Indoor News and Views

Cap-Basic, an indoor beginner’s model with capacitor fed direct drive

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

Cap Basic

Charger

This model was designed for beginner workshops and shares significant construction elements with indoor duration models, such as paper tube mounting of the wing etc. The direct electric drive overcomes some problems with rubber such as high torque and sourcing. The electric components cost about 10 USD in total (Didel 7 mm/10 Ohm DC-motor, Samwha Greencap 5F 2.7Volt, Plantraco Tri Turbofan Prop 65 mm ). Flight behaviour and trimming are very trouble-free. The cap can be charged within 30 seconds with a simple voltage controller 3.3 Volt (e.g. LF33 AB) fed from a 9 Volt Battery (see picture). Flight times are up to 3 or 4 minutes.

Heinrich Eder, Munich, Germany

Phedon Tskinopoulos

It’s been a year since Phedon left us in a house fire. I was asked to write a brief remembrance of him and that’s where the puzzlement begins. I “knew” Phedon for 30 years and yet, like many other Southern California free flighters, I never really knew him at all. We didn’t even know he’d passed until a month or two after his death.

Phedon worked as a machinist for Mattel for 26 years. He developed the mechanisms for the Hot Wheels cars. After leaving Mattel he worked as a freelance machinist and at one point developed his own action toy which was later marketed by another major toy company. He had a few patents for his mechanisms too, for toys like an “inflatable racing car.”

He had a complete machine shop in his house. He would appear at the Tustin blimp hanger and with no prompting he’d propose building a winder better than anyone else’s, or a tail boom form to custom dimensions, or a thrust bearing with “radically less friction.” Sometimes these things materialized, sometimes not. His workmanship was exceptional.

I first met him about 1985 and in the next few years he made a few tools for me. Then he disappeared from the scene for 20 years. One day in 2009 the phone rang and it was Phedon wanting to tell me about a great batch of Tan SS rubber he’d found, as if no time had passed at all.

In his later years he began cutting indoor wood. With little fanfare a package might appear on my doorstep with a few sheets of wood, all meticulously surface ground. I never knew what I’d get or when it would arrive.

What else do we know of him? He was active in Wakefield in the 1970’s and supposedly made the U.S. F1b team. But he didn’t want to travel so withdrew from the team.

Perhaps the best image of Phedon is the (possibly apocryphal) story that the character of the toymaker in Toy Story 2 is based on him. I don’t know whether that’s factual but after watching the movie I want to believe it’s true.

–Steve Brown

Nick Ray’s AMA Cat IV Record F1R

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

Joshua Finn’s Cat I AMA Record F1D

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

Zoltan Sukosd’s Cat II Record F1D
Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

2015 Kibbie Dome Annual Results

Contestants enjoyed another smoothly run contest thanks to CD Andrew Tagliafico. The contest spanned 5 days in the 147ft tall site. The highlights included Jake Palmer joining the 40 Minute Club and AMA National Records being established in F1D and F1R.

Yuan Kang Lee’s F1D

Ed Berray with this AROG

Larry Coslick’s F1R

Brett Sanborn’s F1D

Click here to download a PDF of the results.

Nick Ray’s F1d Box

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

When I set out to build this box, I was looking for a way to fit the same number of models into a smaller space. The airlines have continued to restrict the size of carry on items, so my goal was to create a durable box that appears to be delicate and smaller than its actual size. I also decided to move away from storing the wings and stabs on sliding trays due to occasional damage resulting from mishandling the models when I was tried.

I originally intended to use this box for the 2012 World Championships, but did not have time to complete it before the contest. After the contest I finished the box and have been using it since early 2013. I have had several requests to publish the design, and I set out to draw up a plan. The complexity of the design and my desire to accurately convey all of the nuances of the design have significantly delayed its publication. What I am presenting here is cobbled together from communications with other fliers. I would hardly call what is presented here good enough for publication, but at the same time I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

The box is constructed from baltic birch and aircraft grade 1/4″ birch plywood. The windows are constructed from 0.093″ Lexan polycarbonate. The hardware is brass, purchased from Woodcraft. The window clasps have been modified to facilitate opening out rather than up. Several coats of polyurethane were applied to protect the box from water and rubber lubricant.

The interior structure is made from 3/8″ x 1/4″ basswood and the side-stops are made from 1/32″ basswood.  0.060″carbon fiber rods, 0.125″ OD x 0.060ID carbon fiber tubes are anchored in the basswood structure. The trays for the propellers and fuselages are made by gluing the carbon tubes to a 0.118″ x o.039″ strip such that when viewed from the front they look like the following.

o—o

The box as pictured is configured to house four models and eight props, even though it contains only three models and eight props in the pictures. 0.210″ OD x 0.0132″ ID tubes have been fitted over the 0.125″ OD x 0.060″ ID tubes to shift the wings and stabs vertically to accommodate the elliptical dihedral. Hopefully that does not cause too much confusion. I am hesitant to publish the dimensions of the interior structures because they really need to be tailored to the user’s models in order to work properly. Otherwise, the wings and stabilizers can be crushed or move around too much. Approximately an 1/8″ of play in each of the three axises is ideal.  Although the plan is drawn to scale, so the dimensions can be obtained, they are designed for the models I was flying in 2012.

Nick Ray 4.23.2015

Front View

Top View

Side View – Right

Side View – Left

Rear View

Bottom View

Tray Extended – Front View

Tray Extended – Back View

Jim Richmond’s Cat II Record F1D

Jim Richmond and Leo Pilachowski

Jim’s F1D

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

Akihiro Danjo’s Covering Frame