Edmonds Ecee Thunder plans?

[Rktman]

Does anyone have kit build plans and templates for the discontinued Edmonds Ecee Thunder or it's smaller cousin the Ecee? I'm on a quest to recreate/resurrect this awesome canard glider that was (and in many ways still is) ahead of its time in terms of canard technology.

* I should probably clarify that I'm not planning to kit this, as that would probably violate some kind of copyright or intellectual ownership rights. I just want to build an Ecee Thunder for myself because I really like the way it looks and admire the canard activation method.

 

[iqsy59]

I hope you find it! Would love to find plans for the Deltie Thunder as well!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[mikec]

I'm on a quest to recreate/resurrect this awesome canard glider...

Have you contacted Balsa Machining? They were making it when it was still in production.

I have a built Ecee Thunder and most of the balsa remnants, but I'd be reluctant to do this because of intellectual property concerns unless I knew that Rob Edmonds wasn't planning to do anything with the design.

 

[Rktman]

Have you contacted Balsa Machining? They were making it when it was still in production.

I have a built Ecee Thunder and most of the balsa remnants, but I'd be reluctant to do this because of intellectual property concerns unless I knew that Rob Edmonds wasn't planning to do anything with the design.

No worries, I just want to build one for myself, not kit them for sale. I didn't realize my opening paragraph could have been interpreted in that way. I think I'll go back and clarify it.

From what I've read I think his gliders were very innovative, imaginative, well designed...and just plain cool! He was a real pioneer in the way his canards were engineered and I lament that he closed his doors long before I ever became a BAR.

 

[BABAR]

Since it has recently been suggested that my internet research skills are sub par (and I was ably assisted by a very kind and talented rocket enthusiast) thought I would try to redeem myself.

I can’t find the plans exactly, but I did find this

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/edmonds-ecee-gallery.20060/

John McCoy (better known as der MicroMeister) downscaled this to micromaxx.
The posted pic is pretty rough.

I will P.M.ed him and maybe he can provide a better copy, and you can rescale it back up to Thunder size.

I have flown a number of Edmonds kits. Not only do they fly great, but they require no sanding or airfoiling (in fact the instructions tell you not to airfoils them.

 

[Rktman]

Since it has recently been suggested that my internet research skills are sub par (and I was ably assisted by a very kind and talented rocket enthusiast) thought I would try to redeem myself.

I can’t find the plans exactly, but I did find this

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/edmonds-ecee-gallery.20060/

John McCoy (better known as der MicroMeister) downscaled this to micromaxx.
The posted pic is pretty rough.

I will P.M.ed him and maybe he can provide a better copy, and you can rescale it back up to Thunder size.

I have flown a number of Edmonds kits. Not only do they fly great, but they require no sanding or airfoiling (in fact the instructions tell you not to airfoils them.

Thank you kind sir, really appreciate your help!

 

[mikec]

The kit consists of a large amount of laser-cut 1/4" balsa that interlocks. Just to give you a flavor of the design here are a couple of photos. Regenerating the plans would be possible but quite a bit of effort.

 

[Oldschool77]

This and the Twinsee Thunder. I wanted both and waited to long to pull the trigger.

 

[Rktman]

The kit consists of a large amount of laser-cut 1/4" balsa that interlocks. Just to give you a flavor of the design here are a couple of photos. Regenerating the plans would be possible but quite a bit of effort.

View attachment 362201 View attachment 362202

Looks daunting with all those intricate tabs and slots, and not something I'd like to tackle with a hobby knife on quarter inch balsa. If I could get the templates, I'd probably have it laser cut. Oh the things we do for love.

 

[Rktman]

This and the Twinsee Thunder. I wanted both and waited to long to pull the trigger.

Sadly they stopped making these long before I became a BAR and discovered them. Now that they're OOP I want to do the Jurassic Park thing, at least with the Ecee Thunder.

 

[BABAR]

Courtesy of John (der MicroMeister) McCoy, Sr.

Thanks John,​

This is Micro Sized but should be upscalable to standard and Thunder versions.

Boy I wish I'd saved plans and templates from my CiCi2, my Gemini, my Twinsee, AND my Ecee!

Tom

 

[the random rocketer]

There is an electric motored RC plane sold as the Sawn Craft Aura that looks like the Ecee's brother. This is also OOP as Depron foam has been discontinued.

 

[Rktman]

There is an electric motored RC plane sold as the Sawn Craft Aura that looks like the Ecee's brother. This is also OOP as Depron foam has been discontinued.

It was actually based on Rob Edmond's Ecee Thunder but modified so that it could be constructed of foam. Sadly another dead end for me.

 

[JStarStar]

I'm performing itsy bitsy fixes to
keep my Deltie Airshow gliders flyable. The little notches where the gliders latch onto the booster are very thin and breakable.

 

[Rktman]

I'm performing itsy bitsy fixes to
keep my Deltie Airshow gliders flyable. The little notches where the gliders latch onto the booster are very thin and breakable.

Good to know someone still values these oldies but goodies. Wish someone would start reissuing these cool gliders like they do with some of the old Estes models.

 

[Rktman]

ECEE TEMPLATES AVAILABLE

I don't usually necro a thread, much less my own, but I didn't want to start a whole new one just to make templates available. Due to a stroke of incredibly good luck and the kindness of a fellow club member, I'm now the happy owner of both an Edmonds Ecee Thunder and its smaller 13mm sibling, both originals still sealed in their bags. They've been on my bucket list for a long long time and I've always wanted to build/fly these awesome gliders that sadly went OOP long before I became a BAR. My recently finished Ecee is shown below.




