The Ampmaster

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Author: Al Eastman

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This design came about after I took a look at an advertisement for Stream Inc's
small 25E electric plane. I immediately thought why not do something along that
line, and make it larger for easier gear installation and yet finish lighter th
an their advertised four pounds.
Turns out it wasn't that much of a challenge, the lighter part at least, and I h
ad the drawings done in a couple of evenings. Building went pretty quickly as we
ll, and I had it framed up and ready for covering in a few days. Should have hid
den it away though, as my son dropped in for a visit and seeing the uncovered ai
rframe decided he'd have to have one as well.
Since he's a glow flyer, that meant back to the cad program for some slight mods
for a slimer engine. The next day he had an almost framed up airplane and a big
smile as he left for his own workshop.
I like simplicity, and this plane was designed easy to build and easy to use. Tu
rns out it is a pretty easy flyer as well, and thoroughly aerobatic, in fact the
most aerobatic electric I've done to date with the exception of my e-streak. It
will do anything you ask of it except for extended verticals. Not that it's any
slouch in the climb, as there is plenty there for loops, Cuban eights, stall tu
rns etc.
I used all contest balsa except for the 1/4 square stock. You will need eight s
heets of 1/16th by 4 by 48 and 2.5 sheets of 1/4 by 4 by 48 balsa, as well as oo
dles of 1/4 square and some 1/4 triangle stock. A small amount of 1/8th and 1/16
th aircraft ply is needed as well.
I like to have ships which are compatible with my existing battery packs, so mos
t every design is either for ten or twenty cells. I've learned to use the standa
rd astro 05 as if it were an FAI 15. If you look at the winds for these two moto
rs, you'll see they are the same, except for the wire gauge. Consequently the 05
works just fine on ten cells, provided you prop the motor correctly, or use a g
earbox which allows pinion change so you can gear for a certain amp draw. I find
somewhere around the 25 amp range works well and this means using a 10/8 master
airscrew electric prop on the ten cells.
I used the MEC gearbox and tested a number of pinions before finding one with 24
teeth which gave me the best combination of amp draw and rpm with the 10/8 prop
and MEC's standard 60 tooth spur. You can find many pinions for this gearbox at
any shop which sells rc car racing supplies. The box is standard 48 pitch, but
you will have to drill the pinions to fit the astro shaft.

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The Wing
So let's get down to the building. I built my wing on an adjusto-jig, but realiz
ing everyone won't have one of these I've provided drawings of the ribs with tab
s. Tabs on the top? Well, this wing is one piece with NO dihedral, so the wing i
s built upside down on the plans. The tabs allow for alignment. There is a bit o
f natural dihedral on the wing bottom due to the wing taper.
Print out the wing ribs and glue or tape to balsa blanks and run them through th
e hacker of your choice. If you have an adjusto-jig I have provided alignment ho
le locations. The airfoil is the "real" Clark Y generated in Compufoil. NOTE tha
t there is NO center rib used, although I have provided a drawing of one in case
you want to place one there. I used two sub ribs about a half inch from the win
g center to allow a servo to be mounted between them.
I said I like simplicity, so this plane is designed around 48 inch balsa. The wi
ng piece wing allowa full span sheeting without cutting any of the sheeting.
Pin a 48 inch 1/4 sq. spar on the plans. Align all ribs, and install the top (bo
ttom) spar, either cutting it in two, or scoring it a bit to allow the minor dih
edral bend. Strip 1/4 inch balsa strips from your 1/4 sheet for the trailing edg
e, and also a set for the leading edge. If you want to get extra jazzy, use some
carbon fibre strip along the top of the spars.
Install wing webbing full span using 1/16th sheet with the grain vertical. A 1/1
6th piece of aircraft ply is used as a dihedral brace as per the plans. I cut th
rough the center ribs to install the dihedral brace. Place this brace on the rea
r side of the spars. The wing webbing goes on the leading edge side.
I used scrap 1/4 balsa to make up a dihedral brace at the trailing edge, and als
o to fill out the airfoil to the sheeting line to prevent the wing mounting bolt
s from crushing the wing sheeting.
Note that the leading edge is made up of two pieces of 1/4 to form a half inch.
The sheeting is glued on over the first piece, and the final leading edge strip
is made wide enough to be rounded off flush with the sheeting. I fully sheeted t
he whole wing as I felt that the weight saving from the small amount of open are
a would be minimal.
You can now pull the wing off your board and pin it back right side up. Pin one
side back to the board, using a piece of scrap for dihedral alignment. Remove th
e alignment tabs, and before sheeting fully, install 1/4 spruce rails for the ai
leron servo (I used micro servos) making sure that it is installed so as to allo
w the servo to bottom out on the bottom sheeting. There is not a lot of room und
er the battery plate for control horns.
1/4 balsa sheet makes up the wing tips, and pieces of aileron stock make up the
trailing edge at the wing center. I used short standard wire horns glued into th
ese pieces.
Note that the ailerons may seem large, but e-models fly slower than their slimer
counterparts and I find larger ailerons work best. This plane rolls very well,
but not super quickly, even with these large ailerons. I increased my throw to m
ax on the computer radio and sealed the hinge lines before I was satisfied with
the roll rate.

