Albert Hatful's Mercury, the forgotten classic rubber model
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
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I'm always amazed how you fly with lots of trees around and still most of your planes survive. If there's only one tree in a huge field somehow my planes find top branch of that tree to land.
i want to go visit his place, like, with a pole saw, a tractor - you know, clean it all
but then? I am amazed over and over at how brilliantly he trims the planes and they fly so amazingly.
Seeing Bulldozer as plane-recovery-device? made me smile. that is SOOO COOL
After a while, I noticed that my planes seemed to be seeking out the tallest trees in the park. Then I realized that when the plane is circling and drifting over the tree line, it will be caught by the tallest tree. If it misses the tallest tree, it will next find the second tallest. Rarely will it pass by all the tall trees and land in a short tree. Occasionally a plane will find a tree on the way up or on the way down, but rubber powered planes spend most of their time near apogee in the cruise.
@@cstatman He needs a lift. Or a drone with a grappling hook.
I came here to say exactly the same thing - I fly in a much less wooded area than Joshua's garden and I've lost plenty of models to the trees. Surely he must have a better site to fly at...
Awesome old school model and what a nice location you have right there with all the birdsounds. :)
Great video my friend. So much fun. Big salute from Slovenia, Pilot Robert
Hey great to see you here! I enjoy your channel. The Twin Komet is one of my favorites.
Very nice, despite 45 years of KK building that's one I didn't know about. Got a Competitor to do over the winter but this is tempting too.
Free plans can be had for this one on Outerzone.co.uk, just type 'Albert Hatfull' into the search bar and the Mercury will pop up.
Looks like a litte brother/sister to the Korda Wakefield model, nice looking plane!
I was wondering, and then when the name Senator came up, I remembered the old fashioned box this came in.. Keep it up!
Beautiful flying Old Lady 👍
Really nice, I have the plan and it's on my list of models to build. I was cringing a bit when it hit the trees, but I am a worrier! Have you ever considered fitting sub miniature RC for rudder? Or would that be surrendering to the dark side of the force!
This thing is impressively rugged. I'm planning to build a second one with RC rudder and elevator. It has a wide enough performance envelope to do basic aerobatics in addition to just being a nice RC rubber subject. Should only gain maybe 10g and I have plenty of weight budget thanks to the ridiculous power to weight ratio.
I agree with your assessment of the aesthetics of this plane. It's a beauty, and beautifully done. And it flies great. I take it from the left hand prop and reversed wing tip that the video is reversed and it actually flies left. Probably a lot thicker motor than it needs. A longer, thinner motor of the same weight could give the same CG, but longer flights. Also reduce downthrust, which can be a detriment to duration. Not that you would want to do that when you are already losing it in trees. Being a little heavy might be an advantage. We all need much bigger fields to fly in.
I found that the larger plastic props are closer in weight to corresponding wood props because the hubs of the smaller props take up a greater proportion of the weight. You might find a 14" plastic prop would not need as much tail ballast as you might think. It could benefit from an even bigger prop, even 18". My main concern would be the ability of the plastic freewheel ramp to sustain the much higher torques. A metal clutch would be recommended. Rather than tail ballast, I would go for more rubber. The heavier plane is going to require more power anyway.
Forgotten, but not by Joshua. I'm tempted to buy one of your kits, except that I already have several hundred unbuilt kits and plans.
I would not call this a beginner kit. Compare with the Pinna Flyer, which is a beginner kit. It has an enclosed fuselage, double covered surfaces, undercambered airfoil and carved balsa prop. This might be the sixth airplane a beginner would build. Some manufacturers give an age for the modeler, but age in years is irrelevant. Number of models built would be more relevant. We should have a ranking system, like this; beginner, apprentice, journeyman, master, grandmaster.
Josh, I noticed that when you were winding up the rubber motor at the start of the video that the two strands of rubber flew apart momentarily. If that happens in flight the rubber motor can hit the fuselage inside and cause damage or breakage of the uprights.
To prevent that happening, when pretensioning the rubber motor simply wind it backwards. When brought together the two strands will still wind around each other - but this time in the direction of winding. So now when winding the motor the strands will simply tighten up but can never come apart.on the run down.
