more races
whenever flying incidents/accidents
are involved. Remember, in order to
finish first...you must first FINISH!
High-Power: The original Cox
copper/beryllium reeds tend to 'float' at ~17,000 rpm & so they are not
optimal for top performance. In a
reed valve engine, top performance is
only attainable by using the clear Mylar reed. I find the cross shape
better in tanks that use a 'G-Clip reed
retainer wire and the rectangular
ones better in the tanks using the
nylon retaining cap. This last production change allows reed
engines to be on par with “TeeDee‟s”
in performance! My test bench
results indicate that 24,000+ rpm is achievable for steady-state running
with such reeds.
What about 'other ' reed materials &
shapes? Cox engine designer Larry
Renger prefers the Cox stainless steel
reed over the Mylar reed. My main concern with the steel reed is that it
wears the anodizing right off the
mouth of the venturi tube, although
the rpm seems to be the same. I've
Custom fuel pickup
11
tried other reeds made of thinner
steel, floppy disc material, etc. and
so far haven't found anything better. One Australian made metal reed was
indeed 300 rpm faster, but it broke
away after only a few minutes of
running. Teflon reeds may or may not work as well. I've not found
them to be any faster, and
sometimes worse. Attaching a piece
of tubing to the tank venturi & sucking on it does the final reed
sealing check. A proper fitting reed
will hold the pressure & not leak.
Final Assembly: Clean the 2-56
tank screws with thinner. Final
assembly is done using blue Loctite® thread-locker. Every time you tear
down the engine, replace both the
paper tank gasket and the venturi o-
ring. This may seem like a waste, but $2.00 worth of new gaskets now
is $100.00 worth of reliability in the
racing circle! If you really hate
paying a paltry few bucks for new
gaskets, they can be home made.
Cut from the tank gasket from thick vellum paper and thinly slice a piece
of silicone tubing for the venturi o-
ring. Once assembled, applyan RTV
type silicone sealant over the tank screw head area. The tank screw
heads are a major source of leakage
& this really seems to help.
Removing the sealant is very easy if
you need to remove the screws later.
NOTE: Some Cox engines have been supplied with screws that are up to
.115" longer than normal. Often
these engines will have the tank leak
& come loose during running! Bottom taping the crankcase screw
holes can help here or use the proper
length screws in the first place. It
took me an awful lot of wasted time, lost races, and loose leaky tanks
before I found out what exactly was
going on here.
2011 Musciano Event Results
This issue was supposed to have the results of the 2011 Musciano events held
all over the country, but we flat ran out of room! A complete report will be in the next issue. For now, here are some „teasers‟ of things to come.
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Scale Projects – Ernst Udet’s
BF-109 Racer By
Rich Kacmarsky
When someone mentions the famous
BF-109, thoughts automatically turn to the air war over Europe and the
battles fought between this aircraft
and Allied fighters. Less known is the
notoriety gained by this aircraft as a racer.
General Ernst Udet was the second-
highest scoring German flying ace of World War I. One of the youngest
aces at age 22, he was the highest
scoring ace to survive the war. His
62 victories were second only to the
famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. Following Germany's
defeat, Udet spent the 1920s and
early 1930s as a stunt pilot,
barnstormer, and light aircraft manufacturer.
He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and
became involved in the early
development of the Luftwaffe, eventually achieving the rank of
General and serving as the head of
the Luftwaffe's Technical Office.
Although a competent pilot and officer, Udet‟s straightforward nature
created conflicts between him and
other high ranking individuals. After
the debacle of the Battle of Britain, Hermann Goering made Udet the
scapegoat for the Luftwaffe's failure,
and he was forced to commit suicide
in 1941.
In happier times, Udet‟s piloting skills
gained him notoriety, specifically
during the 1937 Zurich Air Meet. For
years Germany had ignored the Versailles treaty that ended WW1.
