Volare Products

I thought I’d do a short New Year’s post since I have been a little lax in posting recently.  I say it often, but I’ll say it again – I’ve been busy.  The end of December marks the half-way-point in the busiest time of the year for my business – I guess that corresponds to building season.

Apart from the business, I always feel like I never get much built.  I make a list in the fall of to-build planes and I always seem to get about 20% of it built.  But, doing a rough count this morning, I see that I built at least 16 models in 2017, and that is probably short.   Still, the latest Fall List shows only two complete and two frames built out of twelve proposed models.  I did finish two Peanuts and built 3 Jet Cats in December, so I do get some things done.

The Peanuts complete my proposed small plane list for Indoor this year, although I do have to cover a Low Wing Trainer that I hope to toss into Scale just because I don’t want to damage any of my outdoor planes indoors.  As shown in my last post, I have the tissue ready to cover the 24″ Cessna C-34.  I need to consider if I want to print markings on it or do them by hand.  Other than that, it should be finished before outdoor season.  In the very near future, I will be starting a Jumbo Aircraft Designs Stallion.  This is a favorite plane – I did two Peanuts, a NoCal, and a Jumbo years ago.  It’s a high-wing, so no bonus points. On the other hand, my earlier Jumbo was a floater – nearly guaranteed maxes, so I will probably fly it more often in events like Simplified Scale or Modern Civilian (insert devilish grin here).

Then I will probably start another jumbo for the Airmail Commemorative Event at the FAC Nats.

Business-wise, 2017 was a good year; you generous customers kept me busy all year long.  The only down-side is keeping up with orders, and keeping supplies stocked.  And I am having some issues with some of my suppliers and materials.

Making new kits is the favorite part of my business.  I now have 44 kits/combos available.  And I appear to have released 10 new ones in 2017.  Here’s a surprise:  I count another 10 very close to release.  I had hoped to release one today, but that might not happen – I have some final kit assembly to do on that.

I have the Peanut Barracuda and the Peanut Pegna nearly ready.  The Pegna needs to fly successfully (I am 100% sure I over-propped it and it wouldn’t fly last month – the prop has been replaced).  The Barracuda just needs kit finalization (remember, it will include a vacu-formed canopy).

The Cessna needs to be finished and flown.  I do have that out for a prototype build – and it is being covered and the builder reported no problems with the parts.  I believe he is going to do micro r/c, so when he flies it, that will not satisfy my requirement for the design to fly – so you all will just have to wait for that kit until Spring.  Oh, when it flies, I will also publish all the documentation that qualifies it for FAC Thompson Race!

Old-Timers – I have five nearly ready.  OK, four are nearly ready, the fifth needs the drawing and parts finished before it can be built.  One of the four is one that I hoped to release today.  the other three – one is have successfully built and flown, and two are being prototyped, with one of those undergoing test flying.

I also have one contest-winning Embryo ready to be built.  And two Jet Cats to finalize kitting.  See?  That’s ten new kits nearly ready for the New Year!  And I hope to release the Jumbo Stallion and several others over the course of the coming year.

So, I am anticipating more good things ahead in 2018.  I hope you are, too!

Blog posts have been few for the last couple of months.  Various things have kept me busy.  As some of you surely know, it is building season and some of you are keeping me busy filling orders (not a bad thing!)  Here are some short blurbs about some fo the things that have been going on here at Volare Products Headquarters.

You might have missed them, but I did two write-ups on Documentation of some obscure aircraft.

One was the sole Comper Swift to fly in races here in the United States.  This documentation qualifies the model for Flying Aces Club Greve Races.  You can find the article here:  COMPER SWIFT – RACING IN AMERICA

The other was a more representative color scheme for the Pegna P.C.1; a shoulder-wing, flying boat that was never completed and never flown.  But the fact that it was never flown doesn’t prohibit it from Flying Aces competition.  You can find my proposed schema and the reasoning behind it, here:  PEGNA P.C.1

Speaking of the Pegna, I have drawn up a new set of plans for the Peanut version.  I retired my faithful and venerable Peanut with honors after it won its 20th Kanone.  I have built another which is complete except for some minor detailing to be finished this week (before the next contest).  Once this version,in its new color scheme, has flown successfully, I will release a short kit.

