And, Now For Something Completely Different

[kittyfritters]

Last Saturday night, the Blacksheep Squadron had the "Two, Three, or Four Off the Floor" indoor contest at the El Coriso Park gym. It was for multi-motored rubber powered models which could be Multi-motored Minnows, two, three or four props or tri-motored, or four-motored "No-Cals". The No-Cals could be larger than the legal 16 inch wing span and had to approximately represent a "real" airplane, and all launches were to be R.O.G.

El Coriso is an interesting venue that is not without it's challenges. It is a quite reasonable space for indoor flying, being twice as large as our usual indoor space, Stonehurst Park. However, unlike Stonehurst, El Coriso does not have a flat ceiling. The clear height is about 27 feet, but above that are open roof trusses. There are also six basketball backstops hanging from the roof trusses around the edge of the space. To clear the space, they can be folded up to a horizontal position about two feet below the trusses by an electric mechanism. This has lead to a conjecture about the possibility of a model making a "carrier landing", 25 feet up, on one of the backstops

There was actually no contest because Minnow's always fly well no matter what you do to them. Don Butman took all four categories with his Minnows.



Don with a Tri-motor Minnow



Don's four-motored Minnow

My effort was second in the four-motor category. I took the No-Cal approach. My subject was the Fokker F.36 airliner. It is high-winged with a long tail moment and fixed landing gear...a good subject.



It is a larger than legal No-Cal with a 24 inch wing span. I chose to use four stub motor sticks on the front of a T-shaped motor stick with some diagonal bracing to avoid having too much wing structure. The four motors went to a common, two sided, motor hook that stuck out on both sides of the fuselage. As it turned out, the wood I chose for the motor stick was too light and I had to add more bracing to the motor stick assembly. The rest of the airplane was conventional No-Cal construction with 3/32" X 1/16" material instead of 1/16" square for additional strength. The wing tips were very old school being bamboo, and the tail surfaces were 120% over scale. Balanced, with rubber, it weighs 25 grams and has 90 square inches of wing area. Of course, I built it the afternoon before the contest.

Does it fly? It took a while to get it trimmed and to find the right sized rubber to get it to R,O.G. and then I had a problem. The number of winds to get it to R.O.G. and establish it's turn was also enough to get it up into the roof trusses. It got stuck in the trusses and Dave Gee's deft use of his retrieval pole got it down with no damage. I finally found the number of winds to get it cruise just below the trusses, but ended the conjecture about a model making a "carrier landing" on one of the stowed backstops. Dave had to get the pole out again. Anyway, despite the truncated flight times it was good enough for second.

Here are some of the other entries:



General Aircraft Fleet Shadower



Something Farman from the 1920's



Ford like tri-motor



Ford tri-motor



Professor Fate's #4 If there had be a charisma prize, this entry from Steve Higgenson would have won hands down.

[Wildpig]

That looks like a lot of fun. Really like the F.36 and Tri-motor.

[paul]

Professor Fate's #4 If there had be a charisma prize, this entry from Steve Higgenson would have won hands down.

I knew I had heard the name before somewhere.
It was in an issue of Aero Modeller, March/April 2013 where he submitted an article on The Bostonian Class with a plan of the "Pudgey"
A fun build, while there's nothing to do to your Guillows kit

Although the name was S.E Higginson I'm assuming its the same guy

[kittyfritters]

Professor Fate's #4 If there had be a charisma prize, this entry from Steve Higgenson would have won hands down.

I knew I had heard the name before somewhere.
It was in an issue of Aero Modeller, March/April 2013 where he submitted an article on The Bostonian Class with a plan of the "Pudgey"
A fun build, while there's nothing to do to your Guillows kit

Although the name was S.E Higginson I'm assuming its the same guy

Yes, it is the same guy. He is also one of the editors of Aero Modeller.

[WIDDOG]

Great post I really like the four motor plane. The model in the picture is just a large plastic toy C 130. I taped a propeller onto the nose to show what I am going to be attempting in way of a Build. I will of course be building my model out of Balsa Wood and Tissue.

[kittyfritters]

Here is one way of handling four rubber motors.

In this case it's done with a two part custom stooge/prop release. The bottom part of the stooge was clamped to one of the bleacher seats at the side of the gym with a spring clamp. (Weighted down to my bench with a cutting board in the photo.)



The top part of the stooge is turned upside down and the handle goes through the hole in the bottom part to hold it while winding.



The model is placed in the stooge, upside down, and the rubber motors are wound and attached to the rear hook. The inner motors are wound first then the outer motors to avoid putting too much asymmetrical stress on the motor stick. The propellers all have freewheel ramps, and because the model has to circle inside a room, the motor on the outside of the turn is wound with about 100 more turns than the others to insure that the turn continues when the power runs out. (In this case a left turn so the right outboard motor had the extra winding.)



