Engine deflectors to keep oil off RC plane?

by Terrance
(Lille, Nord, France)

Hi there,

Firstly, Thank you very much. Your site has helped me a lot in my entry into this hobby.

I just got my first Nitro powered plane, Calmato 40 sport with a .40 Evolution NT Engine.

Ive taken her up twice and it was one of the best experiences ever. Having put the plane together (yes its an ARF :) but involved some work and being a novice getting help from sites such as yours its an EXPERIENCE I will not forget) the excitement was unreal ...

Anyways, 2 flights in and very impatient for this weekend to take her up again I want to ask you for tips on keeping the oil spray from the Exhaust off my plane.

After every flight I notice that the left side of the plane(when looking at it from in front) has alot of oil spray, along the fuselage, on the wings, and on the horizontal and vertical stabs.. Since its a new engine I run it rich which adds to the amount of spray.

I do not have a deflector as yet and all the deflectors just add an inch or 2 to the exhaust. Will that be enough to keep the spray off the plane ?

And can I find some kind of wide pipe/metal tubing to run out of the exhaust all the way to the tail of the plane, so the spray does not dirty the plane, and since the tube is wide so it does not mess with the exhaust pressure...

Thanks alot for getting back to me.

Kind regards,
Terrance

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Engine deflectors to keep oil off RC plane?

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RC engine deflector
by: Anonymous

Exhaust deflectors for RC airplane engines are only a few inches long. You can most of the time turn or angle the exhaust so as to point it away from the airplane a bit. But most models still end up with an oily mess of some sort. It's just part of flying a glow plane.

As for running an exhaust pipe all the way to the back of your airplane? I don't think it's a good idea at all to be truthful.

1: This would add weight, which is not good.

2: By adding a long exhaust pipe you're changing the length of exhaust. Changing the length of the exhaust changes the amount of back pressure to the engine which is also not good.

Gonna get slimed, no matter what
by: rcdude07

Flying nitro, you will always get slime on the plane. After every trip to the flying site, wipe it clean. I use 409 or Glass cleaner, just keep a bottle and a rag in your flight box.

Do the following to prevent a lot of build up:

1. Point the exhaust as far away as possible from the plane's fuse. This is as simple as loosening a screw and rotating the muffler, re-tightening the screw.

2. I've used a rubber deflector before, just tie wraps on the exhaust of the muffler. However, experience has been that they hurt performance of the engine.

Give the pilot a scarf.
by: Michael from Oz

G'day

Sorry, this is one you are just not going to win. A properly running two stroke is always going to toss out oil. When it stops doing it, it is going to die. You can minimise it but you can't stop it.

You can't use a long pipe on a two stroke exhaust without severely affecting its performance. With a four stroke it is different and you can run quite a long exhaust pipe.

I used to wonder why my planes ended up oily on the left side when the exhaust is on the right. It seems that the prop causes a vortex to swirl around the fuse and this spreads the oil from one side to the other.

Most of my engines are four strokes and with them there is a lot of oil thrown out of the engine crank case breather. If you don't put a small piece of tube on this, the oil all ends up inside the engine bay. On my trainers, I put a drain pipe down to the front undercarriage leg and hold it in place with a couple of small cable ties. This really does help to keep things cleaner.

A supply of clean rags or paper towels and some window cleaner are your best friends.

RC airplane exhaust deflectors
by: terrance

Thanks alot for your comments.

I got an exhaust deflector and didn't notice any big difference with the .40 engine, as far as the performance goes.

But I think it kept about 60 - 70% of the exhaust oil/fuel off the plane. I just had to clean up the wings after each flight.

And ...
by: Michael from Oz

Hello again. Just be thankful you are no a real pilot flying a Sopwith Camel or other WWI plane. Many of them used rotary engines which have no real exhaust system. The exhaust just comes straight out the top of the heads.

And, if you wondered why those blokes used to have a silk scarf, it was to wipe the castor oil off their goggles. Those engines used several pints of castor oil per hour in a "total loss" lubrication system like our model engines. All this oil came out of the engine and much of it ended up in the pilot's face. Those planes were covered in castor oil.

These days we use synthetic oils and some castor perhaps. This is far less gooey than pure castor as much of the synthetic oil burns.

If you want a reasonably clean model, try building a Cirrus Moth with a scale exhaust (a long pipe along the side of the plane) and a four stroke motor. This would keep the oil to the back quarter of the model. Mostly.

Cirrus Moth
by: Terrance

Hi there Michael,

You know Ive always been fascinated by WW1 and WW2 plane, leaning more towards the WW2 planes.

My first plane was a P51 Mustang (foamie made by Art Tech) after getting in some flights on my dads trainners... the Stang runs a brushless motor and is fun... But I wanted to move into the Nitro planes so I got the Calmato to start with...

The cirrus moth does seem interesting and for my second plane, hopefully for Christmas, I was thinking of getting a warbird, may be a spitfire or a warhawk... do you fly WW1 planes ??? can you tell me more about how the WW1 bi-planes handles in the Air ?? are they very hard to fly ?

Any info will be great..
Thanks,
Terrance

Terrance - new Thread
by: rcdude07

Terrance, I'll gladly address your question in a new thread. I don't want to taint this thread from the original question.

Sirrus Moth not really a warbird.
by: Michael from Oz

G'day

The Cirrus Moth was not a warbird although some were used as trainers in WWII.

It was designed and built by Dehavilland in the early 1930s as a plane for ordinary pilots. One was actually flown from England to Australia over a couple of weeks.

It evolved into the Tiger Moth which was the most common British trainer during WWI.

I doubt you will find a kit for it but there are plans out there. I built one from a plan which we scaled up. The original was designed for the OS 20 four stroke (now long out of production). We scaled it up to use an OS FS 40 (also long gone). My friends and I built three and mine flew well but crashed when I mucked up the ailerons and had them reversed.

Really, you should just put up with oil on your planes. You can't really avoid it and if it is a WWI plane, then having oil there is part of the true scale experience.

Don't rush into complicated planes too quickly. Stick to cheap trainers until you are sure you can handle any situation. Scale models are not as easy to fly as trainers. You WILL need to use the rudder with most scale models as well as the ailerons. I have a nice scale Decathlon (aerobatic and good looking) and it absolutely demands you use rudder and aileron to get it to turn. If you try to land it without using the rudder, it just wanders off to the right. I use my radio to mix some rudder as I am not a good rudder user.

Have fun. That is what it is all about.

Mike

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