Hello ,
Just saw this video of a rubber powered rc sailplane and wanted to share. Isnt it a wonderful idea ?



cheers

  Some people have real patience in life

Clever use of the electric drill to wind the prop

Just wondering if its a bungee cord or a rubber band.

The Youtube video description says this :

Quote
RC Model with a big rubber band motor. This model is designed to climb a few hundred feet and then soar like a glider after the propeller folds. Radio controls the rudder and elevator, the model is built from balsa wood and covered in tissue paper.

I did not come across using plain tissue paper to cover models    Is that common ? Anybody here doing/done that ?

Simply Amazing

Awesome is the only word , say hats of to these guys when it comes to application  and innovation 

tissue paper is used to cover models skeleton when one wants to make very light model and cheap. Unlike clearkote and clear cellotape which is shrunk using hot air gun/ hot iron, tissue paper is tightenned using a spray of fine mist of water and left to dry. though durability of film is much better. tissue paper makes it very economical.

@ Anwar

Back in school days (pre 1993) we used to make a few rubber powered models. The kits were Balsa and had to be covered with plain tissue paper.

Just a clarification on tissue paper - something we used to call as butter paper (which was shiny one side) as well. It used to be a translucent paper - very thin. In olden days, aerogrammes (air snail mails) used to be typed on tissue papers and sent. Reason - light weight.

Comin back, the kits were wonderful, made by Aurora company of erstwhile Calcutta and sold by India Hobby Centre. The plans were Ammonia prints (no computer printouts, tiled plans or PDFs). Used to rub wax on plans to avoid Balsa spars sticking to the plan. I still have one of those kits waiting to get converted to plane.

The names were fancy english ones - Magpie, Sky Bee, MarkI, Mark II etc etc...

Nostalgic....

Quote from: anwar on February 12, 2010, 01:14:09 AM
I did not come across using plain tissue paper to cover models    Is that common ? Anybody here doing/done that ?

Poor man's 'Oracover/Monokote' . My NCC instructor was too good in that. We used to buy the normal embroidery tracing paper, paste on the frame with 'Bonfix' (softer version of legendary 'Quickfix'), and after drying, cover with 2 coating of 'Dope'. The out come used to be a surface which was smooth as glass and stiff like a Tabla/Drum!

I recently got a GNome kit from New India Hobby. This also same scheme. Though Mr sampath gave me some plastic sheet (cheap quality), I plan to go to the basic. Anybody knows where to by 'dope' to apply on the tracing paper in Bangalore ?

and no Anwar, that may not be an Electric Drill. It more seems like an electric screwdriver. such low spin speeds are not common in drills.

That is a fun way to learn !  Powered by rubber bands (is it a sling motion?), yet the flight is controlled using radio control !

hi guys,
the old ways

no dope available try some thing like nail varnish thinned down twice or three times, or may be even 'shalack' a spirit based varnish used by carpenters to seal the knots in softwood, its clear and if I remember corectly its thin as water.
but any wet will shrink the tissue that is 'tight' anyway when applied , but the frame must be fixed down or the wet paper drying will warp the finished frame...as in a wing say............even water with a little starch may do the job..........thing to remeber is the first crash will wreck it as there iss no other strength than the balsa.these wer cheap and light I flew one free flight rubber for many months.
regards
don

Quote from: anwar on February 12, 2010, 01:14:09 AM
I did not come across using plain tissue paper to cover models    Is that common ? Anybody here doing/done that ?

i used to build all my models with tissue paper earlier and even now (for the scale ones powered with rubber / cox and the 0.049cc engine ones)....  but i thougt this is quite a common thing???

Quote from: Shrikant on February 12, 2010, 09:30:13 AM
Back in school days (pre 1993) we used to make a few rubber powered models. The kits were Balsa and had to be covered with plain tissue paper.
...
...
Nostalgic....

you put be back in the 80s man .. haha... those were the days

Clear Dope is commercially available by the name NC Clear/Lacquer at any paint shop selling Automotive Paints. The most popular brand is 'Duco'. You may need to dilute the clear to near water consistency ( 1 part clear to 3 or 4 parts of thinner) by adding NC Thinner. In an emergency you can use quickfix diluted with thinner and a drop of castro oil to make it flexiable.

hi anwar.
- what brand of airplane dope is available in india.
- how does one spray the dope , i have a hand spray, can you post pictures of your spray and label of dope (duco stuff) you bought.
- is there a way i can contact you directly.
rohit

Hello Parivartan - Welcome to RC India

I am not sure how you got the impression that I have tried to make these ultralight aircraft using nitrate dope... truth is that I am yet to try them.  There are multiple members here who have done so, and hopefully they will chip in. Some more information is available here :

http://www.rcindia.org/chatter-zone/remote-control-of-a-plane-with-zero-electronics-!/msg6823/#msg6823  (see this whole thread)

You are always welcome to use "private messages" (PM) to contact me. Click on my name, and choose "Send anwar a private message" from the small popup window.  For any RC related questions/issues/doubts, I would rather have you post it in public, so that others who know much more than me can also respond. Such discussions will be beneficial to others too !

Hi Parivartan,
What aeromodellers name as Clear Dope is commercially known as NC Clear Lacquer. As mentioned earlier NC Clear is available in Shops who sell Automotive Paints (Car Paints)
You can use hand spray or brush to apply the clear. Ensure that you dilute the clear to near water consistency and then use it.
Sorry I am  unable to post any pictures at present.
In case you want to call, ring me on 092465 45790 betweem 9 am - 6 pm

Clear dope is clear dope and NC lacquer is well! just that with none of the properties of aircraft dope apart from sealing the grain and giving a shiny surface.
The aircraft dope besides sealing the grain of the substrate also imparts shrinking properties (to the covering) hence also referred as tautening dope. Try applying that to a balsa surface how it pulls up the wood grain so that it becomes much more easier to sand the surface smooth. A few coats with wet sanding in between and you have super smooth surface ready to be primed and painted
The trouble is aircraft dope today is really hard to source in India and hence modellers have taken recourse to NC lacquer and even quickfix (thinned with NC thinner)
As for sparaying etc, you would have to experiment with the consistency (read dilution with thinner), I have worked with metal Finit hand pump (yes the insecticide one) to  beautiful results. Also be warned that many plastics are incompatible with NC thinner and may distort or melt the plastic parts in your spray equipment.
As for shrinking properties of the real dope, many who have used it not properly thinned would remember how it keeps shrinking even after passage of considerable time, I  have had misfortune of my tomboy wings resembling a bufallos horn after the model was left hanging on wall for a year. The dope used was thick and kept on shrinking the wing.    

On the tissue paper the best ones were the Japanese ones which looked like a piece of rag and they were actaully called rag tissue. This was better because the tissue had real long fibres (for better strength) and also absorbed dope making it realy strong (as strong as a tissue could get).
The tracing paper, butter paper were all local substitutes, I may still have a few pieces of rag tissues stashed somewhere for that one day project.
You stick the tissue covering on the airframe with dope brushed on and gently rubbed in to penetrate the tissue up to the wood, once done, let it dry for 30 minutes, mist it with fine spray of water and leave it out in bright sun and you would have one tight covering, now apply first coat of thinned dope and on dry rub it down repeat the process to the desired finish.
The only downside was everytime the model landed in tall brush the covering had multiple punctures. To overcome this and ensure subsequent flights carrying a bottle of dope, a brush and some tissue pieces for on the field was mandatory SOP
Ahhh! the smell of dope brings back so many old memories 

A good branded tissue was "Modelspan".

Modelspan's substitute Litespan is still availble, but not locally though