Eam 62" C-130

[firemanbill]

Not exactly a warbird but Military none the less.

I have had this bird for a while now waiting to improve my skills enough to tackle the build and fly. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend to take her out for the maiden.

Here it is out of the box and the first few build photos

She has a 62" span running 4 permax 280's

[firemanbill]

The build was relativaly starightforward, a lot of shaping of the stryrofoam. The shop vac came in real handy.

The nose is vacu formed plastic with remainder being pretty dense styro, good quality. the wing had 2 balsa braces that pretty much ran the witdh of the wing. I replaced them with cf for strength. Wing is three pieces.

[firemanbill]

More photos of the wing and motor assemblies

[firemanbill]

And the finished product... Hopefully We'll get some good weather and I can get her up this weekend!

[Sky Sharkster]

Hi Firemanbill, nice job on the "Herc"! Hope the flight goes well.
Good Luck!
Ron

[Doppelganger]

Holy Cow! What a beast!! It's beautiful! Gimme a link for the website where you purchased it. That thing doesn't need flaps? Or will you use flapperons?

Steve

[crxmanpat]

Ah, the surprise is finally revealed! Very nice build Bill. Can't wait for the maiden report. I have not talked to anyone who has flown the EAM model, but I can tell you, with that much wing area, she will slow down real nice for landing. You only need to keep a touch of power on and you will grease it every time.

The only thing I didn't like about this kit is the vacu-formed nose section. I know they couldn't do a true scale herc because of those idiot lawyers at Lockheed, but I think they could have done a little better. Oh well, once it's airborne, you won't notice anyway.

Great job Bill!

[Doppelganger]

Never mind, I found the site.

Steve

[Twmaster]

Not a Warbird? HUH??

One word. Spectre



Nice looking plane Bill.

[crxmanpat]

And a couple more:

Compass Call (like my avatar)
Cobra Ball

[Twmaster]

Originally Posted by crxmanpat

And a couple more:

Compass Call (like my avatar)
Cobra Ball

Roger that. I was however just sticking to simple one word names

The Herky Bird is a warrior. A darned fine one at that.

[crxmanpat]

Roger, wilco, over and out!

[firemanbill]

Thanks for all the comments guys... I was thinking of making an AC 130 out of it eventually. It wouldn't be to hard to stick a few guns out the side of it eh? When I was stationed at Eglin we could see one of the ranges thu guys at Hurlburt Field would use for there firing range. We'd sit out back at night and watch those things fire What a sight that was... I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that!

More detailing once I get it all trimmed up and flying right.

I am going to use a flaperon setup on it with my new dx6.

Nice site they have too Steve. I love that B-17 they have. Out of my price range though

I'll do some runs tonight and get the power report and post it.

[Doppelganger]

Well, we wait with bated breath for the flight report!

Steve

[firemanbill]

Yeah me too...


you know me, I have to practice holding my breath for a while to get the nerve up

[firemanbill]

Well we managed to get out this afternoon. This weekend is our Annual air show and all three of the kids had either baseball or soaftball games but we managed to get her out this evening after dinner.

WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!!

She flies like..... well like... a C-130. The first attempt at takeoff didn't go so well due to dummy me not thinking about needing more room to take off a 2 1/2 pound airplane No problems though just had to go get it out of the grass and get to the other end of the runway.

I am runnning a common sense 11.1 v 1650 mah pulling 16.8 amps and putting 166 watts with a cc Griffin 55 amp controller and the gws 5030 props. She had more than ample power to pull up at about a 30% climb. I did not use the flaps as the current setup uses a single aileron servo. I will probably stay with that sense ther was no need for flaps at all. The turns were all nice and gentle and the flight could not have been more perfect.

Ended up taking it up three times total trying to get photos and video. I'll get the video up when I figure out how to do it since I have no idea how to get it from tape to hard drive! I really need a new camera as well. Kelly took some photos but most of them are really blurry. Our $70 Office Depot camera needs to go bye bye...

On the last flight I did lose a prop. But typical of a C-130 there were no issues with bringing it in.

All in all three flights, three greased landings and one lost prop. well not really lost, we found it and it is back on now.

This is a really cool bird! I gotta find a bigger field now

[lshadow2005]

Where did you get the kit
I sure would like to build one-flew many hours in Nam on those work horses
Please send any info
thanks
bob

[firemanbill]

bob,

It is one cool bird... I spent many an hour on them as well, primarily in the desert during the first gulf war.

This one comes from a place in Texas called electric aero modeling.

http://www.eam.net

Enjoy
Bill

[Bill G]

Originally Posted by firemanbill

WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!!

You gotta love it when something flies well the first time. I remember flying a slow stick with ease the first time. My response was similar, with at least as much excitement. This was after having no success with some Wattage piece of crap, which I'm too embarrassed to even name.

[Twmaster]

Aw c'mon Bill. Tell us!

As for the Herky Bird I just got the GWS model. Can't decide whether to fly it as a 4 engine or 2, or to go Air Force or Coastie.

Darned decisions!

[crxmanpat]

Congratulations Bill, well done! I told you it would be a gentle flyer. And no need for flaperons. I hope you can get some video posted.

Originally Posted by Twmaster

Aw c'mon Bill. Tell us!

As for the Herky Bird I just got the GWS model. Can't decide whether to fly it as a 4 engine or 2, or to go Air Force or Coastie.

Darned decisions!

My 2 cents: 4 motors and Spectre Gunship!!! There are already too many Coasties and Fat Alberts. We need some variety!

[firemanbill]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I sure am having fun with this bird.

Am back at work today doing the Air Show thing here on base so probably won't have a chance to get it back out for a few days.

Now that I have the Spektrum I've got that extra couple of channels so I'm trying to think of a way to open the rear hatch, (it does open on this model) Plenty of room to put some paratroopers in the back to drop out

[warbird@home]

It warms the heart to hear stories like that !! I used to fly a Hercules from Innovative Aviation in Belgium, very similar construction.....had to carve out my nose though :-) lost it due to some fool firing up on the same frequency....GREAT presence in the air !!!!!!! Nice one .......:-)

[firemanbill]

Thanks Warbird. Sorry to hear about losing yours. Like I mentioned I've got the spektrum now so I shouldn't that worry.

I'll have to say it flew so well that this was my first maiden wher I was actually able to breathe while I was flying I usually get so nervous I forget to breathe...

Hopefully I will have some video to post by tomorrow, a fella I work with at the FD is converting my video so I can post it.

Bill

[firemanbill]

OK here it is... A buddy of mine edited the video and put music to it. I'd rather hear the motors buzzing overhead but he did a great job. I'll get better video this weekend with better lighting.

http://media.putfile.com/EAM-RC-C-130-maiden-Flight

Bill