Radio Control: Electrics

Radio Control: Electrics

Bob Kopski

ANOTHER Electric event

The Model Airplane Club of Huntsville, AL is including an Electric event in its Heart of Dixie Free Flight Championships scheduled for September 28–29, 1985. This meet looks like a big one—there are 17 other events! For more information, contact Ray Baker, 701 Esslinger Rd., Huntsville, AL 35802; telephone (205) 881-9043. My thanks to George Batiuk for this info. Tell Ray you read it in MA!

Continuing popularity

The easily constructed charge systems presented in the May and June 1985 issues continue to bring in mail. It seems that many readers were just waiting for this sort of article to appear! A question of continuing interest concerns the use of a standard charger as part of the system: is it used only as a convenient way to provide the time-switch and metering functions? Yes. If you want to use a separate timer and/or meter (and know what you're doing), please feel free to!

A look back

This month's column marks the second anniversary of my writing for Model Aviation. It's been a good two years—very rewarding for me, and I hope helpful and informative to readers interested in Electric. I've found much fulfillment in sharing the Electric experience with you, and I'm grateful to MA for the opportunity.

MA's continuous Electric coverage began with a 10-part series, "All About Electrics," commencing with the September 1983 issue. What started as a four- to five-part series grew and grew—I would not have believed it at the beginning! Then MA installed a regular column—this one—in the July 1984 issue. The concept of the column is that of a continuing "how to" series, with some news and other goodies besides. Along the way, two other articles appeared: "Spectra" (November 1984) and "KRC Electric Fly" (January 1985). In all, that's 25 articles (there are no columns in the December Nats issues) in what seems like just a few weeks.

An interesting thing has been happening with incoming mail. Many of my readers are relatively new (or at least new to Electric) and may have missed back issues and are not aware of all the information available in MA. Others have been following the articles but, having come up with a particular question or problem, forget that the subject was covered in detail and write to me. That's perfectly OK—it gave me an idea: a topical index of all that I've written in the last two years!

Dig out those back issues of MA—they're useful again.

Index — Electric Information (September 1983 — September 1985)

#### Basic Electricity

• Part one — voltage, current
• Part two — Ohm's law, power
• Practical example
• Part three — electrical terms, sizes
• Part four — meters, basics

#### Batteries

• Kinds
• Cooling
• Connections and connectors
• Capacity and power
• Configurations
• Heat and life
• Charging
• Assembly
• Charger connections
• Construction

#### Spectra

• 3-in-1 design
• Motor mount
• Octopus connector array

#### Simple charge systems

• Charge splitter
• Construction guidelines

#### Wings

• Design and construction topics (see back issues)

#### Fuselages

• Design and installation topics

#### Tail assemblies

• 4/84, 11/84

#### Electric (general)

• Advantages and disadvantages — 9/83

Electric Design & Flight Examples

• Kraft Shooting — 11/83
• Hundreds of flights, four planes — 1/84
• "Performance" — 5/84, 11/84
• Motor, prop, plane combinations — 5/84, 6/84
• Wanderer — 9/84
• Solar-powered glider — 9/84
• Giant Electric, scale — 10/84
• American Eagle, semi-scale — 10/84
• Eureka, larger sport — 10/84
• KRC Electric Fly, variety — 11/84
• Wasp — 11/84
• Kits, various — 1/85
• Playboy, balance point — 1/85, 3/85
• Spectra—power experiment — 1/85

Electric Publications

• Books
• Magazines

Fuses

• Kinds — 2/84
• Sizes — 2/84
• Mounts — 2/84
• Connections — 2/84

Illustrations

• Motor, exploded view — 10/83
• 6 x 4 prop power — 11/83
• Motor installation — 1/84
• Battery installation — 1/84
• Templates, cooling hole — 1/84
• Wiring diagram, airborne — 2/84
• Prop stores — 2/84
• Author's 1982 flight profile — 3/84

RC Electrics (Kopski)

• Spectra: solar flight history — 3/84
• Persuader flight histogram — 3/84
• J-3 flight histogram — 3/84
• Playboy flight histogram — 3/84
• Wing and fuselage construction — 3/84
• Motor power vs. model weight — 5/84
• Spectra — exploded view — 11/84
• Charge systems — schematics — 5/85, 6/85
• "Charge-splitter" coverage — 5/85, 6/85

Meets (comments/coverage)

• Boeing Hawks — 11/84, 6/85
• SAM 76 — 11/84, 7/85, 8/85
• KRC Electric Fly — 11/84, 6/85
• International, Canada — 6/85
• South Shore, MA — 6/85
• Sparks, Houston — 6/85
• Daniel Boone Silent Fliers — 5/85
• Astro Champs — 8/85

Miscellaneous

• Reader mail — 6/84, 6/85
• Series review, oversights — 6/84
• Things I'd like to see — 6/84
• Flight log book — 6/84
• Stopwatch, transmitter mount — 8/84
• MA Electric Series — errata — 8/84
• Twins — 8/84
• Cold-weather flying — 2/85

