Protech have been a reliable make of model kits since my first electric glider. When I saw this 1/16th scale Douglas DC3 at a show I couldn't resist it. Almost a year after buying the kit I decided to dust off the box and have a go at the pre World War 2 civilian airliner.
Specifications: Wing Span: 71" (1800mm) Weight: 3.1 lb. (2680g) Power: 2 X 540/600 size electric. (supplied) Radio: 4/5 channel, 50Amp ESC, 2 standard & 2 mini servos, 7 or 8 cell flight pack.

The first flight of the Douglas Sleeper Transport (DST) - to be developed eventually into the DC3 was on the 17th of December 1935 which was the 32nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. An early flight of the Douglas DST The first DST/DC3 was a fourteen passenger luxury sleeper transport built for American Airlines on their non-stop New York-Chicago run. The seven lower berths converted into large comfortable adjustable seats for the day travel while the seven upper berths folded into the ceiling. There were two dressing rooms and lavatories located in the rear of the cabin. A galley up front provided hot meals. There was also a honeymoon cabin up forward. In the railroad oriented thinking of the time this was a flying Pullman Car. C47 of the 4th Air Commando Squadron. The first military version of the DC3 was a single C41 delivered to the US Army Corps in October 1938 for use as a staff transport. With the beginning of war, production military versions of the DC3 were designated C47 in the USAAC and R40 in the Navy and Marine Corps. It was also nicknamed the Dakota by the British forces. Many civil DC3/DST aircraft were impressed by the US forces directly from the airlines, following the outbreak of World War II to help meet military transport demands. BBMF Dakota fly-by at the BMFA Nationals 2002 To make the DC3 passenger transport into the C47 cargo plane, Douglas designed modifications that included a large double cargo door with an integral passenger door, a beefed up floor with tie down fittings, folding bench type seating along the sides, a navigational astrodome aft of the flight compartment and stronger landing gear. Other changes were made as an aid to mass production to keep up with the military demand and additional assembly lines were set up at new factories At Long Beach in California and Oklahoma City. Production at the combined factories accelerated rapidly and reached 18.5 planes per day. Douglas DC3 Specifications. Role: Early Airliner; Military Transport (C47 / R40) Engines: Two 895-kW Pratt and Whitney R-1830-S1C3G Twin Wasp radials at 1200hp Maximum Cruising Speed: 207 mph Ceiling: 23,200 Feet Range with maximum fuel: 2,125 miles Weight: Empty: 16,865 lbs Maximum Takeoff: 25,200 lbs Dimensions: Wingspan: 95ft Length: 64ft 5½in Height 16ft 11½in

The model is packaged well with dividers keeping the flying surface panels upright and away from the bulky fuselage and numerous bags of hardware. Boxed neatly keeping everything in place. The box is very deep to accommodate the huge one piece fuselage of this model which is blow moulded plastic and the wide chord of the central wing section and outer wing panel roots. All the parts from the box take up a lot of room laid out this way. Once out of the box it takes up a considerable amount of space so keeping the wing panels in the box is a good option for keeping them undamaged. The wing sections tail and fin are built up balsa construction, pre-covered with Solarfilm and pre-hinged with solar film strips. The hardware packs supplied have the all the screws, bolts, nuts, clevices, control horns, control rods and servo covers required to finish this model. The wooden motor/undercarriage mounting is pre-built and the propellers are supplied along with good quality aluminium dome adapters. Step by step photo instructions. Supplied Provincetown-Boston Airlines (PBA) decal set. A step by step instruction guide is provided with accompanying pictures of each step and a full sticker set for the Provincetown Boston Airline colour scheme.

To complete this model the following items are required. Electronic speed controller rated at 50 Amp, 7 or 8 cell flight battery pack, 2 standard servos, 2 mini servos & a minimum 4 channel receiver Used in this review: Ripmax Xtra 60Amp speed controller, GWS GWR-8M Micro receiver, 2 x Futaba 3003 servos, 2 Protech B112 mini servos & Overlander SCR2-2400 Sanyo NiCad 8 cell flight packs.