The allies did not enforce the treaty
provisions which eventually allowed
Germany to re-arm. So at this prestigious air meet, Germany
displayed examples of the new
Luftwaffe. While some of the exhibits
were obviously military aircraft, five of the entries were civilian versions of
stripped down and unarmed war
machines. Although Germany always
purported the planes to be stock
racers, they were in fact highly modified versions of the
Messerschmitt Me-109. One of the
favorites was Ernst Udet‟s plane
which was developed from the Bf-109D-0 and featured a high
performance DB 601A engine. His
red number 6 was the favorite at the
start of the event. In the end, things did not work out well. During
the first race Udet dropped out due to
engine overheating problems. In the
next event, a high-pressure oil line failed shortly after take off forcing a
WW1 Portrait of Ernst Udet
13
crash landing. Although Udet walked
away with few injuries, the plane was
split in half behind the cockpit and was a total wreck.
I had decided to enter an ME-109 in
the Semi Scale competition at the
Michigan Musciano Fun Fly this year
because I like the design of the plane
and how it flies. However since I had entered a restored 109 in the 2010
event wearing the desert camouflage
scheme called for in the original
Scientific kit, I wanted this model to be different. When doing research I
discovered Udet‟s 1937 racer and I
decided that was the plane to build.
Besides the bright red paint scheme, I wanted scale landing gear, scale
graphics, and a fully detailed cockpit,
and a full cowl.
Starting with a BHM BF-109 kit, I hollowed out the fuselage to
approximately a 1/8 inch wall
thickness to save weight and make
room for the cockpit. The nose was left at a 5/8-inch thickness for weight
distribution and to provide a solid
engine mount. The interior walls of
the fuselage in the cockpit area were
finished with light filler and sanding. The rear cockpit bulkhead was made
from 1/64-inch plywood to add some
structural reinforcement and define
the cockpit area. The majority of the interior components including the
floor, instrument panel, seat, and
rudder pedals are made from cereal
box cardboard. This material is lightweight, easily bent to required
shapes, cuts cleanly when treated to
a couple of coats of thinned clear
dope, and takes paint on the glossy side without the need for multiple
heavy primer layers. Balsa was used
to create the center tunnel and side
consoles which were covered with
very thin glossy cardboard to provide crisp edges and eliminate the need
for filling and sanding. Except for the
instrument panel, the interior was
finished in light gray enamel with an over spray of Top Flite® flat clear to
even out the tones and ensure fuel
proofing. The instrument panel was
painted matte black. J‟TEC® instrument faces were reduced in size
at the local copy store to produce half
A sized items.
Before and after pictures of Udet‟s 109 racer
Completed cockpit with a penny for size
comparison
14
These were sprayed front and back with Top Flite Crystal Clear® to lock
in the printing and make cutting
easier. Two applications of thinned
white glue to the faces followed by a coat of Top Flite Crystal Clear® form
the instrument ‟glass‟. A few dots of
paint applied with a round toothpick
simulated various indicator lights and completed the assembly.
The pilot‟s harness was made from
double thickness of masking tape cut
into strips and painted olive drab with silver buckles. Bits of fine piano wire
topped with blobs of white glue and
slices of round toothpick that had
been colored with black Sharpie® formed the various levers, latches,
and dials. All components were
treated to some light weathering with
some brushed on pencil lead scrapings to add depth. When all the
components were in place, the
cockpit floor was added from below to
seal the cockpit from the remaining
building process. As one of the final
touches, a cut down Stuka canopy was installed over the finished cockpit
to allow the judges to appreciate the
fully detailed interior.
Next on my list was replicating that
angled ME-109 landing gear. I prefer
to ROG scale planes, but I knew the
scale gear would never take the punishment of a take off and landing.
My solution was to install brass
tubing in the fuselage and create two sets of „plug-in‟ landing gear. The
scale set had small diameter wheels
and gear doors. The flight set had
larger wheels and were longer to provide prop clearance. Placing a
Udet‟s 1937 racer
The plane is equipped with both scale and flight landing gear
Brass tube receptacles allowed use of removable „plug-in landing gear
15
slight kink in the wire where it fit into
the brass tube held both sets in
place.