When flying a lot of rubber models years ago I bought some high tensile aluminium tubes in 12ft lengths that fitted inside each other. Smallest being 9/16" OD and getting bigger in 1/8" steps with 1/16" wall thickness. Held together with 1/4" dia. steel cross pins and a rubber band looped over the ends, though nowadays I would screw thread the ends with adapter pieces and screw each section together. Top section had a 5/16" dia. 4" long steel stud fitted, threaded at one end and held to a cross hole in the tube with a nut either side which served as a hook to pull on branches and push or pull the model out of trees. Bought four sections but three was the practical limit due to the weight and flexing of the assembly.
I have built the Keil Kraft "Senator" but had never heard of the Keil Kraft "Mercury". Flies exceedingly well!
Trust this helps. Regards - Jon
I’ve seen a few videos on pretensioning and they all wind forwards. If you do that you waste the first turns unwinding it. I’ve “educated” fellow aeromodellers but they don’t listen😀. I bet this model is better than a Senator if you add the turbulating top spars. The Senator nose is too short.
Like it! This winter i will make a new balsa prop for my Keilkraft Gipsy as per your other video. Half way there. :-)
My new favorite channel have a great day
Thank you!
The Mercury's moonshot at 13:29. Hence, J&H Aerospace.
I get anxiety watching you wind the prop the wrong way. That being said, I'd like to request a video of "A day in the life of Josh Finn" so you can explain to us all how you get so darned many airplanes built.
Great job and thanks for posting!
I'm doing kit manufacturing full time now, so that's how so many get built. Still nowhere near how quickly I was able to build in college!
The big advantage over the Senator is the tail is on top thus facilitating a normal tail dt. The disadvantage is the fin is stuck to the tail.
Nice Repair. Keep up the good work.
Dude imagine some airline industry shmuck telling you you play with toys and don't understand aviation
theory and concepts. Ez cheap shots by ignorance. Hats off love your videos.
The senator The mercury and the sky scraper were all hatfull designs on the same theme and all great flyers.
Which Skyscraper? I seem to remember there have been several.
@@joshuawfinn He may be thinking of the Sky Voyager, which you touted as the best beginner plane ever. Gotta be careful with those superlatives!
ruclips.net/video/y0uZAKtFwCo/видео.html
Nice flight. How do you get your plane turning to the right ? Did you bend the rudder or did you add a tab to it ?
I did use some rudder offset (the tail is keyed to position on the fuselage to lock this adjustment in), however most of the glide turn is actuated by tilting the horizontal tail and using the natural gyroscopic precession from the propeller. The power pattern is trimmed using shims on the nose block.
@@joshuawfinn
Many thanks for your answer.
OK for the rudder offset to trigger some turn.
OK for the prop effect causing plane to drift to the left like on real planes during take off roll.
But how gyroscopic effect can account for right hand turn ?
What do you mean by changing power pattern using shims?
Do you mean nose down shims to counter torque and shims to the left of nose block to counter prop effect on vertical tail surface?
Thanks for that Joshua. I'm curious about the anticlockwise prop rotation. I guess it does help with a right climb pattern but is that how Albert designed it? anyway all the best to you and your wife , the feral kids, the guinea fowls and of course the cats!
John, I forgot to reverse the selfie mode on the camera. It's mirrored...the prop is in fact perfectly normal, if you look *really* closely in the flight footage.
Glad you're enjoying the videos. We have a ton of fun. It's extremely hard work, but the most rewarding stuff I've ever done.
@@joshuawfinn Thanks.I thought I was going mad as I could see the torque rolling the model to the left a bit on the climbs.
Very cool! I've always wanted to take any one of these timeless KK models,and take them down to an ~16" w/s. Sorta like a Bostonian or an embryo. Any thoughts on that? I've'ent seen anything like that on Facebook or youtube. Also, awesome winder!
Somebody actually posted a half scale Senator in the KK Facebook group recently. Mike Stuart's SortaSenator Bostonian was really popular for a while, and the half scale Gypsy makes for a great FAC 1/2 Wakefield. So yes, do it, and enjoy. :)
One of my customers was kind enough to sell me that winder for a fraction of its value.
