Project Airplane?

That's funny right there. What a comparison.

Hold on to your panties !! Thats a nice looking engine Dave

Don't let that 0.020 get sucked into that 61's venturi

Ok. Got some more work done on the fuselage this weekend. Side put on, the other fixed up, firewall installed, front hatch mount remade and installed. Also had to re[pair the wing again. Noticed a slight warp downwards, so I had to cut the main spar and bend teh wing back to straight and reglue it. Followed by some more reinforcements on both sides. Wing is currently sheeted and is taped, clamped and drying as I type this. SO I will get a few more pics tomorrow. Also just glued in some firewall reinforcements, again, pictures of that tomorrow.

And here are a couple of the wing re-repair repair..... I call it 'The Straightening".... And in the last picture I had made a couple triangle blocks and glued them to the center section and the trailing edge for added strength as teh factury had just glued the trailing edges on by about a 1/16" and using only CA. They were not strong at all.

Those Fitzwillies were a work of art at the time. In the beginning they were made in Southern Ontario near me, then they tried to cut costs and moved around until they closed. 222, I basically glued up my fuselage like yours and added a 2" wide strip of 3/32" from about the firewall back to just behind the farthest crack, Half a sheet each side in my case. I tapered the edges a bit so it didn't look too obvious but doubt that I fooled anyone.

Thanks for that tip. I was thinking about something like that, but wasn't sure. But now with that confirmation, I probably will do it when I am done with the rest of the work. That would be the easiest part of this rebuild!

Interesting fact, Chancey, I first saw the Fitzpatrick in a review in the Model Airplane News issue that had the 1/2A Stealth article.  Love at first sight.  I ended up with both.

cool project, it's coming along nice...over the years i got rebuilding down to a science :^ (..

A fun fly type plane like that you'd want more pulling power, not so much speed, 11x7 would work, but a 12x6 might be better for more vertical and was the standard R/C prop for .60's, forever.

Well, this will probably be the last update for a while as all non-essential things are closing down for at least two weeks due to Covid-19. With that said, I will probably not have the time to pick up the required things to finish the model with. But I may be able to find some filler material from a friend, then I will be just needing covering. Things left to do are to replace one of the wing hold down dowels, and finish the hatch area. Then it is just the finishing before covering. I would like to still put some doublers on the fuselage sides, but if I cannot get to the LHS, I may not use them, although I had intended to do so. It is very tough and ridgid already. Thanks for following. Also, while off for a few weeks, I hope to bench run the Webra .61 that will be going onto this plane.

Looking good. Not sure of your R/C experience, but if you're looking for a nice flyer/trainer the .46 with a 11x4 would pull it, but performance would be marginal. The Webra would be pretty nice and lots of fun, you might even look at 13x4 prop.

Well, looky here -- there's an airplane almost all grown up. Good job -- and you got it back together pretty quickly.

When I first saw it I would have left it in the dumpster! Amazing what you have done!

That is pretty amazing. Well done.

She is a looking good Chancey , what did you decide on the Ailerons no still thinking about it ? If you never flew with them they can make things easier with turns and i would think rolls . either way stay safe and hope you can post a little on the engine run .

Mark Boesen wrote:Looking good. Not sure of your R/C experience, but if you're looking for a nice flyer/trainer the .46 with a 11x4 would pull it, but performance would be marginal. The Webra would be pretty nice and lots of fun, you might even look at 13x4 prop.

Firstly, thank you all for the compliments and encouragement with this project. As I believe I had stated earlier, there were at least two times during the rebuild that I was honestly very ready to call it quits and salvage the hardware. But it was all the positive things posted here that made me stick with it, it just may have taken me a day to let it all sink in. Now for teh questions....

Mark. RC experience is so-so. I have flown micro RTF planes and co-axial helis, and micro quads. Also I have a fair bit of stick time with scratchbuild foam electric planes in the 36" - 42" wingspan. With that all said, I have not flown much the past couple of years. I have been out once thsi year with a buddy flying my electric. As for nitro. Zero experience, well ok, once but we won't talk about that as it was back around 1995 and didn't last long....

