Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
 

Ken’s bucanneer, and dummy engines

(A few months ago Trevor and I were chatting over the plan of his latest project (an Astro Hog) and I mentioned that for some years I had wanted to make a vintage model complete with dummy engine, hoping that while innocently preparing for flight at Stanpit some busy-body would turn up and say “you can’t fly that noisy thing here, young man” and then fall back astonished as I opened the throttle and announced that “these modern engines are so quiet you just can’t hear them.”

It’s not a terribly funny story, but it obviously set off a chain reaction—Ed)

Trevor starts the story:

“Mike came round today and we unfolded the Astro Hog plan. This is the original APS plan by Fred Dunn Jr. and contains many quaint details such as stitched hinges.

In discussing what to change and what to leave alone, we had a bit of a discussion about the nose. The Hog has an upright mounted engine between two side cheeks. Although, with an electric power plant, it would be possible to streamline the whole front end into a spinner, it wouldn't really look like an Astro Hog then, would it?

Although we had had nothing more to drink than a cup of tea, this discussion led to the idea of fitting a real dummy engine, if you see  what I mean - an i.c. motor with the piston and con rod removed, with  the electric motor mounted behind it, so preserving the appearance of  the original. I could really stay true to the times and leave the silencer off too!”

Trevor

“I have to say that this engineering nonsense is entirely Trevor's idea: mine was purely to make a balsa/liteply dummy 0.35 engine to fit above the electric motor.  Then you could sit there flicking the prop and grumbling "I just can't get this old ED Racer to start.  Does anyone have any diesel fuel?"  Someone would turn up with something, then you could push forward the throttle stick and say something  like "Damn quiet, these ED engines, eh Carruthers? Or alternatively, you could take your fingers to casualty and have them stitched back on. Mike”

Then Ken had this to say!

Hello All,

Amazing. I also have been pondering fitting a dummy engine to an electric model. Having a rest from the L4, I began to look around for some other project to stave off withdrawal symptoms and thought about electrifying a model that has been cocooned for at least fourteen years:  a Super Buccaneer. As you can see from the pics it was fitted with an original OS60fs and was exhibited at the Model Engineer Exhibition and flew a number of times at Old Warden. It must be every bit of 25 years old. I dread to think what state it might be in. I'll get it out and dust it off tomorrow. Anyway, my thoughts were like Mike’s  - fabricate out of wood making it look like an engine from the 30/40s  -  the Buccaneer era. Using an old engine and removing the crank shaft and replacing with a prop driver coupled to a motor is quite possible but I wonder if it would be worth the effort involved. If you wish to follow this line up, Trevor, I'll be happy to have a chat about it.

I seem to remember that the original Astro Hog had something like a KB60 powering it.

Unveiled my Buccaneer  - it was wrapped in newspaper dated 1994 and was in remarkably good condition. The white surfaces have changed to cream and all the side windows have come adrift and will need renewing. The wing seems warp free and at 90" span was a lot bigger than I remembered it.The covering was tight everywhere - it was done in Solartex , doped and then colour sprayed. I found a pound of lead in the nose plus a 6oz tank so electrifying should make very little difference to its performance, There are a couple of ancient Futaba servos installed which must be 70s vintage and will need to be changed. There is plenty of room for the motor and modification should be quite easy. I have designed a dummy petrol engine for it based on some pics I found on the web which should fit nicely where the OS used to sit. 

Later...I've made a bit of progress making a dummy petrol engine for the Buccaneer. I've chosen a Super Cyclone as some nice pictures were available on the web and it was about the right era. I have used a length of dural tubing for the cylinder and so far, have cut out most of the cooling fins from various thicknesses of mm ply.  looking at the Buccaneer cowl, I think I only need model the top half of the engine as the rest is hidden. Nice to be doing something worthwhile for a change.

Ken

Later still… Ken finished the engine and fitted it to the refurbished Buccaneer…

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