Danny has not built a lot of RC model planes from scratch yet but he has taken over a lot of projects from other people and finished them. He finally decided that is not a good way to do things, so as soon as he finishes rebuilding Bob's old “Pilot Extra330SC” he plans to start something from a pile of balsa wood and ply.

NOTE - You can view all images on this page in a “Spotlight Box” by simply clicking on any image.

Extra 330

Phaeton 90

WACO CTO

Follow Me Truck

Pilot Extra 330SC-78 SN 1127

 Bob Satow bought this plane at “Joe Nall ” and was really proud of it. He had also purchased a new DLE 35 and I think he had it at all put together and back out to the field a couple of days after bringing it home.

 After Bob passed I checked with Mark about Bob's planes and he told me this plane was the last one of Bob’s left to sell. I was really excited to get it and as soon as I got it home I tried to start the motor. I was surprised it when it didn’t fire right off. I pulled the cowling and started looking around inside. I decided right away that if I wanted to get this plane back in the air it was going to take more than a little work.

 I have before and after pictures of most of the things I’ve fixed so far and I’m still just as proud as Bob was to have this plane. Bob gave me something that I will have for the rest of my life. He taught me how to fly RC airplanes. For that one reason alone this will always be my favorite plane. No matter what it takes, it will fly again.

You might have to click on the pictures to see detail, such as the way the cowling was broken up like a cracked egg in the before pictures.

 Starting with the first of five rows, the first 4 pictures are before and after of the engine. The piston was in bad shape with the ring broken in three places. The only thing holding it in was the carbon and I believe there was more than one piece missing because of the tiny holes in the top of the piston. I replaced the piston, ring, wrist pin, retaining clips, carb, bearings,and electronic ignition.

 The next six pictures are the before and after of the cowling. I was going to order one that was only $68.00 but it cost $95.00 to ship and would take 3-5 months before they could change dies and make the single cowling I needed.

 Rows 3 and 4 are before and after of the damaged areas of the fuselage and wings. The bottom of the fuselage behind the fire wall which includes the landing gear mount and the exhaust canister cavity where damaged. The sides of the fuselage were also pulled away from the inside walls of the exhaust canister cavity extending from the firewall all the way back to the last bulkhead behind the canopy cover.

 The 4th and 5th picture on row 5 shows where I had to brace the area where the wings bolt on. The rest of the pictures on row 5 are just of how it looked before I started adding electronics and fuel equipment.

More to come!

Danny's Phaeton 90-II

 First and foremost this Phaeton 90-II started life in Larry N’s father's shop as a pile of wood. Larry’s father scratch built this plane and installed a small engine. I think Larry said it was a .47 which Larry replaced with a .90 when he received this plane.  The plane has ailerons on the lower wing only and reportedly has a problem completing rolls when under powered. I plan to add ailerons to the upper wing to help with this problem; however, the Coverite covering on this plane is no longer manufactured so I decided it would be easier to increase the power.

 Since I wanted to add a Satio 1.25 I needed to come up with a way to get it into the cowling that had already been modified twice.  If I cut the cowling again I was sure it wouldn’t stay together and the Satio was ¾ inch longer than the engine Larry took out. The first picture shows the old and new cowlings together. I had to stretch panty hose over the old cowling to make a mold to form a new cowling. The old one looks larger because it is closer in the picture but the new one is larger. You can't see it in the right picture but there is a hole just in front of the middle screw on the cowling for adjusting the low range screw.

 The left picture above is the cowling from the left side with the muffler and the high speed screw extension sticking out behind the muffler. The right picture is the cowling from the bottom. You can see the Satio 1.25 fits nicely even with the extra length and width. While the fiberglass, primer, and paint where drying on the cowling I replaced all the servos and fuel tank along with the hoses and filler tube. I talked to a lot of people about running a four stroke upside down including Matt Anderson and it was about 50 – 50 pro and con. Finally after all the research was done I decided to run a LiPo battery with a voltage regulator to the glow plug.

 When I went back to Anderson’s I talked to Matt about what I decided to do. When he was looking for a regulator he thought of something else and he brought out as a “Glow Control” made by Sullivan. It’s an electronic switch that allows you to turn the glow plug off and on to save the battery and it contains the regulator to drop the voltage from as high as 12 vdc to 1.5 vdc. An additional feature of the Glow Control allows you set the point when opening the throttle to turn the glow plug off. As soon as the throttle drops down passed that point the glow plug comes back on keeping the engine running upside down for as long as you want. It works great. Thanks Matt.

