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Oh, sorry to hear that Nigel.
I found mine went up okay and were real floaters on the glide. But I did build them light.This thread has give me the excuse to build a new fuselage for the last one that I still have, built originally in 1973……Fuselage is a real mess and heavy now. I’ll use the hardware on/in it to make it easy.
Wings and stab. were recovered a 6 or 8 years ago with Esaki lite and are okay.I was thinking of a piece of fibreglass or CF tube at the fuselage front end, with a radial mount for the engine, to provide sufficient empty space for a bladder tank to be tucked away internally. This doesn’t add strength or performance but it does add convenience and allows one not to have a bladder hanging out in the breeze (so perhaps a little performance benefit from that). There are also glass reinforced beam/radial mounts, similar to the Tatone aluminum ones, that fit the definition of composite.
I understand the concept for the carbon fiber tube mount with a attached alum. face plate. However this pushes the design into the complexity of the f1j models. We want to avoid that trend and make these models as simple to build as possible. I doubt that any of the models in the 1957-1969 time frame used that type of mount, so its use would not be allowed. A simple box can be built into the fuselage for the bladder/pacifier tank with just the fuel line hanging out.
Mike
I always use a balsa box for the bladder — usually I don’t have to do much other than make a hole as the fuselage formers and sides form the box. Sometimes I reinforce it a bit with thin plywood and, on small models like 1/2-As, I cut the bottom of the pylon to fit over the box. A person could always make a balsa tube for the bladder if they want to get fancy. I don’t think anybody’s going to object to a strip of fiberglass tape around the firewall to hold it in place — a lot of the articles from the 60s show that method of firewall mounting. That’s how I’ve done it ever since I started building models. Keeping the firewall secure is a safety issue.
Fiberglas tape over the firewall attached with epoxy is what most builders use and is perfectly o.k. Fiberglas tape on dihedral breaks are fine also. Kraft style glass fiber motor mounts are o.k., since it is hard to find Tatone T.D. metal mounts.
Mike
Is a Starduster 350 legal? If it is, what kind of soap-detergent would you try and clean it with. A friend gave it to me a LONG, Long time ago…You know how we all are…Pack-rats, just in case…AND this might be the time.
DDockHarping back to the composite tube front end. I’m a bit disappointed that this won’t be considered – I don’t see this as being anything like the complexity of F1J, it’s just a little bit of tube and an aluminum ring, and I’m not suggesting that it be mandated – just that it be allowed. I find that style of front end easiest to build, and neat. I find that a lot of 1/2A front ends are a little small to get the bladder into if the construction is to be balsa
Does anyone have an opinion about the 1/2A Old Favourites event that we premiered at the ESFFC and the GGG this year? Very simple rules, basically locked down model with up to TD power and no composite structure except for the motor mount.
Thermals
RoyRather than worry and fuss by trying to fit a bladder (not blatter) into the fuselage, why not just do what we did back then, hang the bladder from a loop in the landing wire? Simple, cheap, and you do not have to fuel-proof the interior of the fuselage. You have the add advantage of being able to see how much fuel or how big the bladder is filled.
Ron BennettGood evening boys. Just got my King Orange entry form and 1/2a Golden Age is on the card.Time to clean out a TeeDee or two . Have Mexi Boy, Starduster X, Starduster 350,and last but not least 1/2a Viking (I don’t think so)currently available.Hope we have lots of entries.
DDockI am very pleased to hear that the King Orange meet will have the first Golden Age of 1/2A Special event. Please keep us informed of the results and best of luck
Mike
This is a bit down the line, but for 2016 the RJK meet at Muncie and probably the NOFFA meet
Will add the Golden Age 1/2 A event to the schedule.Get building
Rudy
I pulled the Starduster 350 wing out of the rafters…Found special markings on it…1971, 1972 Glenview Nats and 1973 Oshkosh Nats Stamps on the wing. 😀
Hopefully this event will inspire a few new models the way Bill Vanderbeek’s one design events and the P-30, E-36 events have.
DDockI’ve just been talking to Brad Bane about this event and he had a suggestion that could help with my concerns about hiding away the pressure bladder in an all-balsa front end on a 1/2A. Why not ban pressure feed – just allow suction? Food for thought?
There are a lot of models that are already built that fit the Golden Age time line. I believe a lot of them use a pressure feed system of some sort. To ask these flyers to retro fit these models to a non pressure system is unreasonable. Models can be used with or with out a pressure feed system at the flyers discretion. The idea of the event is to get these Golden Age models back in the air and have new one’s built without endless rules and restrictions. It’s a simple fun event to fly.
Mike
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