Protech claim a 60 minute build time for this model. With a very basic bolt together construction this should not be too hard to achieve. First job is to attach the tail surface control clevices. I opted to replace the supplied brittle nylon ones with metal quick links. This is a personal choice and not a requirement. Tail fins assembled and the screw fittings holding the fins in place. The tailplane is fitted into the fuselage by pulling up the moulded plastic sides and sliding the part in. It is fixed by two wooden blocks pre-glued to the tail in the correct place. This was a little fiddley but with a little care the tail was soon fitted and screwed into position. At this point the fuselage decided it didn't like standing on it's nose and fell onto the floor. It barely bounced and I feared no damage as I picked it up but that all changed when I saw the tail plane hanging crooked in the fuselage slot. The fixing blocks had been stuck with epoxy resin and this had just come unstuck from the balsa wood. Tailplane blocks re-fixed with cyno. You can see the cyno seeping into the blocks. The blocks had broken away cleanly but at the minimum of stress, this could have been nasty if they had shaken loose on take off. This was soon remedied with the application of some thin Cyanoacrylate. Zap Pacer is very good for these sort of joints as it soaks into the wood and creates a very strong bond between the parts. A little Roket Powder on the inside of the blocks also adds a bit of lateral support in case of any future heavy handling. Rudder and elevator control horns with quicklinks and fuel tube safety grips installed. Fitting the tail surface control horns is a little tricky whilst the surfaces are fitted to the fuselage. This may prove troublesome for a novice, especially if there is limited room to move around the large fuselage assembly. Metal quick links replace the plastic clevises supplied and are much easier to fit to the control rods and adjust when connected. The rudder control horn needs to be mounted at a slightly forward down angle and the elevator horn (view from underside when fitting) needs to be mounted angled slightly right. This will be slightly left when the model is the right way up. This stops the control rod from stressing when moving and the wood used tends to flex giving irregular control movements. No mention of this in the instructions so inexperienced builders may fit the horns straight on the control surfaces and find the servos stalling when the surfaces return to neutral. I may change these rods for more rigid carbon versions if the model gets a lot of flight time.

The undercarriage assemblies are plastic sprung legs and look very good. The motors supplied are 540 size short can type with suppression capacitors and connection wiring with plugs pre installed. Sprung undercarriage legs are a nice touch. Motors mounted to the hardwood blocks. The instructions say to fit the wheels to the legs at this point but these came already fitted. These were soon removed as when fixing the undercarriage to the motor blocks and wing you cannot get to the two screws on each side of the legs under the wheels. Undercarriage leg and block screwed into wing. Wheel and motor fitted. The screws for the undercarriage screw into the wing clamping the motor mount up onto the underside. The front of the block is shaped to match the leading edge perfectly which is nice feature. The cut outs for the motors are shaped and a very good fit. Metal half shells hold the motors into the blocks. The only down side of this fitting arrangement is that the motors can only be replaced with similar size units. This excludes motors like the Typhoon 625L (long) or Lightspeed 600 but certain short hot rod buggy motors would fit nicely. Undercarriage, motors and ABS cowls fitted. Shaped nacelles are very scale looking. ABS cowls supplied form the engine nacelles and look good on the model as well as covering the motor and mounting very neatly. Wing centre section with motor loom and servo wiring extensions pre-fitted. The wiring for the motors and extensions for the wing are all pre fitted. The only job to do is to solder the servo wires onto the extensions. There is plenty of slack given to allow easy fitting., but separate wing servos requiring soldering may prove an obstacle for the novice builder. Outer wing panel ready for attaching to centre. Wing servo installed before cover fitted. Two pre-shaped aluminium wing braces slide into pre built slots in the outer and centre wing panels. These are a good fit but require a bit of jiggling to get into both braces into the slots on either side evenly. Clear tape is used to secure the outer wing panel in place and seal the join. The wing servos are mounted in pre fabricated boxes, built into the wings. These are a very good fit (using Protech B112 mini servos) and require no additional fixings. The lower locating lugs were removed from both sides of the servo and then pushed into the slots. Using a small drill the servo arm was prepared for the control rod. Disappointingly the supplied control horn bolts did not fit through the ailerons and alternate screws were used. Wing servo cover and ball-link installed. Ball-Link and control horn up close. With metal quicklinks first replacing the nylon clevices I found the control rod/clevice combo was too long, even with the clevices screwed right onto the threads and would have required the control horn to be fitted too far back on the aileron. The servo cannot be moved and the control horn must line up with the hinge line or it will not work correctly. I tried the original nylon clevice but this was also too long. Not being able to find a suitable short clevice I was about to shorten the rods when I remembered the ball link connectors from AC Engineering which hadn't yet found a model requiring the large control horns supplied with them. The Aileron horn was drilled to allow the ball link bolt to fit and was secured with the nut it was supplied with. The rod adjuster was a perfect fit for the application and provides a positive, slack free connection from servo to control surface. The servos are covered by moulded ABS covers which hide the servos very well and provide protection from snagging and the ingress of dirt. The completed wing before adding detail stickers. With the servos fitted into the wings, the extension leads soldered, the control rods connected, and the motors wired up the wing is complete. It is a fairly fragile structure and when moving the assembled wing, soft spots in the sheeting can be felt. I asked Tony what he thought and he commented it was not unusual for soft areas in this sort of half skinned wings.

