Slight set back…The ¼ “ inch motor tube is too narrow and the rubber motor binds up with it. I had to tear out the ¼ “ inch tube and build a new ½ “ inch tube. The fuselage will get a bit thin but I think there is enough room for the bigger motor tube.
I have to give you credit for persistence. You've covered a lot of modeling experience in a short space of time. Again, learning to make motor tubes will stand you in good stead with other models, but a motor tube on a DC series model may be overkill. Just make the slot wider, build as light as possible, and use smaller rubber. The winning model in the "Battle of Britain" contest was flying on a loop of 1/16" flat, tan rubber.
Of course, it is possible to build too light. I built a model, a couple of days ago, that had about 90 square inches of wing area, out of "contest grade" 1/20" sheet and strip stock. The uncovered frames weighed a bit under 4 grams. I did not get an all up weight for it because after I finished it, working in the house, I was carrying it to my workbench in the garage to weigh it. Traversing the five feet between the kitchen door and the back door of the garage, a sharp gust of wind came up and where I was holding a model I was now holding shreds of tissue with bits of balsa attached. Take my advice to build as light as possible with a fair sized grain of salt.
Howard
Last edited by kittyfritters on Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I have to give credit where credit is due. You have been totally correct about all your posts and this last one is also spot on. The motor tube is totally not necessary for this great kit. Having said that I just wanted to say that these kits are great and lend themselves to learning. This kit has “Held Up” extremely well. At the present time I am learning with different size propellers vs. different rubber size. The nice thing is that this kit flies so well on different “Set Ups” I actually get to compare and see for myself the differences with different set ups. I have learned that a little bit of set up goes a long way. I have seen expert modelers (Youtube) be able to just sort of know by experience what propeller and rubber to use. I also learned, on a personnel basis, that these kits have somehow sparked an interest in me to build the F 14 Tomcat. I may post a thread on that build, as a kind of Noob to static display building kind of thing.
The Youtube is a video of my trimming flight with my experimental Zero. Once again I apologize for the looks of this Zero. When I get the proper set up I will build a nicer looking one. Anyway seems like it likes 3/32” rubber. For tomorrow I will try a bit longer motor 1.5 x length. I will try to video the trim flight. Anyway this kit has really stood up to a lot of punishment. I have learned quite a lot about flying from it.
I am using 1/8” inch rubber at 1.25 length. I will have to modify my Noseblock to use longer rubber. Anyway that’s not really important. You see I think I have been making a huge mistake in my trimming. What I have been doing is launching and trimming, my outside model, to try and get it to fly like an inside model does. i.e. about three nice circles and than a nice landing. Well now I think differently. I am starting to think for an outside model it is best to get it to gain as much altitude as possible at the start. This way the wind helps fly the model and not crash it into the ground. Anyway I think that for “Mass Launch”, this is what I have a interest in, It’s not so much the pattern the model flies it’s how long the model stays in the air. So I unless I hear differently I’m going to try and trim to get the model to stay in the air as long as possible.
