John Cooper's Rubber Powered Freeflight Page 2

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Halberstadt CL2 All coloring and insignia on this plane are done with an ink jet printer on white Japanese tissue. This approach cuts down the finishing effort significantly. Still in the trimming stage, this model shows alot of potential. wingspan: 38 cm weight: ~8 g power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Claude Powell (modified) built: 2005 -----------------------

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Bucker Jungmeister The Jungmiester is my best flyer. From ROG it can consistently obtain flights over a minute. It is covered with Risteen top and bottom. The markings are Solite and black Risteen. Note that Risteen markings on Risteen work very well - it was easy to get good edges with no bubbles. wingspan: 45 cm weight: ~10 g power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: ? built: 2004 -----------------------

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DeHavilland DH.85 Leopard Moth The Leopard Moth is built from a Easy Build Kit. I made many changes to make the plane lighter and more scale looking. The Fuselage and rudder are covered in Japanese Tissue; everything else is covered top and bottom with Risteen. The plane has flown well, but not consistently. It needs more work trimming. wingspan: 56 cm weight: ~15 g power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Easy Build Kit (modified) built: 2004 -----------------------

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Comte AC12 The Comte AC12 is built from a Walt Mooney's plan. This plan is one of the best, I have seen. I didn't change anything. The model is covered with silver Risteen. Despite having almost no dihedral and being a peanut, the model is quite stable and a good flyer. wingspan: 13 inch weight: ~5 g power: 1 strand of .090 inch design: Walt Mooney built: 2004 -----------------------

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Fokker E1 The Fokker E1 is covered with Japanese Tissue dyed with Earl Grey tea. This gives it a much lighter and more beige color than would be had with Orance Peko. The machine gun weighs about .2 g and is made from black tissue layered on tracing paper. With the tissue flat I cut out the numerous air vents and then rolled the paper and plugged it with small disks of styrofoam. wingspan: 41 cm weight: ~10 g power: 1 strands of 1/8 inch design: John Cooper built: 2003 -----------------------

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Lockheed Air Express The Air Express was built from a Dumas Kit. I redesigned the wing to make it lighter and thinner and flat bottommed. I replaced the heavy Guillow's type wheels with ones turned from contest balsa. The wings are attached with rubber bands. The plane flies quite well. wingspan: 76 cm weight: ~58g power: 2 strands of 3/8 inch design: Dumas Kit (modified) built: 2003 -----------------------

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Hawker Tempest Mk5 The Tempest was build using the beautiful Hawker Typhoon plans from Dave Diels. The plans were modified to a Tempest by lengthening the nose, adding a piece to the vertical stab and completely redesigning the wings. The Invasion strips are made from Risteen Microlite, this time applied backwards and fastened with glue stick. By doing this, the dull side of the Risteen gives a very scale appearance. wingspan: 55 cm weight: ~20g power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch design: Dave Diels (modified) built: 2003 -----------------------

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RAF SE5a The SE5a is another light plane; it probably has the lowest wing loading of all my planes. Its flights are slow and quite shakey from the unwinding rubber. I am still triming the plane. With about 800 turns, it likes to take an unpredictable path around the obstacles near the gym ceiling (and eventually hits something). wingspan: 52 cm weight: ~11g power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: Howard McEntee (modified) built: 2003 -----------------------

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Belanca Citabria The citabria's light weight made it an easy plane to trim. The removable wings, held on with removable balsa spars, make the plane very portable. The model is covered with Red and White Risteen Microlite. The plane is now converted for indoor radio control with an RFFS-100 and magnetic actuators. wingspan: 50 cm weight: ~10g power: 1 strand of .090 inch design: John Cooper built: 2003 -----------------------

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Fokker DVIII The Lozenge pattern on the fuselage of the plane is made on Japanese tissue with ink jet printing. The wing and tail are covered with Risteen microlite. This is really fabulous stuff. It is very opaque and lighter than Japanese tissue. I had some problems with warping of my light structures with the Risteen, but with selective re-inforcing I was very pleased with the results. I sprayed the model with flat Krylon to overcome the high gloss finish of the Risteen. wingspan: 35.5 cm weight: 7.5g power: 1 strand of .090 inch design: John Cooper built: 2003 -----------------------

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Aviatik C1 This Aviatik model was built with a concentration on lightness more than scale. This peanut model is quite light and slow and trimming is coming along nicely. It is covered with Japanese tissue dyed with tea (Orange Peko), on one side only of the wings. The wheels are black meat-tray foam tires over balsa rims tied to an aluminum hub via silver thread spokes. The Maltese insignia were printed, on an ink jet printer, separately, on white tissue. wingspan: 13 inch weight: ~3.5g power: 1 strands of 1/32 inch design: John Cooper built: 2003 -----------------------

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Waco SRE A little heavy for indoors, the Waco SRE none the less is a capable flier. More than 350 turns of rubber can result in the biplane bouncing off of the ceiling. On one occasion ceiling bouncing resulted in the loss of the starboard bottom wing and a crash into the wall and a near verticle dive. Fortunately damage was little because the wings are attached to the fuselage by replacable balsa spars that fit into paper tubes in the fuselage and wings. wingspan: 51 cm weight: ~35g power: 2 strands of 1/8 inch design: Earl Stahl plans built: 2003 -----------------------

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Sorta-Schweizer AC2 As the name suggests, there is no full size glider that looks like this plane. It is roughly based on the Schweizer 2-22, with many simplications to allow for quick construction. It has successfully been towed aloft my my Fairchild 24 and a very small indoor r/c machine. The main problem with towing is that it does not always release at full height. Often the glider will release just as the tow plane is about to land. wingspan: 51 cm weight: 4.8g power: none design: John Cooper built: 2002 -----------------------

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Focke Wulf FW-189 Fortunately the fw189 turned out to be much easier to trim than I thought; The main problem I have had with it is that I keep forgetting to wind the port prop counter-clockwise. I made the spinners out of hardwood and this saved adding any nose weight. The machine is nice and stable and has a lot of potential. wingspan: 61 cm weight: ~18g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch per prop design: John Cooper built: 2002 -----------------------

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Dehavilland DH60 Moth The DH60's light weight and large wing area make it a beautifully slow flyer. The main problem with it is that the wings turn into bananas when the air is dry. The wings are covered only on the top and I must not have pre-shrunk the tissue enough or applied it in humid weather. wingspan: 40 cm weight: ~7g without rubber power: 2 strands of 1/32 inch design: from Propellors column, Auckland Star, 1933 built: 2002 -----------------------

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Grumman Avenger The avenger flies OK as long as there aren't too many turns on the rubber. With more than 300 turns it likes to do dutch rolls and hangs on the prop until it recovers to do stable circles. The model is made from a Guillows kit, with all of the balsa replaced. I needed to cut plastic from the nose cowl and use a light balsa prop get the plane to balance. wingspan: 40 cm weight: ~11g without rubber power: 1 strand of 1/8 inch design: modified Guillows kit. built: 2002 -----------------------

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Fairchild 24 This plane approaches the size limit for indoors, but is a great indoor subject none the less. About 400 turns is the max or the plane will bounce repeatedly off of the ceiling. The "24" is also a great tow plane for the Sorta-Schweizer (see below). The plane is from a Herr kit (an excellent laser cut model) with much of the balsa replaced with thinner and lighter wood. The beautiful laser cut parts made excellent patterns for duplicating the replaced pieces. wingspan: 76 cm weight: ~38g without rubber power: 2 strands of 3/8 inch design: modified Herr kit. built: 2002 -----------------------

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