Electro Telemaster Rescue and Gas Conversion from Glow?
- Thread starter Joker 53150
- Start date
Bricks
Legendary member
I have five of the Evolution 10cc engines with pumped carb best darn little IC engines made, the non pumped if you set up the tank right and checked the O ring under the carb would run very well also. 8 ounce tank you will get tired of flying before you run out of gas. Using Amsoil Saber I have been running mine at 50-1 going on 2 years now and they handle it well and less cleanup. Big difference is power as running less oil thru this small carb and more gas gives a some extra zing.
OliverW
Legendary member
Mine ran for 40 minutes of an 8oz
Repairs should be fairly straightforward on this project. First up, the battery hatch. Um, GAS TANK HATCH. 
A piece of 1/4" balsa is cut to size and glued in place. I left it about 1/32" tall and long so it could be sanded flush.
With it sanded flush the magnet was glued back in place to keep it closed. Around the engine I'll use a single piece of 1/4" x 4 which will be trimmed for the engine's cylinder to stick through.
A piece of 1/4" balsa is cut to size and glued in place. I left it about 1/32" tall and long so it could be sanded flush.
With it sanded flush the magnet was glued back in place to keep it closed. Around the engine I'll use a single piece of 1/4" x 4 which will be trimmed for the engine's cylinder to stick through.
I only wanted to do this once, so I'm doing it right and making a template. I've verified that I'll still have access to the muffler bolts, which is good because the muffler blocks access to the engine mount bolts on the right side of the engine. Space will be tight, but a fuel filter should fit inside here as well. Throttle access will be good, and I carved the left cheek a bit to make room for the high needle adjustment. I also went a little old-school with that needle and stuck a small hex wrench in there for easy access.
Measure three to eight times, cut two or three, sand a bit, with multiple test-fitting inbetween each step. Add glue, and wait! Once dry I can do some final sanding & shaping so it'll be ready for covering.
I've verified that I'll still have access to the muffler bolts, which is good because the muffler blocks access to the engine mount bolts on the right side of the engine. Space will be tight, but a fuel filter should fit inside here as well. Throttle access will be good, and I carved the left cheek a bit to make room for the high needle adjustment. I also went a little old-school with that needle and stuck a small hex wrench in there for easy access.
Measure three to eight times, cut two or three, sand a bit, with multiple test-fitting inbetween each step. Add glue, and wait! Once dry I can do some final sanding & shaping so it'll be ready for covering.
I love the look of that motor! It makes me really want a gas plane...I only wanted to do this once, so I'm doing it right and making a template.
View attachment 163219
Measure three to eight times, cut two or three, sand a bit, with multiple test-fitting inbetween each step. Add glue, and wait! Once dry I can do some final sanding & shaping so it'll be ready for covering.
View attachment 163220
The tentative plan for the sparkplug wire is to cut a recess into the hatch, very similar to what I did on my Goldberg Eagle 2 (built with an NGH 9cc gasser). The cable for the pickup might be run through the firewall to avoid making it too cluttered from the outside. I'll use an optical kill switch as well, something I always use with ignition modules.
For those not familiar, the optical kill switch is used to kill power to the ignition module (and engine) by flipping a switch on the transmitter, or by using failsafe programming to kill power from a lost signal. They only work with systems that use an ignition module to fire the spark plug. Older engines (Zenoah, Quadra, US Engines, etc.) have a magneto, so the optical kill switches don't work. There are other ways to do something similar with the older designs, such as adding a failsafe servo connected to a switch - lose signal and the servo arm moves to close the circuit on the switch. That grounds the magneto and kills the engine. My 1/4 scale Balsa USA Cub has this for the Zenoah G-23 engine and it's worked well for years.
I thought about it and now have a headache.
That makes sense, although it sounds like losing power to the receiver would let the engine run, same as my old school method of a service and switch, if I understand correctly.
