The Tale Spinner
Newsletter of the Tri-Area Flyers

 http://triarearc.org

(AMA Charter Number 4063, Radio Controlled Model Aircraft Club)

 November 1, 2002, Volume 3 Issue  11

Meeting Minutes:  (Next Meeting: , November 12, 2002, Excapees RV Park)

Minutes of the 10/08/02 meeting of the Tri-Area RC Flyers

President Wylie called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM at the SKP Clubhouse. Attending were: Wylie, Anliker, Moffet, Crow, Benjamin, Crumley, Greene, Ryder, Pyles, Waaga, Fitch, Bolling, Oaks, Takata, Allen and Davis.

The Treasurer’s report showed assets of $2592.78, comprised of $2211.28 in the bank account and $381.50 in fuel inventory.  At present we have 7, 17 and 4 gallons of 10%, 15% and 4S, respectively.

There was a general discussion of the Fun Fly, which was considered a success by all.  There was an expression of thanks to those donating the club trainer for the use of Brian Bolling. Benjamin provided the engine, Wylie the radio and Granger the plane.

A Nominating Committee consisting of Crumley, Benjamin and Greene was appointed to get a slate of officers for the election at the November meeting.  There will be a swap meet at the November meeting.  February 1 and 2 are the dates of the Puyallup RC event.

Keith Allred was the worthy recipient of the Crash-of-the-Month Trophy.

The meeting was adjourned and Bruce Pyles showed a series of pictures of the Fun Fly and Chuck Dantzler presented an interesting discussion of paints and coverings.

Benjamin, Takata and Wylie provided treats.

Respectfully submitted, Bill Anliker, Sec/Treas. 

FAR FLUNG SHOPPING

I was wandering around the Reno COSTCO today and found a 140 piece Rotary Tool (read Dremel Mototool) Accessory Set by Mastercut for $17.79.  It contains a variety of grind stones, 3 different kinds of cutoff wheels, 2 sizes of grinding drums, 4 sizes of mandrels, a flap sander, 5 different brushes, 5 metal cutters, etc.  The set is packaged in a plastic container that has extra storage space, and a lid with carrying handle that doubles as a stand that holds the set upright.  The lid is removable and the set is designed to also be hung on a wall.

I cannot comment on the quality of the individual pieces as I have not used anything (my Dremel is at home).  However, there are a lot of duplicate pieces which would indicate that they expect the items to wear out.  Certainly the stuff that came with my Dremel is mostly worn out.

Pete Granger

Kit and RC Product Reviews and Comments:

Fairchild PT-19 ARF

Review by Jim Montell

(this review was first published on the web page of the Kitsap Arcs in September 2002 and is re-published here for the benefit of the Tri Area Flyers)

Having been a “builder” of model aircraft for more years than I care to mention, and after witnessing the results of poorly built Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) airplanes, I was somewhat hesitant to spend the bucks just to have a quick put together flyer. With their improved quality and the increasing selection I finally broke down and decided to try one for a new project. Being a war bird fan, I wanted a giant scale military type airplane that would accept my Zenoah G-23. Digging through my suppliers catalogs I and found a giant scale PT-19 manufactured by Horizon Hobby. Onto the Internet I went, only to find out that the model was discontinued.  It seemed strange that this airplane would be out of production after only about 2 years so I did some more research. I found some articles in the various RC magazines, and on the Internet, that had very informative reviews about both the good, and bad points of this model. I decided the shortcomings could be corrected fairly easily so I went ahead to try and locate this model. Perseverance eventually paid off and I located a company that still had them in stock and purchased my first ARF.

Completed PT-19.

SPECIFICATIONS

Model: Fairchild PT-1

Airplane Type: Semi-scale

Manufacturer: Hangar 9/Horizon Hobby Inc., 4105 Fieldstone Road, Champaign, IL 61822

(1-800-338-4639) www.horizonhobby.com 

Street Price: $329.95

Wing Span: 82”

Wing Area: 1009.6 sq. in.

Airfoil: Semi-symmetrical

Wing Structure: Balsa and ply.

Wing Joiner Method: Plywood brace.

Fuselage Structure: Balsa, ply and foam.

Fuselage Length: 63-½ inches

Pushrod Type: Hardwood with music wire for elevator, pull-pull cable for rudder.

Pushrods Installed: No

Hinges Included: Yes, CA type.

Radio Included: No

Flight Controls: Ailerons, Elevator, Rudder, Throttle.

Engine Included: No

Engine Mount Installed: No

Engine Mount Type: 2-piece heavy-duty aluminum (for 2 & 4-strokes only,) aircraft ply adapter plate for Zenoah G-23.