I bought a rather cheap HP Color Laser Printer (M252dw) and used it to print the colorings for the Pegna.  I was inspired by Jim Buxton, who posted some photos of laser-printed tissue on Facebook.  the quality of laser printing marking over ink jet printing is a step up – better quality, as you might expect.  Toner is much more expensive, but I plan to use the printer for nothing other than printed tissue, so maybe the cartridges will last quite awhile.

It was “warm” last week (mid-50s) so I was able to spray paint two sheets of tissue paper for my 24″ Cessna C-34 (now I can start covering).  If you recall, this will be for the FAC Thompson Races, so I am restricted to a specific color.  In time, there will be another documentation article providing all of the information necessary to qualify this specific airplane for Race competition.

Esaki White tissue paper sprayed with Design Master floral spray

I have three Old Timers, all falling into the FAC 2-Bit category, out for prototype work.  I know that all three have been under construction:  one has not yet been completed (to my knowledge), one was just finished yesterday and is awaiting test flying, and one has already flown over 60 seconds (but I am giving the builder an opportunity to really wring it out before releasing it).

I have been involved in some online discussion about how to increase the popularity of Peanut Scale modeling.  I am a strong proponent of Peanuts.  They have a couple of benefits that maybe people don’t realize.  Since they are small, you can fit more into a given area, whether that is a single box or the trunk of your car.  Also, again since they are small, it is nearly impossible to add all of the details that you could/should add on a larger model, especially Jumbo or something like that.  So (in my mind) it is more forgivable to leave off some of the tiniest details (this includes simplifying fuselage contours, etc.  Yes, they are a little bit trickier to trim out and a little bit more fragile during the building, but they are fun.

So, during this discussion, I wondered if I am doing enough?  There was mention that no one is really promoting Peanuts in the way that Walt Mooney and Bill Hannan did – and that is true.  There are a few kits available, but not very many.  I will try to help that situation along:  I will put more effort into building and releasing Peanut Short Kits so that there are more available for modelers (I think the fact that there are so few kits hinders building because now modelers must scratch build almost all Peanuts).

Finished and ready to fly.

Here is my pathway:  I have two available today: the Chambermaid and the Found Centennial.  I will shortly have the Pegna P.C.1 and the Fairey Barracuda (including canopy).  I plan on doing the same for my Stuka (plans need clear instructions on how to build – it’s really not that difficult).  I have a Goodyear racer just about ready to build (and I can always turn my Falcon Special II into a short kit, with some reworking of the plan).  I will work on another basic and simple high wing and I have a popular biplane just about ready to build.

I am trying to engineer special pieces into these kits that will allow easy alignment of the tail pieces to each other and to the fuselage.  And I am experimenting (so far, successfully) with providing laser-cut strip wood for building.  The strip wood will be specifically for the kits where I will be using 1/20″ and 1/32″ wood.  All of this to make it easier to build the models.

In addition, for my personal fleet, I am working on another quick kit build (someone else’s kit) that should encourage people to build this model that will fit into FAC Scale, Modern Military, and Low Wing Military Trainer.  And I intend on having two Jumbo planes ready for Geneseo – one for Jumbo/Simplified Scale/Modern Civilian and the other for Jumbo/Golden Age Monoplane/Airmail Anniversary.

AND… I am drawing up the next One-Design for the FAC Outdoor Champs (details to be released in the near future).

Whew…back to packing orders!

Last week, I wrote about CG location and Trimming your model.  This week, I will cover part 2 of 3 – Thrust Adjustments.  I will give you a little background and then I will talk about some items that I feel have revolutionized – yes, that’s a big concept – the way we fly our planes.

For ever, modelers have been told to put in “a couple degrees down and a couple degrees right” in their models to counter-act the torque produced by the wound rubber motor.  This is not isolated to rubber power, as FF and r/c gas and electric have to do the same thing – and even full scale aircraft have to be designed to manage the torque from a fully revved engine.