Moving right along... The engine bay has been painted black and coated with a layer of epoxy. The balsa has been sanded to final shape, and I'm happy with the overall design.
Covering the compound curves and shape around the cylinder head was a real pain. You can fairly easily see the overlap of new covering over old, and I'm very happy with how close the Transparent Red from Hobby King matches the original cover. There is a little prep work left to do before I can do the final mounting of the engine, but it's looking good so far!
Covering the compound curves and shape around the cylinder head was a real pain. You can fairly easily see the overlap of new covering over old, and I'm very happy with how close the Transparent Red from Hobby King matches the original cover. There is a little prep work left to do before I can do the final mounting of the engine, but it's looking good so far!
No updates on the Electro Gas Telemaster, but there is an update on the third Telemaster in my fleet. This Senior Telemaster I picked up at an estate sale a couple years ago (along with all the other stuff in this picture - it's a sickness...). It had an old glow engine and a bit of damage around the tail, hopefully most of it is just cosmetic to the covering. The wing looks like it's in decent condition, other than some more covering problems. The plane was going to sit and collect more dust (these were kept in a garage with a dirt floor, and you can see how dirty the Aeronca LC is!), but I ran across a guy selling a Zenoah G20 gas engine which would be perfect for the Senior. Soooo, I guess I'll be doing another Telemaster Rescue thread some day in the near future, after I confirm the plane is solid and won't be a major project.
The other planes in the picture: the Aeronca LC was given to a friend of mine to hang in his man-cave. It was built to fly, but is far too old and brittle now to risk it. Plus it was nicely done and is a survivor. The Tower Trainer 40 and 60 are both way on the back-burner. The 60 is in great shape, I'm not sure if it ever flew. The 40 was flown, a LOT. I'd like to some day strip it and give it a second life. The Pica T-28 kit came with the pneumatic retracts and interior kit. That'll be a fun kit to build some day, it's all original in the boxes and in perfect shape.
The wing looks like it's in decent condition, other than some more covering problems. The plane was going to sit and collect more dust (these were kept in a garage with a dirt floor, and you can see how dirty the Aeronca LC is!), but I ran across a guy selling a Zenoah G20 gas engine which would be perfect for the Senior. Soooo, I guess I'll be doing another Telemaster Rescue thread some day in the near future, after I confirm the plane is solid and won't be a major project.The other planes in the picture: the Aeronca LC was given to a friend of mine to hang in his man-cave. It was built to fly, but is far too old and brittle now to risk it. Plus it was nicely done and is a survivor. The Tower Trainer 40 and 60 are both way on the back-burner. The 60 is in great shape, I'm not sure if it ever flew. The 40 was flown, a LOT. I'd like to some day strip it and give it a second life. The Pica T-28 kit came with the pneumatic retracts and interior kit. That'll be a fun kit to build some day, it's all original in the boxes and in perfect shape.
ScratchBuildMast
Elite member
It does look beautiful, doesn’t it
I’m not sure, it’s some kind of home-brew setup for a wider stance. I’m not a fan and would like to switch it back to stock.
With the "Nothin' Extra" done other than tuning and a maiden flight, I'm down to just working on the Electro Gas Telemaster. My attention span is too short to work on only one plane at a time so I decided to check out the Senior Telemaster to see if it'll be the second plane in the current rotation. I was a bit surprised that it's really not much bigger than the 40 size - maybe 8" total. As for the overall condition....
First, it's still fairly stock. The biggest visible alteration are the weird wide-stance landing gear. Maybe the plane was used to tow gliders, or maybe a previous owner just had an issue with cross-winds. Either way, I've got what I think are the original landing gear so switching back should be fairly easy.
Here's where things get a bit uglier. The covering was cut, possibly to access the pushrods or to make patching the balsa easier. There is also some fairly thick fillets where the horizontal stab meets the fuselage, and some rough patching of the balsa sheet. The tailwheel is also in need of repair. Again, nothing too major, and much rougher planes have graced my workbench.
