Getting Ready for Italy

Getting ready for the 2019 European SAM Champs.  Level 5 sailplane pilot  and world traveller Johnny Berlin with his brand new McCoy .6o powered Lanzo Airborn from a Bob Holman laser cut kit.   http://www.bhplans.com/GMPg2.html


Attenzione! Gli americani stanno arrivando a Ferrara!

McCoy .60 20 Series

To enlarge any of the pages, right click on the image (Command⌘-click for Mac users)

New SAM 62 Videos

Southwest Regionals Slideshow

Trouble viewing? Click:
61st Annual Southwest Regional Model Airplane Championship

More on Teb Patrolia's Cobra

See, it's not a PVC tube!

Final Test Flight of the Comet Sailplane

I met George Grant at the Planesman's field around 7:00 a.m. this morning. It was a great morning, clear, around 80° and dead calm, but the wind sock was oriented for a NE wind direction. The engine went rich in the power climb on first flight and the Sailplane was brought down.

The engine was leaned out about a 1/4 turn on the needle valve and the Sailplane was launched again. The engine was screaming all the way up the power climb, but I got "gun shy" as the image of the Sailplane grew smaller and I cut the engine prematurely around 29 or 30 seconds. The duration of this second flight 7 min 13 sec.

About half of the down trim was used in the power climb and most of the up trim is used in the glide. The Sailplane transitions well and really glides beautifully with no bad handling tendencies that I could detect. Once trimmed, the Sailplane is as steady as a rock and with no tendencies to roll off to either side. The turns are smooth and the model recovers almost hands off. Also the model did not try to stall or porpoise.

On the third flight, the needle valve was not touched. Again the engine ran extremely well (at peak rpm) during the power climb. The Sailplane stayed in the groove all the way up for the full to the 35 sec engine run. I chopped the throttle at 34 sec and the McCoy 60 cut off at exactly 35 sec. Again the Sailplane transitioned smoothly. The elevator trim was adjusted and a flat glide was established with a heading into the NE. In the early morning air, the Sailplane just seemed to hang there motionless. No particular control was necessary as the Sailplane was truly in a free flight mode. As my good friend Dick Huang used to say, "Just park it up there Tandy until you get your Max and then bring her down and we'll do it again" ! The flight time on this third flight was 9 min 7 sec and that is a Max in dead air. With any lift at all, this Sailplane will have no trouble staying up 15 min or more. Guys, it has been a long time coming, but at last the Sailplane is now fully flight tested and ready for the 2010 SAM Champs, thanks to George Grant's help.

By the way, George took some really good pictures this morning that I want to share with you all..........................Tandy Walker

The Sailplane at the Top of the 35 sec Power Climb

Coming Down Some, but Still Quite High

Gliding Smoothly During the Descent

Overhead Pass for George's Picture

A Focused, but a Most Pleased Pilot

Down Wind Leg

Initiating Turn on Final

Lining up with the Runway

In the Approach the Glide Speed is Unbelievably Slow.

This is a Close Up of the Sailplane from the Picture Above

Starting to Flare about Four Foot off the Runway

This is Really a Great Close Up of the Sailplane Taken from the Picture Above

(It is hard to Describe Just how Smooth and Stable the Sailplane is.)

Will the cowl go back on at this point?

Solution to Sailplane Exhaust Extension Problem

My good friend Bill Taylor, who lives up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, built his Sailplane shown below before I built mine last year. Bill was the guy who sent me his exhaust extension design when I was building my Sailplane. Bill developed his extension design for his Ohlsson 60 based on formed sheet brass stock, which was solder together with hooks on the side for spring retention. The design worked perfectly for his Ohlsson 60 installation. So he naturally used the same design when he built his Sailplane powered with a McCoy 60. Due to some health complications and schedule activities, Bill had never had the opportunity to run his McCoy 60 until last week.

During Bill's test runs last week, his McCoy 60 generated so much more exhaust heat than the Ohlsson 60 that it melted the solder and the brass exhaust extension fell off the McCoy engine! After Bill redesigned his exhaust extension using mechanical fasteners, he sent me a letter advising me of this problem along with the sketch below detailing his design modifications. As Bill said, if the extension were to come off during the power climb, the cowl would most likely catch fire and burn up the Sailplane in flight! :O<

By the way, Bill said his McCoy did not overheat running inside the cowl! :O)

First of all, thank you Bill. You may have very well saved my Sailplane from a fiery end. I have used Bill's ideas with a little twist of my own. I selected .025" piano wire and bent up the two hooks shown below. As you can see, I put a "Z" bend on the ends that hook to the sides of the extension.
After unsoldering and removing my original hooks, I inserted the Z-bend into a hole in the side of the extension and used the spring jig shown below to position the hook while it was soldered to the extension.
This is a close up of one of the soldered hooks. Even if the solder softens due to the exhaust heat, the Z-bend has the hook locked in place under spring tension.
Next, as per Bill's suggestion, I drilled two holes through the extension's soldered lapped seam and inserted two 2-56 cap screws made up with lock washers and nuts on the inside of the extension.
This picture shows the two lock washers and nuts on the inside of the brass extension that were easily tightened down with a small ignition box-in wrench. If you look close, you can also see the .025" Z-bend wires pointing forward inside also.
If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the spring that holds the brass exhaust extension in place on the Mcoy's exhaust stack...............................Tandy Walker

11/10/09 Visit to the laboratory of Giovanni (Ninetto) Ridenti aka "The Maestro"

Welcome to my laboratory...

I was surprised to notice that many of the 2000 Pensacola SAM Champs photos had been taken by me.

Streamlined Cyclone for Tex-AH-co

Construction of Cyclone here

Placing a call to Col. Mario Perrone and Silvano

For dinner, we were invited to the house of Paolo Montessi, another fine Italian modeler who lives near the famous white Pyramid in Rome. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see his shop which is at another location, but he did show off some of his fascist era tube radios.