North Penn High School :: Model Aviation Club

North Penn Model Aviation Club
"the MAC" since Fall 2003

Voicheck's Hangar

Here are the projects I've been working on in R/C aircraft.


		last updated : 10/04/2011 06:39
	Fall 2008+ I now use RC Groups to house my blog. Click here to transfer from our site to there.

	April 9 2008 This plane was my first experiment with Depron foam. I used 3mm for the entire airframe. The wing needed reinforcement and the fuselage required a small balsa stiffener. The motor and battery came from the J-3 kitten airframe. The servos weigh 3.4g and the receiver weighs 4.3g. They are both blue arrow brand. The first flight was done under dim lighting outside. The aircraft needs a much further forward center of gravity.

	November 2007 This is my second micro-bipe and it will be used as a display/flight testing device for the club this year. The students will cut them out at the Nov.14th meeting using the template and scroll saw wire method.

	16 September 2007 The Micro Telemaster is a kit from Hobby-Lobby and builds relatively quickly. It has a 35" wingspan and an all up weight of approximately 7 oz. The plane has a HexTronik 1300Kv brushless motor, running a 2 cell 900mAh lipo. It has a Balsa Products 10A ESC, a Hitec mini receiver, and two Blue Arrow 4.3g micro servos. The Micro Telemaster is covered with Solite. It's a blast to fly and floats very well when using the ESC's brake function. The only changes to the kit I would make, would be beefing up the landing gear support former. It is weak 1/8th balsa.

	15 June 2007 Here's my ExtremeFlight Yak-54. I received this as a graduation gift from my family. This plane is amazing! The plane is flown stock with the recommended Torque motor and Airboss ESC. It has a 13.5x6E APC prop and is powered by 3 cell Hextronic 2200 Lipos. I installed the recommended carbonite hs-65's and used a full sized receiver. On high rates, this plane snaps very fast. I have been adding in more and more expo to calm it down. On low rates, you could teach some one how to fly. I cut a hole in the bottom to allow airflow and haven't lost a canopy in-flight yet. Youtube video of Yak54 Flight

	9 February 2007 This project is a little different than the usual. It's a circuit I made using a 7805 voltage regulator to allow the use of two or three cell lipos to power receivers. The circuit will handle 1A of current. Replacing the NiCad's saves massive amounts of weight, and decreases charging time. My HLG is 22 grams lighter because of this circuit.

	25 January 2007 This is the Alleycat. I believe the plane is a foam version of the BVM jet. The 27" span foam plane is powered by a hexTronic 24gram brushless motor, swinging a 7x6 prop on a 2 cell 700 lipo. The plane "eats" up the gym space very quickly. Unfortunately, the rolling tendencies of this plane are huge due to the prop's torque effect. The plane is a quick flyer, and a quick build too. I swapped props down to a 6x3 and found a much smoother flight performance. I upgraded to a 900mAh 3 cell lipo too. It might not be as fast as it was, but the smaller prop doesn't work the motor nearly as hard because the motor and battery temperature were lower. I must have flown for twenty minutes with out noticeable loss in power. The motor RPM sits around 11700, with a calculated airspeed of 33mph.

	25 January 2007 This is the same Yak I started with, but I've learned how to hover much better than before. Video of hovering in the gym

	13 January 2007 The Nitroplanes Cessna 15 is just about complete. I have flown it, but the pictures came out too dark because I flew in near darkness. The plane is powered by an AM2308/11 on a 3 cell 1500 pack. It balanced perfectly with this configuration. The plane is quick with the current setup, but I plan to experiment with the prop settings.

	7 January 2007 Here's a couple shots of the Buttercup modified to tricycle landing gear. I moved the main gear back about two inches, and added a stationary nose wheel. The nose wheel is supported through the engine mount, and glued in place. with more thought and effort, I could have made it steer able. At this size, the plane is getting heavy for such unnecessary add-ons.

	December 19 2006 Here are two pictures of a Smith Mini Plane designed by Steve. It flies so smoothly and slowly, you hardly notice the small space you're able to keep it in. The plane is powered with the "usual" HL BL 400XT and a two cell 1000mAh lipo. It uses two servos for aileron control (right and left). We also cut templates for it, so we can make more of them.

	December 4 2006 This plane is a Yak-54, built from a set of jigs a friend of mine and I constructed back in October. The plane uses 1/4" bluecore with a HL Esskay, and a BP10A ESC. It was flown originally in below freezing temperatures with a 1250mAh 2 cell pack, but it was too heavy. I recently flew it indoors with a 2 cell 780mAh and it balanced and flew 10 times better. The wing is reinforced with a carbon fiber tube, and Gorilla glue. The rest of the plane was glued with low-temp hot glue. It was painted with water based acrylic. Click here for flight

	December 2006 This is my model of the a low wing version of the AMA Buttercup. The plane needs ailerons and has nasty roll tendencies that are almost uncorrectable without them. I need to build a wing with ailerons for this model.