Covering in the mid-section was also replaced. At this time I don't know what's hiding under the covering - maybe it was just done to repair some tears in the original covering, or maybe there was a bad crash and this is covering a ton of epoxy and heavy hardwood. It'll need to be inspected further to be safe.
So with all that said, the Senior is a little rougher than I remembered, but it's far from being a basket case. At this time I'm going to put it back on the shelf until I have the desire to do a full restore on it, complete with all new covering, fixes where needed, etc. Another side-project will have to take it's place for now, and lucky for me I have plenty of those waiting!
First, it's still fairly stock. The biggest visible alteration are the weird wide-stance landing gear. Maybe the plane was used to tow gliders, or maybe a previous owner just had an issue with cross-winds. Either way, I've got what I think are the original landing gear so switching back should be fairly easy.
Here's where things get a bit uglier. The covering was cut, possibly to access the pushrods or to make patching the balsa easier. There is also some fairly thick fillets where the horizontal stab meets the fuselage, and some rough patching of the balsa sheet. The tailwheel is also in need of repair. Again, nothing too major, and much rougher planes have graced my workbench.
Covering in the mid-section was also replaced. At this time I don't know what's hiding under the covering - maybe it was just done to repair some tears in the original covering, or maybe there was a bad crash and this is covering a ton of epoxy and heavy hardwood. It'll need to be inspected further to be safe.
So with all that said, the Senior is a little rougher than I remembered, but it's far from being a basket case. At this time I'm going to put it back on the shelf until I have the desire to do a full restore on it, complete with all new covering, fixes where needed, etc. Another side-project will have to take it's place for now, and lucky for me I have plenty of those waiting!
Update time. Most of my free time has been spent enjoying the nice weather, including a day at the field flying, plus a lot of time in the garage spring-cleaning and organizing. My wife thinks my organization of the garage is to make room for more planes, but for now there are no plans to add to the fleet.
I screwed up when I covered the battery/gas tank hatch, as I forgot to leave space for the spark plug wire. The fix is fairly easy, a slot has to be cut in the hatch followed by some covering. Here the task is about half-done. One thing I really don't like about this Evo 8cc is how darn short the plug wire is. The ignition module sits directly under the hatch cover, with no extra length to give me flexibility in placement. I could probably just lengthen the plug wire, but I'd prefer not to crack open the ignition module to do so. Shortening the wire, on the other hand, is pretty easy.
Servos are also mounted. The existing servo tray was a little thin and it looks like a support piece is missing from the front edge, so I'm adding a piece of basswood across the tray. The servos are from my 1/3 scale Cessna 152 project, and should be overkill for a Telemaster.
I was also trying to decide what my 2nd project would be, and I think this will be it - a Hangar 9 P-47 Thunderbolt. It came with a glow engine and I flew it with glow a couple times, but just never had good luck keeping it running right. The last flight ended when the engine quit right after take-off, resulting in a fairly harsh landing. The only visible damage is one of the retract wires got bent, but that'll be an easy fix. The plan is to pull the glow engine and replace it with a Zenoah 20cc gasser that is left over from my first 1/4 scale Cub (lost in a crash a few years ago).
I screwed up when I covered the battery/gas tank hatch, as I forgot to leave space for the spark plug wire.
The fix is fairly easy, a slot has to be cut in the hatch followed by some covering. Here the task is about half-done. One thing I really don't like about this Evo 8cc is how darn short the plug wire is. The ignition module sits directly under the hatch cover, with no extra length to give me flexibility in placement. I could probably just lengthen the plug wire, but I'd prefer not to crack open the ignition module to do so. Shortening the wire, on the other hand, is pretty easy.
Servos are also mounted. The existing servo tray was a little thin and it looks like a support piece is missing from the front edge, so I'm adding a piece of basswood across the tray. The servos are from my 1/3 scale Cessna 152 project, and should be overkill for a Telemaster.