The cowl began by wrapping a
soaked strip of 1/64th plywood over the forward fuselage. Balsa blocks
were attached to this and then
carved to shape. Once the outside
appearance was satisfactory, the inside was hollowed and the various
openings for the cylinder, needle
valve, and fuel filler/overflow were
added. The fit is so tight that the cylinder must be removed to install
the cowl.
The plane was painted using Top Flight LustreKote® Missile Red and is
decorated with black striping tape
and graphics cut from white trim film.
A coat of Top Flight LustreKote®
Crystal Clear protected everything
and added a nice sheen. I think the
result was well worth the effort.
The Little Brother
The following was received from Dick
Sarpolus
Hi Larry.
Nostalgia and memories are a great part of this hobby. In your latest
issue, no. 4, of your Half A Flyer,
page 18, in the article on C/L flying in
Australia, I was surprised to see a
photo of the Little Brother, a 1/2a sheet balsa profile stunter. That was
designed by my son and I, and was
published in the British Aeromodeller
magazine in 1977. Long time ago. It was one of the few all sheet balsa
profile C/L models that had working
wing flaps, although as I recall the
flaps didn't make it fly much if any better than those models did without
the flaps. At the time, my son was a
big admirer of Bob Hunt and his
Genesis stunter, so this 1/2a stunter
has styling based on Bob's Genesis.
Dick
Building the Little Brother
By Larry Rice
I spoke to Dick Sarpolus about the
location of the Bellcrank and the push rod passing through the wing. He
said “If I was doing it today, I would
put the bellcrank on the top of the
wing.” Prior to starting, decide what engine you will use and the location
of the controls. When I build a model
I prefer to have all of the parts cut
out before I start. Trace the parts that need to be cut out on a piece of
paper then glue it to card stock; this
will give you a simple reusable
pattern. (Continued on Page 18)
An Overview of Free Flight in the UK – Part 1
Hi from the UK
This time I‟m going to talk about the
Free Flight scene in the UK….‟what
has this got to do with Half A?‟, I
hear you ask, but bear with me, all will be revealed. Before I start, its
necessary to stress how small the UK
is compared to the States, I mean its
really small, no big open spaces here. This has always had a bearing on
Free Flight activity in the UK, as other
than competitions, which are held on
airfields, club type flying fields are
tiny. Typically a UK club field will be 200 x 100 yards with hedges all
round and trees dotted here and
there just to spice things up.
So with space at premium it follows
that large Free Flight models have
never been popular with sport flyers in the UK. Also the trimming of Free
Flight models has been brought to a
fine art, to keep the flight within the
confines of the field. The most popular UK Free Flight models are
typically high wing cabin types with
an engine size of about 049….there‟s
the half A connection at last!
To give you an idea of THE typical UK
sport Free Flight design I can do no
better than show you the „Tomboy‟ pictured here. The plan for this 1950
design has sold more copies in the
UK than any other and is still
massively popular today both in the
UK and in Australia. Part of the attraction is designer, the late Vic
Smeed who was one of the iconic
aeromodellers after the war on this
side of the pond. For those interested, a tribute to Vic can be
found at:
and is well worth a read. Although
the „Tomboy‟ is certainly typical,
there have been many other popular UK Free Flight designs and they
http://modelenginenews.org/people
/smeed.html
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include biplanes and low wing as well
as unorthodox. For example this little
low winger is called Lola and is the last design that Vic Smeed produced.
I mentioned Free Flight trimming; some of you may not know what I
mean by that. It involves finely
adjusting the CoG, elevator, rudder
trims, power output and duration of
engine run. The aim is to get a predictable circling flight under power
and safe glide each and every time.
This requires patience and skill but
the rewards are very satisfying. The sight of a well trimmed Free Flight
model circling above your head on a
fine summers evening is hard to
beat.
The eagled eyed among you will spot
that the „Tomboy‟ in the pictures has
rudder and elevator RC control.
