Impulse (oz9327)

 

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Photos of my new, as yet unflown Impulse, powered by a Red Finn .06 twin [model photo & more pics 004-006]. Rudder only with a modern 2.4 ghz radio. If test flights are successful, I will install a vintage Controlaire single channel radio with a compound escapement.
DaveA - 04/02/2018
I never saw an Impulse, but I did have a Fox .09, a good running engine, though not blessed with a lot of power. It would pull a much bigger prop than a Cox 049, but shared the Cox's tendency to start backwards. It would run just as well in reverse as forward. Its only problem if you have an old one was the glow plug, built into the head like a Cox. If I still had mine, I would just drill it out for a standard plug and run it. As for the kit, like all Berkeley kits, it was crap, probably the reason Berkeley went belly up about this time. The plans were beautifully drawn, not so the wood, heavy, stringy, die crunched firewood. Most guys just used the ribs if they weren't too bad and threw the rest away, cutting new balsa from the plans. The illustrated Berkeley Aerotrol radio also was crap, big, heavy and hopelessly outdated. I was never able to even find the rare, expensive batteries required. My escapement never worked. Wasted my paper route money because I didn't know any better, was two years later when I had a successful flight with a real radio. When Berkeley went under, Fox bought the remains and tried to sell the leftovers, with little success. Sig inherited what was left and re-designed some of the more popular kits, doing a much better job than Berkeley ever did. I think some are still available, nothing wrong with the designs, they just tried to do it too cheap.
Doug Smith - 04/02/2023
Whew! I was wary to say this in public but since the naked truth has come out I can go ahead with this 30 years old confession. I had bought a Berkeley Stinson Reliant kit (oz185) in the eb. of back then and went on to build it. Very bad decision. The balsa might pass for oak, and the plywood for straw. Construction required a number of lengthwise beams - not spars - of that "balsa" that had to be twisted along to conform to the equally stout fuselage formers. Building a shipyard quality jig was required to hope for a minimally straight fuselage. I could see this Dreadnought would never fly so I sent the thing to its undignified end, no Viking funeral, jig included.
And that was the end of Berkeley for me, after years of drooling over their ads until I could lay my hands on one, a childhood dream in the trash. I might say the trauma took me into a life of crime and vice but I'd need to get out more.
Miguel - 05/02/2023
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