Wid's Guillow's kit 204

[WIDDOG]

I have my order put in and my package on the way from AC Supply. I have always wanted to build on of these kits. I have been kind of working more on the flying than the appearances of my models lately. With this build I will put in full effort for appearances. During my trim flights I "Hand Wind" the rubber motor and than go on to fly with "Stretch Winding." Anyway on this build I will try to trim and fly by just Hand Winding the motor. I guess what has me wonder about winding methods is these two videos of a hand wound motor with than 500 winds. Yes of course they hit a tree in each but they seem to fly well before they hit the tree. https://youtu.be/5PgWDKSatuw and https://youtu.be/XASDdNYKumI

[1778ppr]

Widdog,
The Avenger has a nice climbing straight away flight. I like the way it’s trimmed. What is the prop you are using? What is the diameter and make? It looks like a North Pacific plastic prop because of the straight tips. What rubber are you using? I’d sure like my planes to fly like that.
Take Care, John

[WIDDOG]

Hi John thanks for posting. I believe the prop came off a Sig toy wind up model. It came as a one piece unit. I separated the prop from the plastic piece that holds it onto the Balsa stick. The prop diameter is 5.5 inches. On that flight I only used one loop or two strands of 3/16 inch PP tan rubber. I kind of think the rubber that Don Ross talks about in his books is more of a gray color. I noticed that with the PP rubber it does not really help to break the rubber in.

[1778ppr]

Thanks for the information, Widdog. Have you tried a 6 inch Guillow's prop on these size models? It seems like everyone has go flights with the nominal 6 inch prop but it always seems to be a Peck or something other than a Guillow's. I was wondering why that is. To heavy?

Take Care, John

[WIDDOG]

As a rule of thumb; I like to use the 40% of wing span. This gets me fairy close to prop length. In the past I have had much better success with the Guillows 900 series kits vs. The 500 series kits. I think (yikes) that a 500 series kit with an auw all up weight of more than 35 grams will not fly very well. My trimming technique has come a long way.
I also think that the Guillow s props don't have enough pitch set into them. I did some tests comparing the guillow s vs. PP props . The PP props always flew better. I noticed that some of my PP still say Japan. BTW I also always take the time to balance my props. One time I even studied up on carving my own props.

[WIDDOG]

It's true that i'm not a expert but and intermediate skilled level rubber powered model builder/flyer. I do however bring a lot of passion into the hobby. It's just that to me the hobby is photography and model airplanes. In this video I took a 7, 6, and 5 inch propeller and compared them on the same model. I do admit that the appearance of the model could be better but I don't feel it interferes with the experiment. BTW some people say the ideal rubber motor length is between 1.5 and x2 the length of the propeller and rear peg. I think 1.25 or 1.5 the length is ideal. I since the shooting of the video now have more confidence in my rubber motor lengths and can get longer flights. https://youtu.be/AX-E4HWCPyI. I think that the trick is to get the largest propeller and still have some control of the model.