The last part of the assembly was the tail surface control servos. These fit into a pre-fabricated frame that is screwed into the fuselage. Elevator and rudder servos fitted to frame. Frame installed inside fuselage. There is so much room inside the fuselage the servo tray looks almost out of place. The control rods were connected to the servo horns and then adjusted from the clevices to neutral. As always the servos were connected to a powered receiver and set to neutral before connecting the control horns to the drive outputs. This saved any problems if the servo was not centred when connected to the control surfaces. Receiver fitted inside the top of the fuselage. ESC fits on the inside fuselage wall. The receiver is stuck with velcro to the top of the fuselage inside. I routed the aerial out the top through a short mast to attach to the tail as I have seen this on a number of full size DC3s. The ESC is also secured with velcro to the side of the fuselage just above the wing. The instructions suggest it be stuck to the wing but having thought about this it would have made fitting the battery a clumsy job having to hold the wing at the same time as sliding the battery into the tight little battery box in the nose. Flight battery box prior to being modified. The roomy internal radio installation. The battery box had to have the small top section removed as the capped battery packs I use would not fit under it. An uncapped pack would fit through here fine but be loose in the foam holder. A slim wedge of balsa is used to secure the battery into the box by compressing the foam top. The Xtra 60 ESC has no BEC so a separate standard receiver battery is also installed just in front of the forward wing mounting. Even with everything installed there is still a cavernous amount of room inside. Connect the wiring, slot in the wing in and she's ready to fly. The ailerons are currently on a Y-lead but with the standard connectors left intact so I can use separate channels for each wing and experiment with flaps at a later date. The wing is held into the fuselage with 2 dowel pegs at the front and a large nylon bolt at the rear. The fit is quite good but a small gap does show between the wing upper and the fuselage. The method of fixing cannot however be faulted and the wing aligns straight.

The DC3 has an endless amount of history behind it and an almost as endless number of colour schemes to choose from. I had thought over many designs to use, the original PBA set, Plain green like the BBMF Dakota, Camouflaged with D-Day Invasion Stripes, silvered like so many of the airline versions. Ultimately I had to choose something that would not add a lot of weight (like painting or covering) and could be accomplished with the stickers I had at home. Well I have lots of Bumpy Green colours. Bumpy Green Airlines at your service. The in flight movie be Airport 40 - Dakota Using a metre rule to cut accurate strips of coloured sticky film, I slowly removed the black line already on the fuselage and applied the wide green bar in it's place. Using half width bars for red and yellow. The red bar on the fuselage is as it came and worked out exactly half the width of the green bar which made adding the yellow bars very easy. Leading edges with chrome landing lights. Proudly displaying the Protech name. I added a leading edge strip with landing lights and some fake panels on the ailerons and engine nacelles. The tail fin had the triple stripes added and dummy trim tabs on the rudder and elevator surfaces. Very simple additions that add a heap of character to the model. Bumpy Green the name you can trust. Stickers borrowed from various left over sheets. A pair of stick on doors are included with the supplied decal set and look great over the stripes. I added small door windows in line with the main cabin windows. The quote " defenceless against a deep blue sky" and the small advertising logos are taken from a racing buggy and mountain bike magazine sticker sets I had laying around. Receiver and Electronic Speed Controller arming switches are hidden in windows. The last job was to locate the arming switches for the receiver pack and the ESC. I was originally going to have them on the roof of the fuselage behind the aerial mast but the ESC switch lead is quite short. I instead used a method I had seen at a scale display where the switch was behind an opening window. With the windows on the DC3 static but blacked out the switches were fitted in these and can hardly be seen even up close. A quick test of all the controls, setting up of the throws, drive rates, sub trims and finally a power on motor test. The sound of a twin electric is quite harmonious and I think it's going to sound great in the air. Now all we need is some nice weather.

