Lil' Satan Stooge

[Chris Fretz]

Has anyone ever successfully made a stooge work for a Lil' Satan?

[Andre Ming]

There's a couple ideas for 1/2 A stooges in this thread that might help:

http://stunthanger.com/smf/12-a-building/12a-stooge/

[RknRusty]

My bathmat stooge in that thread is very safe for any 1/2A plane. Works like a charm with my Li'l Satan. If you have less power than a Tee Dee, I bungee it atop a barstool.

http://stunthanger.com/smf/12-a-building/12a-stooge/msg444179/#msg444179

[Chris Fretz]

My bathmat stooge in that thread is very safe for any 1/2A plane. Works like a charm with my Li'l Satan. If you have less power than a Tee Dee, I bungee it atop a barstool.

http://stunthanger.com/smf/12-a-building/12a-stooge/msg444179/#msg444179

Are you just pulling back on the handle till the airplane pulls out?

[RknRusty]

Right, I just pull the slack out and take two steps back to ease it free, and look for my spot marker. When I fly in the churchyard across from my house, I obviously don't want to paint an orange circle on their lawn, so I just toss down a white rag to keep me from hitting the stooge on one side and the oak branches on the other side.  I move the brick and bungee cord to follow the angle of the TE of whatever plane I'm flying, and anchor it with a guy line into the ground so as not to tip it over. If you have the option, a crosswind helps, but I can even launch most of them with a tailwind if I have to. If your plane is heavy or a little under powered, bungee it to the top of a bar stool and tilt it up. It's very safe and secure, makes cranking and needling easy and has never failed. I fold the mat with the rubber on the inside, and it works best after it gets greasy.
Hope that helps.
Here it is in use:

[john e. holliday]

Thanks for the video.  Will have to try the carpet stooge when and if I get my Little Satin done.  I am building it between coats of dope on the other projects.  It will have a Tee Dee .049 for power with metal tank.   

[Chris Fretz]

Right, I just pull the slack out and take two steps back to ease it free, and look for my spot marker. When I fly in the churchyard across from my house, I obviously don't want to paint an orange circle on their lawn, so I just toss down a white rag to keep me from hitting the stooge on one side and the oak branches on the other side.  I move the brick and bungee cord to follow the angle of the TE of whatever plane I'm flying, and anchor it with a guy line into the ground so as not to tip it over. If you have the option, a crosswind helps, but I can even launch most of them with a tailwind if I have to. If your plane is heavy or a little under powered, bungee it to the top of a bar stool and tilt it up. It's very safe and secure, makes cranking and needling easy and has never failed. I fold the mat with the rubber on the inside, and it works best after it gets greasy.
Hope that helps.

Is the streamer for looks or is it serving a useful point? Nice video by the way! Are you using that 1/2A string lines?

[RknRusty]

The streamer is just to pick it up better on camera. The drag tames it a little too.
My Satan has had a Tee Dee .049 on it for several years now. I use a screw-in radial mount backplate. I like those because you can just unscrew the engine from it without disturbing the bolts. And you can screw weights to the unused beam mount tabs on the engine. It really goes with the TD and 45' lines. I'm using 30# test Spiderwire stranded line. Braided I think. Most people use lighter line than 30#. I had 35 or 40' lines in the video because the space is cramped in the church yard.

Here it is on longer Spiderwire, lines with a Tee Dee .049 and 35% nitro. Also the stooge is atop a bar stool if you can see it. Full screen is best. I'm looking for a pic of my radial mount. That's what I really wanted to show you in this post. I'll find it.

[Phil Krankowski]

I use an old bath towel instead of a bath mat.  Works good too.  I have some thin foam sheets I cut to the size of a typical plank wing (Sig Sky Ray) that have some cord tied to one end.  I sandwich the plank wing in the foam so there is more body and the pieces of wood don't snag.  Can launch any 1/2a no prob.  I've seen videos of the same setup launching much larger stuff too.

Phil

[Rich Perry]

I am using a bathmat as well, with the rubber side toward the wing for a little extra grab.  I have mine dimensioned to accept my full size combat models along with my 1/2 A's.  I have my bath mat mounted to a small sheet of plywood, which in turn is mounted to a saw horse.  It is one of those fancy new ones you can get at the depot.  Makes transport easy having it fold up and lay flat.  I have not had a failure yet!   

[Ken Burdick]

I made one like that but used fabric folded over into a sleeve for the outboard wing to slide into. They work great as long as you pull the wing out slowly.

http://flyinglines.org/kb.widosatan.html

[Tim Wescott]

I made one like that but used fabric folded over into a sleeve for the outboard wing to slide into. They work great as long as you pull the wing out slowly.

http://flyinglines.org/kb.widosatan.html

For me, "draw it out smoothly" is a better way to express it for me -- you don't want to yank it out so quickly that you end up with slack lines, but you don't want to draw it out so slowly that it gets mangled up with just 1/4 inch left to go.

For plank-winged 1/2-A planes you can just fold over some cardboard from a box, but that wouldn't do for a built-up wing.