And Eric. The ailerons will definately be used, it was the flaps that were questionable. Unless I had made a mistake in what I had typed earlier. As for the decision. It has not yet been made. Part of me really wants to omit them, but the other part says put the servos in as they are already there. So with that said, at this very moment, there is no concrete decision of whether or not I will use them, but am now leaning to installing them. As for the engine run. If I can remember to take some shots or video, I will definately post something up on them. I will be running both the Webra 61, and OS LA 46 now that my carburetor had arrived here safely either yesterday or today. And which will go aboard for the ride, again, not yet decided, but am leaning to the Webra. I do have a home for the LA 46 aboard another plane, of which will be the next rebuild topic of mine coming up in a week or so......

I wouldn't worry about flaps. Unless you're stuck with a really short field, I've never found flaps to be much more than a novelty on a sport plane. They're effective on the larger scale military models, mainly because the wing loading is so high. Secondly, you can't fly a plane with zero dihedral as R/E only -- it just won't turn and once it rolls, it's in the dirt. Consequently, your choice to use ailerons is necessary.

Getting off the strip will require using your left thumb. A lot of folks seldom use the rudder when flying; it's mostly bank and yank, which is fine. When taking off, just remember you can't turn on the ground with ailerons. I've seen some newer flyers forget and roll right when their plane starts veer left on the ground. A few high speed taxies will help you get the hang of steering.

You've done a great job and should be proud of your work. I've enjoyed the story!!

If I was you I'd get in a bunch of flights with a large foamy expendable/ easily repairable RC plane first! I've flown electric RC for 4 yrs. now but would be a bit apprehensive flying that .60 nitro monster myself. .15 size is about what I intend to start with as far as nitro RC. Hate to see all that hard work rekitted AGAIN!

OhBee wrote:If I was you I'd get in a bunch of flights with a large foamy  expendable/ easily repairable RC plane first! I've flown electric RC for 4 yrs. now but would be a bit apprehensive flying that .60 nitro monster myself. .15 size is about what I intend to start with as far as nitro RC.   Hate to see all that hard work rekitted AGAIN!  

i think you'll be fine, .60 size planes fly a lot smoother and don't get bumped around in air like smaller planes, lol, they're just a bear to transport. Flap are so-so, they just don't seem to work as well as 1:1 planes do unless they're large barn door types, results will probably be less than impressive.

Little airplanes flit, big airplanes fly. You're going to find that Stick flies better than any 20 or 40 you've ever flown.  The flaps are fun to mess around with.  There's so much more that you can do with them than just use them for landing.  Set them in crow at high speed and watch that thing stop in mid-flight.  You can even land backwards with a bit of headwind. Couple them with ailerons and do some rolls.  That is one fun airplane. For what it's worth, your Webra wants to turn some rpms.  Don't lug it down with big lumber.It'll be like putting a 6-3 on a TD.  It'll turn a big prop but it would prefer to run a bit faster.

Really great job saving a Dumpster Special. I really think you'll find that it was worth the effort.

Well, thanks again for the compliments. I guess I will be doing some more reading of 'crow', as I have heard of it, but never used it ever, as my experience flying is all with 42" and under foamies. The more I hear about it, the more I am looking forward to flying this thing. It sounds like it will be a blast.

So I'm just about there now. Got the fuse and wing covered, switch installed, firewall got a light coat of epoxy on it, and engine (Webra Speed .61) and mount installed. Servo cutouts cleaned and ready for servo installation, as the Tower Pro MG995 servos required a very slight trimming to fit. The only things left are the front hatch needs to be finished, it is currently drying, and landing gear needs to be straightened, which is gonna be tough without a press. Servo installation will be starting tomorrow with what remaining grommets I have left here. Then the final straw will be making and hooking up the flaps, as I was short one rod for it, and the rods are 4" long threaded both ends. So I will probably end up making two new rods so they will be equal, unless I find one here, or the LHS opens again soon so I can look there. As for covering, with the closures, I did not add a doubler to the sides as originally intended, but it does truly feel solid enough. As for covering, I have a roll of doculam, so that is what was used, so I can show off my handy work..... Yeah, thats it.... I will hopefully get a chance to fly it this year as the club is still closed and not taking membership payments yet, and I have to do some flight training as well. But worst case, I will head out with a friend and giver' a shot this summer at his club. We do have a bet going here. If it stays up for 5 minutes, I will get his smaller electric Ultra Stick. Slowly but surly, I'm getting there!

Cool !! She is looking good and appears you will bee adopting a smaller electric Ultra Stick to boot