A suitably calm day came along, an early November afternoon. The sun was heading swiftly towards the western horizon and peeking momentarily through the broken cloud. A final test was performed on all the functions and the speed controller was armed. The motors began to wind up and almost as soon as it began to move the tail lifted to horizontal and the model began to turn towards the left. A little right rudder, some more, lots more and it was back on a straight course across the gritted test flight area. The speed built up and at that ever so daunting moment when the lift of the wing exceeds the weight of the plane it shifted slightly and was on the verge of becoming airborne ......... Ready for the big moment at the flying field. Tail up as the DC3 rolls across the strip. When disaster struck. The DC3 inelegantly nosed over and smashed both prop tips on both sides. As I walked to collect the model I already had a suspicion as to what had happened and found that the main undercarriage had fallen apart on both sides and the wheels had buckled in on themselves and jammed into the gritted surface of the playing field. Fortunately no other damage was done, save the tail wheel (that had already been glued back on once from new) which broke off again. I am, I admit very disappointed with the failure of the undercarriage. It didn't break, it actually fell to bits, on both sides. The gritted surface of that part of our flying site is quite smooth and I have no doubts this model would not rotate from grass unless you happen to fly from the local bowls club's best green. A tarmac or concrete runway would probably be OK for this undercarriage but with no note in the instructions stating any conditions required for take off from ground I would be interested to hear how anyone else got on with this model. With such a great looking model, it is a shame more thought wasn't put into the undercarriage setup. I would also like to see an update to this in the instructions warning of the potential problems or even a solution provided in the form of improved undercarriage. Removal of the undercarriage all together presents a problem as the mounting point for the undercarriage also holds the motor nacelles onto the wing. This means chopping legs off the undercarriage or finding a suitable spacer to replace the flat mounting plate. It seems for now I will be flying the DC3 without undercarriage, but at 2.6kg (5.7lb) it will be quite an armful to hand launch. One suggestion has been a wheeled dolly or plug in / fall away undercarriage, using a bungee to launch with. We will have to wait and see. Pictures of it flying will appear when a solution has been found. Still very pleased with the model, even after it's problems.

An extremely attractive model, quite large and maybe not ideal for a beginner or novice as some of the building was tricky. The more experienced modeller will find it very easy to assemble with most of the parts simply slotting in and screwing into place. It took longer than the 60 minute quoted time, but as with the Protech Unlimited a lot of time was taken soldering the wiring extensions as this cannot be rushed when working near plastic film covered models. Likes: Scale looking model with ARTF ease, pre installed wiring extensions, very tough moulded fuselage, well constructed flying surfaces, sprung undercarriage. Dislikes Incorrect screws for aileron control horns, aileron control rods too long for supplied clevices, some of the film was wrinkled and peeling (this may be due to the age of the model though), some instructions incorrect (i.e. wheel fitting order), poor glue choice on the tailplane blocks & finally the weak undercarriage, which prevented a test flight one of the few days we have to enjoy the skies at this time of year. I would only recommend this model to anyone with a good amount of building and flying experience. A novice would not have had much fun trying to get round the few items mentioned, which to a seasoned model builder are nothing more than a trip to the spares box. Let's hear from people who have bought, built or flown this model. I would like to find out if they are all like this or if mine was an exception.