That‟s a modern variant and I will discuss that and other RC assist
developments in due course. But next
time I will tell you more about one of
the engines that is commonly used for sport Free Flight in the UK.
Bye for now…….Den
Building the Little Brother
(Continued from page 15)
I like to start with the stabilizer and
elevator; sand the parts and glue the
hinges in place. Next cut out the
fuselage; a router can be used to make the wing slot. Insert the wing,
with the flap wire joiner in place, into
its slot. Use a triangle to square up
the wing to the fuselage then glue it in place. Drill a hole into the leading
edges of the flaps for the joiner wire
to fit into. Glue the joiner wire into
the flaps and the hinges in place. When this is done add the wing tips,
bellcrank mount, lead-out guide and
the wing weight. Adjust the motor
mounts to fit your engine and glue
them into the fuselage then glue the doublers to the fuselage. Glue the
stabilizer into the fuselage, checking
that it is aligned with the wing. Glue
the fin, dorsal fin and sub fin to the fuselage, and then add the rudder
offset to the right ¼”; note that the
rudder must have a notch to clear the
elevator. Test the elevator and flaps for freedom of movement.
After painting your model, add the
controls, engine and the fuel tank.
The bellcrank and control horns are
sold by Sig Mfg; the ¾ oz fuel Tank is from Brodak.
To fly this model, use .008 to .012 stranded cable control lines of 35 feet
to 40 feet. The Little Brother will fly a
very good stunt pattern.
Full size plans for the Little Brother
are available for $6 (postage
included). E-mail Rich Kacmarsky
at [email protected] to order
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Kids Having Fun!
by David S. Nyce
I had not flown a control line plane
for many years, when I learned of an
orphanage in my home state of North
Carolina. It‟s still commonly called “the orphanage”, although it is now
legally termed a foster care center.
Fond memories of my own control
line flying days as a child led me to
start a program for teaching the kids at the center to build and fly half-A
planes. After meeting the
management staff and allowing a
background check, I started visiting the kids there on a regular basis in
2005, and have continued since then.
It has been fun helping the kids to
learn how to develop their own abilities to build things, as they
develop memories that will hopefully
be as wonderful as those I enjoy from
my childhood.
I started the program by bringing a
squadron (i.e. about 20) of half-A
planes for the kids to fly. Some of
the aircraft were dug out of the attic and repaired, and others were planes
I built to get ready for this program.
A lot of time was also spent in getting
my old engines running again. All of the planes were powered by Cox
Babe-Bee or Golden-Bee engines,
because they have the fuel tanks
attached, and are easy to mount. About 15 to 20 kids usually show up
for a flying session.
At first, my planes had no landing
gear installed, and we hand-launched, because that‟s what I had
done as a kid so that the planes
would fly better. But the kids kept
asking why there were no wheels. So
then, I added landing gear to all of
the planes. We use a fold-up table
for a runway, with an extension
added, which connects to the main table by means of a large magnet at
the edge, and a brace underneath.
With beginner pilots, I hold the handle for take-off, as another child
releases the plane down the runway
at my signal. I hold the outside of
the handle, while the child places their hand into the normal holding
position. After going a few turns
around the circle together, I let go of
the handle so the child is flying the plane on their own. With a small
child of four years old or so, I hold up
the child and we control it together.
After a typical day of “flying”, I return
home with a few planes still in flyable condition, but most in several pieces.
Take-off (oops!) from a folding table with
extension attached
Repair station
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Then I start the rebuilding process to
get ready for the next time. Several
times per year, we build half-A planes with solid wings and a profile or
hollow log fuselage. The planes that
the kids build also use Cox Babe-Bee
engines (which luckily, are still available from Cox International).
Incidentally, a lot of people seem to
call them Baby Bee engines, but I
think the actual name is Babe-Bee. When we build, we usually have
about 20 participants, and each child
gets to build and keep their own
plane (see photo below).
