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Is it sacrilege to mention R/C here?? I have a Prima Wakefield model that is a bit obsolete after I had finished a more hi-tec version.I have been thinking for a while of adding radio to it as my local flying field is a bit small. The idea was to be able to fly when the wind would normally take it off towards the woods.It still has a D/T but the rudder is worked by a small servo.I guess the radio gear adds 1 or 2 oz. I gave it 250 turns and it flew ok. However, I think overall the two disciplines don’t cross over very well. I will try it with a bit more rubber next time.I can see why it hasn’t developed into a popular branch of the hobby!! The decrease in performance rather detracts from the gain in control.
I have had a bit more success with this recently.My F1B now has 55g of rubber. 300 turns gets me a still air time of 90 seconds, so its good practice at finding good air.I am going to increase the number of strands and maybe the amount of rubber.I suppose radio has been added to gliders ,electric and power, so why not rubber?
Doc,
To answer your question: when you put a radio control unit in your model to steer it where you want it to go, IT AIN”T FREE FLIGHT ANYMORE! Now it’s an r/c model. If you were confused, I hope this clears it up for you.Cheers!, Pete
(maybe over-reacting because of the many, many stupid comments by my r/c friends who don’t understand the cocept of Free Flight)I agree it aint free flight any more,but I still get the pleasure from flying this way.I really only use the r/c to help trimming and not lose the model when flying from a smaller field.Its definitely better than not flying at all.It has been a bit of an experiment,and its made use of a model that has been superceded.I shall let it run its course and its a learning experience.Anything more than slight rudder induces stalling,so I have to be careful.On the positive side I haven’t got stuck in a tree or lost a model yet. In Europe it is happening already as a safety issue, that there has to be an r/c d/t in some areas.I hope we dont get to that in England.
Doc,
No offense meant, and I hope it doesn’t come to that. Maybe you guys should’ve gone your own uniquely English way instead of the EU. Texans and Englishmen are more alike than most would think.”Don’t need no gummint tellin’ me how to fly MY models”. And by the way, we still got a few fields left to fly in here.
Cheers!,One of the downsides is that I get so many flights in, my arms ache from winding on the last few turns.Its also bad for my teeth as I seem to clench them,no matter how hard I try not to.F1G requires much less torque.I guess it’s like midwives getting piles 😯 There isn’t that gap where you can spend 10-15 minutes retrieving the model.I have a choice of flying field: down the road at my neighbours small field, or 65miles away for a proper f/f field in Oxford.
A member of our club, The Detroit Balsa Bugs, named Henry Wypich used to holler at his rubber models, telling them when to turn, stop stalling, D/T, etc. He called it “Polish R/C”! We always got a kick out of this. Sometimes his models listened…
That is one method I haven’t tried, although my belief in prayer increases as it approaches the top of a tall tree! I am still refining my model.I bought a lighter lipo battery last week, so I am now not much heavier than with the original 3 function timer.My flying field in Oxford is mostly flooded, so retrieval of my proper f/f models is quite interesting these days.I am eagerly anticipating summer and a few competitions. F1G is definitely what I like flying most, rather than these F1B monsters.The coupes are much cheaper on rubber too.
Henry also used to add some “frills and dressings” as I remember!
Doc, I think playing with RC as you are is just fine, However, asking most dyed-in-the-wool FFer’s what they think about it is likely to bring mostly negative responses.
I love to spend most of my time in this sport flying! I somewhat have to
agree that the use of a radio DT would making flying time easier. For,
I like Doc have to travel atleast an hour to our flying field. Now
with the price of gasoline and the weather cooperation it can’t be
a wasted trip.
I have a small field near my home that I could fly at,but a radio
DT would have to be used.
So it really depends on ones on case at hand !Craig
I would like some input on the idea of using R/C as a dethermalizer. This is not flying the model with radio control, it is still rubber powered and trim controlled to the end of the flight.