Motors

• How they work — 8/83
• Mounts, mount assembly — 8/83, 7/84, 11/84
• Venting — 8/83, 4/85
• Brushes & commutators — 8/83
• Break-in — 8/83
• Bearings — 8/83
• Prop adaptors — 8/83, 4/85
• Features — 8/83, 4/85
• "Size" — 8/83
• Testing — 8/83, 4/85
• Power input/output — 8/83
• Efficiency — 8/83
• Flux rings — 8/83
• Comparison — 8/83
• Speed-reducers — 11/83, 5/84
• "Hot wire" — 2/85
• Large performance info — 8/85
• Controls — 2/84, 6/85
• Power ranges — 7/85

Photos

• Euphoria II aerobatic — 9/83
• Motor, battery, etc., assortment — 9/83
• Whisper V glider — 9/83
• J-3 sport scale — 9/83
• Spectra Solar, Sport, Stunt — 9/83
• Buzzard Bombshell OT Replica — 9/83
• Stratoliner SP OT Replica — 9/83
• Master Spurt — 3/84
• Persuader, DC aerotech — 9/83
• Astro 10, Leisure LT50 motors — 10/83
• Disassembled motors — 10/83

Installations & Equipment

• Cobalt 05 installation — 10/83
• Props, prop adaptors — 10/83
• Motor mounts, detailed — 10/83
• Batteries, assortment — 12/83
• Chargers — 10/83
• Field boxes — 10/83
• Connectors — 10/83
• Blowers (coolers) — 10/83
• D/S installation — 11/84
• 15-volt drive installation — 11/84
• Battery cooling, air vents — 11/84
• Playboy, radio installation — 1/84
• Playboy, motor mount — 1/84
• Persuader radio installation — 1/84
• Battery installations — 2/84
• Switches — 2/84
• Fuses — 2/84
• Connectors — 2/84
• Resistors, speed control — 2/84
• Controllers, crimp — 3/84
• Switch installations — 3/84
• Radio installations — 3/84
• J-3 inflight — 3/84
• Playboy cabin — 3/84
• Spectra — 3/84, 5/84, 11/84
• Persuader aerobatic — 3/84, 5/84
• Motor, battery, radio weight — 3/84, 5/84
• Tape hinges — 5/84
• KRC Electric Fly scenes — 5/84, 1/85
• Porterfield — 6/84
• Gentle Lady — 6/84
• Olympic 650 — 6/84
• Olympic 550 — 6/84
• Sleek motor mount fabrication — 6/84
• Wanderer — 9/84
• Transmitter stopwatch mount — 8/84
• Five varied Electrics — 9/84
• Solar-powered Electrics — 9/84
• Giant Electric—framework — 10/84
• American Eagle semi-scale — 10/84
• Eureka (large round handling) — 10/84
• Wasp — 11/84

Motor, Battery Combinations / Spectra

• Motor, battery combos — Spectra — 1/85
• Battery pack assembly — 1/85, 3/85
• Cobalt 15 mounting / Spectra — 1/85
• Sport Electric / Comet kit — 2/85
• Leisure armatures — 2/85
• Lightweight R/E mixer — 2/85
• Auto battery connections — 2/85
• Multiplexors, assorted — 3/85, 7/85
• Connector array — "Octopus" — 3/85
• Motors, "large" — 3/85
• Charge, advanced construction — 5/85, 6/85
• "Charge-Splitter" construction — 7/85
• Charger connectors, airborne — 7/85
• Astro Champs, '85 — 8/85

Propellers

• Sizes — 11/83
• Effects of diameter on power — 1/83, 5/85
• Effects of pitch on power — 1/83
• "Prop stops" — 2/84, 11/84

Radio

• Choosing — 1/84
• Installation — 1/84, 11/84
• Motor noise — 6/85
• Range — 6/85
• Glitching — 6/85

Rules, Competition

• Discussion — 11/84, 1/85, 2/85

Rules of Thumb

• Power needed to fly — 4/84
• Power to ROG — 4/84
• Power-system weight — 4/84
• Wing weight — 4/84
• Importance of weight — 4/84
• Kits — 4/84
• Application examples — 10/84

Switches

• Toggle — 2/84

Next month we'll pick back up on the temporarily interrupted "Basic Electricity" mini‑series (this month's column got out of hand—again!).

I've been accumulating many fine readers' photos for quite some time, and I'm taking this opportunity to share some with you. If yours didn't show up here, please don't be disheartened—I tried to pick the most varied and far‑ranging ones I could, and there are still many left for future use. The column is only so long, and can accommodate only so many photos!

Please forward any questions (with SASE) to: Bob Kopski 25 West End Dr. Lansdale, PA 19446

Happy Electric Landings!

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.