Micro Clipped Wing Taylorcraft

[Dave Robelen]

Hello All,
It has been a while since I posted a project here on the board. Just recently, I completed a micro clipped wing Taylorcraft. The specs are wingspan 15.5", weight 30 grams. Power M20LV motor geared 6-1. Controls RFFS 100 with Hutchison plastic hardware. Battery is a 230 mah Lipoy cell. This shot shows the parts before final assembly and finishing.

[Dave Robelen]

Hi all,
Here is the finished model in the first iteration. The wing is attachced with pegs and a magnet. Take note of the dihedral, and the size of the vertical tail. When I took it out to the flight line, after a handlaunch, it did three 90 bank dutch roll cycles and whopped the grass on the nose! Completely uncontrollable. No damage, but you know how pride is, at least no one was looking.Back to the shop, and I taped a healthy addition to the vertical tail. This helped, but it was still twitchy, and far from pleasant to fly. So hmmm, More work is needed.

[Dave Robelen]

Hi All,
I was rudely interrupted in posting this thread when my monitor went poof! At any rate, The next step was to reduce the dihedral by half, and install a new, larger vertical tail. At this point the tail is about 40% larger than scale, but to my eye still looks like a T-Craft.
Out to fly again and the little bird is transformed! Smooth, tight turns with excellent coordination, and the low speed handling is top notch. If you ever get in a bind with design issues, there is a web site that can be really helpful. www.djaerotech.com in the "ask Joe and Don section" much good stuff there. In my case, it appears that the oversize propeller is primarily responsible for the needed tail are. This picture shows the final version.
Regards, Dave
Try again on the picture

[gjohnson2]

Dave,
Very nice. I think you have another winner in the line of winners like your Waco SRE and others. Keep it up.

Gordon

[Dave Robelen]

Hello Gordon,
Thank you for the kind words. I seem to be stuck at the "one ounce barrier" with the KP-00 class model. The airframe weighs just about the same as the equipment. The wood is not as light as possible, but it it is tough to do better. Meanwhile, the colored paint and sealer add a bit too. Speaking of sealer, Scott Christensen pointed me toward an excellent light weight spray sealer for balsa. It is "Delta Stencil Magic Satin". It seems to come in about 4.5 oz. spray cans. I found mine in a Ben Franklin store here in VA. Scott says WalMart carries it in the Midwest. Try it, you will like it.
Cheers, Dave

[FLB]

Hi Dave,

Happy new year.
Very nice Taylorcraft. I will have to try this "Delta Stencil Magic Satin".

Regards, Frederic

[Mike Taylor]

Dave,

That plane is too pretty not to fly. I hope you get it figured out and report back with a fine flying model.

Yes, the 1 ounce barrier is pretty hard to break with the gear you listed. The next step is those sub-100 mah batteries and the pager motor power plants...

[Dave Robelen]

Hi Mike,
I apologize for not being clear in my earlier post. At this point, The little T-Craft flies like a bird with splendid handling and plenty of pep. As for the next step down, My fingers are already getting pretty large working at this size. Also, I have not noticed any 3-dimensional scale models with pager power. Am I missing something here? All of my flying with the exception of overnight travel must be outside, so a little mass can be a help here also.
Regards, Dave

[gjohnson2]

Dave,
Yes, Full 3D fuselage pager powered models exist. This thread (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225017) is dedicated to pager powered models, and a number of them have full fuselages. However, most of them are not the size of your Taylorcraft or Waco or others, and many of them might not fly well outside like yours do except in ideal conditions.

I've recently been testing the 7mm Super Slicks toy car/pager motors. These are a nice compromise between a 6mm 4.5 ohm pager motor and a M20 can motor. They weigh 2.77g, so about 1g is saved in weight. The hottest wind (the light blue) performs almost identically to a M20-LV like in the KP00. I'll be putting the results on my web site in the next week or so.

But, your models are so nice that I'm not sure what losing one or two grams would do for you. I think you are in a sweet spot for the equipment you are using and the size plane you are building. Why mess with an ideal setup.

However, the only real way to lose any weight from where you are now is to go to the 7mm pager motor, muscle wire actuators, and possibly a smaller battery like the Kokam 60 (which would result in shorter flight times and would also require a propulsion setup with a bit lower amp draw. But, again, why bother. I like your planes the way they are.

Scott also pointed me at the Stencil Magic. I've used it on printed tissue and it is great. I haven't used it on balsa yet, but I'm sure it would be great there too.

Gordon

[Dave Robelen]

Hello Gordon,
You have pretty much hit the nail on the head for me. At this size, my hands can handle the parts, and detailing a model is not unreasonably difficult. Also, as you point out, the ability to fly outdoors in less than ideal conditions can mean a lot to me. Meanwhile, these models are still docile enough to be completely safe in a nomimal gymnasium. Reducing the wing loading would open doors to a few more subjects, and there never is too much power for the designs that should be aerobatic, or a warbird. That leaves plenty of room for development for future equipment and hardware.
Regards, Dave

[bmutlugil]

Hi Dave,

Nice to see you back, and a new model too, of course. I also feel that your health is better now..

Is this a scale finish, or did you select the colors - it looks very good as usual..

Best regards,

Bulent

[Dave Robelen]

Hello Bulent,
Thank you for the interest in my health, it is steadily improving. The color scheme I used on my Taylorcraft is one that I found by searching the internet. These colors are reasonably close to scale. I was quite fascinated at the variety of color schemes used on the various Taylorcraft.
Regards, Dave