But one problem I have had with this general instruction is – how do you measure the two or three degrees on the field – and who does this?  Yes, these small and precise angles can be drawn into plans and the draftsman, especially in CAD, can shot these exactly.  But in application, after the model is built, how do you add “one more degree”?  While the requirement is real, the instruction is impractical.  Shimming the noseblock is the traditional way to get the offset you need – even if you have built per direction, often an adjustment needs to be made to obtain good performance in the powered section of the flight (remember – don’t adjust the CG/Trim!)

Setting the new angle on the field is not an easy task.  Be sure to bring a box of wood scraps with you of varying thicknesses – my box has sheets and sticks from 1/8″ thick down to 1/64″ plywood.  Inserting these at the top and side of the noseblock will help you obtain the correct angle for the prop shaft.  Gluing and sanding are part of this process.  It is long and tedious – and can result in an ugly nose area on your model.

Even later, on a trimmed model – trimmed in both glide and power – you will need a minor thrust adjustment on the field for the specific conditions.  I still get teased by my flying buddies about my old practices of winding the model, walking out in the field, and scanning the ground for just the right sliver of grass or clover stem to set my thrust for that next winning flight (ok, not all of them were winning – and I still do this on occasion today).  And I remember ad one mass launch event where a very competitive and successful modeler was about ready, but needed a shim of “about 8 thousandths” to finalize his model (yes, he really said that).

But something has come along that has truly changed the way that I fly and the way that other modelers trim their models.  And I believe these products have provided hundreds of modelers with an easier path to success than just about any other product available:

GIZMO GEEZER PROP ASSEMBLIES and ADJUSTABLE NOSE BUTTONS

(Full disclosure:  I sell these, but this is not a sales pitch.)  Now, in an effort to make my thrust trimming easier, I have tried at least two other brands of adjustable nose buttons.  I found that either they don’t hold the thrust angle, or they were too complex in their method of setting the angle.  Then I tried a Gizmo Geezer Prop Assembly.

photo by Gizmo Geezer

This assembly is a complex piece of engineering that provides a simple way for the average modeler to apply that complexity.  They take care of the following issues for the modeler right out of the box:  better rubber management, better thrust adjustment, and better propeller performance.  How do they do that?  Here’s a run-down:

Better rubber management.  Modelers throughout time have had problems with the motor.  As turns get higher, and knots get bigger, the motor starts to bind on itself while unwinding.  This is especially true if the motor is significantly longer than the hook-to-peg distance – which is most of the time for us looking for more duration.  When we get long motors, they start to bunch at the rear.  This wastes the turns as they are never unwound and it disturbs the balance of the model, making it tail heavy, and ruining the glide.  One way to avoid this is to braid the motor.  But this is a minor science that requires experience gained over time – how many braiding turns do I use and in which direction?  These are debatable issues that, while they do have answers, are eliminated with the usage of the Gizmo Geezer Prop Assembly.

drawing by Gizmo Geezer

This prop assembly ELIMINATES the need for braiding motors – completely.  In fact, the instructions tell you NOT to braid the motor.  Why?  Because of the remarkable engineering that Orv Olm put into this item.  This mechanical marvel relies on the unwinding motor to activate the freewheeling mechanism.  To put is simply, there is a small compression spring in the nose of the assembly.  The size of this spring is critical because it only activates when there is very few winds left – BUT JUST ENOUGH to keep the motor from becoming slack.

As the spring overpowers the motor, the freewheeler disengages from the prop, and withing two or three more motor revolutions, an internal screw engages the rotating motor into the stationary noseblock.  This stops the motor from unwinding – the motor is now perfectly stretched between the noseblock and the motor peg without binding or bunching.  One additional benefit to this locking motion is that you can wind your motor and install the prop assembly and the motor will not unwind.  You can walk around without the danger of the motor unwinding accidentally until you give the prop a couple of turns with your finger (just like winding with the prop) and this transmission lock disengages and you are ready to fly.