We‟ve built the Brodak Basic Trainer
a few times, several Musciano-type
carved fuselage kits from Black Hawk Models, some Sig Skyrays, and a few
others. When we were building some
Stunt Masters from Black Hawk
Models, one of the kids wondered if the fuselage could be shaped a little
differently. I explained that
sometimes people will buy two or
three kits and swap parts among them to arrive at a design that they
like. Or we could modify the parts
contained in a single kit. He asked if
we could take our kit and make a different shape for the fuselage. So I
said that I‟d work on that and bring
back a plane with modified fuselage
for the kids to see. If it worked out well, they could all try doing that on a
future build. That first plane actually
flew very well, probably due to the
reduced weight. I thought it would be appropriate to show here how that
one was built, so I‟ve added some
photos showing a modified Black
Hawk Models Stunt Master. The modifications included changing the
fuselage and rudder/vertical stab
shapes, and changing the
construction technique regarding the
elevator and hinges. Implementation of these changes included several
steps:
1. Hollow out some of the fuselage
from the inside, to reduce overall weight and tail weight.
2. Cut down the fuselage width to
reduce weight and drag, and
providing a smaller firewall. 3. Cut down the fuselage along the
top, producing a modified contour
with aft cockpit, and reducing forward
weight.
4. Embed the wingtip weight for improved appearance (and slightly
less drag).
5. Cut two pieces of sheet balsa into
the elevator shape, then join with hinges mounted in-between the
sheets.
The sequence of fuselage
modifications is important. When the fuselage width was reduced first, it
was difficult to clamp the modified
fuselage into the milling machine for
further hollowing it out, because the thinner walls made it too flexible for
Black Hawk Stunt Masters in progress
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firm clamping. This problem was
eliminated by doing the hollowing-out
first. An end mill was used in a small milling machine, but alternatively, an
end mill could be used in a drill press
if the fuselage is clamped in a vise
that can be moved in a line while milling.
After milling-out the inside of the
fuselage, a pencil line was drawn to show the desired shape for cutting
down the height at the front of the
fuselage (Photo 1). The cutting was
done on a small band saw, such as are inexpensively sold at large home
improvement stores. The fuselage
width was also reduced by drawing
cut lines along right and left sides
and then cutting with the band saw.
The final shape of the fuselage was achieved by carving and sanding.
Photo 2 shows a counter bore into
the underside of the outboard end of the wing, for recessing the tip
weights (two washers). A washer is
shown next to the first counter bore.
A second counter bore was formed below the first, then the washers
were epoxied in place. After the
epoxy cured, the area was coated
with spackling compound and sanded.
The two-piece elevator was replaced by one full-length elevator. To make
the elevator, two pieces of 1/16”
balsa sheet were cut to shape. Three
small hinges were super-glued in place on one elevator half. Sigment
glue was liberally applied on top of
the balsa and hinges, with the second
elevator sheet then placed on top. This assembly was clamped in a vise,
and left overnight to cure (Photo 3).
Photo 1- Cutting line drawn onto fuselage
Photo 2 - Inletting the wingtip weight
Photo 3 - Elevator in vise
Photo 4 - Elevator & stab
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Photo 4 shows the elevator (top) and
the horizontal stabilizer (bottom).
The horizontal stab is supplied in the kit as 1/8” balsa. A hinge slitter tool
was used, as shown in photo 5, to
form slits into the stab trailing edge
for inserting the elevator hinges with Sigment glue. In all hinge-gluing
operations, care was taken to prevent
glue from binding the hinge.
In the spring, I‟m planning for some
of the kids to move up to the next-
larger sized plane. I‟ve bought some Sig Akromaster kits for use with a .15
size engine and some Skyray .35s
and Twisters for a still larger engine.
We‟ll see how it goes!
