Mode One

I tried to post a photo yesterday; but, the connection timed out (I'm on dial up with no options for higher speed internet at this time). I'll try again in a bit.

Mode One

SUCCESS!! Here is my 1/6th scale Albatros DIII. I designed and scratch built this airplane back in the mid 1980s. I powered it with an O.S. .60 four stroke. It was a bit underpowered but flew very nicely. I used the only source of information on this aircraft I could find at this time, which was the Squadron Signals book: "Albatros Fighters in Action". The three view drawings this bock had, did not specifically show the Albatros DIII! There were only drawings of the D II and DV-Va. Essentially, the DIII used the DII's fuselage, and the DV-Va used the wings designed for the DIII, so I made my DIII, using a combination of the two.

The plans were drawn on freezer paper. Although I have access to CAD at work and understand there is free CAD programs I could download, I have always liked drawing and drafting with traditional means and would design anything I might want in the future in this way, as I find it as fun to do as building model airplanes in the traditional way (with balsa and plywood).

Mode One

Here are photos of My Dynaflite SE5a. This was a kit that was available up until only a few-short years ago. I thought it was a great kit, well designed excellent plans and instructions and the parts were excellent. Only a few laser cut parts; but, the die cutting was the best I've ever seen! Sad to see another kit "bite the big one"! It's covered in Antique Super Coverite (no longer available, ). It has two coats of Nitrate dope over everything. The under sides of the wings, fuse and stab remain in this Antique color. Then it was painted with a latex mixture of PC 10 I came up with and took to the paint store for them to match. I used a wash of white to dull some areas in attempts at weathering, then it has a fuel proofer coat of polyurathane varnish. It's powered by a four stoke Saito 1.00.

The rest of my WW 1 fleet consists of a couple Great Planes Electrafly airplanes; Fokker DVII and a Fokker DR1.

scalercflyer

Nice job on the aircraft Mode! Very nice indeed! Marty

Rockin Robbins

Outstanding! Glad you posted them.

Hey degreen! Looks like these have been around for awhile. You might have a long wait.

Thanks for the details on fuel-proofing the SE5a. How easily we forget all the very heavy steps we take to be able to use an IC engine without destroying our airframes. That's one definite advantage of electric now. We can lighten up our construction tremendously just from the elimination of doping all framework and polyurethaning the covering. You don't say when you built that beauty, but most likely electric was much heavier than IC then.

I'll bet that puppy sounds wonderful in the air! (Puppy? It's not a Sopwith!)

Mode One

Sorry, I think I finished the SE5a in 2007. It is 1/5th (stand way off) scale. IMO WW1 aeroplanes need fabric covering and a couple coats of dope or polyurithane to look right. So, if I had made them for electric power, I wouldn't have changed the finish process.

Rockin Robbins

I'll bet you're a stickler for scale-like flying too! Those are a couple of great looking planes.

Mode One

If your saying I don't think the SE5a should be capable of hovering; or, doing rolling harrier circles, you right! I'm o.k. with them having a bit more then scale power; but, they should fly on their wings. Actually, I'm more interested in the history, development details, construction and building of R/C models then I am in flying. I fly just fine, been doing it a long time and am somewhat board with it.

WWI Ace

I haven't been on in awhile. Life in general is the reason. But it's still nice to see all my friends on here still "arguing" (ha ha) and building RED airplanes for Marty! Fly what ever type of power you want Mode. You've already got the two most important things down. 1.) you're out there building and flying and 2.) If you're gonna fly planes they may as well be the best. World War One Of Course!!

Mode One

I certainly do fly what ever power system I want, which is getting to be more and more electric. I've also been trying very hard to promote the building aspect of the hobby.

LortonFlyer

I am advancing from foam bind and fly airplanes to a Seagull Morane Saulnier 1/3 scale plane that I intend to power with an electric motor/esc. Final weight is estimated at 32 pounds. I intend to fly this plane as a sport flyer with 10-12S setup. Legend hobby recommends powering at 40-60cc equivalent electric power. Has anyone built this model or does anyone have sage advice for which motor and ESC to pick. I was considering the Rimfire 1.7, Rimfire 65cc (maybe too big), or Turnigy Rotomax 50 cc. Esc thoughts included Castle Creation Phoenix Edge 120 HV ESC. If anyone has a similar size plane and willing to make a recommendation I would be most appreciative.

quorneng

I was thinking of building a Fokker DVIII, Doing some research I was amazed to find that Fokker had 3 versions built with different wing positions, mid wing (V17) low wing (V25) and the parasol DVIII.
The V17 had a fabric covered wing but the downward view from the cockpit was very poor and was quickly discarded.
The V25 has the same plywood covered wing as the DVIII. It was entered into the second fighter trials in 1918 but was rejected in favour of the parasol wing DVIII which had better all round visibility and gave better protection for the pilot in the event of a 'nose over', Both understandable objections for the period but the V25 was a neat & compact design.

In many respect it foreshadowed the future design of fighters.

But with only 110 none too reliable horsepower from its Oberursel any structural integrity advantages were unnecessary.
Nevertheless I wanted to build a small but scale electric version as a test of my building technique using thin 2mm foam sheet.
First the plan just the 3 view enlarged to give a 26" span which I judged was about the smallest size that would be flyable out doors.

The original thick wing section.

I judged the wing would be plenty strong and stiff enough with no spar as such just a shear web.

To save weight it would use a single central aileron servo with external nylon pull/pull lines so there would nothing running through it.

The fuselage used the same sort of hollow box stressed skin technique.

It was going to use an Emax 2205 out runner. Probably bigger and heavier than really necessary but with such a short nose its weigh was almost necessary and as a final tribute to scale it would also be turning a scale Oberursel inside the cowling.

The completed "engine", It drives an 8x3.5 scale diameter prop on a 2s

Completed.

I took a bit of a liberty with the paint. If the V25 had been accepted into production there would have been a fair chance that Fokker would have shipped examples to Holland at the end of the war (as indeed he did with the DVIII) for the Dutch air force so my V25 is decorated in the same style as the Dutch DVIIIs with orange roundels.
Took some mods to get it to fly properly although always a hand full with serious torque from the big prop and very little natural roll stability.
I still have it although now 'retired' it hangs on the wall.