The Novi Library has continued to expand their computer-based fabrication capabilities. Some of these processes may be useful to model aircraft scratch-builders.

Some of the most interesting capabilities are:

3D Printing

     They have the capability to print 3D shapes in a variety of plastic materials and colors. To use the 3D printer requires a .SVG file generated from a CAD design. The library will analyze the design to calculate material and process time required. After approval of costs and deposit of funds, the library will print the designs.

     This process allows for the production of some interesting designs.

     More and more 3D designs are becoming on the internet on sites like FliteTest.

     There are now designs available which produce a complete 3D printed flying model.

     It is essential to recognize that 3D parts may have internal voids. This reduces costs. Critical parts like motor bulkheads and landing gear mounts may have to be fabricated with denser than normal parts.

Muse Laser Engraver/Cutter

     This is a laser machine that will engrave a variety materials (wood, metals, plastics stone and glass). It can also be used to cut materials (wood, plastics).

     This machine would be ideal to cut balsa model aircraft parts developed as line drawings on .pdf format or from CAD designs. The machine can use graphic formats like jpg/jpeg/pdf and vector formats like .svg.

     The machine use is free. Users must supply the base material and design data.

Vinyl Cutter

     The vinyl cutter can be used to cut various materials like paper and vinyl. It is a cutter and does not use a heat process. It could be of interest to modelers to cut decorative Monokote trim parts. It uses .PDF and .SVG input. The operation is free.

     Some of the machines require little or no training. Others may be operated by users after some initial training. 3D printing is completed by library staff. Further details of the capabilities and requirements are available at the icube page at novilibrary.org.

     I received an email from Dave Grife on October 25. The email contained a copy of the sanction for the 2020 KEITH SHAW BIRTHDAY BASH FLY IN to be held on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

     It is noted as an open electric flying [event] with [a] "Special Guest of Honor theme". Enjoy a day with the "Pioneering Master of Electric RC Flight". 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday [with] No landing fee. Donations for field maintenance and the provided lunch are appreciated.

     The Balsa Butchers are hosting the "Keith Shaw Birthday Party Electric Fly-In", for the 18th year, at their field near Coldwater, MI. The event takes place on Saturday, May 30, 2020. It is a one day event again this year.

     The event consists of Open Electric Flying with a "Special Guest of Honor Theme", Happy Birthday Keith Shaw [June 6].

     Enjoy a day with the "Pioneering Master of Electric R/C Flight". 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday. NO LANDING FEE! Donations for field maintenance and lunch appreciated.

     For additional information contact;
Dave Watson 517-250-6190 or flybuddy619@yahoo.com
Contest Director: Dave Grife - E-mail:
grifesd@yahoo.com or Phone: 517-279-8445
Please e-mail or call with any questions.

     The field will be open for guests to fly on Sunday as well.

Return to "What's In This Issue"

The October 2019 EFO Flying Meeting

     Our flying meeting was held on Saturday, October 19. The day started off quite cool and overcast, but the winds were reasonable.

     The "crowd" gathered very slowly, but several folks showed up by noon, when the weather had changed to beautiful

     The winds were still down, but there were only puffy clouds in the sky and the temperature was quite pleasant for mid-October in Michigan.

     Tom Bacsanyi flew his Rebel many times. It is a very nice flying ducted fan. It has a multi-blade fan, and it sounds like a "real" jet in the air.

     This photo shows that it is starting to warm up a little. Paul Sockow has on a short-sleeved shirt as he's talking with Dave Stacer. My version of the FliteTest Simple Cub and my self-designed Ugly-Stik can be seen behind my Subaru Ascent. Lynn Morgan was out practicing pattern flying. His pattern plane is the large red, white and blue plane near the center of the photo. Keith Shaw is taxing out his plane, while Tom readies another great flying ducted fan to his right. Arthur Deane is seen peeping some his models in the back of his Jeep Comanche.

     The next series of photos shows Keith's plane taking off.

     The last photo, of Keith's plane in the air, shows what a beautiful day it turned out to be.

     Our EFO flying meetings are always a good time.

     Near the end of September I received an email from a very long time Ampeer reader, Ron Torrito, regarding a conversation that we had about A123 cells. It was a wonderful email, and I wanted to share it with you all.

Sept. 24, 2019
Dear Ken,

     It was a fantastic conversation with you about A123 cells. I was under the assumption that they could be an alternative to the fire prone Lithium cells. We have a LOT of young drone racers who fly the drones at 88 amperes, and above, according to their on screen display.

     I see now that A123 cells are useful but I am not sure if they are the direct replacement that I thought they were. If anything goes wrong with our Lithium cells, such as a crash when flying, they burst into flames.