Fuel Tank Included: Yes, 18 oz.

Recommended Weight: 13 - 16 lbs.

Assembly Instructions: A 54-page illustrated instruction manual with two addenda’s

Hardware: Metric & SAE

Hardware Included: Yes

Items Needed to Complete: Two 12 -inch aileron extensions, propeller, foam for cushioning fuel tank, fuel filter, fueler valve, kill switch & hardware (if using a gas engine), radio 5 channels (minimum), standard 600-1000 mah receiver battery pack, 5 servos with 50 in./oz. Torque minimum, Y-harness (if computer radio is not used), packing foam, antenna tube.

Covering Material: Ultracote

Fuel Proofing Required: Yes

Estimated Assembly Time: Not Listed

Estimated Skills Required: Intermediate to Advanced.

Drilling Required: Yes

Assembly Tools Required: Drill, drill bits: (1/16”, 1/8”, 5/32”, 1/4”, 3/8”), soldering iron, small & medium Phillips screwdrivers, Z-bend pliers, pliers, 1/16” hex wrench, small round file, moto-tool with sanding drum, hobby knife with # 11 blade, mixing sticks, epoxy brushes, 90-degree triangle, sanding sticks (medium), medium sandpaper, masking tape, straight edge, ruler (or tape measure), scissors, paper towels, wax paper, rubbing alcohol, felt tip pen (or pencil), sealing iron.

Adhesives Required: Thin & thick CA (cyanoacrylate) glue, 6, 12, & 30-minute epoxy, thread lock, canopy glue (R/C 56), silver solder.

COMPLETED MODEL

Finished Weight: 14.5 lbs.

Wing Loading: 31.34 oz/ft

Engine Used: Inverted Zenoah G-23A (1.4 cu. in.), Prop: Master Airscrew 16 x 8, Wt. w/muffler 57oz.

Muffler Used: Slimline giant scale Pitts.

Prop shaft to Ground: 14-inches.

Fuel Tank Used: Dubro 16 oz. (gas conversion).

Radio Used: Futaba 8UAFS, Futaba R148DP (PCM) receiver, Hitec/RCD servos (see text.)

Covering/Finishing Used: Pre-covered with Ultracote.

Special Items:  See text.

Actual Assembly Time:  40.5 hours  

CHEERS:

1.        Great looking semi-scale model.

2.        Nice stable flying airplane.

JEERS:

1.        Ultracote covering was loose.

2.        Wheels are too heavy (see text.)

3.        Missing parts (see text.)

REVIEW

The Kit. 

I purchased the kit via the Internet from Chief Aircraft Inc., a company in located Grant’s Pass, Oregon and it was shipped to my address in Port Orchard, Washington. The Hangar 9 PT-19 arrived via FedEx with no exterior damage. Inside the shipping box was a colorful 53”x17”x10” box containing the PT-19 parts. This box had two layers separated by cardboard. The upper layer contained the decals, wings, ailerons, fin, rudder, stab and elevators. All control surfaces were hinged and all parts were in plastic bags.  The lower layer had three cardboard separators, which contained a bagged fuselage, painted fiberglass cowl, a plastic bag containing the wheels, landing gear, fuel tank and miscellaneous hardware. Another bag held the pushrods, hardwoods, trim, shrink tubing and covered wing plates. Both windshields were bagged and protected, as was the rollover bar. A very nice packing job!  Further inspection revealed the covering was loose on the wings, rudder, elevator and fuselage (especially the fuselage.) After approximately 3-1/2 hours of ironing and using a heat gun I eventually had the covering laid down. The fiberglass cowl was slightly damaged with a small break on the fuselage attachment end.

(For the building phase of this review I will follow the procedural steps as specified in the instruction manual. I will only cover in depth those situations where I deviated from those instructions.)

Wing & Tail Feathers

Assembly starts with the typical installation of the ailerons using the CA type hinges. Next the wings are joined with 30-minute epoxy using the supplied plywood brace with the dihedral set at 6-¼ inches. I used HiTec’s Super Torque 605BB servos, an EMS/Jomar GS-1 Glitch Stop/Noise Trap (suppresser) in each servo line, followed by a 12-inch extension. Each connection was sealed with ½-inch shrink tubing. The two wing dowel’s and hold-down plates were then epoxied in place. When mounting the wing I found the fuselage hold down block to be cut from lightweight ¼-inch birch ply, which allowed for some flexing. I reinforced this block to insure against the possibility of losing a wing in flight by using ¼-inch aircraft grade ply, spruce triangle stock, and 30-minute epoxy. When installing the aileron control linkages, I upgraded to 4-40 pushrods and Du-Bro spring steel Kwic-Links. The tail feathers required some trimming to line up the fin. I found the cutout for the fin tab needed lengthening and was not centered with the fuselage. The rudder hinge slots were also off center. An adjustment with a # 11 blade solved both issues.  