Late November was soon upon us and a break in the seasonal weather (dismal) offered another chance to try and fly the DC3. Having been unable to find any props to replace those damaged on the first aborted test flight I had to sand off the jagged parts of the damaged props and as there were no cracks in the blades I matched the tip shapes with some sandpaper and balanced them. Only one needed to be re-balanced and not by much. I glued the undercarriage legs into place with thin cyano and rocket powder. This I thought would serve as a temporary arrangement and was not expecting it to survive a landing. Preparing for the first flight. Armed with a freshly charged 10 cell flight pack of 1700mAh capacity and a fully charged receiver pack we headed for the launching hill. I was determined to try and fly this plane before christmas and the safest place to try this is at the Bumpy Green electric flying site. This has a large hill and gives a good drop into the field giving a lot of time to get up some speed. I have to admit I was not convinced and I was on a 50/50 split as to it's flying capability. A good throw into the wide blue yonder. Using a rather precarious two handed launch I slowly wound the throttle up to full and heaved the DC3 into the air, half expecting it to dive gracelessly into the ground or peel off to the right and plant itself among the trees. Much easier to launch than I had imagined as it powered away from my hand. Well it took to the air with no problems at all. It was a little twitchy at first and wanted to climb very hard on full power. Backing off the throttle until it settled, produced a very stable flight. It felt like it would stall quite easily and at one point when flying quite slowly it dropped a wing, giving that tell tale sign that it was about to tuck under. Reduced rates were switced on for the ailerons and elevator and seemed to give the model a much smoother control. I will recheck the control movements again against those stated in the manual. Slow and smooth gives a much more scale look to the model and I doubt I'll be trying any aerobatics with it. More than enough power on 10 cells but with lower duration. I had been worried that reports of 'marginal' and 'under powered' were going to prove a problem. As it happened, with 10 x 1700mAh cells installed, it had more than enough power. Just over half throttle would maintain level flight and slightly over provided good flight characteristics while maintaining height in the turns without any loss of speed. I can only imagine the reports of underpowered had come from 7 cell NIMH packs which would I suspect provide much less thrust. An 8 cell 2400mAh SCR pack should provide enough power with some to spare with the added benefit of 40% increased duration. Very stable once the trim and throttle were set correctly. After a second circuit the DC3 settled down into a steady and quite stable flight. Bringing it lower for a couple of low passes for the camera as non zoomed shots come out much clearer and more colourful. A couple of low passes for the camera once the trim was sorted. Pushing the throttle forwards slowly the DC3 gained height and headed out across the playing field for a long wide fly-by. Approaching for the last turn before the fly-by a squadron of four pigeons rose out of the farm side trees and flew two fore and two aft in formation for a few seconds until I turned away. Heading out for a final fly-by and 'patrolling with pigeons' in formation. With the time now over 4 minutes the motors were sounding a little slower even at full throttle so I let the model slowly descend heading for the gravel area. With a much longer than expected glide and a wish to keep the speed up rather than risk a stall it flew over the landing area and slowly dropped to the grass beyond. I was again waiting for a non event, expecting it the nose over and break off the undercarriage as soon as it touched the grass. To my delight it skimmed across the grass to a gentle stop with the undercarriage still intact. Slowing for landing approach and the final turn into wind for a greaser. The DC3 had flown and flown well which more than made up for the problems with the undercarriage. The landing had covered the bottom of both wings with mud thrown up from the wheels but this was of no matter now as it had flown almost flawlessly. I say almost, as when balanced according to the manual and indeed a little nose heavy if flew like it was slightly tail heavy. I shall investigate this on future flights and report further, especially on the flights with 8 cell packs. I don't think I would trust 7 cells to do any more than be adequate to fly this model and it's always nice to have a little in reserve. Back on tera-firma and one piece. With the light fading fast we headed back to warm up with a cup of hot coffee to review the video and pictures taken during the flight. I look forward to the next suitable flying day to get some more time on this model as it is quiet and looks great in the air. A real pleasure to finally see airborne. Gluing the undercarriage into place is not the best option but it did better than I expected against the grass. I will be looking for a better solution to this at some point but with trips abroad and Christmas just around the corner it may be the new year before any serious modifications are fitted.

