Original,in box Midwest Sniffer;e-flight?

[Crasher]

Gentlement; I just ran across an original, in the box, Midwest Products model airplane called the Super Sniffer hiding in my basement. I had bought this model plane years and years ago. It has a 48" polyhedrial wing span and was powered by a .049 glow engine and used a thermal fuse system to get it back down to Mother Earth! I think after all of these years, I should build it for e-power. I would make it a 3 chan system, ESC, rudder and elevator. I think I should go brushless too; what size power do you think I would need for it. It should be a real floater! Thanks for your input, this is the Crasher from Silverwood, MI, out in the country!

[Sky Sharkster]

Hello Crasher, Welcome to Wattflyer! What a great find! The "Sniffer" is an excellent model for either "Old Timer Limited Motor Run" (LMR) or "Texaco", they both have new rules which allow Electric conversions including brushless motors. Here's a link; http://www.antiquemodeler.org/adl/events.htm
Whether you want to fly it in competition or not, it will be a great sport-flying model and floating around in a thermal without having to chase the model is the best of two worlds.
If you can keep the ready-to-fly weight around 16-20 ounces it will be perfect for a "Speed 400" sized motor, which is by far the most popular size in electric motors and aircraft.
Which motor to get? I'll suggest a few, but there are literally dozens that will do the job just fine.
At the low end of the price range is the Eskay outrunner from Hobby-Lobby.com. The list price is $40.00 but many times they're on sale for 1/2 that price. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/brushless-skatty.htm
The E-Flight Park 370 is also an Outrunner, about $50.00
http://www.ecubedrc.com/brushless_motors.htm#E%20Flite%20Outrunners
For a geared "Inrunner" the Himax 2025 4200 (w/gearbox) for about $75.00. http://www.aeromicro.com/Catalog/himax_2025-4200_brushless_gear_drive_3499831.htm
Last, one of my favorites but they're not cheap! The AXI 2212/20 outrunner, the motor is $70.00 plus a prop adaptor/mounting kit for $15.00. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/brushless-axi2212.htm
Any one of these motors will require a 15-20amp brushless speed controller, figure between $40.00 to $60.00 for a good one.
Hopefully other members will post some of their favorites but this will give you a start!
Good Luck!
Ron

[Crasher]

Thanks Ron for all of the great info, links, etc! Well, I am getting back into my childhood, early next year I will be 71 years old and model airplanes are something I always enjoyed building as a kid. Back then, I had places to play with them, free flights, etc, all of this before radio. Back then, guys were flying tube type equipment so the planes had to be large.

Now, I am taking care of my youngest son's property here in northern Michigan (Silverwood), he owns 20 acres out in farm land. His boss transferred him from Detroit to Tampa Florida; one has to go with the work now-a-days. In the meantime, he leases out about 18 of the acres to a local farmer who just pulled his soybean crop out last week. Now I have a field again to fly in. I have a 40 acre field across the street from me, with another 100 acre field to the West of it, so its a great place to fly! This house is about 70 miles north of mine in Warren. As a matter of fact, just this afternoon, I had a good flight with my 280 powered Hobby Shack Mini-Max and I didn't even crash it this time! This little plane has really taken a beating from me! It is all out of foam too.

My Sniffer will be a nice little floater, should be a lot of fun out here in the farm country, thanks to guy like you Ron. Have a great time flying, this is the Crasher

[Sky Sharkster]

Hello Crasher, Glad I could help, there's lots of folks here with experience that will share tips with you. If you want any suggestions on the build, equipment, covering or trimming, ask away. Everyone has their favorite way of doing things but we're all trying to have fun flying, and to me, anyway, the build is a large part of it!
Sounds like you habe a great place to fly, that's a big plus!
I think if you sort through some of the threads here and "Builders Techniques" you'll figure a lot of stuff out for yourself, that's fun too!
Good Luck!
Ron

[Eric_N57105]

Gentlement; I just ran across an original, in the box, Midwest Products model airplane called the Super Sniffer hiding in my basement. I had bought this model plane years and years ago. It has a 48" polyhedrial wing span and was powered by a .049 glow engine and used a thermal fuse system to get it back down to Mother Earth! I think after all of these years, I should build it for e-power. I would make it a 3 chan system, ESC, rudder and elevator. I think I should go brushless too; what size power do you think I would need for it. It should be a real floater! Thanks for your input, this is the Crasher from Silverwood, MI, out in the country!

I recently bought a Miss 2 from a member. It has a 54" polyhedral wing. It had an MP Jet inrunner and gearbox which moved it along well enough, but the noise of a gearbox just grates on me.

I repowered it with an Essay 400XT ($19.90) from Hobby Lobby, a Castle Creations Thunderbird 18 ($33) and an Apex 3s 1350 lipo ($35). AUW is 22 oz. It climbs fast and sure to altitude and a typical flight with no thermals is 45 minutes total with about 15 minutes of power up.

A very inexpensive and capable motor/ESC combination for planes of this type. It should do a great job for a Sniffer too.

Eric
www.ke6us.com