Better Thrust Adjustment.  Included in this package is a simple, efficient, and effective method of thrust adjustment.  The nose button itself had BUILT-IN adjusters.  These are in the form of three screws located around the perimeter.  They are equally spaced (120 degrees around the circumference) and they provide an extremely easy method for the modeler to change thrust – on the workbench or on the field – and that thrust setting doesn’t change.

I, personally, put a single screw at the bottom of the nose button and then have two spread out across the top (some modelers choose to invert this – with the single screw at the top).  The single screw, when screwed in, will add downthrust.  When screwed out, it will take out downthrust.  The upper screws will provide left and/or right thrust.  These are steel screws (currently with a hex head) with an interference fit into the plastic so the plastic grabs them – and they retain their setting regardless of how hard you crash your model.  Of course, as you use them, you  will crash your model less and less.

Better propeller performance.  The Gizmo Geezer, from the start, realized that plastic props are not very efficient.  Typically, they are at something around a 1:1 Diameter/Pitch ratio.  A better-performing ratio for rubber models is something slightly greater.  Gizmo Geezer takes standard plastic props and resets the pitch on each one to 1:1.25.  This ratio grabs the air better, reduces zooming, provides a slower and more deliberate climb-out, and extends the run-time of the motor (by slowing down the prop).  And these assemblies are available in 7″, 8″, 9.5″ (for P-30), and 10″ diameters.

After some time,  Gizmo Geezer received feedback that modelers wanted more.  It was very difficult to swap props on the prop assembly.  Modelers wanted to use the nose button and its wonderful adjustment capabilities with their own props.  So now the Adjustable Nose Button is available separately.

At first, the nose button was available assembled, but this has changed.  The modeler now needs to do the final assembly on the product, but this is to his (or her) benefit:  now the modeler can select the prop shaft size they want for their particular application.  The original nose button was designed for an 0.055″ prop shaft.  This is an unusual size but it was selected for durability.  But modelers were often drilling this out and re-bushing the hole for their specific application.  Now all they have to do is select their desired prop shaft (1/32″, 0.047″, or 1/16″), install that bushing and complete the assembly.

The Gizmo Geezer Prop Assembly opened my eyes to how to finally apply thrust adjustments with precision.  And once I was able to use just the nose button, my modeling and flying really started to improve.  No more finding a sliver just right for each flight.  No more ugly shimmed and sanded (or not sanded!) front ends on my planes.  Thrust adjustments are easily made right on the field and are now usually 1/4 turn or less of one of the screws.  Once you start using them, you can learn how to tame that model.  Zooming can be controlled with a little bit of right – or a little bit of down – depending on what you need.  These have helped me become a better flyer and I use them in all my models, Scale and Old Timer, excepting the smallest Peanuts.

The final article in my Keys to FF Success will be on Winding to Torque.

I have finished up all of the details necessary to make this Short Kit available to you.  I’ve mentioned this model several times before.  Let me add this: this model is an incredible soaring machine – you’d better add a DT!

Find it HERE.

I’ve had this kit ready – and packaged since July.  Some of you may recall my Build write-up (here).  I have had a handful of kits ready to sell – and had them at Geneseo and Muncie.  I wondered why no one had even nibbled on them.  Well, it turns out that I never put them on the website for sale – until this morning.  Find it here.

This little (9″ span) jet cat is a very easy build and a blast to fly – it is my favorite.  From the start, I knew it had potential, as I lost the prototype.  My launch technique for my second one worked out to be: left shoulder into the wind, launch the model at full power STRAIGHT UP, and watch it zoom high and kick out, just right, at the top.  It has a floaty, bobbly glide, maybe not in a full circle, but duration is good for about 20 seconds without lift.  I have won one contest with this model and I won’t be surprised if I win another someday – or if it hooks a thermal and goes away.

The kit is a FULL kit – two 1/32″ balsa sheets, one 1/16″ balsa sheet, one 1/64″ ply sheet, two bass leading edges, two 0.005″ carbon fiber strips (for the fuselage sides), and one FAC-legal catapult.  Also, you can download the tissue print design (as shown above) for free right here.

Next, I will have the Comet Pepper online soon!