Not Just Another Pretty Face (NJAPF) - A beginner's P-30 Rubber Powered Free Flight Airplane

[@edsherrod5216]

Looks like a great kit! Also, thank you so much for sharing this video and the hand's on shimming info with Hope. I've got some free flight models like the peck polymers one night 28 but never knew how to shim to get the most out of the model and hopefully not lose it.

[@joshuawfinn]

Hope you can get that ON28 going well. It's a great flier when properly trimmed.

[@edsherrod5216]

@@joshuawfinn Thanks for the kind words - with folks like you and your wife making great videos - it definitely helps!

[@billkuhl442]

The Al Lidberg kit was my first outdoor free flight contest model. It was orange and yellow tissue which is how I ended up with yellow fin. It had popup stab with viscous DT, I feel lucky not to lose it, I flew it at my first Nats in 2016, on at least one flight I shorted the flight by the viscous DT going off too early. I flew it at Minnesota contest and someone (not free flighter) brought it back on a motorcycle breaking the wing, which is rather weak. After a good amount of flying I decide to patch holes in fuselage covering, I found many of the cross pieces were loose. The new kit should be better in wing strength and fuselage joints. The last rebuild was after landing in a tree, I had changed from stab DT to popoff wing with fuse. The fin was never recovered and this was before I knew Dan Berry.

[@joshuawfinn]

A lot of people have shared their stories of getting into FF through this design. I was concerned about the wing folding like you mentioned, hence the webbed spars in wing and stab. As a result, it handles great on a chase bike.

[@archivist17]

How great to see a bit more of Hope in a video! ❤ Lovely design, too. The interlocking is smart.

[@josuehenaoarias126]

Gracias por los planos, lo construiré con un grupo de chicos de mi área.

[@BAILEYWOODWORKS]

Great video! so much information! Thanks for sharing!

[@johnmajane3731]

Not sure I am into the wing DT. The chance for damage looks to easy.

[@billkuhl442]

I thought that too but never has been an issue.

[@johnmajane3731]

@@billkuhl442 and yet they bent a prop shaft and broke the wing.

[@billkuhl442]

@@johnmajane3731 the wing hitting the stab on popoff can be an issue. Luckily my popoff planes have landed on grass, hitting a hard surface could be a problem.

[@KrisKraya25]

it's very nice, I like how it flies after trimming in a good way, and I like the color of the plane, and also overall I like your P30 😊

[@mickgibson370]

In 1975 I made something like this but I make it u-control and power it with a .049 engine!

[@MORCOPOLO0817]

Is a reverse S hook the only way to avoid climbing rubber on extra long motors? I am asking because I am in the process of building a small model that does not have a removable nose block and the reverse S hook is too wide to fit into the thrust button hole.

[@joshuawfinn]

There are a variety of ways to implement anti-climbing geometry on the rubber hooks, but the bigger issue is this: never build a model without a removable nose block. If it's not removable, modify it so it is. In the case of Guillows and Dumas kits, for example, you can build up a wood structure that partially or fully substitutes for their crappy plastic front ends.

[@MORCOPOLO0817]

@@joshuawfinn I guess my question is this: What other methods are available, besides a reverse S hook, to avoid anti-climbing rubber?

[@peterworsley4699]

It's a bit puzzling that you have radio on the DT but not on the rudder. Does that make sense? If you had radio rudder you could avoid all the trees and fly for much longer and you wouldn't need the DT.

[@joshuawfinn]

Rudder defeats the purpose of free flight. I might as well just build a sailplane at that point. I've got lots of those...nothing interesting there.

[@rocketplane]

What makes you choose a pop-off DT vs a pop-stab DT? The pop-stab seems a little more controlled but the pop-off a little more effective to my untrained eye.

[@joshuawfinn]

Pop off wing is used on planes that are so lightly loaded that they won't come down from strong thermals any other way. P-30s are particularly bad about that.

[@josuehenaoarias3831]

Grandioso, muchas gracias por el video. Quiero construirlo. Saludos desde Medellín Colombia.

[@joshuawfinn]

Here's a free plan for the predecessor of this airplane: outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=10228

[@ruthmoreton6975]

Every time I made a tissue and balsa wing as a child the wing twisted when the tissue has been tightened. What are the most common causes for this? The planes flew always flew but it was hard to get them stable with twisted wings that were often unevenly twisted.

[@robinboucherwonderfulflight]

Hi, Pre-shrink the tissue on a cardboard frame. Cut the tissue off the frame and apply to the model. Warps in a wing can be steamed out if not too bad. Steam and pin to a surface for 24 hours. I hope this helps.

[@MORCOPOLO0817]

So, the question still stands: Besides using a reverse S hook, how else can you avoid climbing rubber?

[@joshuawfinn]

Crockett hook is usually the best option. Retro RC has them.

[@MORCOPOLO0817]

I would need one that is extremely small.

[@joshuawfinn]

@@MORCOPOLO0817 build the removable nose like I recommended. You're setting yourself up for failure. It's really not that hard, and if you go to any flying meet anywhere, you'll see that everyone makes that modification. There's a reason why we all do it.

[@MORCOPOLO0817]

@@joshuawfinn Unfortunately the framework is already built. I suppose that I could cut into the nose former after the fact but even then, the design does not allow much room for the prop hook. It is a dime scale sized comet Porterfield 65 15 1/4 inch wingspan kit #3101

[@joshuawfinn]

@MORCOPOLO0817 oh the Porterfield? That one's easy. Take a Zona saw or similar and just cut the nose bock off so that about a 1/8" layer of it is left. Cut a rectangle out of that remaining material, and glue it, correctly aligned, onto the part that you cut off. Now you have a nose block that allows fitting a blast tube, S hook, etc.

[@williamrobinson7435]

I'm SO flattered that this one got named after ME! 😁🌟👍

[@joshuawfinn]

Bahahahaha! Well played sir!

[@paulbizard3493]

Nice. The DT is a bit too manly isn't it?

[@collinmccallum]

thumbs up!!!

[@zawkay1466]

l like P30..

[@thomasmeadows256]

❤

[@douglasmacdonald2617]

Please treat your wife with a bit more respect, stop over talking her, please you are not the most competant builder and flier that is out there, I am 82 and am a better builder than you will ever be, thats called being arogant.