Mini Telemaster

[JohnBlankenship]

Here is a picture of my Mini-Telemaster from Hobby Lobby
6 V Speed 400 Motor
MPJet 2.33:1 gearbox
8x6 APC Propellor
8-Cell Hecell 1100mAh NiMh battery Pack
Covering is "GM Tissue"(polyester) from Balsa Products
Weight is 22 oz. ready to fly

Flys nice and easy.

[Foamiesrfun]

Here is a picture of my Mini-Telemaster from Hobby Lobby
6 V Speed 400 Motor
MPJet 2.33:1 gearbox
8x6 APC Propellor
8-Cell Hecell 1100mAh NiMh battery Pack
Covering is "GM Tissue"(polyester) from Balsa Products
Weight is 22 oz. ready to fly

Flys nice and easy.

Nice looking,I dont like to build tho,Welcome to the Site.your not related to RDBlankenship are you ? I know of him fromRC groups.

[Deereret]

Been looking at that kit. I am thinking about building it this winter. Is this an easy build and Hobby Lobby reccommends a brushless motor direct drive I think? Is this a slow flyer with the 400 speed motor?
Gene

[JohnBlankenship]

Gene

I would say it is not a hard build. The picture I posted shows the structure well enough I think. There are lots of sticks, and wing ribs are laser cut. Bending the 3/32 landing gear wire accurately was the most difficult part for me. I made a setup for my wire bender which helped keep bends flat. I can post a picture if you are interested.

Performance with the Speed 400 motor and MPJet gearbox is good enough for me. I would not call it a slow flyer. Takeoff run from smooth concrete surface is about 15 to 20 feet. I haven't tried takeoff from grass yet, but will be doing that later this morning, I hope.

John

[rcers]

Great job - I have long loved the telemaster....

Mike

[Deereret]

I made a setup for my wire bender which helped keep bends flat. I can post a picture if you are interested.
John
John, I have a bender so I would like to see a pic of the set up. If you would like PM me and I can send you my E-Mail address.
Thanks Gene

[JohnBlankenship]

I flew the Mini Telemaster twice this morning. After landing I tried to taxi off the grass strip. The tail lifted up, but the plane didn't move forward. Of course the battery was low after flying. Maybe next time I will try a takeoff from the grass. I've been taking off from the concrete apron in front of the hanger at the small airport where we fly. This is against our club safety rules.

Gene

I will post a picture of the wire bender setup tomorrow. Basically, the little steel block which holds the pins is set into a flat surface so that the wire is laying on the flat surface as it is bent. This helps keep all the bends in the same flat plane. This is not my idea, I think I got it from the SmallFly web site.

John

[JohnBlankenship]

Gene

Here is a picture of the setup. I screwed some small 1/2-inch oak boards to a piece of flat plywood, with a small hole for the steel block. I added some shims under the steel block so that it is flush with the top surface of the oak boards. The bending lever is at the top of the picture. As you make successive bends hold the wire down against the oak surface, and the bent wire will end up flat. I think I got this idea from the SMALLNet web site a while back. That is at

http://www.eskimo.com/~smallnet/

I hope this is helpful.

John

[Deereret]

Thanks John. It will help I'm sure when I bend the LG wire. Think I will practice with some coat hangar wire.
Gene

[buzzbomber]

John, very nice Mini Telemaster. You're running the exact setup I used on mine, and I found it was a great flyer on the brushed motor and nimhs. I added a battery tray and hatch to the bottom of mine, and added 1/4" to the rear of the rudder to improve turning--it does great rolls with lots of deflection dialed in.

[Zagabond]

I added ailerons to my Telemaster, and I went with the Nippy motor. I used the 1208/180. It easily over powers the plane. I can take off from less than perfect grass in about 15'. The plane is highly aerobatic for a flat bottomed wing. I kept the dihedral stock, added the airelorns, and added about a 1/2" to the rudder. It spins quite well, rolls easily. Lots of fun.

I had some issues with the kit. This is my second build of this. The original had some very soft stringers in the kit. I should have tossed them and replaced them with something stronger. I ended up scratch building a whole new fuselage and completely rebuilt the wing. The model gained a little weight in the process, but it flies very nicely and slows down to a crawl-if I want it to. Telemasters are great flyers.

[Warden]

I've got the low wing version of the Telemaster 40 (RCM Funster) that was kitted by Hobby Lobby. I built it for an Astro Flight 40 Geared motor originally but I recently repowered it with an AXI 4120-14. It flew really well with the Astro and now it flies even better with the AXI. The plane weighed close to 8 pounds with the Astro motor but it's under 7 now.

[JohnBlankenship]

buzzbomber

My Mini Telemaster has a built in left turn caused by wing warps. There is enough rudder to make right turns OK, but takeoff is a bit touchy. The left panel has about 1 degree washout (TE up) and the right panel has about 1 degree washin (TE down). Washout on both sides should be OK I think. The wing is covered with Balsa Products "GM Tissue", which is a colored polyester material. It looks nice overhead, like Japanese tissue, which is AOK to me. I have tried correcting the right panel with a heat gun, but the warp comes back. Yesterday I brushed on a coat of clear dope with retarder added to slow drying, and pinned the right panel down with washout. It will stay pinned down until Saturday morning, when I hope to fly again. If this does not cure the warp, I guess I will remove the covering, straighten the wing, and recover it.

I also added some right thrust to try to counteract the left turn, but I'm not sure this is a good thing. Is your thrust line straight ahead as shown on the plan?

Zagabond

Yes, I agree with you, some of the wood is too soft. Also, I would fill in between the spars over the center section of the wing with 1/8 balsa as I am getting some damage from the rubber bands. Also, I am concerned about the landing gear mounting. Is the mounting in the hard wood blocks holding up?

Warden

I have an Astro 15 Geared that I had in a Sig Kadet LT-25 last year. I made every mistake ever heard of (some twice) in flying the Kadet and finally damaged it beyond repair. I am thinking about building the Hobby Lobby Telemaster 40 for the Astro 15. I have to say though, that I enjoy flying the smaller models more.

John

[buzzbomber]

John,

I built it with zero right thrust--it seems fine that way. I had issues with wing warping also. Don't ask me why, but I covered the bottom of the wing in litefilm, and the top in transparent ultrocote light. The two films have vastly different shrink rates, so it was a nightmare trying to keep the wing straight and get the wrinkles out. Finally I got it nailed down though, after about five tries and several out of trim flights.