	November 5 2006 This is the AMA, Buttercup from 1985. The plane is powered by a LPS geared motor with a 2 Cell LiPo and micro radio gear, and weighs 4.9oz with a span of 27". It is a delight to fly and can be flown in a baseball sized field easily. I chose not to install landing gear to keep the weight down. Two flights of 25 minutes are normal. The second model of this one should have landing gear, and possibly and lower wing. I think a series of planes like this would be really fun to assemble (biplane, low wing, etc.) Click for Hand Launch flight video Click for ground take off video

	July 2006 The ultimate bipe started I started in January was finally finished in July. The paint job was an experiment with airbrushing foam with acrylic paint from Wal-Mart. It works, but takes a while to dry. It is powered with a 3 cell LiPo 900mAh, and an Esskay 400XT BL motor. The plane has the same equipment as the P-40, excluding the carbon fiber reinforcement in the wing. It has a great roll rate, but it's a little slow for 3D flying.

	June 2006 The foam flying wing was an experiment that turned out right the second time. The first flying wing I made was a copy of the Wild Wing from Hobby People. When that didn't work, I cut down the wing halves into much smaller sized pieces and ended up with a plane that worked. The motor is a GWS EDP 50XC direct drive spinning a 3020 prop. The plane has decent flight times with the 2 cell 340mAh lipo, but the performance is marginal. I switched to a GWS EDF-50B and the performance was much more lively. Unfortunately, the flight time was cut down too much to enjoy it.

	May 29 2006 I finally finished the P40 Warhawk I started so long ago. The plane flies extremely well and is very rigid. The carbon fiber wing support is very functional. Right now, the ailerons are too small for any 3D flying. I still have to cut out another canopy sticker. With a 3 cell pack its really sporty, and with a 2 cell pack its much more relaxing. I've been running 900mAh packs. I posted the plane on RCGroups with the same video as below. Click for threadlink click for flight video

	April - May 2006 Steve helped me construct one of his foam trainers. It flies very well and I've been having a lot of fun teaching people how to fly on it.

	April 18th 2006 I was flying with my friend Steve, and he built a RC model airplane out of a "dollar store" plane. The plane flew surprisingly well until I knocked it out of the air with a stick. click for flight video

	April 14th-15th I finished the PCat on Friday night, around 8pm and flew it fifteen minutes later. It was pretty dark, so I couldn't film the flight. I flew one lap around the field and landed it successfully. Saturday morning I woke up early and put some time on the plane. The flight went amazing! click here for flight video

	April 8-9th Work continued on the PCat, but it was physical construction of the model itself, instead of drawings. I had a few mistakes from the design I had to fix, where certain holes didn't line up, but most of them do now. Check out the pictures. I'm hoping to have one flying by the end of the week.

Wing Span: 36.5" Wing Area: 260in² Goal AUW: 14-16oz	March - April 2006 I have been working on some drawings for a new plane since mid March 2006. It is a low wing sport aircraft named the PCat. The drawings are in CAD and will be available after I have finished the plane and tested it. Most of the plane's parts will be laser cut to ease construction and reduce build time. Check out the wing picture, and the CAD drawing picture. The wing spar is designed to have two interlocking parts that form a box with the top and bottom spar. The resulting wing is extremely strong and still light weight.

	April 2nd 2006 It was a beautiful day for flying, although the wind gusts were a little strong. I was able to obtain minute+ long flights from a hand launch. I had one five minute flight from the Hi-Start. The video is a quick HL flight with a catch. Click here for Hand Launch flight Click here for Hi-Start flight

	March 2nd 2006 This is a foam Cessna Agwagon I cut out on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It took three hours to complete, using parts from the SeaBee. The plane was tested with various propellers because flight performance was marginal. I have flown it outdoors, but with a smaller prop. Using the right propeller improved flight performance dramatically. It will be tested outdoors with the larger pitched prop. The plane needs more rudder input, because its only rudder/elevator/throttle control. I enlarged the wing to help slow the plane down. click here for indoor gym flight video

	February 26-27, 2006 This is a foam trainer created by a friend of mine. He is totally sold on electric aircraft now that he's built a couple planes. One flight was taken at night in 22°F weather . It was cold and slightly windy. The other flight was in a warm gym without the air handlers on. click here for indoor gym flight video click here for outdoor night flight video click here for slow flight

	February 20, 2006 This is the Eflite Tribute I purchased over the summer. The plane is meant for 3D flying only. It has an Eflite 370 brushless motor in the gearbox, and spins a 12x8 prop. I use a 3 cell 900mAh Thunderpower LiPo for power.