I was also trying to decide what my 2nd project would be, and I think this will be it - a Hangar 9 P-47 Thunderbolt. It came with a glow engine and I flew it with glow a couple times, but just never had good luck keeping it running right. The last flight ended when the engine quit right after take-off, resulting in a fairly harsh landing. The only visible damage is one of the retract wires got bent, but that'll be an easy fix. The plan is to pull the glow engine and replace it with a Zenoah 20cc gasser that is left over from my first 1/4 scale Cub (lost in a crash a few years ago).
After various distractions, back to the Telemaster... Servos are going in, and I noticed the rudder wasn't moving properly, so I took some time to really inspect the tail. The surfaces were hinged with CA style hinges, along with pins to secure the further. I wrongly assumed that the hinges were actually GLUED, as well as pinned.... Nope, just pins - literally PINS were stuck through the surfaces and hinges. It took about 90 seconds to pull all pins to remove the rudder and elevators.
On the good side, there is no real damage and I can replace these with new hinges (and actually glue them in place). The elevator appears usable as-is, but the rudder will need covering stripped so I can put a decent bevel in it so it can actually operate properly. The wing will be inspected as well since the ailerons are likely pinned the same way.
Nope, just pins - literally PINS were stuck through the surfaces and hinges. It took about 90 seconds to pull all pins to remove the rudder and elevators.
On the good side, there is no real damage and I can replace these with new hinges (and actually glue them in place). The elevator appears usable as-is, but the rudder will need covering stripped so I can put a decent bevel in it so it can actually operate properly. The wing will be inspected as well since the ailerons are likely pinned the same way.
LOTS of progress since removing the rudder and elevators a few days ago.
First, I finished up the gas tank. It's a simple 2-line 8 ounce setup using good, flexible gas line inside the tank instead of Tygon fuel line. This stuff won't harden or swell, but is fairly expensive by comparison so it's used only in hard to reach areas.
Back to the tail surfaces - none of the old CA hinges were glued, they were only held in by actual metal pins. The old CA hinges are replaced with new ones where necessary. When I use CA hinges I stick a pin through the center of the hinge to help make sure the hinge goes equally into both surfaces.
.....like this. After the elevator is installed I can remove the pins before putting a little CA onto each hinge from top and bottom. The pin not only helps keep the hinge evenly into both surfaces it also helps give you a good gap between surfaces. Too tight and the hinge can't flex. Too loose and it'll wobble and be sloppy. While I was at it, I also moved the control horns as they were far from lined up properly. Shocking. You can see a piece of blue tape just forward of the vertical stabilizer. I don't know what this piece is called, but when a previous owner "installed" it, he simply glued it to the covering. Yikes... It wasn't secure at all and was pulling at the covering, so I removed it, re-shrunk the covering it was attached to, removed a bit of covering, and actually glued it in place properly.
With the tail done, on to the wing. First job was giving it a good cleaning, and re-shrinking the covering.
The aileron hinges weren't pinned in place like the tail, thankfully. They were held in place with toothpicks. No glue (again), just toothpicks. The same routine from the tail was used to secure these CA hinges. Moving on...
One wing had a servo extension installed, the other was missing one. I used this as an excuse to make my own extensions again, so both aileron servos needed to be removed.
Unfortunately I noticed too late, that one servo's wires were glued to the covering. This was the result of pulling the servo out and not realizing why it was fighting me. Of course, it couldn't be in an area that was all red or white, it had to cover all three colors.
With the servos removed I noticed another couple problems. First, the grommets are installed upside down. They're supposed to be installed from the bottom in an application like this, not the top. Second, the grommets are installed in rubber pads onto the servo - these Futaba servos use rubber pads top and bottom, but the bottom ones are missing. For electric that's not as big of a deal, but with gas & glow those rubber pads help isolate the servos from vibration. Good thing I had some replacement pieces salvaged from a previous project.