Danny's 1929 Waco CTO Taperwing

 Pronounced like taco but with a "W" despite what everyone says and stands for 'Weaver Aircraft Company'. This is my current project along with all the other things that go on in the summer. This one however will probably last into the winter. The full Scale CTO was 22" long and had a wingspan of 30" upper and 26" lower. It was powered by a Wright J-6 225 HP 7 cylinder Radial engine. It weighed 1677 pounds with a useful load of 923 pounds. It carried 65 gallons of gas and had a ceiling of 19,000 feet. A max speed of 138 mph, a cruising speed of 115 mph, and a landing speed of 48 mph. This plane was the Winner of the' Transcontinental Air Derby' and many others. There are three still believed to be flying today. I will keep you posted.

 I've been making some changes to the vertical stabilizer, elevator and when I get to it the ailerons. The plans were never designed to use Robart hinges but someone started it that way and I'm going to try and finish up with Robarts. When I was trying to decide how to fit everything into the fuselage I noticed the plans called for blocking off the cockpit and I need to be able to access that space for my pull-pull rudder so I built a removable cockpit instead. It's tough trying to get everything right without a manual and having only two of the three pages of the plans. More to come.

 I'm not getting a lot done but I have finished sanding the entire plane and gluing the tail feathers on. I’m currently building the struts between the upper and lower wings. I don’t really know what they should look like because I have a page missing in the blueprints and no instructions. I’ve added a couple of Golden Rod tubes without the inserts to the fire wall and drilled two holes in the cowling. I have a long screwdriver that will go all the way from the outside of the cowling to the high and low screws on the carb. I’m designing a way to pinch the fuel line at the carb with a servo so no removing cowling to adjust carb on this plane.

 I've started on the covering but I'm working on the mechanical stuff at the same time. It’s tough for a beginner like me to work on a kit without any instructions. I have to build linkages and mounting hardware without a clue of how it was designed to work on this model. I want to thank Tom Brittian for helping me with some research. I can find a few things on the original plane but nothing on the model.

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 "Too Much Stuff" That is what my wife says every time she comes into my work shop and looks around. But I am getting to the end of the build on this one. I still need to install the motor, the receiver, gas tank and all the hoses. Then get it balanced out and run in the motor.

 I have already crashed it once and I only had it about three feet off the ground. It was on my paint bench that I use outside when the weather is good. The wind came up while I was cleaning my paint gun and when I went back outside the wind was blowing the fuselage down the hill.

 I thought I had the WACO finished and ready to fly except to balance it and break in the new motor. It tipped the scales at 18.1 pounds which my mentors thought would still get off the ground but would not have much vertical. I built a new balancer, put the WACO on it and it needs over 1 1/2 pounds added to the front end. Now it might fly but that is all it would do and I would like to do more, maybe IMAC someday. So I have started pulling the motor off which requires the removal of the fuel tank so I can get to the engine mounting bolts that have to be moved for the larger motor. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.

WACO

(pronounced like taco only with a ‘W’)
If you are looking for information on these old bi-planes you might want to contact the ‘Waco Air Museum’ or the ‘Waco Historical Society’ in Troy, OH. They were really helpful and they have a lot of data on their site.

Dan Voyles Project a "Follow Me Truck"

 I talked about doing this project for quite awhile but when it started getting too hot to work outside all day I decided now was the time. The left picture above is how I took it out of the box. I did not like the racing look of the body since it was suppose to be a working truck so I bought a clear body 1972 C-10 Chevy. I wanted a working truck but it did not have to be a clunker.

 The real reason I wanted a truck on the flight line is to run down my planes on the other end of the runway and bring them back which may not be a problem for many of you but it is for me. I need a way to pick up the tail wheel of the plane and haul it back. The left picture above is my first try at it. It is a 3-point hitch that was suppose to pick up the wheel with a single servo but when I activated the servo the weight of the plane compressed the suspension so much it lifted the front wheels off the ground. Now I'm working on a trailer that connects to the truck like a brush hog and has two caster wheels in the back to support the weight. I'm also building crates for the trailer to hold the batteries and receiver.

 Pictured above is the finished truck with trailer attached. The picture on the right is a view of the connection between the truck and the trailer. It's similar to a three point hitch on a tractor. It will be easier to backup and the camera will always point to the hookup loop. The lower crate on the front of the trailer is for servos and the upper contains the camera for backing up. I have taken this rig to the field three times now and each time the small trailer tires have been pushed under the thick grass at the field keeping the unit from backing up under the plane's tail wheel even though I've increase the tire size each time.

 Well I'm back at it again. Now I'm going to try steerable wheels the same size as the truck's on the trailer. I'll let you know how it goes. The left picture shows the axle I built out of a piece of oak with the spindles and steering linkage for a two wheel drive truck like mine. The right picture shows how the wheels turn in opposite directions to allow the unit to turn without binding the back wheels of the truck.