Kaos Review Brings Back
Memories
Thank you for publishing
Tom Sullivan’s review of the
Kaos 60 ARF [in the January
2016 issue]. This is submitted
simply to show how much RC
hardware has changed.
I was a young RC flier when
the Kaos was introduced and it
was a spectacular flyer, unlike
anything I had ever seen. Its
high-speed loops and precision
pattern maneuvers put it in a
class by itself and opened up
pattern flying to the average
club pilot. Back then, it was
common to see the Kaos
powered by extremely high-performance, piped .60s like
the Webra, Rossi, and OPS
engines.
Mr. Sullivan’s comments
about the servos recommended
in the ARF’s instructions caught my attention. He comments that “the manual
calls for mini digital servos, which are unusual for a plane ‘this large.’” When it
was introduced, the Kaos was a normal-sized .60-powered plane, although many
opted to fly slightly smaller .40-powered planes. He used a Tactic TSX25 servo
for each aileron that has a staggering (for the size of the plane) 84 ounce-inches
of torque, assessing them as perfect for the job.
The early Kaos would hit 110-120 mph with a piped engine and was flown on
four servos such as the Kraft KPS- 14 that sported a whopping 29. 1 ounce-inch
torque rating. Most were built with a single servo in the center of the wing to
operate both ailerons.
We are truly fortunate to have the huge selection of small, light, powerful
servos and excellent radio equipment available today. Those old Kraft and other
servos of the time cost about $15 in 1970s dollars—equivalent to paying $66 for a
servo almost as good as a Futaba S148 today.
Ball bearings, coreless motors, and other things later taken for granted did not
yet exist. We flew our hand-built balsa models on AM radios that were susceptible
to interference at the drop of a hat and didn’t even have servo reversing. We lost
as many airplanes to interference as to dumb thumbs and NiCd batteries.
—David Dale
Corrections to “AnyStand”
The parts list for the “AnyStand” feature in the April 2016 issue called for two
45° 3/4-inch PVC elbows. The stand actually requires four 3/4-inch elbows.
The “AnyStand” author, Ryan Livingston, also suggests using silicone grease to
lubricate the pivoting PVC parts and ensure that they don’t threaten to bind.
9 Model Aviation MAY 2016
www.ModelAviation.com
If you have a letter to the editor, please submit it to MA Editor-in-Chief Jay Smith at
5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302, or email to jays@modelaircraft.org or at
www.ModelAviation.com/editor.
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