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My new addiction...

Wittpilot

Wittpilot

Warbird Guru
Last Fall I ordered my first RC plane. A lifelong dream to get into the hobby, I finally mustered up the courage, and finances, to buy one. I bought a large electric 'trainer', Im using the term trainer very lightly here, from a website, www.nitroplanes.com , and started to teach mysel how to fly. Didn't know anyone around that was into the hobby, so I decided to just jump in head first.... Fast Forward several months and I have a couple of flights in, and several more airplanes........several.......

I bought the next version of the first one I bought, & a Piper Cub... The Cub bit the dust after around 5 seconds.... gone.... the others are still with me... I finally decided I was in this hobby for awhile and purchased a Transmitter that I can use with several diff. airplanes via Horizon Hobby's BNF option... Got the Spektrum DX6i & the Parkzone Wildcat for about $330 for both w/ tax. Then, my brother got into it, bought the P-51.... Then seen a deal on Craigslist I couldn't pass up.... My wife is pretty much at the end of her rope on me on this... but she handed over the $$ and I made my first Craigslist purchase..... Best part? The guy included the DX5e w/ the two airplanes and I didn't even know about it!!!! I got one heck of a deal... Paid $350 for an essentially brand new T-28 & P-47 w/ flaps!

More to come....
 
Some more.....

My brother is evidently ecstatic to go flying..... He is a quick learner.... He only has trouble with belly landing them in... but he'll get the hang of it...
 
Looks great. God, I got to get back into this hobby. I tell you electric is the way to go these days. Their way better than they used to be. Can we get a couple flight reports?
 
Congratulations on being able to teach yourself. Extremely rare. Do you have an R/C simulator? The younger ones we get out at our field who have used one rarely need much training.

I love the Spectrum series transmitters. Have 3 myself, the original DX6, DX-7, and the new DX-8. I have gone entirely electric, also.

Some of my fleet.
 
I went completely electric about 7 years ago. Have never looked back.

Here's a few of my electrics...

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F8Finflight.jpg


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deuces_1.jpg


F-5E_flypast.jpg


E3D_climb.jpg


I have a few more in the hangar and I'm working on a 70" Super Cub right now....

-G-
 
This is going to be most likely a dumb question, but why do some RC models only use a 2 bladed prop when the real plane it models uses 3 or 4 blades?

I love to watch the RC planes fly around at the local "airport" near the bmx track my boy races at but have too many hobbies to start getting into these.
 
Zoren said:
This is going to be most likely a dumb question, but why do some RC models only use a 2 bladed prop when the real plane it models uses 3 or 4 blades?

I love to watch the RC planes fly around at the local "airport" near the bmx track my boy races at but have too many hobbies to start getting into these.
Click to expand...

I really don't know if I have the answer to this... but I think the 3 & 4 bladed props really speed the airplanes up... the ones I have are also good to have two bladed probs so you can belly them in for landings... Other than that, I don't really know....

-witt
 
Zoren said:
This is going to be most likely a dumb question, but why do some RC models only use a 2 bladed prop when the real plane it models uses 3 or 4 blades?
Click to expand...

The main reason is efficiency and power use. It takes more power to turn a 3-4 bladed prop. Also, at the higher RPM that a small internal combustion engine runs at, 3-4 bladed props are inefficient because they run into cavitation, by spinning to fast. The newer electric systems allow us to taylor our power systems better. We can easily change rpms by changing the number of cells (volts) in our batteries, without losing torque. By lowering the rpms, the multibladed props become more efficient.

The P-6E in the picture was taken the day of the maiden flight. It has the 2 blade prop on it because the 3 blade one it flies with now was on order. I made the maiden with an 18x10 2 blade using 10 lipo cells, 37 volts. 3.7 volts per cell. The 3 blade prop it flies on now is an 18x10 also, but to keep from over revving, and to lower the amp draw, I run 8 cells, or 29.6volts.
 
CWOJackson said:
modelr and Lateral-G, both nice collections but the yellow Jenny is WOW!

I'm assuming that's home built?
Click to expand...

Not sure on Lateral-G's WWI bipes, but I'm pretty sure all the planes shown here are "ARF"s. "Almost Ready to Fly". Here's what they look like when you open the box.
 
Self taught on the parkzone FW190, progressed to the PZ Trojan, and the BF109, now also have the FMS P47 as yet un-maidened.

Building this: (RCM&E plans Typhoon)
View attachment 46246
Parkzone Trojan has a three blade prop (same as for their Corsair) and this:
View attachment 46245
Releases on full left rudder, with awesome results!
View attachment 46244
Excuse the lighting it was daylight lol just camera settings.. With a bit of practice I was able to get reasonably frequent traps on my 'wire' which is just a length of bungee cord between two tent pegs driven in either side of an astro-turf cricket pitch 'deck'

Good times! Also have a couple of electric helis too lol, I'm not an addict honest :icon_lol:
 
Zoren said:
This is going to be most likely a dumb question, but why do some RC models only use a 2 bladed prop when the real plane it models uses 3 or 4 blades?

I love to watch the RC planes fly around at the local "airport" near the bmx track my boy races at but have too many hobbies to start getting into these.
Click to expand...

It takes more power to turn a 3 or 4 bladed prop.

For gas or glow engines the general rule is to go down 1" in dia for every extra blade you add beyond 2.

Years ago Byron Originals made a belt driven reduction unit that allowed you to use a scale 3 or 4 bladed prop on their giant scale warbirds.

Another reason is a fixed pitch (which 99% of all model airplane props are) is the most efficient. A fixed pitch 3 or 4 bladed prop isn't as efficient and you do lose a lot of available power than if you used a 2 bladed prop on the same engine. To benefit with a multi-bladed prop you would need it to have variable pitch. There are variable pitch props for RC but it's really hard to gauge the best and efficient setting because you don't have a MP or RPM gauge in front of you.

Another issue with fixed pitch props for RC (as well as full size) is to decide if you want 'cruise' or 'climb' performance. Some models do well with a lower pitched 'climb' prop and you sacrifice top end speed while others need the 'speed' props.

-G-
 
modelr said:
Not sure on Lateral-G's WWI bipes, but I'm pretty sure all the planes shown here are "ARF"s. "Almost Ready to Fly". Here's what they look like when you open the box.
Click to expand...

Here's my Ryan ARF....

012W9851.jpg


012W9857.jpg


MVC-004F.jpg


pilots.jpg


ryan2.jpg


I sold it last year because I just didn't fly my glow planes anymore.....but she did fly beautifully.

here's my N2S1 (which was an ARF PT-19 that I recovered into a Navy scheme)

JY4Z0145.jpg


MVC-002F.jpg


Stearman_on_the_ramp.jpg


A 1/3 Scale Christen Eagle (which I also sold....)

eagle01.jpg


jeffseagle5.jpg


And another Stearman (1/5 scale)....

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DSC05792.jpg


-G-
 
G,

I'm building the Ryan now, nearly done.

You should have converted the Ryan and the Christen Eagle, rather than selling them, if you really liked them. That's what I did with my Staggerwing. It's first 6 flights were with the OS 1.60 Gemini Twin 4stroke. Not enough power, engine problems, crash on take-off. New wings, then convert to electric. Now can go vertical on take-off, and 95mph flat and level. That's all it took to convert me. Have not gone back.
 
Thanks for the answer to the 3 or 4 bladed prop question. Sorry for the delay in reading/responding. I'd hate for people to think I don't read when I ask a question.

Those are some really nice model planes.
 
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