Johnny, W4XKE

( Article ) Fly Your Radio

What do model planes have to do with ham radio? Well, for one thing in 1937 twin brothers, Walt Good, W3NPS and Bill Good built the first successful radio controlled model airplane. Radio and modeling have been married ever since.

(Photo - Walt & Bill Good 1937)

(Photo - Walt & Bill Good 2000)

My introduction to radio and modeling occurred in the early 1950s. Many a boy has learned the value of a dollar at the model shop. My friends and I used to search the roadsides for pop bottles that we could redeem at the local grocery store for a 2 cent deposit. Fifty pop bottles would buy one 98 cent model kit and 2 Tootsie Roll Pops. Ever try to ride a bike while carrying a burlap bag of 50 bottles?



Here's a photo of the bicycle / model shop where much of my time and money was spent. The shop owner was everybody's “Grandpa Charlie” who promoted the model Texaco fly ins and he would talk airplanes with us kids as long as we had time to kill. We all knew every item he had in the glass case and how many pop bottles it would take to buy them.

Over the years I built scale, free flight and U-control model planes. Eventually I got into RC with a Babcock radio (that used a single vacuum tube) that provided rudder only control with a Bonner rubber band escapement. The guys that had good jobs were spending big money on “full house” RC planes using reeds. Up was full up and left was full left. Proportional control didn't come out for several more years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft

One plane that I really flew the pants off of was a Carl Goldberg Skylane 62 with a K&B .45 and a Kraft radio. Oh the stories I can tell about flying that plane! Let me warn you, once you've built and flown a model, the blue sky is incomplete without an airplane in it.

Modeling Memories Last a Lifetime

I'd like to tell you about one of my all-time favorite planes. It's a marvelous little airplane that is worthy of some discussion. Sometimes in our efforts to strive for the ultimate model, we burden ourselves with expensive equipment, complex, time-consuming designs and many extra hours at the bench. For the most enjoyment, I say we need to go back to the basic model that is cheap, simple and easy to build.


Here is Ken Willard's Top Dawg. It's easy, quick to build and depending on your preferences, can be very inexpensive for an RC model. Roger Hite was the first person I saw flying one of these. I had my Skylane 62 out at the old concrete Navy field and others there were flying their pattern ships. There was a Bridi Super Kaos, a Banshee, a Kwik Fly III and other high end (expensive) models.

Roger brought out his little Top Dawg with a single channel, rudder-only control and a Babe Bee .049 engine. I watched as he peaked the little Cox until it was shrilly screaming. He checked his rudder and let it go.

I was curious what would happen when it became airborne. He couldn't reduce the engine's power and all the control he had was left and right. There was no need for me to worry. The Dawg screamed away from us with the tail high and quickly left the concrete. Upon liftoff, Roger gave it a touch of rudder and began a climbing right spiral. He continued the upward spiral until he had gained some altitude, then let it go straight. At full throttle it began to steepen the climb until it finally stalled, dropped the nose and went into a power dive. I thought it was a goner because he had no elevator to pull out.

The Dawg screamed straight down toward the ground. As the speed increased, the Dawg's flat bottom wing developed more and more lift as the nose came up into an inside loop. Roger topped the loop and came down the backside into another power dive. This time as the Dawg leveled out at the bottom and started up once more, he pushed hard rudder and had two quick snap rolls. Afterward, he rolled into another climbing spiral and circled the field. I couldn't believe the performance of this ship with a single channel control!

Roger continued to frolic in the sky until the little engine screamed into a frenzied peak and went silent. He eased the Dawg into a gentle descending spiral, lined it up for a landing and let it go straight. It glided perfectly into a dead stick landing that left us in awe. I looked around and all the guys with the big pattern ships, their kids and even the wives were affixed on the performance of Roger's little airplane.

If allowed to climb, it'll stall and go right into a power dive, followed by a loop. To control the climb, just feed it some rudder and let it circle. Tighten the circle and the nose will drop. Ease out of the turn and the nose will rise. Let the speed build and hit a hard rudder and you have some quick snap rolls. Trim the ship for a nice power off glide and it will land itself. Roger made us feel foolish for having spent so much money. We could have built a dozen of these for the money we'd invested in our planes. To top it off, he seemed to be having a lot more fun! We had big field boxes with fuel pumps, electric starters and gallon-sized fuel cans. Roger had a battery, a pint squirt-can of glow fuel, a chicken stick and a rag hanging from his hip pocket.

A Fine Example of A TOP DAWG (cheek cowls can be added for extra cooling)

Of course you still have the option to mount a .15 or a .19 up front and hinge the other control surfaces for a 3-axis radio. The flat bottom wing could be changed to a symmetrical foil to keep it straight at all speeds. There are plenty of designs that already do that however. The original ship's flat bottom wing, the simplicity of construction, and the incredibly low cost is where the Top Dawg really shines! You can't get more bang for the buck.

As an FCC licensed radio amateur, you are qualified to operate a radio control system on the 6 Meter band. If you haven't explored your ham privileges in modeling, you may be missing much of the fun. It's never too late and remember, “Model Building Builds Model Boys” (Even older boys.)

Johnny, W4XKE