Getting it back by steering it seems more practical for us without the benefit of endless flat fields. It also means we can fly in smaller fields such as a city park or school yard.Enclosed is my trial setup on a Sparky. It has a Castle Creations 4L receiver, 250 mah LiPo battery and Blue bird servo. The whole set up weighs 20 gms. The rudder is controlled by pull pull. I called Castle about voltage and they said 2.2 to 4.8 was the range so one LiPo cell will be ok. I would like to use an actuator, but I’m not sure there would be enough torque in case of a big thermal or windy conditions.
Has anyone tried this? If so what worked best?
Hi kinetic artist.What powers your sparky.I had some fun with my F1B rubber model but have now reverted to a short d.t. Your set up looks like rudder rather than dt.I found that use of the rudder just induced stalling,so I now keep the 2 disciplines separate.I bought an American flying magazine recently but it was just full of reviews of ARTF aerobatic models and not much else.I like all branches of aeromodelling including building even when there aint much balsa involved.I subscribe to Free flight quarterly and Aviation modeller International for my ff fix.
I am in the same situation, small flying field but insist on flying free flight anyway. This is one way to improve my tree climbing skills.
For rubber I have installed Castle 4L receiver, 1 cell 270 LiPo battery, and Blue bird 3.6 gm servo: total weight 20 gms. Pull Pull on rudder works very well for steering it away from the tree and/or back to me.
This is still rubber power, trim controlled, glide, trim controlled. R/C is just for return and to get out of trouble (and stay out of trees).
I have a lot more on this subject if you are interested.
Well, I see I posted this after you wrote back. I apologize for not responding. I didn’t think the system worked because I was having login probems, apparently that is fixed now.
I just came in from flying a Gollywock with the same setup. I have just one R/C receiver and battery and move them in and out of whatever mode I feel like flying. One issue is to fit the R/C stuff into the fuse without letting the rubber touch it, and yes, I found this out the hard way.
I put a tray over the rubber and put the R/C gear over that. 20gms does not seem to make much difference in trim so far.
I only use the rudder control if there is trouble ahead, like a big tree, because I had the same stalling problem. I reasoned that if I were going to use R/C why not make it control the rudder and hopefully steer the thing back to me. A dethermalized model means you still need a large field and a horse to fetch the model.
For dethermalizing I give it hard over and it dives into a spin, when I’m out of trouble, just letting go the controls and the model will right itself. Three cheers for polyhedral.
This is not a perfect system, of course, but it does get me into the rubber free flight game again.
I too, fly everything. I live in a windy area during three months of the year where there is excellent slope soaring. I also fly pattern, electric sport, thermal gliders and anything odd looking that flys. I usually fly every day.
Your “Aeromodeler” magazine is a very good one, but too expensive for me to subscribe to. For US magazines I think “Flying Models” is your best bet for all around interests and construction articles. “Model Airplane News”, “Quiet Flyer” and “Fly RC” have turned into what I call rave review magazines and I am very disappointed in them.
Although “Flying Models” is a great magazine for general interests their web site sucks. Furthermore, plans I ordered last week were poorly printed with light lines and incomplete areas. I’m not shy about telling them about that either. I’m going to the SAM Champs meet in Nevada and am hoping they will be there so we can talk.
Now that I have this forum thing figured out I’ll let you know how it goes with R/C, free flight and small fields.
Do you use a voltage regulator between your lipo and receiver? I always have used 2 lipos and a regulator to give the right Rx voltage.One lipo and no regulator could save some weight.Igave up on the RC F1B.It was a Prima.I just fly proper RC when I am near the small field and mostly Coup F1G when I am near the larger area in Oxford.There are quite a few people in England who fly RC assist power,such as 1/2A.I have a TD09 powered duration model with radio.The problem is that they do not penetrate well coming back from down wind.However I had good fun trying it out.We have Vintage RC events over here,so I have models for them.I wanted to try RC rubber, but even the lightest radio adds a lot of extra % weight,so it hasnt been a major success.
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