All aboard for a flight round Bumpy Green



Article by John Kent of Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
October 2002

Comment by Wayne Haycock on 00000000000000. Rating 5

A nice touch the history, I didn’t know about the berths and the hot food I like the advice about keeping the wing panels in the box, also nice to see they include props and domed nuts. I like the look of the undercarriage legs they would look good on a cargo, also that’s a nice touch the frame for the servos in the fuz. I always power up my servos before I fit the arms or the pushrods, as for the battery well I make up my own packs so as John said it wouldn’t be a problem, in the past I have fitted Velcro straps or used foam to wedge the battery in. As for the gap on the wing to fuz joint that can be filled with white or translucent silicone bath seal, all you do is put the backing from some covering on the wing and run the silicone along the fuz, bolt them together and leave over night, when dry remove the wing and trim with a knife, This looks a very nice model and I think it would be very easy to fit a bigger battery to give a little more power, I like the idea with the switches and look forward to reading about the flying.

Comment by Migz on 00000000000000. Rating 4

Excellent commentary on the plane, Love the pictures. As for the undercarriage can i suggest looking through R/C Cars spare parts (That's right R/C Cars!- they work well suspension-wise and are tough, stick with the original wheels but with a little adaptation, it should work fine. And you could even get away with it looks-wise. Excellent review, helpful hints, and very informative pictures. Looking forward to obtaining a unit myself- if i could find one.

Comment by shawn fear on 00000000000000. Rating 5

thanks to u i could put mine together.i never got the book with mine.could you plase tell me where the c g is thanks and love your reviews

Comment by Helpful on 00000000000000. Rating 5

Hi Shawn Tried to email you but keep getting errors. C of G is 85mm from the leading edge of the centre wing section. Useful link to DC3 Manual http://www.protech.be/mapT0310.pdf

Comment by shawn fear on 00000000000000. Rating 5

thanks so much now i can love it to!!!

Comment by Ryan on 00000000000000. Rating 5

Great article. Thanks for all the pointers. I have almost completed my DC-3, only she is getting an Indy Silver paint scheme. Glad to know she has enough power on 8-10 cells.

Comment by Norm & Bern on 00000000000000. Rating 5

Ours ended up a Dakota, sky blue underneath, camouflage on top complete with invasion stripes. Used 10x2200 nicads, standard Fleet radio. Takes off from our grass strip, Ivel MAC Bedfordshire, easy to fly on rates, twitchy on full. Landings a dream, line it up on power and proceed as with your trainer. Our u/c seems to be different from the review, well designed and made - no problems at all. We are new to electrics, we are trying it so that we can fly multi engined scale. So far so good. Mosquito and BN Islander awaiting test flights. One day a Lanc.

Comment by John Hodkinson on 00000000000000. Rating none

Glad some other people managed to get hold of this kit only I haven`t seen or heard of another until I found the Bumpygreen website. Mine is 3years old now and still going strong, I modified the undercarriage with some aluminium homemade ones which work well but are not sprung like the originals,my instruction sheet stated that the sprung ones were for tarmac or display only but one of mine lost the pin in the oleo and the wheel just spun round and caused the model to noseover, power is pretty good on either 1700 SCR 8 cell packs giving a safe 4 minutes flying before landing I also have a 3000 nimh 8 cell and can only get 6 minutes with that before landing power on, my latest mod is to the nosecone to allow battery changes without removing the wing each time, I have cut the nose off in front of the battery box then put a small frame around this piece so that it can be pushed back into the nose then locked with a couple of small scews one each side and that is it really, saves wear and tear on the wing servo conections etc.Really flies a treat especially on nice sunny calm days