Landing Gear

Reports indicated this particular model is prone to landing gear failures, so I decided to beef up the mains. When fitting the 3/16” dia. wire struts I noticed the holes in the landing gear blocks were drilled slightly oversize which would allow strut flexing within the blocks, especially during landing.  A friend of mine, and fellow RC’er Russ Petersen came up with an idea that would distribute the force of landings throughout the entire wing instead of on the landing gear blocks alone. This involved installing two drag links and an extra set of blocks. I epoxied two 1x ¾ x 3-7/8 inch Birch blocks between ribs 3 & 4, on top of the lower spar and to the shear web. Another 3/8” x ¾” x 1” block was then epoxied to this block, the lower spar and rib # 4. Additionally, 3/32” ply was used as doublers on the ribs. The drag links were shaped from 5/32” music wire and attached to the main struts with copper wire then silver soldered.

This procedure did involve some extra work but the landing gear proved to be sound.

 The 5-inch wheels that come with this kit weigh 8 oz. each. That’s one pound of weight! I opted for DuBro’s 4-1/2 inch (450TL) Treaded Lightweight wheels. This halved the wheel weight.

 Zenoah G-23 (Gas) Engine Installation

 A Tech Tip addendum suggested you install the “enclosed “six self-tapping screws to reinforce the firewall. Unfortunately, these screws were not included in the kit. The firewall is the extended box type and is internally reinforced at the pre-drilled mounting holes with ½ -inch triangle stock. This did not allow enough clearance to install the two lower blind nuts and the limited access prevented any attempt to cut away some of the stock. I enlarged the lower two holes then epoxied a 7/16 x ¾-inch long hardwood dowel flush with the firewall and into the two triangle braces. The kits G-23 engine mount was made from lightweight ¼-inch Birch ply so I made another using “aircraft grade” ply. Two 8-32 hex bolts and two wood screws made the modified engine mount solid. For additional strength, 3/8-inch triangle stock was epoxied to the top and bottom sections of the extended firewall where they meet the fuselage. The Slimline Pitt style muffler requires M5x40 bolts. The Zenoah muffler bolts (M5x50) are to long. This muffler fits nicely in the firewall indent with only a slight protrusion through the cowl side. The kill switch is mounted to the aft firewall. There is no degree of thrust built in to the engine mount.

 For the gas fuel system, I used a Dubro fuel tank gas conversion stopper (not included with the kit as advertised), fuel fill valve and Tygon fuel tubing. The forward section of the fuselage is double wall construction, therefore when installing the fuel fill valve I made a small hatch out of 1/8” ply and mounted the fill valve to that hatch. Between the two walls I inserted two 2x3/8x1/2-inch spruce blocks to fill the gaps and mounted the hatch to those blocks with #2 washers and screws. This also made access to the fuel lines much easier. Each fuel tank tubing connection was secured with a small nylon tie wrap. 

 Servo Installation

 The instructions said to mount the throttle servo on top of the extended firewall. I did not like the idea of having a servo so close to possible fuel contamination, so the throttle servo was mounted conventionally and connected with a flexible nylon pushrod and a ball link at the carburetor throttle arm. Since the instructions mentioned that an additional 8-12 ounces of tail weight would be needed to balance the airplane when using a G-23, I decided to mount the two Hitec HS-605 BB elevator servos in the aft fuselage to help offset the weight differential. 4-40 pushrods and Dubro spring steel Kwic-Links completed the elevator hookup. An EMS/Jomar GS-1Y Glitch Stop/Noise Trap (“Y” type suppresser) was installed between the elevator servos and receiver, with each connection shrink-wrapped. This airplane has a “large” rudder; therefore, instead of the recommended standard servo a Hitec HS-700BB quarter scale servo was used for the pull-pull rudder system. This servo was installed as far aft in the radio compartment as practical.

 Final Assembly

 The cowl required quite a bit of cutting to fit around the G-23 engine. I reinforced the cutout areas and seams with 2 oz. glass and finishing resin. Even with the carburetor and one side of the muffler protruding through the cowl it still looks fairly clean. Again to help offset the weight of the engine, I placed the 1500 mah battery pack as far back in the fuselage as possible and used a 16-inch extension to connect to the charging jack/switch. A Master Airscrew “Classic” 16 x 8 prop was reamed out to the 8 x 1.25mm prop shaft size, balanced and attached with a Dubro aluminum prop nut. For the finishing touch I added an MDG 1930’s aviator to the front seat and placed a WWII pilot in the rear seat…after all, the PT-19 was a military trainer.