When the motors are wound the whole top of the stooge is lifted out with the model, inverted and set on the floor at the takeoff point.



Since this was an ROG contest, the pegs on the stooge were made long enough to touch the floor with the model in takeoff position. To launch the model you hold it back with one hand and pull up the handle of the stooge with the other, releasing all four props simultaneously and let the model go.

This is a variation on a stooge that I made for my Comet P-38 back in the 1950s. That model was hand launched so the stooge/release was right side up and pulled down to release the props while holding the model up to launch with the other hand.

As you can see from the photos in my first post there were many other ways of handling multiple motors. Some people wound their motors off the model and then put them on the motor sticks. One even had detachable motor sticks that were clipped in after the motors were wound. One modeler used a similar stooge to wind but put his had across all four props when he lifted the model out of the stooge and carried it to the launching point. Then he raised his hand to release the props at launch. Just give it some thought.

Dave Gee took a video of my Fokker F.36 flying at Stonehurst last Wednesday and I will post a link as soon as he posts it to YouTube.



Howard

[meku]

Very interesting post, good fun!, Greetings from Polish.

[WIDDOG]

Great post very interesting. I always wondered about four motor rubber free flight. I am so impressed with your post that I decided to try four motor rubber power on my C 130. Thanks for the informative post.

[kittyfritters]

Here is a link to the video that Dave Gee put together about my flying the Fokker. He did a great editing job. The video is a combination of videos taken at El Coriso during the contest and at the O.F.F.C. session at Stonehurst last Wednesday morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUWZMqzIsI4

Unfortunately, I will have to build another one. It was sliced in half in an accident while I was showing it to my grandson, his stepfather, and a cousin. At least the wing is salvageable.

[kittyfritters]

Unfortunately, I will have to build another one. It was sliced in half in an accident while I was showing it to my grandson, his stepfather, and a cousin. At l

Just thought I'd let you know that after a weekend to cool off, I decided to piece the damaged section back together, and with some reinforcement, plus a little more nose weight to compensate for the weight of the reinforcement and the glue, I was able to successfully re-trim the Fokker and had it flying quite nicely at the O.F.F.C. session this morning. The five foot tall pencil cactus that fell on it survived also although my wife is a tad upset that the McCoy pot it was in was broken when it fell over. Grandson forgiven.

[paul]

Just when I was about to post a picture (only on this thread) of my Bostonin Pudgey, my Granddaughter had other ideas of what to do with it
Being only 2 yr old, she is also forgiven again. You just cant help it.
It is repairable

[kittyfritters]

I got to the Annual Blacksheep Picnic at Stonehurst Park, this morning, early enough that the conditions were nearly zero wind. The Fokker was with me just in case of this so I could get in an outdoor flight.

Got it stooged it up, and put in 1000 winds on each motor...no need to keep it out of the rafters or under the ceiling. The drag tab on the left wing tip was bent up...no need for a tight turn either. I hand launched it, which went OK, even though this was not what my stooge/prop release was designed for, and up it went. It flew so well that I was practically jumping up and down. (Maybe I was...I'll have to ask Dave Gee who was watching.) The temperature was over 90 degrees, but fortunately, there was no thermal activity because the park had been watered in the morning and the ground was still damp. With no D.T., 25 grams, and almost 90 square inches of wing area, a thermal could have easily have taken it O.O.S. (A couple of models did go O.O.S. later in the day.) It did not drop any motors, all props freewheeled, and the glide was great. Just after it landed the wind started to come up and I heeded Dave's advice to put it back in the car before I lost it.

It was in the air so fast when I arrived that no one thought to take a video. Another outdoor flight will be attempted, soon, with camera. I don't know quite what it is, but I'm really getting into this multi-motor thing. Thoughts flood my head, maybe a Lancaster, or a Short Sterling, or an early B-17 or a Bf-110. It' going to be a real effort to keep this from becoming a serious distraction.

[Wildpig]

......... I don't know quite what it is, but I'm really getting into this multi-motor thing. Thoughts flood my head, maybe a Lancaster, or a Short Sterling, or an early B-17 or a Bf-110. It' going to be a real effort to keep this from becoming a serious distraction.

B-24, JU-88, Super Constellation, Stratocruiser, Handley Page 0/400,Boeing 314........

[paul]

Steve Higginson stepping down as editor of areomodeller is a great shame, as I've really enjoyed he's work over the past year editing the re-born Aeromodeller
Hope he still contributes to the magazine, especially the plans he submits

Paul