Doug's RC Page

Bruce Tharpe Engineering - Flyin King

This kit is being built in the Spring, Summer, and now Fall of 2002. This would be much quicker except, I bought an ARF or two and an electric (quick builds interrupted the construction).

Initial impressions: Jeez this is a big wing. The center section alone is the size of half my SlowPoke Sport 40 wing. This will be so fun to fly... Bruce is a great guy to do business with. I am thinking of also ordering his Delta Vortex, Venture60, and possibly a spare Flyin' King. While building I this, I have sent a few questions to Bruce about possible modifications as I try to convert this into an aerotow vehicle. Bruce has responded to me emails promptly and even provided additional materials for me to use in construction. This is the first time I have ever been able to communicate with a designer to provide feedback on possible modifications.

Correspondance with Bruce

Flyin-King parts

Re: Flyin-King parts

Flyin King Question

Re: Flyin King Question

Outfitted with:

• Saito 150 4 stroke engine with an 18X6 prop on a Dubro Vibration Reducing Engine Mount.
• 24 oz Great Planes main fuel tank
• 5 inch Dubro Big Wheels main wheels, with an additional 1 1/2 inch tail wheel. The main gear are relocatable to fly as a tail tragger, or tricycle (requires another landing gear block, and tail wheel).
• Futaba 8UAFS 8 Channel setup: L aileron, elevator, throttle, rudder, R aileron, flaps, aux, bay door. Ailerons will be programmed to also be functional flaperons.
• Dual tow line releases to allow for banner and glider towing.
• Custom built led lighting system to light the plane for night flying. Leds were purchased from superbrightleds.com.

Customizations

• Doubled thickness of firewall to help contain the Saito 150 that I am overpowering with. Added additional bracing to the front of the firewall to help distribute the engine pull.
• Added additional landing gear block to allow for tricycle and tail dragger configurations. Conversion should take less than 10 minutes at the field.
• Lengthened main wing to 92 inches. This should help provide more lift during slow glider towing, and increase its payload capacity. Wing loading should be around 16oz/sq ft.
• Replaced torque rod flap arrangement with direct servo control of the flaps.
• Added plywood bracing directly behind the wing and directly behind the main landing gear block to support the tow release. One is positioned in a plywood reinforced section just behind the main wing on top, the other resides directly below on the bottom of the fusulage, also with plywood reinforcing.
• LED Lighting system with 3 circuits: Navigation Lights which are always on during night flying, Landing Lights which are forward and downward pointing lights that are activated whenever the flaps are lowered via an RC Electronic switch, and finally Internal Lights controlled by a ESC (Electronic Speed Control) which makes the LEDS appear dimmer via high speed on/off switching of the power. This lighting system will be on a seperate receiver circuit powered by the BEC in the ESC. All LED circuits are designed to handle the power of a fully charged 8 cell NiCad battery pack (12 v), but still highly visible operating on a low pack (9 v). This lighting system was inspired by the www.rcnightflying.com site. In addition to night flying it also has photos of a FlyinKing called the Chamelion before flight (bottom of page) and its first flight (series "Flying Adventure").

Possibilities:

• 32 oz. Auxillary Tank and Auxillary Battery Supply Payload
• Double 32 oz. auxillary tanks w/ Genesys power supply system for extended flight times
• Object drop capabilities via Channel 8 Door
• Aerial photography via Channel 7 (downward through door)
• Pair of Great Planes 60 size floats
• Custom steerable snow skis.

Photos

Building Modification
	These images show the unfinished fusulage. Extra bracing was added just as a precaution for aeortowing. This bracing includes doubling the firewall, tabs epoxied to front of firewall as additional bracing, ply sheet addition just aft of the wing under the balsa sheeting to help support tow stresses, triangular sheeting from aft of main wing to lower rear tow section, plywood sheeting on lower section aft of the tricycle gear location block for tow hook, additional triangluar bracing anywhere the stresses might be increased (leading edge wing support, rear wing support, structure between firewall and tow hooks
	Tail section with extended control surfaces and widened horizontal stabilizer. The horizontal stabilizer is now 30" wide with the elevator lengthend to 3". The rudder was lengthened to 3 3/8"
	Wing center section during early building stage. Torque rod flap arrangement has been removed to allow for direct servo control of the flaps. Each outer wing panel was extended by 1 bay lengthening the wing from 78" to 86". Carbon Fiber strips were added to the main spar covering the wing joints.
	Wing showing the difference silkspan makes to the lighting effect on the wing. Note: Silkspan is only attached with Butrate Dope. No further treatment is applied to the silkspan as it will be covered with transparent Monokote
	Engine breakin - Extra rich and oil soaking the concrete :-(
	Fuselage with lighting system installed. Pull-Pull tail steering, elevator, rudder, and throttle servos.
	First flight intro on a Flyin-King

Other Peoples Flyin' Kings
Offical BTE Models Site

BTE Business Card