| Mark E. Gunnison | www.MGCPA.com |
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January 2009:
My first kit was a Mini Telemaster purchased from Aero Craft Ltd. The kit was just under $30 and included a bundle of balsa, plans and as I recall some wire for the landing gear. I also purchased their power package that included a motor and speed controller for $36. I also made a hundred trips to the hobby shop to purchase glue, coverings, wheels, controls� I sure I spent more on supplies than I did on the kit.
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I also purchased a Futaba transmitter, receiver and servos. At the time 2.4GHz radios were over $250 while the 72MHz radios were around $100 so I purchased a 72MHz radio. If I could do it again, I would purchase a 2.4GHz radio as I sometimes have problems with interference with my 72MHz. I had a problem (a stupid mistake on my part) with my radio when installing ailerons on my Telemaster and received great help from Futaba. I would highly recommend Futaba due to my experience with their customer service.
February 2009: |
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I had crashed my Telemaster a number of times without any damage until about my fifth outing when I had a hard crash and broke the motormount and part of the tail section. I used the rebuild process to design a slightly larger tail with larger control surfaces. In particular I made the rudder's control surface about twice as large as what was called for in the plans. It flew much better. You can see I also covered the new tail in yellow Ultracode to make the plane easier to see. |
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March 2009: The Telemaster was so much more fun to fly with the redesigned tail that I decided to build a new aileron wing. This wing I built from scratch designing every part of it including the airfoil. I designed it to provide a little more lift - not that is needed it. I reduced the dihedral to about half of what was called for in the original wing and choose aileron strips to keep the build simple. |
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You will also note my change to brighter coverings as it was hard to the plane covered in dark green when it was on the far side of the flying field. |
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May 2009: The following picture was taken after a friend's plane cut through the wings of my Telemaster. We were both just flying around trying to avoid each other and accidently had a mid-air on the far side of our flying field. It was worth having to repair the plane in order to see both planes collide and fall out of the sky. Actually, my plane was the only one that fell. His pilot ejected and his plane was able to fly back for a landing. I'm in the process of rebuilding my wing. |
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December 2009: I decided to build a THIRD wing for my Telemaster. This time I decided to build flaps and regular ailerons. I really liked my prior aileron wing so I decided to keep its dimensions. I hinged the flaps at the bottom of the wing while the ailerons are hinged at the top. |
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January 2010: |
While everything was on the workbench I decided to add a steerable tailwheel.
Taxi test after installing tailwheel
Test flight of new flap wing
I taped a camera that weighs 25% of the plane's designed gross weight to the nose!
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July 2010: About six months ago I was flying in 10+mph winds gusting to close to 20mph and managed to fly into the sun and then fly directly into the ground. Don't ask me what I was expecting under the circumstances. I hit the ground hard enough to cause the battery to rip off the bottom of the plane from just behind the landing gear up to the firewall. It was such a clean break I decided to rebuild the landing gear box (a weak point on the plane) and add a battery hatch so I could replace the battery without removing the wing. Before starting the rebuild, I got interested in building other plans while the Telemaster sat on a shelf in pieces. In the mean time while ordering parts online for other planes, I accidently purchased a 4-cell LiPo battery. I hate returning things so instead of returning the battery, I decided to purchase a large 500 motor! When finally getting around to rebuilding the Telemaster, I decided to use the large motor - It's original motor was a 380. The plane now weighs close to one pound over its original design weight of just 20 ounces! |
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The vertical stabilizer was a bit small for the larger flap/aileron wing I built last year and with the larger motor, I was sure it was time to rebuild the tail. Instead of rebuilding everything I decided to just add some material to the existing vertical stabilizer. I designed it to look like a cross between a Cessna 185 and a Maule. It may still be a bit small, I hope to test it this weekend. |
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August 2010: When I tested the new wing/motor/tail combination last month I had a servo stick which put the plane into an almost uncontrollable slip. I was able to land without breaking anything but could not recreate the problem.
Yesterday I decided to test the plane again and as can be seen in the following video the plane flies quite well. It turns with no noticeable adverse yaw and needs little to no rudder to make coordinated turns. It almost always spins when entering stalls but that seems to be the only negative flight characteristic.
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