It's not elegant or pretty, but here's the covering "fix" - clear-ish packing tape over the tear and then shrunk as much as possible. I may see if I've got some white vinyl to fix the "S" a bit in the future.
And here she is, all ready to run! The engine is new and needs to be tuned, which will hopefully happen tomorrow. I used an opti-kill ignition switch, with a red LED mounted near the exhaust so I can tell when the ignition is armed.
First, I finished up the gas tank. It's a simple 2-line 8 ounce setup using good, flexible gas line inside the tank instead of Tygon fuel line. This stuff won't harden or swell, but is fairly expensive by comparison so it's used only in hard to reach areas.
Back to the tail surfaces - none of the old CA hinges were glued, they were only held in by actual metal pins.
The old CA hinges are replaced with new ones where necessary. When I use CA hinges I stick a pin through the center of the hinge to help make sure the hinge goes equally into both surfaces.
.....like this. After the elevator is installed I can remove the pins before putting a little CA onto each hinge from top and bottom. The pin not only helps keep the hinge evenly into both surfaces it also helps give you a good gap between surfaces. Too tight and the hinge can't flex. Too loose and it'll wobble and be sloppy. While I was at it, I also moved the control horns as they were far from lined up properly. Shocking. You can see a piece of blue tape just forward of the vertical stabilizer. I don't know what this piece is called, but when a previous owner "installed" it, he simply glued it to the covering. Yikes... It wasn't secure at all and was pulling at the covering, so I removed it, re-shrunk the covering it was attached to, removed a bit of covering, and actually glued it in place properly.
With the tail done, on to the wing. First job was giving it a good cleaning, and re-shrinking the covering.
The aileron hinges weren't pinned in place like the tail, thankfully. They were held in place with toothpicks.
No glue (again), just toothpicks. The same routine from the tail was used to secure these CA hinges. Moving on...
One wing had a servo extension installed, the other was missing one. I used this as an excuse to make my own extensions again, so both aileron servos needed to be removed.
Unfortunately I noticed too late, that one servo's wires were glued to the covering. This was the result of pulling the servo out and not realizing why it was fighting me.
Of course, it couldn't be in an area that was all red or white, it had to cover all three colors.
With the servos removed I noticed another couple problems. First, the grommets are installed upside down. They're supposed to be installed from the bottom in an application like this, not the top. Second, the grommets are installed in rubber pads onto the servo - these Futaba servos use rubber pads top and bottom, but the bottom ones are missing. For electric that's not as big of a deal, but with gas & glow those rubber pads help isolate the servos from vibration. Good thing I had some replacement pieces salvaged from a previous project.
It's not elegant or pretty, but here's the covering "fix" - clear-ish packing tape over the tear and then shrunk as much as possible. I may see if I've got some white vinyl to fix the "S" a bit in the future.
And here she is, all ready to run! The engine is new and needs to be tuned, which will hopefully happen tomorrow. I used an opti-kill ignition switch, with a red LED mounted near the exhaust so I can tell when the ignition is armed.
It's alive! Today was too windy to fly, but perfectly sunny and warm to tune. The Evolution 8cc in this plane was brand new, never run, so fingers were crossed. I knew the high needle had been futzed with, so to be safe I set it at 1-1/2 turns out, and didn't touch the low needle. With gas in the tank I found it primed extremely quickly with a finger over the carb intake. With gas at the carb I turned the ignition on and gave it a shot with my 12V starter motor. In less than a second it popped to life with a good idle! During this tuning session I ran maybe 4-5 ounces of 20:1 gas & synthetic oil through it, and was impressed with how well the little gasser ran.
This video is right after it started, before we started tuning. When we finished, the high needle was turned out about 3/4 turn more and we never touched the low needle. It's running a little rich for now, and I'll leave it that way until it's got more break-in time.
This video is right after it started, before we started tuning. When we finished, the high needle was turned out about 3/4 turn more and we never touched the low needle. It's running a little rich for now, and I'll leave it that way until it's got more break-in time.
