A Tomboy at it again

Anything with a propeller
Martin
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Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 14:11
Location: Warwickshire

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Martin »

A guy at our club argued that the Senator plan is deliberately asymmetric to compensate for propeller torque and help it climb in circles and descend in a circular glide more efficiently than if the fuselage was straight! :lol:

I know that many competition machines have deliberate asymmetries - tilted tailplanes, deliberate wing warps, and so on - and of course we all use offset thrust lines and rudder trim tabs, but I continue to believe that the Senator plan was a simple mistake.
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Sundancer
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Joined: 07 Jun 2018, 09:28
Location: Limousin, France

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Sundancer »

Very sad to read of John Barker's passing. He was a friend and club mate of mine in the BATS club throughout the eighties and nineties. We lost touch when I moved to France until I built an electric powered RET Lulu for one of the RCGroup build offs and he spotted it and posted a comment on the Hip Pocket forum. I still have the Lulu and it gets flown a lot as it is a super little fun soarer and a great example of the KISS principle that just because something is simple doesn't mean it isn't good. These days I enjoy launching and flying the Lulu from the comfort of a garden chair usually ending the flight either at my feet or by catching it, much to the amusement of my French friends, next time I am winding it away in a nice little thermal I will think of John with gratitude, RIP John.
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Lulu27.jpg
Stew
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Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Stew »

I've done Tomboy DT with fuse, clockwork, and RDT, all work well as long as you get a good tilt on the tailplane. Mind, if a strong enough thermal wants it, it will have it. DT or not.
I've used a spruce spar before, but never needed a rear or upper spar. It was very strong with the spruce spar. Plenty of 'give' in it.

The Senator I think was just a drawing error. I just go with it and build as drawn. I've seen Senators built by the guys who use them in competitions. They aren't straight either. Must build another soon..
Stew
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Location: Staindrop, Darlington.

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Stew »

I'll write about all I know about the Tomboy if anyone cares to hear it. Several years ago I made it my quest to find out as much as possible about this little model. As an Aspergers 'sufferer' one of my regular motifs is going to the far end of a fart about some new interest, and I'm afraid I did that for this model. I built, scrapped, built again, crashed, recovered, and sweated blood until I felt I knew it. I talked to the best known builders of Tomboys I could think of, and took their advice. It's a good little model. Flawed, and very much of it's time, but it tends to just work despite the best efforts of the builder to stop it flying. There are better models, but throw one together and you'll have a lot of fun.
My advice would be to build a free flight one first. Build it as per plan, fit an engine you could just about stand to lose, and fly it, trim it properly and enjoy it. Then when you feel like it's doing what you want, fit a very subtle rudder and a single servo, and use that to nudge it ever so gently to keep it in the field boundary. That's RTM. (radio trimmed model) Anything further than that and you need to consider another model. (and RTM is what they'll be expecting inside the FF area at Old Warden if you ever get there).
If anyone wants to hear the full story I'll happily write all that I've found out after a good few years of studying the thing.
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RON
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Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by RON »

I’m up for it Stew, sounds fascinating

Ron.
G0MBV Class A Radio Amateur, North Yorkshire
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Carl
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Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Carl »

Me too. Those are the kind of things I enjoy reading about in RCM&E and Aeromodeller.
Carl

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STILL LEARNING
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MaxZ
Posts: 330
Joined: 31 Jan 2019, 11:48
Location: Boskoop, Netherlands

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by MaxZ »

As this seems to be a general Tomboy topic, I'll post some pictures of mine, including the mods I made for the conversion of the original design to RC (rudder-elevator-throttle). You will note that the text in the pictures is in Dutch, but that should not be a big problem I guess. "Triplex" is plywood in English.
Tomboy1.jpg
Tomboy4.jpg
Tomboy_staart_mods.jpg
Tomboy_neus_mods.jpg
Tomboy_stabilo_mods.jpg
I have added the pdf versions here:
Tomboy_neus_mods.pdf
(904.07 KiB) Downloaded 175 times
Tomboy_staart_mods.pdf
(755.22 KiB) Downloaded 192 times
Tomboy_stabilo_mods.pdf
(926.6 KiB) Downloaded 187 times
The battery is standing upright (2s-0.95Ah), directly behind the firewall, just in front of the windscreen. The esc sits in the space below the windscreen, and can be pushed in there through the battery compartment since F1 is partly open.
I made a pocket for the landing gear with three layers of 2 mm plywood. The L/G itself is made from 2 mm piano wire, bent in an inverted U shape at the top, and sprung in place.

It is a brilliant little flyer.


Max.

(Edit: revised the landing gear wire and mounting ply to 2 mm thick)
Last edited by MaxZ on 13 Feb 2019, 17:54, edited 3 times in total.
Colonel Blink
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Location: Ilkley, UK

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Colonel Blink »

Stew wrote: 12 Feb 2019, 18:07If anyone wants to hear the full story I'll happily write all that I've found out after a good few years of studying the thing.
Knock up an article and send it to Andrew Boddington - he's always on the lookout for content. In fact he must be desperate, as he has even printed a couple of things I wrote!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Sunbird
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Joined: 22 Feb 2018, 08:24

Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Sunbird »

MaxZ wrote: 13 Feb 2019, 10:01 As this seems to be a general Tomboy topic, I'll post some pictures of mine, including the mods I made for the conversion of the original design to RC (rudder-elevator-throttle). You will note that the text in the pictures is in Dutch, but that should not be a big problem I guess. "Triplex" is plywood in English.]

Thank Max for your modification ideas. :idea:

Ian
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Sunbird
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Re: A Tomboy at it again

Post by Sunbird »

Phil_G wrote: 09 Feb 2019, 22:15 I have both a Tomboy Senior (48") and a Poppet, both rudder-only:


Img_3209.jpg


They both fly great, both very stable & responsive, the Poppet is easier to transport, but flying-wise they're very similar and both ideal S/C models. Of the two I think the Poppet has the edge on cuteness.
I would suggest that neither needs an elevator, rudder & quick-blip throttle is a lovely relaxing way to fly.
Tongue-in-cheek, I'd say that any comp that necessitates an elevator on a Tomboy needs its rules corrected! Only joshing, dont take any notice of me :D
Power- the Tomboy 48 has a Blue-Wonder 1400kv on a 8x3.8 slowfly and a 3S 1000mAH which gives about 90w max, the Poppet has an 1810 with a 5x3 on a 2S 500mAH which is about 40w max. Both have plenty of power and cruise nicely at half throttle. I took the Poppet to the last Old Warden 'Mayfly' and had a great time with Paul J & Mark D, it was a brilliant day.
Cheers
Phil
Hello Phil
Ive been looking at building the Tomboy Senior as well however I would like to use some engines that I have lying about. The engines in question are a Cox Medalion 0.9 and a Russian Norval 0.6. I'm thinking the Norval might just do the job considering these planes don't need much power on rudder only.
Regards
Ian
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