I thought I'd pass some of the good fortune along by making templates of the 13mm Ecee available to anyone who wants them. I have them in both Illustrator or eps files that can be used by a laser cutting outfit to burn the pieces. The document ("page") sizes are sized to fit standard 4" wide balsa sheets. If you want to go old school and print the templates out to hand cut the pieces with a hobby knife, I can forward them as pdf files. Much thanks to Saluki and Massrokit for providing scans earlier that helped me with my build.

 

[the random rocketer]

Yes i would like this file. I've been cursing myself for missing my chance many years ago.

 

[Rktman]

Yes i would like this file. I've been cursing myself for missing my chance many years ago.

Laser cutter files (Illustrator format or eps format) or a pdf? Do you have the instruction sheet?
PM me your email address and I'll send them sometime today.

 

[Rktman]

Just wanted to make clear that the templates are for the 13mm (smaller) Ecee, not the Ecee Thunder. I'll make templates for the bigger Thunder version available once I start building it and can scan/trace the parts. I'll start a separate build thread for that and will leave a link here.

 

[Rktman]

I probably should have started a thread when I started building this smaller Ecee but didn't have the time. In place of that, let me pass along some suggestions and parts info:

> The 13mm motor tube is 9” long (actual was 8 15/16” for my kit).
> The vent hole is 0.25" in diameter and 0.25" from the forward end.

Suggestions
1. Install motor hook to prevent motor being spit out.

2. Make sure the canard doesn't hit the fuse when fully deployed (judging from forum comments, this plus the force of the piston slamming the deployment arm into the bulkhead can possibly break the fuse at this position). I glued reinforcement pieces made from 1/64” ply on either side of the fuse in the area of the V-shaped canard notch.

3. Enlarge the vent hole to prevent excessive ejection charge pressure from damaging the motor tube, actuating arm, and canard.
I extended the vent hole about 1/8” on its aft end by carefully cutting the motor tube and the bottom of the fuselage. This required using a longer piston (a balsa nose block can be used; they’re available from several vendors. I purchased mine from JonRocket).

The forward end of the longer piston will then need to be sanded down 1/8”, otherwise the exposed vent opening will actually be less than stock due to the increased piston length.

 

[Rktman]

Forgot to mention: the balsa "piston" length is 1" x 1/2" diameter.

 

[Rktman]

As mentioned earlier, I started an Ecee Thunder thread on the forum and the traced templates for this larger glider are now available there at
https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/ecee-thunder-build-and-templates.153500/#post-1896490

 

[the random rocketer]

Well I'm back from the Nov launch and my Ecee didn't make it. It power looped into the ground on an A3-4t I think I should have tilted the launcher 10 or 15 degrees down range. Every piece of the glider north of the vee in front of the wing broke. Discouraging since it was all hand cut instead of laser cut. Don't know if i'm going to rebuild.

 

[Rktman]

Well I'm back from the Nov launch and my Ecee didn't make it. It power looped into the ground on an A3-4t I think I should have tilted the launcher 10 or 15 degrees down range. Every piece of the glider north of the vee in front of the wing broke. Discouraging since it was all hand cut instead of laser cut. Don't know if i'm going to rebuild.

Really sorry to hear about that. I haven't had the opportunity to fly mine yet so I have yet to discover any peculiariries it might have. Hope you slid the piston back into the motor tube so the canard flap wasn't in the locked down position? That's the one thing I can think of that would've forced it to loop immediately.

 

[Ez2cDave]

Really sorry to hear about that. I haven't had the opportunity to fly mine yet so I have yet to discover any peculiarities it might have. Hope you slid the piston back into the motor tube so the canard flap wasn't in the locked down position? That's the one thing I can think of that would've forced it to loop immediately.

Did you verify the CG for Boost or only trim it for glide ?

Dave F.

 

[ed-n-eddy]

Absolutely rebuild it! Fixing is something we do best

 

[Rktman]

Did you verify the CG for Boost or only trim it for glide ?

Dave F.

I trimmed for glide, which is about all I can do on a rear engine R/G like this. If it's not launch-stable, I couldn't add weight to the nose without making it unstable for glide. Since Edmonds stuff is well-engineered and has a good reputation for working reliably pretty much right out of the box, I'm assuming that he designed it so that it'll launch stably. It still had to be glide trimmed of course, but I didn't have to do much more than trim it to circle. Unfortunately the instructions didn't specify where the CG point should be, unlike the Ecee Thunder, where it's actually burned into the balsa on the underside.

Speaking of, I'm more worried about the Thunder because of its weight and size. Too unwieldy to toss around at the park so I just made sure it balanced where the CG mark was on the fuse underside. I've seen enough videos of both successful and disastrous flights to make me uncertain whether I'll be bringing it home in one piece or in a bucket. Oh well, only one way to find out.

 

[Ez2cDave]

Hmm . . . Launch Rod whip might have been a contributing factor to the loop . . . Thoughts ?

Dave F.

 

[BABAR]

Hmm . . . Launch Rod whip might have been a contributing factor to the loop . . . Thoughts ?

Dave F.

Not sure if that would explain problem, but easily resolved with mini rail buttons.

 

[Rktman]

Not sure if that would explain problem, but easily resolved with mini rail buttons.

Can those be attached externally only? The Ecee motor tube completely fills the inside of the glider so rail buttons can't be anchored from the inside.