John Cooper's Rubber Powered Freeflight Page 2


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Hawker Tempest Mk5

The Tempest was build using the beautiful Hawker Typhoon plans from Dave Diels. The plans were modified to a Tempest by lengthening the nose, adding a piece to the vertical stab and completely redesigning the wings. The Invasion strips are made from Risteen Microlite, this time applied backwards and fastened with glue stick. By doing this, the dull side of the Risteen gives a very scale appearance.

  • wingspan: 55 cm
  • weight: ~20g
  • power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch
  • design: Dave Diels (modified)
  • built: 2003
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RAF SE5a

The SE5a is another light plane; it probably has the lowest wing loading of all my planes. Its flights are slow and quite shakey from the unwinding rubber. I am still triming the plane. With about 800 turns, it likes to take an unpredictable path around the obstacles near the gym ceiling (and eventually hits something).

  • wingspan: 52 cm
  • weight: ~11g
  • power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch
  • design: Howard McEntee (modified)
  • built: 2003
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Belanca Citabria

The citabria's light weight made it an easy plane to trim. The removable wings, held on with removable balsa spars, make the plane very portable. The model is covered with Red and White Risteen Microlite. The plane is now converted for indoor radio control with an RFFS-100 and magnetic actuators.

  • wingspan: 50 cm
  • weight: ~10g
  • power: 1 strand of .090 inch
  • design: John Cooper
  • built: 2003
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Fokker DVIII

The Lozenge pattern on the fuselage of the plane is made on Japanese tissue with ink jet printing. The wing and tail are covered with Risteen microlite. This is really fabulous stuff. It is very opaque and lighter than Japanese tissue. I had some problems with warping of my light structures with the Risteen, but with selective re-inforcing I was very pleased with the results. I sprayed the model with flat Krylon to overcome the high gloss finish of the Risteen.

  • wingspan: 35.5 cm
  • weight: 7.5g
  • power: 1 strand of .090 inch
  • design: John Cooper
  • built: 2003
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Aviatik C1

This Aviatik model was built with a concentration on lightness more than scale. This peanut model is quite light and slow and trimming is coming along nicely. It is covered with Japanese tissue dyed with tea (Orange Peko), on one side only of the wings. The wheels are black meat-tray foam tires over balsa rims tied to an aluminum hub via silver thread spokes. The Maltese insignia were printed, on an ink jet printer, separately, on white tissue.

  • wingspan: 13 inch
  • weight: ~3.5g
  • power: 1 strands of 1/32 inch
  • design: John Cooper
  • built: 2003
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Waco SRE

A little heavy for indoors, the Waco SRE none the less is a capable flier. More than 350 turns of rubber can result in the biplane bouncing off of the ceiling. On one occasion ceiling bouncing resulted in the loss of the starboard bottom wing and a crash into the wall and a near verticle dive. Fortunately damage was little because the wings are attached to the fuselage by replacable balsa spars that fit into paper tubes in the fuselage and wings.

  • wingspan: 51 cm
  • weight: ~35g
  • power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch
  • design: Earl Stahl plans
  • built: 2003
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Sorta-Schweizer AC2

As the name suggests, there is no full size glider that looks like this plane. It is roughly based on the Schweizer 2-22, with many simplications to allow for quick construction. It has successfully been towed aloft my my Fairchild 24 and a very small indoor r/c machine. The main problem with towing is that it does not always release at full height. Often the glider will release just as the tow plane is about to land.

  • wingspan: 51 cm
  • weight: 4.8g
  • power: none
  • design: John Cooper
  • built: 2002
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Focke Wulf FW-189

Fortunately the fw189 turned out to be much easier to trim than I thought; The main problem I have had with it is that I keep forgetting to wind the port prop counter-clockwise. I made the spinners out of hardwood and this saved adding any nose weight. The machine is nice and stable and has a lot of potential.

  • wingspan: 61 cm
  • weight: ~18g without rubber
  • power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch per prop
  • design: John Cooper
  • built: 2002
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Dehavilland DH60 Moth

The DH60's light weight and large wing area make it a beautifully slow flyer. The main problem with it is that the wings turn into bananas when the air is dry. The wings are covered only on the top and I must not have pre-shrunk the tissue enough or applied it in humid weather.

  • wingspan: 40 cm
  • weight: ~7g without rubber
  • power: 2 strands of 1/32 inch
  • design: from Propellors column, Auckland Star, 1933
  • built: 2002
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Grumman Avenger

The avenger flies OK as long as there aren't too many turns on the rubber. With more than 300 turns it likes to do dutch rolls and hangs on the prop until it recovers to do stable circles. The model is made from a Guillows kit, with all of the balsa replaced. I needed to cut plastic from the nose cowl and use a light balsa prop get the plane to balance.

  • wingspan: 40 cm
  • weight: ~11g without rubber
  • power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch
  • design: modified Guillows kit.
  • built: 2002
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