I usually encourage new comers to not get carried away with the "lightness" thing thing either. No need to purposely build a flying tank, but also no need to go to the other extreme either. I have rescued several Ringmasters over the years. I have one that I have been flying a lot lately. I goty it several years ago from an add in Craig's List. twenty bucks for the airplane, several Fox engines, and a box of other odds and ends. I usually start out by lengthening the elevator horn to about 1 1/8" to get that magic 20 degree deflection and to slow the throw down.. It's damn near long enough to be the tail skid!. Line spacing then comes down to the 3" range, maybe less, and adjust accordingly to get even inside and outside turns. Fox.35 stunt for power, and finish was dope on the fuselage and monokote. This one may have had the original monokote on it and weight was around 30 ounces.. I have flown it this way for a long time. I have loaned it out a lot, and used it for balloon bust and such. The weekend before my knee rebuild, I went for one more flying session and took this Ringmaster. After a few flights a surprise storm came up with some serious hail. I got everything, including me, into the car quickly but just tossed a folded over sheet of plastic over the airplane. It was pretty old and brittle, and the hail went right through the plastic before it went right through the wings!! No structural damage, though. After surgery I started to rehab the knee and decided to rehab the Ringmaster at the same time. After I pulled the remains of the covering off, I could tell for sure it was a kit built model, with 2" bell crank that Sterling called out for in the instructions if I remember correctly, and had nice, tight Ambroid orange glue joints that were double glued. It had aboput an ounce and a half of tip weight glued in that came out. I cleaned up the stab/fuselage joint and touched up the paint there. New monokote covering, a new tip weight tube, and I replaced the solid rubber wheel that sometimes came with the kit in the 60's that weighed over 2 ounces with some new light wheels. This moved the balance point back a bit. It didn't have a canopy when I got it so I added one in the rehab and added a few stickers and such to jazz it up. Weight is till in the 30 ounce range and after about 4 trim flights it's ready to serve me well some more. I would put it up against any "light" Ringmaster in a OTS contest. Fox .35 stunt for power, 10-5 Top Flite prop to get the RPM up, lines are a bit short of 60 feet, lap times 5 to 5.2. Engine is completely stock of unknown origin, it just was one that came with the deal, no muffler. At the RPM it runs at I have no sign of a burp anywhere and it has never missed a beat.
I have built several Ringmasters from scratch over teh years. I just copy the Sterling kit, but the biggest change is I don't join the leading edge in the middle. The wing span is 42 inches I think, so you need more that one piece of LE stock. Instead of joining it ion the middle, I splice it out towards the tip on the outboard wing. This makes the center section a lot more solid which helps in lawn dart one point landings. If you feel the need to lighten up the leading edge, do the hollowing out beyond the center section sheeting. I usually use 1/8" wire for landing gear also which makes for better landings. The stuff in the kit is too small and springy. I keep the finish minimal and they usually come out in the 25 to 30 ounce range. Three in bell cranks make getting control throws correct a bit easier. When you stand back and look at the parts of a Ringmaster, there really isn't a whole lot there. I agree with Brett in that if you start trying to push that lightness edge of the weight envelope the airplane can become quite fragile. It's original purpose was for training and learning, and survivability in that respect keeps you flying. My models don't glide very well, but that's OK, it's not a glider! But a really light Ringmaster probably doesn't glide very well either dead stick. The design needs to fly fairly fast and I don't think I have ever seen anyone fly one at 5.6 lap times!! I have three Ringmasters ready to fly including a Brodak ARF which I think has alternative construction, but even that one weighs 28 or 29 ounces. Controls are set up the way I usually do and it has a slightly longer control horn that stock also. I truly believe that the average Joe Bellcrank is much better served to have a little beef in the design to get as much service out of it as possible. There is not much to gain from having the lightest pile of crash debris at the flying field!!
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: RINGMASTER S1 OTS (Read 2563 times)
