Carl Goldberg Ranger 30

[TooJung2Die]

It is turning out pretty well I really didn't have a plan on scheme when I started, kind of simple and getting a bit bright on me now though with these colors lol. I did reduce the horizontal stab by 3.5" so with the scale up it spans 16", I also carved 3/4" off the nose and added it to the tail..the nose looked incredibly long but maybe it won't work well now. No real idea on motor yet, I have a inrunner in my tiny Trainer that makes that plane a rocket with a 6" prop..I might try that on this, but I also have a few outrunners..maybe an AXi 2212/34 with a 10" prop, both are easily interchangeable.

I like the split elevator, I left some foam between the halves and used a popcycle stick to connect them, the fin is attached to the tail skid then cut to match the bottom of the fuse. I don't know what a good weight should be at this size, I'm hoping 10-11oz. range RTF.

I'm going to have to learn to build lighter. The 30" Ranger is 10.3 oz with a 800 mAh 3s battery. The long nose hasn't made CG a problem. It flies great with either a 3s or 2s battery stuck right behind the motor and no additional weight in the tail.

It'll loop and snap roll at half throttle with only a 2s battery. It gets my heart pumping with a 3s in there. Control surfaces can be whatever is TLAR. The original Ranger 30 didn't have any movable control surfaces, they were drawn on for decoration, unless built for control line and then the elevator was only one side of the horizontal stab.

Jon

 

[BobK]

This has all the paper removed except one layer of paper between the fuse sides and doubler, and the gift wrap is returning the strength lost from removing the paper. If your 30" flies great at 10.3oz then I should be excellent on weight, so that is good to know. I think I should have made the ailerons a little smaller they are huge..I haven't cut the hinge line yet so I guess I still could reduce them yet and cover over part of the slots I already cut.

I have to figure out where the CG should be yet, I think I saw 1 3/4" from the LE here so I will probably be around 2" or so. I have some 800 3s packs I might make a 3s2p for this yet.

I am so tired of the wind blowing here, every day it has been bad.

 

[ClearSkiesCalmWinds]

Here is my entry. I was amazed at the collaboration on this plane. I blew-up the plans to 170% for a WS of 50 inches. Going to try it with the FT Storch set up. This has been fun. Thanks!

Joe

 

[BobK]

Nice! Looks great

 

[TooJung2Die]

Here is my entry. I was amazed at the collaboration on this plane. I blew-up the plans to 170% for a WS of 50 inches. Going to try it with the FT Storch set up. This has been fun. Thanks!

Joe

That's a big one! Looking good. Without the collaboration I don't know if I would have ever built a good flying Ranger that still looked like the original design. I thought that taking a proven balsa airplane plan and building it to the same proportions would guarantee a good flying DTFB airplane. Not in this case obviously. Every time I build another I tweak the design but try to keep it true to the Goldberg look. Goldberg designed the Ranger in several sizes from 18" to 42" wingspan and the proportions changed with each design.

Jon

 

[BobK]

I thought that taking a proven balsa airplane plan and building it to the same proportions would guarantee a good flying DTFB airplane. Not in this case obviously. Every time I build another I tweak the design but try to keep it true to the Goldberg look.

I think it is more that this was a free flight plan to begin with, and converting it to fly R/C required some tweaking, it would be interesting to compare a free flight Ranger plan to a an R/C Ranger 42 plan and see the differences. I can see differences just on the box illistrations. If I had half the knowledge and the ability to sit down with a pencil and just draw something up like Carl Goldberg, Ken Willard, and others did back in those days I would be a happy guy, I wonder how many attempts it took to get it "right".

I should finish up tonight, still need to add servos. I tried toning down the brightness on my by having mostly blue on the fuse and I think it looks ok, still a few tweaks to do, paint the spinner all I had was a red one to fit this, need wing dowels yet and move the LG..some how I mounted my LG block about an inch forward than it should be..minor details . I think maybe some black striping would look good, and I think silver windows will look better than black I just used a marker for now, but we will see how she flies first.

A cool thing about removing the paper and covering is the foam can be sanded, I rounded all the corners on the fuse..if you didn't know it was foamboard and not balsa I don't think you could tell.

I have a 1/2A steerable nosegear..tri-gear would look sweet..hmmm...

 

[ClearSkiesCalmWinds]

Wow! Looks great! is the yellow gift wrapping too, or paint? Can't wait to see her fly.

 

[TooJung2Die]

That Ranger looks great! I see you kept the full ailerons. I think you'll be happy you did. When I aileron roll the Tiny Trainer it just rolls. When you roll the Ranger it'll snap! At least the little one does.

I think you're right about the problems I had with the original plan being too close to the free flight design for successful RC. It wasn't designed to turn! Big gentle circles was all it was good at. Even though the current design flies well it doesn't like to fly slow. The last time I tried a too slow landing approach it tip stalled into the ground. :black_eyed: Maybe I should try the flaperons again.

Jon

 

[BobK]

Wow! Looks great! is the yellow gift wrapping too, or paint? Can't wait to see her fly.

