Ohio Model Planes :: Innovative Products for Model Aviation

I really like the graphics on the Stiffys and Shock Flyer. There’s just too many cool looking planes out there! The snakeskin covered EPP is very interesting. I like the use of carbon and the landing gear in the Stiffys. Ah, still have to build and maiden a Cox Christen Eagle and a MS Composite Boom!

I’m receiving the Cox Christen Eagle biplane today which is made out of foam with water applied decals. They suggest coating the decals with Testor’s clear cote to protect the decals, but it looks like I can use the can of Varathane in the garage for that. I hope the Varathane is still in good shape since it’s been in the garage for 6 years. There’s a good answer at the following link on the use of Varathane:

Where can I find a good acrylic sealer similar to Testors Dull Cote? – Yahoo! Answers

I finished building a Tribute FX 3D last weekend, but I was too eager to take it out on a windy afternoon, and it flipped over and had its nose torn off. It’s interesting to see that the nose is mainly held on to the fuselage by glue between two flat plates of balsa. I guess this helps in case you turf it so that the nose comes off cleanly in case of causing damage to the whole airframe. I think some judicious use of Sumo Glue and packing tape will get the plane up in the air again – although it will look a lot less pristine.

I received my repaired DX6i back with the proper size female pin. All I have to remember is that full charge is 5.8 volts and low charge is 4.3. What’s nice is that all it takes is 4 AA batteries in case you need a quick replacement. I was using the DX6 when I flew the Tribute FX 3D last weekend, and I like the programming features and feel of the DX6i a lot more.

I flew my repaired Stevens Aero Stik this morning, and it rose up in the air too fast. I think the angle of incidence for the wing is a little bit high, and I may try to raise the rear support in the future. For now, I’ll just mix throttle with down elevator. What was very cool to try for the first time were flaperons. I switched them on when I came in for a dead stick landing, and they slowed down the plane quite a bit at 50% settings. I’ll try to increase to 60% for the next flight.

I have a Cox Christen Eagle and a MS Composit Boom on the way. I can’t wait to get those two planes up in the air. It’s funny that originally I didn’t want to get into 3D planes and I just wanted an electric glider, but I really love the aerobatics that you can do with a 4 channel plane and 3D planes are a natural progression.

I put some Fast-Pack tape on the empennage of the Fik 100 and it made the plane very tail heavy. Between the weight of the tape, and I’m assuming a worse airfoil created by the tape over the empennage, the plane flew very tail heavy. After the removal of the tape, the plane flew much better, but it went down a little bit later on when the strapping tape holding the left half of the elevator came off. This occurred because removing the Fast-Pack tape loosened the elevator tape. This morning I applied three strips of tape perpendicular instead of parallel to the hinge on each side of the elevator (left and right) so that there would be some redundancy on the tape.

I covered the wing of my Fik 100 with Fast-Pack.com tape last night (red and orange on the bottom and yellow on top), and it looked very nice on its morning flight today. The tape isn’t super-tight, but it sticks on fine. I also put red around the nose to cover up all the excess glue from my repairs. The red nose and bright wings really help with orientation at a distance.