	February 20, 2006 This is the the J3-Kitten I have been working on since last May. It flew in some pretty gusty conditions. The balance was slightly aft of the CG, so the flight is a little hairy, and ends with a small crash. click here for the flight video

	February 13, 2006 This is the foam Citabria a friend and I built. It was constructed of Blu-Cor foam. We laser cut the parts, hot glued most of them together, and made up the rest. The plane is powered by an Esskay 400XT and turns a GWS 10x4.7 prop. The plane needs wing struts, but performs very well considering its haphazard construction. click for the flight video

	January 22, 2006 This is the Great Planes Fling HLG. I'm very impressed with its glide performance, but disappointed with the rudder's effectiveness. It was a cool, slightly breezy day when I tested this. Here are a few pictures of its maiden voyage across the fields at North Penn High School. click for the flight video

	January 14, 2006 Here are a few pictures and a video of my JR Venture .30 sized heli. I've had it since September of 2002 and I've logged well over 30 hours of flying on it. The heli had a broken tail slide ring which was glued back together instead of being replaced. I couldn't remove the set screws, so the new $15 part is sitting in its package on my bench while the broken part is flying in the helicopter. click for the flight video

	January 2006 This is the beginnings of an Ultimate Biplane. Its projected completion date is late January. It will have a GWS 350 geared motor.

	April 2005 - January 2006 This is the framework for a J3-Kitten by Thayer Syme. It is a micro version of the classic ultralight aircraft. It will use the same equipment as the J3 shown below. It is also laser cut, from plans I redrew.

	November/December 2005 Here's the flying wing I experimented with using blue foam. It flew much better once it was balanced properly. It was the first flying wing I have built, and it wasn't exciting to fly. Blue foam aircraft are too slow unless weighted or fiber glassed. While flying indoors one evening it had serious stability problems. This plane was scrapped. It was the first foam plane to use a prop saver device. It was made from an old servo horn. Details to come soon.

	December 2005 This is a foam sea plane called the Sea Bee. Its also made from 1/4" Bluecor. It uses the same motor system that the first Biplane used but with a much smaller propeller. click for the flight video

	November/December 2005 This is my micro J-3 kitten. it has an all up weight of 2.3oz and is electric. It is made from 1/16th inch balsa sheet. This plane is a prototype to the built up version which will be completed by the end of January 2006. click for the flight video

	September 2005 This project is a P-40 Bluecor foam plane that I have put on hold for a little while. I have redrew the plane as a profile, with the intent of making it a brushless 3D style plane. It was modeled after seeing another plane in Model Airplane News. The foam, balsa, and decals are all laser cut. If the plane flies well, I'll distribute the plans. Jan 24th - I finished attaching all the control surfaces and the wing. I used low-temp hot glue to hold the tail and wing on. The wing was reinforced with gorilla glue and a wing gusset. I hope to have this plane flight ready for mid February.

	Late March 2005 Here are two pictures of my scratch built Mini-Bipe foamy aircraft by Dick Sarpolus. In the left picture the plane has ailerons, but the right picture the plane doesn't have ailerons or as many decals. This plane was a prototype for building micro foam aircraft. Matt wrecked it in the pool (see the crash page). It was laser cut from plans I redrew. This plane can be constructed as a single wing plane too. This plane has flown just about everywhere(back/front yard, gyms, hallways, cul-de-sacs, decks,etc.). It is an absolute blast to fly. You don't need much light or room to fly it. If I used a smaller diameter prop, the torque on the plane would have allowed better turning. I'm guessing a CD-Rom motor would be awesome in this plane, but the GWS motors are too cheap and durable. click for the flight video

	Early March 2005 Here is a picture of my first attempt at a flying foam airplane. The plane never flew because it was too heavy. It probably would have flown if it had LiPo batteries. It had a seven cell NiMh battery pack that weighed 3oz compared to a LiPo pack which would have weighed 0.5oz.

	November 2003 This is a Great Planes PT-40 that was given to me damaged. A friend of mine backed his car over the tail of it and offered it to me if I wanted to repair it. It was an easy fix considering I had a few extra tails left over from other deceased aircraft. The covering doesn't match the rest of the aircraft, but it still flies.

site last updated : 10/04/2011 06:39:41