@@joshuawfinn oh yes! I'm aware of Mike's sorta senator Bostonian,but I never understood it completely. I've got the green signal from you,so I'll do it! I'm currently making a comet emil,so I'll probably start the kk in 2021. If I'm not wrong,these winders are much stronger to be able to survive the pull of the rubber?
@@adarshlakshman4715 The plastic winders are good for two strands of 1/8". Anything much bigger can't be wound to full capacity without damaging the winder. Four strands of 3/32" is pushing. If your winder starts to growl, stop!
16" KK Elf, read the reviews.
www.vintagemodelcompany.com/16-kk-elf.html
outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=847
@@aeromodeller1 that clears it up about the winders. I'm sure my winder won't growl,as I use a hand drill with a hook mounted on it. It doesn't have too good a ratio,but it's time tested and it works!
Hey there Josh...I'm a newcomer here...how do I acquire or construct a "stooge" (spelling?) Thanx and Happy Easter to you guys!
There are some commercially produced stooges but mine is just three pieces of 1" pine plank screwed together, the ears drilled for a heavy wire pin, and it's all staked into the ground with tent pegs. Ugly but it works!
another cool video thanks
please consider a tutorial video for a rubberband plane made using household materials (eg foam plates & bbq skewers etc and ESPECIALLY regular office style rubber bands or internationally available cheap rubber bands)
thanks
Some yet to be released is a project we've been working on with foamboard rubber powered planes. You're going to have to use quality rubber, however it's available through my online store, aliexpress, outfits in Europe and India, and I think Banggood too.
@@joshuawfinn good to know, thank you
@@joshuawfinn I managed to find a decent UK website (freefight supplies is too confusing to be of any use to me) that sells rubber motors and winders (vintagemodelcompany.com)
VMC is a good outfit. Very focused on advancing the hobby.
I imagine it might be a bit of a pain transporting that retrieval vehicle back and forth from contests. lol 😂🤣😂
Yeah it is a bit of a hassle. People get really upset about us knocking down their trees too! 🤣🤣🤣
I've wondered the same thing about the trees.
I have lost more planes to trees over the years than I care to count. Over the past 5 years I've spent more effort on making them able to survive the elements while imprisoned above as well as getting retrieval equipment capable of bringing them home. It's been quite a while since I lost one permanently other than to flyaways in big thermals.
@@joshuawfinn Me, too. Can you train the cats to retrieve planes? Or train a dog to climb trees? I fly in city parks where climbing in the trees is strongly discouraged.
Do you have a video on tissue covering?
I did some stuff on that in the Senator and Gipsy videos...not great since I'm not great at tissuing, but it's there.
I want one of those for free 🙂
Shoot me an email at joshuawfinn@gmail.com ;)
It looks like it should fly better than the Senator, apart from lacking the top spars. I hate bottom spar only wings. They just ask to warp and no turbulation. Small fin and little dihedral. I’d increase both and have a normal freewheeling prop and add three top spars and fewer strands of rubber. There’s nothing like”improving “ a vintage model😀.
Really simple mousetrap works well.
That propellor works well, but it looks very peculiar shape as well as being mirror image. It looks like a very high pitch. Perhaps why it needs so many strands. I’ve never found a plastic one that size that could compete with a carved balsa job. The Senator kits had a large heavy plastic prop.
Garami clutches are a nightmare. I avoid them like the plague. Ha ha.
Keil Kraft probably found that the Senator fitted their boxes better after they had shortened the nose. How many beginners omitted a necessary lump of lead and couldn’t get them to fly.
Great video.
Have you bought up all the remaining Esaki tissue?
All of my Esaki came from Jim Walston's estate...still waiting to get more.
Have had no problems with warps on any of the KK planes I've built regardless of spar type.
I like the rocket climb...same reason I fly 200 mph hotliners I guess. It's a disease. Pray you don't catch it because it's expensive.
Overlooked since the Korda which preceded is a better flyer. IMHO
Frankly my Mercury flies much better than my Korda. But they're also different sizes so different purposes
Good. Good. But I still like the Korda and Gypsy more
They are pretty awesome. I think the Mercury glides better though. ;)
larga el avioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
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