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Fuselage
The fuse is totally built up, both sides being made from a 1/4 contest balsa "Ke
el" which houses the wing saddle. Note the 1/4 stiffener balsa doubler in the fi
rewall area. The rest is 1/4 square and 1/8th by 1/4 stick construction. The com
plete side is then skinned with 1/16th contest balsa.
The landing gear plate and the forward wing saddle former are both 1/8th aircraf
t ply. The rear wing former is simply two cross pieces of 1/4 sq balsa. Pick a b
it harder stick for this area.
Fuselages formers themselves are simply 1/4 stick cross sections at the appropri
ate spot, along with the firewall, and the wing leading edge former.
The firewall shown is 1/8th ply, and is marked for the MEC gearbox. Simply print
it out and tape the drawing to the plywood, cutting and drilling the appropriat
e holes. Note the oval cooling hole in the lower section. Another cooling exit h
ole is cut in the 1/16th cross grain sheeting under the fuse nose section. I did
not sheet he lower rear fuselage, just covered it, and this has caused no struc
tural problems.
Print out a top view of the fuselage and use it for alignment of the sides. With
out the turtledeck formers, the fuse has a straight top which allows easy alignm
ent as you build it upside down.
Triangle stock reinforces the firewall installation, and a strip along the insid
e lower edge of the balsa keel allows rounding of the lower fuse sides.
The turtledeck formers shown on the plan may present a problem, as I built mine
with more of a trial and error effort rather than using the plan as a guide. I u
sed the standard sig 12 inch bubble canopy, cutting it off where indicated. I ji
gged the formers to fit.
The front fuse top hatch is made up of two side pieces of 1/4 square stock with
a contest 1/4 balsa sheet top. Triangle stock here also allows for rounding. A
dowel through the rear formers behind the canopy, and a 4-40 bolt and blind nut
on the fuse front top lock things in place. The rather large hatch presents no p
roblem with structural strength and allows easy access to everything inside the
fuse. Battery placement and removal is a breeze.
I used scrap 1/4 balsa bits to build up and form the nose, gluing these to the f
irewall and then carving.
My battery plates are made from two layers of 1/16th balsa, ca'd together cross
grained. Drill 1/16th holes in one piece to allow CA to wick between the two lay
ers. Two 1/4 square spruce rails glued along the fuse sides provide a spot to sc
rew the plate into the fuse. I don't glue the plate itself in, as removal makes
things more accessible. I find that the two layers of 1/16th tend to separate af
ter you pull out a few velcroed battery packs, so I usually place a 1/4 square b
alsa rail across the fuse over the front edge of the battery plate. However I us
ually wait until after a few flying sessions before doing this as I sometimes mo
ve both the battery and it's mounting plate for a better CG placement.
The landing gear just didn't look right sitting ahead of the wing, so I used a b
it larger piece of 1/8th aircraft ply, allowing some gluing area under the front
fuse, and at the same time allowing mounting of the gear on the fuse, and yet b
ack in the leading edge area of the wing. A piece of triangular stock helped fai
r the mount into the wing underside. The gear mount is also glued here to the pl
y former at the leading edge of the wing saddle. Triangle stock also reinforces
this joint. This has proven bulletproof so far, despite some hard landings. The
gear position allows for excellent ground handling, with no nose over tendencies
.
The stab and fin/rudder are standard built up structure, using some 1/4 sheet an
d 1/4 square stock.

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Flying
At this time I have over 50 flights without incident. Although I have some large
r and much more exotic electric twins, this little plane is the one that always
gets the attention. The twins are neat and fly scale like, but glow drivers alwa
ys have an excuse for a successful e-twin. The ampmaster-jr. however gets their
attention. Not many of them realize that it's electric until they listen, and lo
ok up close.
So if you want something quick, spirited, and lots of fun, consider building one
of these. I get 5.5 minute flights routinely on 10 1700 mah cells despite a lot
of full power use for vertical maneuvers. Half throttle cruise flight should ge
t you quite a bit more.
The MEC gearbox/astro 05 setup geared at 24/60 and using a wooden MA electric pr
op draws 26 amps at 7200 rpm. My finished airframe covered minus gear weighed in
at less than 20 ounces. The finished ship is 56 ounces. At that weight it is a
performer!
A standard sport geared 05 would also be an excellent choice for this plane and
would install with only a small modification to, and relocation of the firewall.
I use geared sport 05's in my twins with the same prop/10 cell setup and they w
ork just fine.
There is room for full size radio gear, at least there is if you built it as a s
limer. My son had no problem placing the gear in his, but the battery pack would
change that for electric. Anyway, the larger servos would increase what I feel
is an ideal weight for this design. If you can get it any lighter, then you'll r
eally have something!
The ampmaster gets off a grass field very aggressively in about 20 feet. You can
tool it around gently as a mild sport ship, or really bend the sticks for tail
biting turns. It can be flown in close and personal, and in fact this is where I
enjoy it. Initially I was a bit disappointed with it's performance, but traced
that down to a too forward CG and not enough elevator throw. It now loops tightl
y and aggressively. On it's first few flights the control throw wasn't enough fo
r a smaller loop and it lost momentum going through the large loops it was tryin
g to do. So setup is important, especially to an electric plane. Get them flying
on the CG and performance is enhanced considerably.
CG on mine is now right on the spar.
In return for this plan, should you decide to build it, I'd appreciate a note te
lling me of your decision. Especially when you get it flying.
I'd especially like to hear about any other motor combinations which might be us
ed.