     I was hoping to find a battery source that would decrease the problem, so I thought of asking you with your expertise about it. Since there are no A123 fliers at our club, I picked on you for help.

     You were nice enough to call long distance to help me and I really appreciate that, thank you!

     I also got some help from Linn at StorTronics! She sent me some literature about A123 cells but they were of a general nature and not what we needed.

     These are the very reasons that I have enjoyed the flying of RC models for the last 34 years. The people that I meet are some of the nicest darn people I have ever met in my 74+ years! So friendly and helpful!

     I guess I wanted to make one last contribution to RC flying as time and the metal parts in my right and left leg are giving me a lot of trouble walking. I went to the NEAT fair to say goodbye to Tom Hunt and several of my friends from many years ago. Tom made two plastic tags celebrating the twenty years of the NEAT fair that my wife and I attended.

     I remember Dr. Keith Shaw at the KRC events launching a glider with Steve Neu's motor and explaining that it was like a stick of dynamite to be careful of.

     Tom Hunt used to come to our RC field for the glider contests and electric contests all the way from Long Island with the SEFLI people. He had belt drives for AstroFlight motors to sell as well as his expertly made electric plane kits for RC planes!

     These were all people like you, helpful and generally fun people. I met Tom Hartill (Global Customer Service Manager) from Hobby King who rehabilitates disabled vets in Florida with contributors like Jennifer Aniston's one million dollar contributions and Walt Disney's lodgings who provide a place to rest and a reward for their service. I believe Tom Hartill is a diving instructor for the vets.

     Thank you and God bless you for the Ampeer. May God give eternal rest to Rich Utkan, as I was so sorry to hear of his passing.

Take Care,
Ron Torrito
VP TVFRCC

     Thank you so very, very much for that kind and thoughtful letter Ron! KM

     While searching for that email to post here, I ran across a second one from him from 2014!

December 21, 2014
Dear Ken,

     I see you are another Mac user like I am. I read with interest the article on AeroFly which I bought last year. It has been very much a frustration to me.

     I spent $249 on it with the controller and the graphics and it is NOT good at all. What I mean is that the scenery looks "cartoonish" and the field of vision is flat and inadequate in depth. Perhaps I am doing something wrong in installation but I have a Mac Mini that I use for this.

     The safety throttle lock [mentioned recently in the Ampeer] was used by Roy Meyer of our club. I don't know where he saw it. Roy told us of the idea because our club president was cut by his propeller.

     Our president Ray Brandoli was carrying an electric plane with the transmitter and a strap when the throttle was bumped and a horrible slice was given to the back of his left hand. I took him to a doctor who patched him up. I wish he would have used the safety rubber band lock.

     Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I hope you will heal soon.

Ron Torrito

     I don't know what to tell you about the AeroFly flight simulator. It worked okay on my 17" MacBook Pro when using my Tactic TTX650 with it. The photorealistic graphic backgrounds looked fine to me. Depth and height are problems with all of the flight simulators I've ever seen.

Link to my article.

     A throttle lock is really necessary with electrics. The simple rubber band method works well and I have a throttle lock set up on both of my TTX650 transmitters. Ken

Introduction

     This has been an extremely difficult article to "put together". I built four variations/versions of this model over about a year and a half. I kept extensive documentation on the changes that I made. My modifications were based on many user experiences and the input and videos found on YouTube.

     Before I could complete the final version, I had to review ALL of my collected data, drawings, plans and thoughts. That process took over 30 working hours just to go over the collected data.

     I also discovered that when I updated my computer to one running macOS High Sierra, the new version of TurboCad MAC DESIGNER, version 11, the CAD program that I use, would not open the files that I had created using a previous version of the software.

     Luckily, my conversions of the CAD files to Adobe Acrobat .pdf files still exists.

     I first mentioned my version of the FT Simple Cub in the September 2018 issue of the Ampeer. The article was titled, "Servo Arms, Movable Surface Control Horns, and Movable Surface Control Throws".

     In the December 2018 Ampeer I noted that I would be providing more on my version soon. The article is titled, "My Award Winning Flite Test Simple Cub".

     In the first article, I noted that I kept a log of YouTube videos while I was modifying my version.

     The videos demonstrated some of the short comings of the original design that I wanted to address.

     Please take a few moments to watch some of the videos that I have posted with annotated links.

     FliteTest also has a forum where people who build FT planes can discuss them. I used information provided by others in the forum to assist me in modifying my final version.

     The first version was built with too many modifications. A second version was built where I tried to stay as close as possible to the FliteTest plans.