I‟d like to thank the many people and
companies who have been able to
help with obtaining kits, engines, and supplies for the kids. And thank you
to the following companies who have
helped by providing discounts on
their products for this program:
Black Hawk Models, Long Beach, CA,
www.blackhawkmodels.com
Brodak, Carmichaels, PA,
www.brodak.com
BJM Enterprises, Kernersville, NC www.bjm-home/models.com
Cox International, Prince George,
British Columbia, CA
www.coxengines.ca
Sig Manufacturing, Montezuma, IA
www.sigmfg.com
Tim Wiltse, Half-A Works, Charlotte,
NC
www.halfa-works.com
THE END RESULT Modified Black Hawk Models Stunt Master with Tim Wiltse red-anodized Cox Babe-Bee engine finished with Aero Gloss red and
clear dope What kid wouldn‟t love to fly this plane!
Photo 5 - Hinge slitting tool
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by Warren Leadbeatter
MAAA:14782
Gidday from Australia. It looks like I d up a bit of a hornets nest with at
least one of my comments in the last
Half A Flyer issue. ie “1/2A control
line flying here [in Australia]
unfortunately is pretty much dead and there is very little interest in it.”
Since writing this I have discovered
many people who still fly and play
with 1/2A Control Line models. Just because there aren‟t too many
competitions going on doesn‟t mean
people don‟t do it anymore! Most do
it just for fun or a laugh.
Just like my good mate Humphrey
who converted a couple of RC flyers
to CL using a SIG Deweybird with a Cox Babe Bee 049.
Humprey‟s mate, Stehl bought the already built Dewey Bird off eBay and
the seller cut it up to post it and
included a Brodak 049 which didn‟t
want to run.
At our annual Veterans Gathering this
year, Humphrey put the model back together and I suggested rather than
play around with the Brodak engine,
(that we somehow had to mount and
find a tank for in the field), we should
just put on a Babe Bee 049, one of which I just happened to have in my
box of goodies.
This little engine hadn‟t been run for
who knows how long, but after 3 or 4
short burps we had it running and singing like a babe bee.
I test flew it first because the guys
decided I was the best control line flyer to do it because I fly F2B
aerobatics. How little do they know!
It flew well from a hand launch, with
no mods needed. I was worried about the size of the elevator and the small Stehls SIG Deweybird after we fixed it
Me and Humph getting the lil bugger going
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throw it appeared to have, but it
worked fine in the air.
So next up was it‟s owner, Stehl, who
had never flown CL before. None of
us could be bothered standing out there in the middle with him so we
just said, you‟ve seen it fly, you‟ll get
the idea! So away he went and he
flew it well.
Next up was Stehls RC flying mate
Laurie, from Warialda (google it).
Same deal, had never flown CL
before so we decided to just let him go too, for a laugh! He flew well but
became dizzy very quickly. He
wanted one of us to take the handle
but we couldn‟t because we were too busy laughing. When the model
landed he fell over!
Next up Humphrey had a fly and then
I had another fly to see if it could do
a loop, which it did with ease!
These two blokes will be at our next
years vets gathering. Laurie will have
his own control line model too. Not sure what it is yet but I can‟t wait to
see it.
The Sig Deweybird can be purchased from Sig of course, and from anyone
who sells Sig products. The company
website is www.sigmfg.com
Next time I will be writing about the
Mouse Racers from Queensland, who
I just recently discovered. These guys
do actually hold and run Mouse Race
competitions and from what I have seen they use the AMA Rules.
So until next time, Seasons Greetings
and a Happy New Year to all from Downunder (Australia) I hope you all get what you wish for from Santa!
Stehl on his first flight! Looks like a pro going
Look at Laurie (from Warialda) go!
Sig Deweybird in flight
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Henry Werner‟s Custom Special Frank Carlisle‟s Autogiro
Bill Lee‟s Songbird George Ellison‟s Challenger
Rich Kacmarsky‟s ME-262
Jim Malloy's Waco Biplane
Our Readers’ Models We at Black Hawk Models are always proud to show what our customers have done
with our kits. Each issue we will feature some great craftsmanship!
If you would like to see your handiwork displayed in this magazine or on the Black
Hawk Models website, e-mail your photos to [email protected]
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