From: macs@worke.Eng.Sun.COM (This IS a test)
Newsgroups: rec.models.rc
Subject: Re: Plane for .19 engine?
Date: 20 Nov 1992 20:56:43 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: worke
Keywords: Second plane, sport trainer

>In article <BxtvD5.Kyy@csn.org> eeak@teal.csn.org (Ed Krejcik) writes:
>>Since I have lots of time to shop around (I haven't finished my EAGLE II yet),
>>I'm still trying to figure out a good plane for an old Enya .19 I have.
>>
>>Does anybody know anything about the SIG Doubler II?  Its for a .15 size 
>>engine.  Looking at the box at my local hobby shop, it looks like a 
>>smaller version of the SIG Mid Star 40.  The Mid Star 40 gets great
>>reviews at my local flying field and from RCM.

The SIG Doubler is a design that dates back to at least the '70s.
If you look real hard at the RCM Illustrated Plans book you
will find that the design was originally published in RCM a long
time ago.  So long ago that I believe it was originally suppose
to fly with 1 or 2 channels  (that means it goes back to the
escapement days).

The Mid-Star 40 is only at most a two year old design.  It is the 
mid wing version of the Four Star 40.  The Doubler and Mid Star
my appear be related, but I think it would be a mistake to assume
that they perform the same.  For one thing, the Doubler was originally
touted as a Quarter Midget/Sport Plane which means it was suppose
to go fast as well as be aerobatic.  I am pretty sure the airfoil
is symmetrical and rather thin.  It also looks like it would end
up having a rather high wing loading.  I have no experience flying a
Doubler, but just from seeing how it is built and looking at the design
I think I can safely say that it should fly fast and on the prop.

The Mid Star has a semi-symmetrical wing and has a rather light wing
loading for a sport aerobatic plane.  It flys very differently than
what the Doubler should fly like.  Mid Stars and Four Stars tend
to fly on the wing and are a more forgiving airplane than your typical
go-fast plane.  Again, I have no experience flying a Doubler, but
I think it does not fly like a Mid-Star.

If you want a plane that flies like a mid Star in a .19 size package
try to locate a TDC Windbreaker or Pronto.  I had a Windbreaker 
with a K&B .19 (not a .20 Sporster, this was a an honest-to-goodness
Clarnece Lee designed engine from the late '70s that in my opinion
has got to be the best engine in this size/weight category ever made)
that flew great.  It didn't fly fast and it had a hard time holding
a good knife-edged, but other than that there was very little it 
couldn't do.  At 3 1/2lbs and somewhere around 400 sq inches that plane
could practically land and take off as if it were on an elevator.
It was so good a doing snap rolls that now that I don't have it anymore
(more later) I feel that every plane I have basically can only do a
fast axial roll, not a snap :-)  To top it off, it was a trully well
engineered design and kit so that it was real fast to build and took
punishment likme nothing I've ever had.

The Pronto is basically the same plane except it has more sedate
lines than the Windbreaker.

That plane lasted me about 2 1/2 years until it finally sucombed
to pilot error,  my friends, not mines.  It was a dive straight into
a boulder at full throttle.  Only the plane was a wash-out, the engine
engine and radio survived, although how, I don't know.

Earlier I said try to find one because I think they are not being 
manufactured anymore, either the company is gone or thye are being sold
in this area.  Sheldon's had a half dozen of their kits the last time
I looked and I think there was at least one Windbreaker and a couple
of Prontos.

Manuel.