A few pics from San Diego...

At the risk of incurring the wrath of those soon to be in the grips of "building season", here are a bunch of pics from last Saturday morning at the field here in SoCal.

We had a couple of new folks join us this weekend. Martin Kuhl is just getting back into C/L and brought out a Tony that he had built 30 years ago and recently restored. He looked pretty smooth out on the handle for someone who had been away so long!

Richard Sorcinelli had never flown a C/L airplane before he stopped at the field to watch on Friday. He came back on Saturday morning and made his first couple of flights on the club trainer with Bob Brooks lending a hand. He seemed to have a great time and was last seen heading in the direction of the hobby shop...

It was really a pleasure to have a couple of new faces at the field, and such nice guys to boot!

About the pics:

1. A beautiful day for flying. Note the lack of jackets! (Okay, no more weather jibes, I promise...) Dave Sabon preps his Impact while Bob Brooks gets the trainer airborn. Richard Sorcinelli is just about to take his turn at the handle.

2. Richard (right) makes his first ever C/L flight! Bob providing instruction.

3. Martin Kuhl with his (30 year old!) scratch-built Tony, Fox .35 for power. Nicely built ship!

4. Richard Sorcinelli with "Old Faithful" the club trainer. Skyray 35 with an Enya .29. On Richard's last (Completely uneventful) flight, we found that the front of the old Enya was just about to fall off! Looks like yet another motor for the ol' Skyray...

5. Charles Carter with his long serving Banshee. Talk about getting your money's worth! Its got a Super Tigre .35 for power. Charles is working on learning the pattern and is really making progress.

6. Bob Brooks with his original design P-38 Lightning, single OS.46 in the nose. Still getting it trimmed out, but it sure looks great in the air.

7. Bob's P-38 again. My pics really don't do this plane justice...

8. The P-38 cockpit.

9. Martin Kuhl's scratch-built Tony with Fox .35 power.

10. My Crusader with .25FP power.

11. Uh, try to relax there Charles...

So, if you get tired of the snow this winter, come on out our way. We have a good field, good friends, good weather, and a good place for lunch after the lines are rolled in!

God bless!

Love that shade of green your grass appears to be! Of course, the grass at out field is now white.

OS,
If you check the pic with the Skyray you will see that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

...Couldn't resist.

George,

This was the kind of picture I wouldn't let my teenaged kids see. It proves that the grass is indeed greener on the other side of the fence and my kids would have used that against me!

I really like that P-38, can we get some more info on it, like weight, finish, blah, blah blah!?

Get that fuel jug outta the sunlight!!!!

Tell us more about that P-3...

Great Pics! I am going to head down to San Diego and take my plane and check out the action. Tell us about the P-38.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-01-03 AT 03:47 PM (CST)
 
OK guys, loud and in unison:

P-38! P-38! P-38! P-38! P-38!

>OK guys, loud and in unison:
>
>P-38! P-38! P-38! P-38! P-38!
>
>Randy Ryan
>AMA 8500
>SAM 36
>I fly 'em all and love it!

OK guys, my friend Bob Brooks is not internet available so I will answer your questions as best as I can.

Bob started working on a P-38 design 4 or 5 years ago and this plane is the 2nd installment. The long term plan is to build it as a twin stunter but this version and the first one were single engine. The first one flew ok but there were problems with control flexing. This scale airframe also does not adapt well to standard control dimensions so the controls are very fast (pushrods and horns are internal through the outboard boom). It also came out nose heavy and did not have the swept trailing edge of the full scale airplane. Bob did fly the first version in many contests at the intermediate level and did pretty well in terms of taking home hardware. Unfortunately, during one contest he added a touch and go during inverted level flight that was more touch than go and that was the end.
For the second version, he lengthened the tail, shortened the nose and added the swept trailing edge. Unfortunately, this version is extremely tail heavy. The nose used to actually look like the P-38 but he had to add about 5 oz. of lead. This was done by eliminating the spinner and building a permanent weight box behind the prop. As you can see additional weight was added on the crank shaft in front of the prop. The controls still flex badly as he was unable to fix the linkage problem.

Since this is a no contest period here in Southern CA he is working on getting the right CG and doing other tests before builing a new one or dramatically overhauling this one. (Bob has been flying the Impact and SV designs in contests) He did send the plans to Paul Walker for comment and will be adding those ideas to the next one. Bob really does not want to send plans to anyone because he's not sure that the design will really fly well.

The weight is in the mid 70's. The power plant is an OS 46 turning a 12 x 6 zinger prop. Lap times are about 5.2 sec on 70' center to center lines. I'm not sure what the wings square inches are but it is a big plane. Finish is all Sig dope.

Bob would be more than happy to talk to anyone by phone regading the plane. You can reach him at 858-279-4968. By the way, before sending this I did call Bob to get his approval on what I've written and to post his phone number, so he won't be surprised by any calls.

Dave

Mike,

The P-38 is way cool, but whats the scoop on your Crusader? Was that a kit or does it have a little Flite Streak in it? Any other pics of it from different angels that you could post or send me.

Thanks,

LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-03 AT 03:07 PM (CST)
 
Hi Kirk,

The Crusader is an original design, but it is about the same size as a Streak. When I got back into C/L a little over a year ago, I built the Crusader so I would have a simple, fairly capable airplane that would be easy to fix if I pranged it. (In fact the boot prints just behind the canopy are "kill stickers", one for each hard impact so far! ) I think it's is a great flying airplane, and the others that have flown it seem to like it.

The finish, such as it is, is Monocote wing with rattlecan laquer on the fuse. All of the trim is cut from Monocote trim sheets.

Specs:
42" span C-tube capstrip wing, about 420 squares including fixed flaps
12.5" tail moment (Trailing edge, not including flap, to elev. hinge line).
36sq." stab, 31sq." elevator.
32 oz. all up (and a bit fuel soaked )
OS.25FP power with 9x4 Master Airscrew prop
3.5 oz. uniflow tank

Here are a few more pics. Looks pretty beat up when you get close to it...

Let me know if there is anything I've left out. If there is something you'd like to see that isn't in a pic I can probably get a shot of it, though I guess there aren't too many secrets on a profile!

God bless!