Lunchbox Hand Launched Glider

Plan downloaded from outerzone.co.uk.  An 8 inch span glider.

Hungerford Trimotor

Jetco Lark

The Mini-Maxer, from the Sig kit.

Power pod for Genesis unsuccessful

I completed the power pod, but it was unsuccessful. The electric motor was not powerful enough, and I couldn't get the balance correct.  Back to the drawing board.

I am working on a power pod for the Genesis model sailplane. I will post pictures when I can.

This is the Korda Victory, built from a kit from easybuiltmodels.com. The span is 32". I substituted Esaki tissue for the domestic tissue included in the kit. I also switched the propeller to a Peck-Polmyers prop. I also tried a Czech P-30 prop, which worked well. I am flying this on two loops of 3/16" rubber. I had to shim up the leading edge of the wing, and add some downthrust, and a little tail weight to trim it. I also replaced the plastic wheels in the kit (heavy) with balsa wheels.

The performance is amazing: this model flies the way you dreamed your models would fly when you are a kid. In the small fields near my home, I can only hand wind this with a few hundred turns. Any more, and I would lose the model. I will be adding a pop-up wing dethermalizer (Ed Schlosser, Best-By-Test style). Next summer, I will be taking this up to the Brooklyn Skyscraper's field in Wawayanda, NY, where I can really wind up and let it fly.

This is the Genesis covered. The model was covered in white Silkspan (the lightest weight), and finsihed with Nitrate dope. There were two coats of clear, and three coats of clear tinted with transparent red dye. This dye is sold as stain for electric guitars, and worked well with dope. It is available from www. stewmac.com.

A close-up of the servo installation in the Genesis. Two spruce cross pieces are glued into the fuselage, and the servos are held in with screws.

I originally tried mounting the servos in the wing, but I could not get the controls to operate properly with the elevon mixing feature on the transmitter.

I had to replace the "X" shaped servo arms with the long arms (with one arm cut off) in order to get enough travel on the elevons. These arms come with the servos, and are also available as a spare part.
The control rods and the rest of the hardware came with the kit.

This is the Genesis Sailplane under construction. It was built from the Peck-Polymers kit, and will be radio controlled. The elevons have already been covered in white silkspan, but will not be permanently attatched until covering and painting is complete. The radio gear consists of a Hitech Focus 3 FM tranmitter, and FMA Direct M5v2 Sub Micro receiver, and two Hitech HS-55 servos.