     All of my planes were built from plans, using the white, Dollar Tree foam board. Versions 2 through 4 all had various modifications to them. Version 3 actually was designed so the the incidence of the horizontal stabilizer could be adjusted and tested. More on that later.

     Some of these posts helped me a lot while trying to modify my own version. I have underlined the part of the post where I noticed things that I wanted to modify. The 'other' posts are present to just kind of give a "flavor" of what people post in forums like this.

*Unofficial* FT Simple Cub June 22, 2017

     This is THE Simple Cub thread on this forum. It was 24 pages long at the time I stopped following it. As of today, it is 27 pages long.

     The topics covered in the discussions include;
Dutch roll, FPV camera recommendation question, why ailerons don't work well on the 3-ch wing, 4-ch builder are building wing with no dihedral, landing gear tab mods to beef up the landing gear tab, problems with mounting the MT2213 motor, I note some of my mods, the quote from Mentor Hai-Lee, "I sometimes find my answers getting far too technical and that I need to back off a little.
FT planes are just short lived wonders and I do appreciate the highly engineered generational models as found of RC groups. Heck I actually do restorations in what little spare time I have!", Ken Myers is chastised for being too technical in his answers, discussions on why this is not a primary trainer, and much more... this info is only from pages 22 - 24 of this forum.

     This is the Forum thread to start with.

Ft simple cub battery July 17, 2017
OP: "I was wonder would a tattu 3 cell 1300 mAh 45c work for the simple cub"
Discussion includes batteries up to 1800mAh.
NOTE: (in Aug. 2018) FT recommends a 1300mAh (Spoiler Alert! I use 3S 1000mAh LiPo packs. Each pack provides two 7 minute flights to reach a resting voltage of 3.8V per cell. KM)

FTÊSIMPLEÊCUB Nov. 1, 2017
OP:"Òmy son and I have just built a Ft Simple Cub, both planes built together and everything is almost identical except for the motors, he's motor is a bit stronger!" And "my one flew beautifully whereas my sons one was totally uncontrollable, it would take off and climb, then go into a steep climb, stall and nose straight into the ground. C of G is theÊ same on each aircraft."
Mentor Hai-Lee, "design has a weakness in the rear of the wing centre section trailing edge and the rubber bands holding the wing can cause this to collapse and thereby severely alter the main wing incidence." And "The simple cub can be very susceptible to "P" factor issues especially if the throttle is applied coarsely." And "one more thing to consider is the setup of control surface deflections and the amount of Expo in the transmitters."

200% Simple Cub * Candy Bomber * Onkel Wakelflugel November 16, 2017
OP: "I decided that I needed at least one plane to fly on lazy evenings so the 200% Simple Cub idea was born"
length is about 52", the wingspan will be 76"
Lots of build photos
Does have video of maiden flight

FT Simple cub. Please advise November 23, 2017
OP: "I took the plans of the simple cub, scaled it up to get a 1.2m wingspan."
Only one reply and it was not all that helpful.

Have anyone tried Coroplast Simple Cub? Dec. 16, 2017
Discussion includes video of cardboard 4-ch version using 2212 1000kv motor and 4s 2200mah lipo and 9" prop.

Mighty Mini Simple Cub (2/3 scale) December 27, 2017
OP: "I have revised the plans using Inkscape and scaled the plans down to 66%, which should make the fuselage able to accept a mini power pod."
Plans available, important to note the program Inkscape
Video shows OP's first attempt

Simple Cub Landing Gear mod Feb 18, 2018
OP: "Here is my stock simple cub landing gear, modified to look more J-3ish."
Not much discussion, just how OP did it.

Simple Cub wing spars ? Feb. 22, 2018
"I realize that there are no wing spars in the dihedral wing, I am thinking of adding a wing spar or two"
Replies discuss why they aren't necessary and give anecdotal information.

About to start my first ever build - FT Simple Cub March 4, 2018
OP: "Am about to start ordering for my first ever build - the FT Simple Cub"
Only one reply with the asked for info on wire sizes.

Power Pod A/F Simple Cub Plans March 26, 2018
Plans for the smaller version.

Power Pod A/F Simple Cub Plans March 28, 2018
OP: "I scaled the design to fit the mini power pod and also re sized the cavities to be correct with the water resistant foam."
Not much info, but the OP's plans are available

FT Simple... no, Super Cub April 10, 2018
OP "I blew up the plans to the biggest i could fit on the plotter and they came out at about 140%."
OP discusses his bigger Cub with video

Simple cub April 14, 2018
Could you add a tail wheel to the simple cub
Discusses how user Forster added tail wheel with photo. He also notes bending the landing gear wire forward to move the axles forward and using "Tundra tires".
Also discusses how long the plane can fly using a 3S 1000mAh pack

My Simple Cub April 16, 2018
3 channel (ailerons, elevator, throttle) low to no dihedral (photo)
"I used a 1135kv motor and 40amp ESC I had laying around. Running a 3S 2200mah LiPo & gave it a 11x4 wooden prop because it's pretty. Seems ridiculously overpowered with this setup."
"powerplant ripped itself off the firewall."
Several more comments by the original poster showing he had no idea what he was doing.