It is all clear cellophane Dollar Tree gift wrap, I unrolled it and painted the "backside" before applying it..I guess by backside I mean so the paint is under the covering when applied. It worked better than I thought it would, the yellow has some spots that are lighter and darker but the white and blue worked very well.

That Ranger looks great! I see you kept the full ailerons.

Thanks, I did keep them, I think having the expo dialed down to begin with is a good idea, I'll set them up on dual rates. I wonder what could be done to help with tip stalling. The original balsa plane wasn't a fast flying airplane, I wonder if it was lighter..or why the DTFB version is fast(er).

 

[TooJung2Die]

The original balsa plane wasn't a fast flying airplane, I wonder if it was lighter..or why the DTFB version is fast(er).

The balsa wing was a slightly cambered sheet of balsa. Maybe it did well because the flying envelope was small. Not too slow, not too fast, no tight turns. Maybe adding more under-camber to the foam wing was the trick. I saw no problems with the first version as a chuck glider. It was when the elevator and rudder were added the problems popped up. I read about other people converting the free-flight balsa airplane to RC and the only modification recommended was a taller vertical stab.

Jon

 

[BobK]

I wonder how a thicker wing would work, I know my tiny trainer is crazy fast with the thinner wing..I do have two layer spars in this one. I can't really say much until I fly it. A thicker wing would also add more undecamber at the tips.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Hey, Joe and Bob. Did you fly your Rangers? How did they do? Video if you have it please.

Jon

 

[BobK]

I flew mine, very fast and the ailerons were very touchy which i was afraid of with the large ailerons even though I had them dialed down. Waiting for the weather to cooperate again. The motor I used I never really had any specs for, I had bought it at a swap meet, found out it was a HK motor but the specs for it are wrong on the site. I had a 9x6 prop on it with 3s, I think 2s would be a better choice but I don't have any right now.

Flew well though and made a perfect landing even for being fast. I think I have some video I'll post it later.

 

[BobK]

Here is the quick maiden, made a quick lap and could tell it needed some adjustments so I brought it in. I did notice I had trouble keeping it "up" even with quite a bit of elevater trim but I think the battery I used made it just too heavy.

After I get it flying right I will finish the windows and add some stripes, the "aluminum" spinner looks pretty nice though.

 

[TooJung2Die]

You landed without a crash so that's a successful maiden! I like the quick aileron response but I have a lot of expo dialed in so they aren't touchy for normal flying. The Ranger rolls crazy fast compared to the Tiny Trainer.

I flew the Schoolgirl and the Ranger today. Warmed up with the Schoolgirl for a few stress free flights. Then threw the Ranger up with a 2s battery. A 3s is overkill for me. I don't need that much speed.

Everything was going great. I've almost figured out how to rudder roll. Then on the fourth battery the alarm started beeping way too soon. I glanced down at the transmitter for no more than two seconds. I looked back up just in time to see the Ranger do a lawn dart imitation into the dirt. I don't know what it is with this airplane! It's a blast to fly and I'm going to build another fuselage but just when I think it's doing great I wipe out another Ranger.

Jon

 

[BobK]

Aw man . Does your Ranger seem to just drop the nose or does it hold it up ok? Mine seemed like if I wasn't pulling up elevater constantly it was diving..in fact after using the trim switch during flight I was almost out of servo travel. For some reason the double taper wing just doesn't seem right to me, but I have never seen an original Ranger to compare. I think if I build it again I will make a thicker wing profile.

At about 0:40 in the video I am pulling hard on the elevater, then that high bank right turn to avoid the tree is full up elevater with ailerons..any more aileron and it would be upside down there. Came close.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Aw man . Does your Ranger seem to just drop the nose or does it hold it up ok? Mine seemed like if I wasn't pulling up elevator constantly it was diving..in fact after using the trim switch during flight I was almost out of servo travel. For some reason the double taper wing just doesn't seem right to me, but I have never seen an original Ranger to compare. I think if I build it again I will make a thicker wing profile.

At about 0:40 in the video I am pulling hard on the elevator, then that high bank right turn to avoid the tree is full up elevator with ailerons..any more aileron and it would be upside down there. Came close.

Just the opposite. I have a little down trim dialed in to the elevator so it flies level hands off. I use the full length long nose in the original plans. I also like the full width elevator. It's a tad nose heavy with a 3s battery in there but there's no problem keeping the nose up. It flies where it's pointed.

A link to the original balsa wood plans is in the first post of this thread. Take a look at those dimensions. The double tapered chord wing is a tricky shape. I gave up on it for a bit and made a couple of constant chord wings just to make an airplane that flew. I'm having good results with the tapered wing in the last plan using dimensions borrowed from dgrigor02.

Jon

 

[dgrigor02]

I'm still using the plans from post #12 that have a little angle of incidence, the taller tail, and the redisigned wing with a little dihedral. Very sporty yet with flaperons its pretty slow flyer too. No issues with nose and I don't notice any bad stall tendancies. Elevator plenty responsive. Still one of my favorites ( next to the 70% bronco a-tail ) to take to the park for a quickie.

 

[BobK]

I need to fly it again to get a better idea, maybe later today it will work out. I do feel I had too much weight up front, I landed quickly on the maiden because I thought my wing/ele incidences were off but they are fine.