 Balancing

 The airplane was balanced with the CG set at the recommended 4-13/16 inches from the leading edge at the fuselage sides. An additional 2-3/4 ounces of tail weight was needed to offset the weight of the G-23. When setting the lateral balance one ounce of weight was added to the right wing tip at the outer most rib.

 Flight Testing

 Since this was my first gasser, Russ volunteered to help with the engine setup and flight-testing. Russ has been involved with giant scale gas powered airplanes for a number of years and is an excellent RC and full-scale pilot. It was decided to run a gallon of gas through the engine using the recommended Zenoah mixture of 32:1 before changing to an 80:1 Amsoil mix. It took higher amperage to start this engine than my OS .91 2-cycle and the standard field box battery was not up to the task. Using the truck battery, the “new” engine fired up after a couple of rotations. A minor adjustment to the high and low needles had the G-23 running sweet.

 Some Aileron-Rudder mix was programmed in and the airplane was setup for flaperons. A range check, with the engine at idle was performed. The “snitch” indicated there were no missed frames by the PCM receiver. After an hour in the sun more work was needed on the covering.

 For the first flight we decided to drive forty-five miles to the Tri-Area RC Flyer’s field in Chimicum, Washington. This field has a nice 300’ x 75’ grass runway nestled among eighty plus acres of wide-open farmland. When we arrived at the field the weather was partly sunny (actually mostly cloudy) and the wind was around 6 mph. After fueling, with Russ at the controls a taxi test and radio check was performed. The PT-19 ground handles very well and the snitch detected no missed Rx frames. It was time for the first flight. When throttling up the airplane some up elevator is needed to keep the tail down. Once the takeoff roll began and the tail started to lift Russ backed off the elevator, added a little right rudder and the airplane headed straight down the runway. In approximately 50-feet the airplane was airborne smooth as silk. Some basic maneuvers (loops and rolls) and a snap roll were performed and the PT-19 handled them like a veteran. Once Russ finished the initial test flight, and we confirmed that the snitch had detected no missed frames, it was evident that the PCM receiver and noise suppressors were performing well. On the second flight it was my turn at the sticks. Being my first giant scale I was a little nervous when I applied some throttle. This airplane is so smooth on takeoff that it surprised me how quick I had airspeed and was airborne. This is an easy flyer and very visible in the air, just what I had hoped for. After a few laps around the field I figured it was time to try my first landing of this big bird. Due to the weight of this airplane I found that a little more power is required when landing that the .40-.60-sizes I am use to.  With just a little throttle above idle, the PT-19 settles in nice and smooth. We were going to do more testing but the rain finally moved in and we called it a day. I can hardly wait until we have better weather to go fly this great flying airplane again! 

Conclusion

 The PT-19 may have flown fine if setup per the instructions using the enclosed hardware. However, I feel the extra work (and expense) that went into this project insures this airplane will have many trouble free flights. Excluding pilot error of course. Would I build another IMAA legal ARF after this experience? Definitely. I like this airplane.

Acknowledgments

My deepest thanks goes out to Russ Petersen. Without his knowledge and valuable assistance I probably never would have attempted a giant scale gas powered airplane.  

List Of Manufacturers/Suppliers:

 Chief Aircraft Inc., Grants Pass Airport, 1301 Brookside Blvd. Grants Pass, OR 97526 (1-541-476-6605) www.chiefaircraft.com

Horizon Hobby Inc., 4105 Fieldstone Road, Champaign, IL 61822 (1-800-338-4639) www.horizonhobby.com

Slimline Mfg. Corp., PO Box 3295, Scottsdale, AZ  85257 (480-967-5053) www.slimlineproducts.com

Robart Mfg. Inc., PO Box 1247, 625.N. 12^th St., St. Charles, IL  60174 (630-584-7616) www.robart.com

Du-Bro Products, Inc., PO Box 815, 480 Bonner Rd., Wauconda, IL 60084 (1-800-848-9411) www.dubro.com

Tower Hobbies, PO Box 9078, Champaign, IL  61826 (1-800-637-6050 www.towerhobbies.com

Electronic Model Systems Inc. (EMS/Jomar), 22605 East La Palma Avenue, Suite 516, Yorba Linda, California 92887 Orders Only: (1-800-845-8978) www.emsjomar.com

B & B Specialties, 14234 Cleveland Road, Granger, IN 46530, Orders, (1-574-277-0499) www.bennettbuilt.com