Test Gliding the Simple Cub, and a request May 3, 2018 (My post)
I ask about test gliding this plane.
Only a couple of posts in reply and no one really likes the glide and mentions some fixes.
Mentor Hai-Lee "From expereince I placed a "Icy Pole" stick under the wing LE and suddenly the plane is a different and placid beast."
That is a Popsicle stick AKA craft stick. A craft stick is about 0.083" or just over 2.1mm thick.
Unfortunately he didn't say exactly where he placed the stick. He only noted at the leading edge. 0.083 is about 11/128" which is greater than 5/64" and less than 3/32". That only provides about 0.6 degrees of positive incidence.
I measured using TurboCad using 8" as the chord for the wing. 1.5 degrees is 0.20942" at the very leading edge. That is close to 7/32" or just over 3/16".

FT Simple Cub....already building my 2nd ;) May 6, 2018
OP: "All printed and stuck down using a very light dusting of mounting spray glue onto two A1 sheets of 5mm foam board"
Lot of discussions of the type of foam board available outside the USA
6 pages long with a lot of good info, including flight times

FT Simple Cub Power Pod May 26, 2018
OP "I've looked at the plans and I am missing where the 4 tabs on the power pod slot into. Should these be on the power pod for the simple cub?"
Shows 3D printed firewall
Discusses that tabs are not really used on Simple Cub

Build Recommendation w/ Existing Electronics (Simple Cub?) May 28 2018
OP "I have the power pack b electronics, as well as two 3000 mAh Turnigy LiPo batteries (270g each), and I was wondering which plane you would recommend that I build next."
Discusses various size/mAh 3S packs used and why.
mrjdstewart notes that his 4-ch version using a 2213-920, 10x4.5, 20A, 4 - 9g servos, 6 chan Rx, foam wheels, and can balance with a 3S-1000mah under the front pod, without battery weighs 480g/16.93 oz.
A 3S 1000mAh pack weighs between 90g and 100g with connectors and Velcro, therefore a flying weight of 580g is suggested or 20.5 oz.
CarolineTyler notes hers weighs 675g without battery. She's in the UK and can only get 'heavy' foam board. She notes using a 3S 2650mAh battery. I couldn't come up a weight for the battery.

Need some help on FT Simple Cub Motor-ESC installation. June 15, 2018
OP asks about using a servo tester to determine direction of rotation of motor and can't get servo tester to turn on the ESC and Power Pack B motor
Discussions of how to get the motor to turn on.

Scatch Building FT Simple Cub - 2213 motor too short June 15, 2018

Simple Cub servos July 16, 2018
OP: "it would appear the elevator and rudder servos are mounted on opposite sides of the fuselage from the side the control horns are mounted on each control surface."
User donaldson mounted servos in rear and discusses how he balanced it with photos.
User basslord1124 also moved servos to the rear.
User kilroy07 suggests rear mounting of servos to avoid flexing of the long, thin pushrods.
User CarolineTyler ran the thin pushrods through carbon fibre to the rear.
User dayve used coffee stirrers to run pushrods through.
User donaldson describes how to use zip ties to keep pushrods from flexing.
User jpot1 provides a photo of using zip ties.
Lots of good info in this thread.

Looking for a large wingspan Scratch Build July 23, 2018
Just a general discussion about enlarging plans.

Glider wing cub April 29, 2018
OP: "I simply stretched the plans so that each wing, as drawn, took up the full 30" length of a DTFB sheet. This results in a wingspan which is just under 60", or roughly 50% larger than stock. I also added flaps on a 5th channel."
Discussion talks about his nice modification.
There is video of the larger/long wing Simple Cub.
showed a left roll with power on.
Only one reply from Mentor Hai-Lee with suggestions
Hai-Lee "On my simple cub it was not very good at gliding and had a somewhat horrific climb response to full throttle. Both problems disappeared when I increased the main wing incidence. I also fitted a SF prop to reduce any further tendencies or effects of "P" factor and now I have a spirited trainer which can fly for 8+ minutes of general flying on a single 1300 3S."

Flite test simple cub August 1, 2018
Just want to know if I can use the F-pack motor for this plane.
Replies about motor selection for this plane