Comment by Vogon on 20040517213544. Rating 5

just read your feedback on the Protech DC3 on the Bumpy green site. I too have one that I purchased second hand after seeing the Bumpgreen one hanging up at the Sandown show last year. (and I just had to have one) I have a problem fixing the main flight pack, and was pleased to see that John (above)had done some experimenting. I made a sheath around a battery, and then filled the rest of the nose area with builders expandable foam, then fashioned a clip to hold the battery inside the tunnel. The problem with this make up of model is the fixing of anything to the plastic fuselage seems imposible. Apparantly there is another DC3 in my club, though I hav'nt seen it yet, and rumour has it that it behaves a bit car like (Struggles to take off). He cannot seam to obtain the right power for flight. When mine was purchased there were no props, and I just happened to have a pair of 3 blade 8x6 Graupner greys. The Dak rotates well, and the blades look right.... seaming to be matched for the plane and the motors. Have I had a lucky hanger spares box, or is this the correct kind of size...... or can anyone give me a better matched blade (always hoping for a longer flight) I would appreciate though, any photos of your detachable nose solution John, It does look great in the sky, folk not believing that this huge hulk of plastic can be made to fly so scale-like on a pair of toy fans and a battery. Anyone else got a Dak? I might want to build up a squadron (Even damaged for spares would be sought after). Happy flying......

Comment by Mo on 20040618211828. Rating 5

I got mine from Wings and Wheels when Ripmax were clearing their stocks - they were sellling the last lot for 60 quid. I spent a year working on a better power setup and it flew beautifully for 8 minutes on a couple of 5 quid speed 400 motors and an 8 cell pack. - yes I said speed 400 not 600 or 480.

Comment by Electric Mike on 20041003182904. Rating 4

Built mine and flew it on it's maiden flight on July 7 2004. Junked the supplied Mabuchi 540 motors, and modified motor mounts for my longer can MIG 600 Turbo BB motors (internal fan equipped and with flux-rings), chopped off the nose forward of pilot's windscreen and removed junk foam battery pack holder. Built new balsa and ply batterypack holder, screwed it throught the fuselage angled upwards into the nose-cone and balanced a/c with a 8xSANYO 3000 HV NiMh pack. The COG was right on the designated spot. Changed props to APC-E 9x4,5 and bought new main wheels about 10 mm larger than the wheels supplied with the kit to enable ground clearance for the larger props. Current was 36 Amps on 8xSANYO NiMh 3000HV cells. My DC-3 has the second generation double-legged semi-scale undercarriage and swivelling tailwheel. Take off on a hard runway was initially uncontrollable in terms of keeping the DC-3 on the runway (wind was calm) probably because of the torque from the larger props and lack of propeller stream over the fin and rudder. The DC-3 turned 90 degrees left within 5 metres of beginning of takeoff run and takeoff was aborted. New takeoff run beginning with a/c positioned at a 90 deg angle towards the runway. Got it into the air after some semi-controllable turns, and it flew very well with no additional trim neccessary. It was not at all underpowered on 8 cells, it climbed with strong autority and the main part of the 5-minute maiden flight was done on 60% throttle, with only a small burst of increased power in some very sharp turns. Made a little bumby landing on the grass due to not having done any stall tests and keeping the speed up a little for landing. No damage to the a/c and it flew very well indeed, and with this power I find it unneccessary to step up to a 10 cell pack. Charging the 8-cell pack after the flight with my Schulze charger showed that only 1700 mAh had ben used for this 5-minute flight....much better than I had expected. A neccessary modification though is to make the tail wheel steerable in order to perform controllable take-offs. Anyone out there who has done this mod and has some comments on it? /best regards from Mike in Sweden http://eflight.hedlunds.net mailto:micke@hedlunds.net

Comment by Daryl on 20050422153954. Rating 5

Really pleased that I found your article; I've just found one of these models in a model store over here (Australia) & have absolutely fallen in love with it! I'm actually fairly new to RC airplanes, but I'm thinking of getting it for a long term project (very long term, at the rate I'm buckling up my current trainer!!), so your tips & advice are going to be invaluable. Just out of curiousity, any idea if this model is still current or not? Couldn't find it anywhere on the Protech site. Cheers, Daryl

VIEW / ADD Your Comments This is where you can leave your comments about the article itself or about the subject of the article. For example maybe its a review and you would like to tell people about the experience you have with this particular model. Name: Email Address (optional): Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent = 5 Comments: