Everyone,
I would like to set up a Skyray 35 for the carrier event they run at the Sig contest and would appreciate some pics of the modifications that you guys are doing to set the airplanes up.  Thanks in advance for anything that you may be able to provide.
John

Hi John,

Eric has provided the rules that we use at the contest.  I'd recommend that you contact Art Johnson or Bill Calkins for tips.
Art  RCBLIMPPILOT@aol.com
Bill  clflyer@mchsi.com

See you in June.
Mike

I know what you mean John about helpful hints that will help you field a plane thats going to fly well. I have never flown Skyray but have been to several meets where it was flown and I was not real impressed with the flying that I saw. It was probably the fliers and the airplane that made it look like a struggle. I have a kit for the Skyray 35 and am planning on building one just to see what I can do with it as far as carrier flying is concerned. Most of the ones that I have seen fly had the bellcranks on top or on the bottom of the wing and depending top or bottom they flew outboard wing high or low. They also tended to be nose heavy which made them almost imposible to fly in low speed. The plane has a long nose and a short after body(were they thinking Fox 35?) so I think a person that wants to fly it in carrier would have to add some weight back by the tail. Its to bad you cant mount the fuel tank in the wing behind the engine instead of having to add more weight in the tail area. The guys that mount the bellcrank on top or bottom of the wing usually put an adjustable line guide out at the tip of the wing(or sometime in 2 bays from the wing tip) so they can adjust the line rake. I,m going to put my bellcrank in the wing as the slot for the lines is pretty large and can be made a little larger out by the wing tip to allow the lines to be raked back quite a bit. Also I plane on putting a wedge under the engine to get 8 to 11 degrees of out thrust. Will build my own fuel tank to hold 5 ounces and try to build it so I can move the engine back maybe 1/2''. I plan on using a Thunder Tiger Pro 36 with a APC 9/6 and between the out thrust and the line rake within the wing I think it will be easy to get a easy hang for slow speed and still get 75 mph or very close to it. I think we need to stick as close as we can to the stock Skyray so people will have a easy plane to try carrier with. Every Skyray that I have seen used it own set of changes to get it to perform a little better and only one or two were balanced worth a darn so they all seemed to struggle. If we are lucky maybe someone will jump in here and give us a few magic bullets.eric

Well finally got started on the Skyray 35 plane. As sport planes go or as a stunt trainer this has to be one of the top planes around. As a carrier plane goes it seems to me that it leaves alot to be desired. You cant take a stunt plane and fly it in a AMA carrier event any more than you can take a AMA carrier plane and fly it in stunt. Having said that, here I am putting together a Skyray 35 to fly in carrier. I'm doing some modifications on the plane as I build it to see if I cant get it to fly decently in the carrier event as I know it(AMA Profile Carrier). I want to keep it as close to the stock Skyray as I can and still have it fly the carrier event. So far the things that I've done are beef up the motor mounts( to survive the deck landings and engine failures while in slow flight) and stengthened the tail/rudder and stab./elevator. These modifications have been minor so far and I expect the wing to be have even less modifications. I will post every so often with up dates and if I ever figure out how to post pictures (my problems not the fault of the forum) I will do that also. eric

Hi John, my fuel tank physiology boils down to ''keep it simple stupid''. Carrier flying (if your lucky) consists of <19 sec. of wild speed followed by >190 sec. of total boredom. So you want the engine to run fast for +or-19sec. and then the rest of the run is at reduced throtle where your fuel pick up is not very critical so I feel the fuel system can be pretty simple. I almost always build my own tanks because each plane is different and there for each tank has to be a little different. By different I dont mean the plumbing, its that you dont want the tank to cause unnecessary drag so its always nice to keep it directly behind and close to the engine and not have any frontal area of the tank above or below the engine. This is fairly easy to do on a ''designed for carrier plane'' but on the Skyray 35 it presents a problem because the tank has to be in front of the wing not in the wing. Also on the Skyray you need to have the engine back as far as you can get it without making the nose shorter which limits the space left for the tank. I'm going to start with a tank that measures 2'' by 2.5'' by 1 and 7/8'' which will give me close to 5oz of fuel. I'm told that this is way to big(I hope they are right) and will make it smaller if I dont need 5oz.. The fuel pickup for the engine will be in the lower aft outside corner of the tank and exit on the front of the tank in line with the needle. There will be a overflow in the front upper inside corner that will exit at the bottom inside at the rear of the tank. I will put in a uniflow breather tube somewhere(never got one right yet) and will use it to fill the tank and then will cap it or the overflow off after filling the tank. I've never had any major problems getting 19sec. of high speed and then getting a good steady low speed run. I will send you a article on carrier tanks by ''Bill Bischoff'' which is very stait forward and explains just about all you need to know. eric

Clancy,
Thanks for the info on the pull test.  I had not considered what I would do with the bellcrank area, but your suggestion sounds pretty good.
John

I'm about to get the Skyray together. Will epoxy the fuselage to the wing tomarrow and then bolt all the other stuff on in time to take it to the club meetting on thursday for show and tell. Would like to fly it before thursday but the paint and glue need to set a little better so will wait. As Clancy said the bellcrank mount is a little too light for the carrier pull test so ended up mounting mine to 3 of the ribs plus to the spar and doubler that runs between those three ribs. I almost always build and finish the wing and the fuselage/ tail assemblies before I epoxy them together so on this plane I did just that and got a little surprise. The fuselage turned out to be one color of blue and the wing a different color of blue. Built them in the same darn small room but not at the same time nor were they both kept in the same room before assembly. Oh well, good thing I forget easy so this wont bother me for to long. I saw a post by Brett that his Skyray balanced something like 1 and 1/8'' back from the leading edge?? The way I look at this plane it should be 2.5'' to 3'' behind the leading edge. Guess I better start at 1 1/8'' and go from there. Will post again and give weight and balance after I fly the plane. eric

Hi Bill, just finished putting the wing and fuselage together on my two tone blue Skyray. After watching several Skyray carrier planes fly with the bellcrank on the top or bottom of the wing I decided I would try to get away with putting it in the wing on the outboard side of the fuselage. I did that because the Skyrays I saw fly with the bellcrank on the outside of the wing flew with the outside wing tip a couple inches low or high depending on where they had mounted the bellcrank. I had pretty good luck with the last 15 I built with the bellcrank inside the wing and the lines coming out near the trailing edge of the wing and the engine with a 10 degree out thrust so thought I would try it with the Skyray. Those Skyray wing ribs are pretty strong so I could lengthen the space for the lines to exit the wing near the trailing edge, and between the out-thrust of the engine and the lines at the trailing edge I think I must have 20 degrees to play with so will see how it goes. I ran the throtle cable out just under the leading edge material and through a copper tube in the metal fuel tank to the engine. Sure like the way that works as it makes placement of the fuel tank a no brainer. I'll keep you posted on how well it flys or dosnt fly. eric

Eric,
Thanks for keeping us up to speed on progress.  I have not made the time to get my program going.  While I still have good hopes, I might have to stay at the stunt end of the circles this time around.
John

Finally got back out to the flying field and got five more flights in with the Skyray 35. I added another half oz. of tail weight for a total of 2.5oz. and lost some of the HS stability so had to go back to 2 oz. and leave it there, at least for now. I say at least for now because I've found that the more you fly a plane the more you find you can do with that plane and get away with it. The first flight showed me that I had to go back to 2oz. in the tail. Second flight I didn't time the HS but did time the LS (3 min. 24 sec.) and the conditions were perfect with a steady breeze of maybe 4 mph. Third flight the HS was 25.30 and the LS was 2 min. and 50 sec. in gusty conditions (nothing over 8 mph). Fourth flight the HS was 24.47 and the LS was 2 min. 52 sec. and I finally figured out that the wind was turbulent not gusty as it had shifted from S to WSW and was coming over some school buildings a few hundred feet away. Fifth flight gave a 24.71 HS and a low of 2 min. and 50 sec., same bumpy conditions. I was disappointed in the HS and may have to go back to the Ultrathrust Muffler. When you fly off grass it is surprising how much time you loose breaking loose from the grass. Also when I went back to the stock carburetter and muffler the plane started to hesitate after the launch so I may have a draw problem with my 5 oz. fuel tank (other wise known as eric's weight box) which I have found would better serve me at say 4 oz.. My fuel is GMA 10/22 and the prop is a APC 9/6 and for the above test the weight was 43 oz. dry. I will report more after some more flights. Things are not always what we expect as this plane and all of my .15 carrier planes have been much more difficult to trim and fly than my made for carrier planes. eric

Hi Bob, I,m running the Thunder Tiger Pro 36 on the Skyray as I believe they are as fast or fast than most 40s. The fuel I use in all but 1/2 As is Power Master's GMA 10/22. I have found that it performs quite well in the Nelsons and is OK in the TT Pro 36. Also run it in the MVVS 15 where I wish it was 15/18 but try to keep life simple by just using the 10/22. Ted Kraver suplies the Arizona contests that he CDs or EDs with Excalibur fuel in 10/20 which seems to be better than the GMA 10/22. I'm either running a muffler on my carrier planes or will switch to one as soon as I build another one for CL-1.

The bell crank is IN the wing behind the fuel tank. The lines are adjustable from just behind the wing spar to about 3/8'' in front of the trailing edge. If the lines are all the way back it gives the plane around a 11 degree sweep. The engine has 10 degrees out thrust so that equals 21 degrees of combined out thrust. After flying this plane I sorta wonder what would happen with no engine out thrust and say 20 to 25 degrees of line sweep. On the planes I've seen with exterior bell cranks and exterior line guides, they fly with one wing tip up or down depending on whether the BC is on the top of the wing or on the bottom of the wing. eric

Here is a picture of my ''Stocker Skyray 35 carrier model'' that really flies great as long as you don't try to fly ''carrier'' with it. eric