Not everything necessarily scales--either up or down--perfectly well. A kid I knew in high school had a 1970s Mazda, which he liked except for two flaws--higher fuel consumption and poor torque (to tow even a moderately-heavy trailer up our north Georgia mountains, he had to keep the accelerator pedal on the floor). These faults have since been remedied in the new Wankels (through improved, longer-life rotor tip seals and better-optimized fuel injection systems, which computer design facilitated), but model-size Wankels might need different solutions than essentially down-scaled, improved full-size components.

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Speaking of Graupner, the old Hobby Lobby building in Nashville/Brentwood was torn down 3 or 4 years ago.

For those who aren't familiar, this Hobby Lobby was unrelated to and predated the nationwide expansion of the Hobby Lobby (40% off) stores you are familiar with today. They were a model airplane company that imported a ton of European stuff, including Graupner. They were heavy into sailplanes, electric motors, etc. back in the 80's, and 90's, long before it started growing here. They sold things we are familiar with under their original names such as Oracover, which we are familiar with under the name of Goldberg Ultracote, and I guess now just Ultracote. Hangar 9 distributes it now, iirc.

If you could actually find the building in Brentwood, you knew that everything in the catalog was in stock there. They had a decent showroom/retail area in front and a big boatload of everything in the back. Whoever was at the counter knew about everything R/C flight related. IIRC, they introduced Outrunner brushless motors and lipo batteries to the US R/C world. The Senior Telemaster was HUGE to somebody that had never seen more than a COX control line plane and a few .40 size R/C planes.

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I love sanding.

I was going to mention the OS/Graupner .30 Wankel model engine as well. Unlike GH’s, mine is not still in regular use, but he characterized it well.

Like Jerry, I used to drive Mazda rotaries (my Dad had an Rx-3 wagon, I drove an Rx-2 sedan in college and for quite a number of years later and for a relatively short time we had an Rx-4 wagon). I miss the way the smooth power just went up and up...especially when the back two barrels of the carb opened up at 4000 RPM. But that’s not the way to good fuel economy .

Jerry’s little Rx-3 coupe with the Rx-4 engine would’ve been quite fun to drive.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

I used to work at a compressor station not too far from here when I got out of high school for United Gas Pipe Line Company... we were in right-of-way maintenance (running a tractor and shredder, which is what farmers do best).

The old compressor station was no longer in service, though it was there and complete... used to have four ENORMOUS engines (like 16 cylinder V engines, large enough you could crawl into the crankcase from the side panels, each piston was about the size of a five gallon bucket... I still have an old engine valve out of one of the cylinder heads-- it's about 4 inches in diameter across the face of the valve). Anyway, they were only like 1600 horsepower, but an ungodly amount of torque... each one powered three compressors running off the side of the crankshaft, each being fed by the three main 36 inch gas pipelines coming into the station.

Well, anyway, what was interesting was, back in the 70's when I was a kid, they actually had company housing out there... a whole street with at least a dozen houses. Of course they were all gone by the time I worked there, except for two that served as our HQ/offices and one for the workers offices. What was interesting was, they distributed gas directly from the 36 inch gas pipeline to the old houses after running it through a regulator and meter (for the company to keep track of usage.) The regulator reduced the pressure to suitable "gas service pressure".

Now, the gas in the pipeline was straight from the wells, so it had no odor. Since gas that is distributed domestically MUST have the "stench agent" added to it to detect gas leaks by smell, just downstream of the regulator and meter feeding the system off the main pipeline, there was a large round steel "filter" with a cap on top of it. About once a year, we had to shut off the gas supply, and pour a cup of methyl mercaptan into the "filter" after removing the cap, then reinstall it and turn the gas back on. This mercaptan soaked into the "filter" medium inside (some sort of pad I think) and then passed its odor to the gas that flowed through the canister before it went to the houses/buildings.

The methyl mercaptan was kept in this little outhouse-looking "chemical shack" located basically in the middle of the shops and barns and stuff... the stench when one passed by that shack on a warm, humid summer morning was almost overpowering. One time I was in there cleaning out some stuff and saw the 2.5 gallon jug of the mercaptan.. it was a white jug, but the stuff had discolored the plastic and "soaked through it" turning the bottom 3/4 of the jug a dirty brown... the stench was overpowering in there lemme tell ya...

One time when I was in high school, a guy I knew had his girlfriend insulted by a teacher everybody hated... he worked in the kitchen part of the school day and he decided to get even, so he took a big potato, slipped out of the building to the parking lot, and shoved that potato as far up the guy's tailpipe of his new car as he possibly could. Of course the car wouldn't start and it took the mechanic about a week to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Became something of a legend... I had to laugh because EVERYBODY hated this guy, he was SUCH a tool... If that guy could have gotten even a dropper-full of that methyl mercaptan and throwed it into his car, well... you might as well have hauled that car to the junkyard and crushed it... you'd NEVER get the stench out of it!

Later! OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

That's a shame... I went there on a few occasions. I was sad to see that it was closed the last time I tried to go there.

They had a LOT of fun stuff there...

Later! OL J R

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Goodness - I should have read this post before Luke quoted it back. I worked with Jim Martin - the owner of Hobby Lobby (though we never met face to face) - on those early AXi motors and Jeti speed controls as well as several other products that helped bring electric power from the curiosity it was in the beginning to at least headed towards the mainstream that it is now. I still have the first AXi 2820/12 motor I tested on the bench and in the air in order to better characterize it for him.

Jim eventually sold the business and retired and I think it has changed hands a couple of times since then and moved away from Brentwood.

A small vestige of the business still exists under the name "Hobby Express". http://hobbyexpress.com

I haven't heard from Jim in years. I wonder how he's doing.....

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Cool story. BTW, I believe the lady in the Telemaster photo from your link is Jim Martin's wife. I'm pretty sure I saw her at the store with him one of only three or four times I was in there.

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I love sanding.

That's odd (or maybe I am), in that the smell of methyl mercaptan has never bothered me. Nor has skunk spray (which our dogs came home "wearing" a time or two). Although I don't *like* either one, they've never had the repellent effect on me that others have mentioned.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

NO SH1T!

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

That's because you're a horse!