RC Airplane World Forum

A few days ago my nephew gave me a plane that had been in the attic of his garage for many years. Since my father built radio controlled planes many years ago I assumed it was one of his so I e-mailed and asked him about it. It turns out that my grandfather built it in the early 1960s. It is an old Monocoupe, and to the best of anyone's knowledge it has never been flown. My father tells me it was built from a Sterling kit. It will need some work. It is missing the rudder and has holes in the wings. My father tells me that the paint scheme was originally cream and red, how it wound up being orange is a mystery.

Here is a photo of the beginning of my project. As I get it all started I will post more so everyone can see my progress. My first task is to recover the wings and fuselage, then build a new rudder. Once I get that done I will get everything else installed. I'm planning on making it a three channel model. From all of the evidence it was originally two channel, rudder and elevators only. I even have one of my grandfather's old engines, a .46 ASP that I may use for power.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Hey Jeff, thanks for joining the forum - and welcome

That's a great little project to get your teeth into - definitley keep us posted with progress. First job, get some air in the tyres!!

Although it's been built around a gas engine, there's no reason why you couldn't make it electric if you wanted; put a good outrunner brushless motor in there and it would fly great! Just an idea

PS I'll move this topic over to the 'What have you got' forum.

I have thought of electric power but I am completely ignorant of what I would need in order to do it. There is such a wide variety in electric motors and I have many questions to be answered before I can make the choice. What size motor? Do I need a gear box? How much does the weight of the plane have to do with selecting an electric motor?
If you look closely at the photo you can see an old .46 ASP motor sitting beside the plane. This was the motor my grandfather bought to be used in his J-3 Cub, another plane that never got off the ground. He was great at building them but rarely flew them for some reason. He was almost finished with his Cub when he died. I have it too, but have never finished it.
Any assistance on deciding whether to go with a glow or electric motor would be welcomed.

I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference, rather than what's physically possible. Pretty much any size and type of plane can be electric powered these days, but you're right to be confused - choosing the right power set up is an absolute minefield! Selecting a suitable motor, prop, ESC and battery pack isn't quite the same as just matching the right size prop to a glow engine, it's a completely different game.

Fortunately for us there are a few programs and software around, notably MotoCalc at http://www.motocalc.com - this is the best, and there's a free trial available. You simply put the plane details in one end, and get a number of recommended power set ups out the other!
http://www.rcadvisor.com/guest is another one you could look at.

Price is another thing to think about though - although the running costs of electric are cheaper (ie no fuel, plugs and starting accessories to buy) the initial cost isn't low - a good quality li-po pack, motor and ESC will set you back probably the cost of a glow engine!
On the glow engine note, personally I never like to see a 2 stroke in a model like that, I'd prefer a 4 stroke in there for the realism - that's just my personal preference though

Another factor will be where you're going to fly - if you're flying at a club field then glow is no problem, but if you're restricted to flying in public parks etc, electric has a much lower nuisance factor.

I would suggest that you at least run the numbers through one of the above programs and price up for an electric set up, maybe the total cost is so extortionate that it forces you to go with glow anyway!

Thanks very much for the input. I have been trying to learn a bit about switching to electric, but you are correct, it's very complicated.
I have a large field beside my house that I use to fly smaller planes, but something like this I will want to take to the club field. It's not like I need to rush my decision, I have a lot of work to do to the plane first.
I am really excited about this project. My grandfather built the plane, but never completed it. After sitting on a shelf for over 40 years it is finally going to be airborne.

Just keep us updated with the progress, with pics if you can!

These pictures are from about a week ago. I've been pretty busy and have not had as much time as I would like to work on the plane. I tore off the old fabric and found that part of the original pain scheme was still under there. I have been working on re-covering for the past few days and will post some more photos as soon as I get that part complete.
I have been working on the interior as well, it was completely empty so I built new servo trays, battery compartment and receiver compartment. I'll get some photos posted of those too.
You can see the elevator sitting in front of the fuselage, but there was no rudder. I have built a new rudder and it looks pretty nice. Again, more photos will follow of the project as I do a bit more.

Good work so far Jeff - it's great to strip something down and find evidence of a past life beneath! She looks a really solid old bird, well built from what I can see.
Looking forward to seeing the new covering!

jkwparrott,

I am with you in renovating an old machine.

It is lots of pleasure to relax, think things over, make modifications and end up with a nice flying model.
The basic structure is solid.
Something to play with during the long winter months.

Best of success with the Monocoupe.

KILOP

It is nice to work on something like this, no rush, make it what I want. I have decided to go ahead and use a glow engine for it since I already have an extra one sitting around, and that's what it was originally designed for. I hope to have it off the ground in the next few weeks.

It seems I have come into another of my grandfather's planes. I e-mailed my cousin and told him about fixing up the old Monocoupe. He told me that he has another of our grandfather's planes that he would like me to have. It is a scale DGA-6, the Mister Mulligan. My cousin says that he will bring it to me next weekend. It is also a three channel, but I think I will be adding ailerons to make it four channels and probably going electric with it. SInce the DGA-6 was built as a racer I think it needs full functionality. I'll need to figure out something for a missing cowl. It has a very similar cowl to the Monocoupe, maybe I can use it as a template and make a new fiberglass one.