well mike im only trying to start to get stuff ready for brodaks next year, i might get that electric stuf yet. i know i need no more than 52' lines but how thick? and why dont they sell insulated lines that long? and do i need a 2 or 3 line set up? id like to get rid of that 3rd line if i could.
roger ncs member
Realize that with the U-Tronics system, you will need a servo, the U-tronics 'receiver' and a battery to power it in the plane, insulated lines and a control pot on your handle.
With a traditional 3-line system, you need a special bellcrank and a special handle. They are more expensive than a 2-line bellcrank and a 2-line handle.
Pricewise and 'headache' wise, they are probably about even.
For lines, with a 3-line system using .012 wire you can get a 1000' spool of .012's for about $30 plus shipping. Or you can purchase 3-line sets pre-made, probably. For insulated 2-line systems you will have to find some fishing leader or the Brodak insulated lines and make them up to 52 feet and make electrical connections to the U-Tronics unit on one end and the control pot on the other. You will need to take some extra care rolling and un-rolling and connecting them. You will probably need to use some type of recharge-able battery and keep it charged between flying sessions.
I'm not trying to talk you into (or out of) either one - I'm trying to illustrate what you must consider before you can make a choice. I have great respect for Clancy Arnold and his U-Tronics systems - I own a couple of them for use in Electric powered planes. I have in mind to eventually fly them in "2-line" mode. I have always gotten immediate and friendly help from Clancy when I had a question or a problem.
But if you don't have ANY experience with carrier and the things that it requires you to learn that are different from flying sport planes without throttles, then you can save yourself some headaches and time by going with a conventional 3-line system that just about anyone can help you with if you need help. You can get one of Joe Just's 'learner' systems with the less expensive handle and the simple bellcranks - I have used a similar setup for smaller planes and it works just fine.
As for "How thick", I suggest you go to:
http://navycarriersociety.org/15Carrier.aspxand read the rules posted there. I remember posting them on this forum at least twice in the past few months also. They will require that you go to the AMA site and get the AMA carrier rules, because as I said before, the .15 rules only spell out the differences between .15 carrier and AMA Profile Carrier.
As for "why they don't sell lines that long", well -- they do. You might have to dig a little, but I'm sure that on the Brodak site you will find a 3-line set of .012's or two 2-line sets of .012's that are the correct length (if you buy 3 sets of 2-lines you can make up two sets of 3-lines). There are something like five pages of lines on the Brodak site. As with any commercially produced lines, they will be the wrong length, of course, and you will have to cut them down anyway, because they ALWAYS are. After all, they (the producers) can't know what the wingspan of your plane is or the handle leadouts that you use. But that is part of the competition side of control line - knowing what the rules are and making sure that your equipment conforms. That is another point that you need to learn - the line length is measured from the handle grip to the centerline of the plane, not 'eyelet to eyelet'. So if your plane and my plane have significantly different lead-out lengths, we will probably have different length lines if measured from eye2eye.
One final point - I don't know what the actual outer diameter of the insulated lines is but my gut feeling is that two of them or 3 non-insulated lines are going to be roughly equal in drag, so 'ditching' the 3rd line isn't going to be much of a performance gain.
I hope that helps --