Aeronca Champ

[F22trainer]

while I finish up the M-600 drawings I thought I would start a simple Balsa build. You have probably seen these kits for sale on Flea Bay. Woody Blanchard was a NASA engineer and became popular in the AMA thru his model designs. Bob Rainey was one of his contemporaries in the Hampton Roads Langley Research Center - I bought my first R/C plane from Bob in 1987, and it flies now more than it ever did. An old snapshot shows her original form. Now she sports the red and white coverings.
Anyway, now a tribute to Woody Blanchard for all his insight.

[F22trainer]

Wow, it could turn out to be an airplane. The kit was designed by Woody Blanchard for Guillows and was an entry level trainer with electric power - that Goldberg can motor will get replaced with an EFlite Park 480, a Spektrum microlight receiver with a switched ESC. Would like to be able to just plug into the airplane to recharge. It will also have ailerons - no provisions for those in this kit but scale dimensions and dihedral should work fine. I expect a 1300 mAh 3S will work well.

[F22trainer]

Time to stuff some electronics and a motor in there....wait’ll ya see this.
Park 370
Spektrum 6365 microlight receiver with AS3X.
Hitec sub micro servos
will get fabric - not monocote.

[F22trainer]

Not been able to post up or watch the community activity - work and life getting in the way. Ugh. Had to say also goodbye to our four legged companion last weekend. Got some down time and made a bit of progress. Rain like buckets most of the day here today. Should have sun tomorrow and hopefully some flying in the morning.
Wing will start to go together this evening.

[F22trainer]

A little progress- other half is drying as I write...

[F22trainer]

[F22trainer]

Fortunately able to work from home! Did squeeze some time over the weekend to start covering the Airknocker...

[F22trainer]

Tried to find some finished examples of this kit, with only ONE video posted on UToob...

https://youtu.be/7DNNc3EzhKo

nearing completion now.

[F22trainer]

Always seems once the wing starts getting covered, you feel like the home stretch begins.

[BluesDragon]

Looking good there, Michael! I'm fairly confident she's gonna be a beauty.. can't wait to see it in the air.

[F22trainer]

Looking good there, Michael! I'm fairly confident she's gonna be a beauty.. can't wait to see it in the air.

From one Stealth Mod to another - Thanks!

[F22trainer]

A glimpse of another prop machine in the work shop, with my dad in front of his - Da Nang, 1966

[F22trainer]

Waiting for the last of back ordered Sig Dope, that shipped earlier this week. Managed to create an instrument panel from a web photo. Need another coat of clear and then sanding sealer on the wings. All the other fuselage and miscellaneous parts are ready for the silver.

[Alpha]

F22trainer Any progress updates? It looks seemed like you were fairly close to the painting stage?

[F22trainer]

F22trainer Any progress updates? It looks seemed like you were fairly close to the painting stage?

Glad you asked - it seems I have hit the build stage for clear dope to coincide with a vendor shortage...probably should have gone with Stits. But no, I wanted to do it old school. I ran out of clear before I finished the wing, but everything else has been coated with clear 2x and sanding sealer 2x. Need another coat of clear on the wing top surface and then sanding sealer. I am more than ready to start getting silver on this bird. Even got the AS3X programmed for 3 modes. I mean everything is done except the silver. I’ll order the Graphics from Callie as soon as I get the clear underway again. Windows are all cut and trimmed pushrods, linkages, and clevis’s are all set. Even got the pilot painted. Once he silver is ready to go down, I am on the fence about either staying with butyrate dope silver or polyurethane silver - I have both and the sprayer is cleaned and ready. I may just pick up another tank of compressed air from the welding supply instead of the compressor - so much quieter.

[F22trainer]

I did take these showing a pretty good aileron fit, smooth tension on the silk, and the wing strut ends fitted.
B4E5A7A0-356D-4AA8-8363-9CCD5A0D3269.jpeg

[F22trainer]

Finally! Enough free time and light workload to get the silver dope sprayed on. Final assembly coming soon.

[F22trainer]

[F22trainer]

F22trainer Any progress updates? It looks seemed like you were fairly close to the painting stage?

While the preceding photos were taken last night as the windshield adhesive set up, as of tonight she is airworthy. All up weight with 1300 mAh 3S is 22.7 oz. while probably not necessary I added 0.6oz in the nose as CG was right at the aft limit.

Hat Cam video to follow...

[F22trainer]

2 flights - first was a surprise a la ‘Spruce Goose’ taxi test with a lift off. Took more throttle than I expected to get it moving, but figured I would find out how it handled on the ground. First downwind at half throttle for a few seconds - stayed nice and straight so I swung around into the wind and slowly brought it up to about the same throttle point - rolled about 30’ and noticed it was already off about an inch and smooth straight flight. So, what the heck and I let it climb. Well, she’s a bit tailheavy and a real floater. I t was also seriously under powered, with the 8x4 prop that came with the brush motor which I did not use. Went up to a 9x6 speed prop giving better results.
Sorry, no HatCam video - I thought it was charged.