PDQ/Brodak Baby Clown rebuild

Eric,

Both of these were finished over a year ago. Jim dug up the thread to ask a question.

Which one do have lying in wait?

Just picking at you Ron , The Baby clown is in waiting, You inspired me to buy it some time back. I new you had and flew them......Eric

I see, you really should build it!

Cribbs74 wrote:

It's actually quite small, I have seen them flown with .19's when built light.

There might be one of these in my future. My club does a vintage race series and this one is on the list. It can have a Fox or McCoy .35, or any non schnuerle .25 to race.

Jim

Do the rules allow for engine mods?

Cribbs74 wrote:Do the rules allow for engine mods?

Only adding a muffler to non muffled engines. But mufflers aren't required so I'm not sure why anyone would do that.

Jim

Yeah,

Seems like a common theme amongst larger racing classes. Foxberg, Clown, Goodyear etc. all use stock engines. Apart from head shims and needle valves that is. So I guess it comes down to how well you can build!

I think a light Super Clown would be a great racing plane, heck with fixed flaps you can race and fly OTS with it. Might have to swap engines. Unless you go with the Fox .35
Ron

Good old thread from back in the days when we were all teaching each other our building techniques.

Cribbs74 wrote:Yeah,

Seems like a common theme amongst larger racing classes. Foxberg, Clown, Goodyear etc. all use stock engines. Apart from head shims and needle valves that is. So I guess it comes down to how well you can build!

I think a light Super Clown would be a great racing plane, heck with fixed flaps you can race and fly OTS with it. Might have to swap engines. Unless you go with the Fox .35
Ron

Up here in the PNW, we have two classes of Clown racing.  
1) The normal Flying Clown races where any engine up to a .19 can be used, any mods allowed as long as it's safe.
2) Geezer Clown Racing.  Okay, formally it's called Sportsman Clown Racing, but Geezer is more appropriate.  Limited to O.S. 15 FP, O.S. 15 LA, and Brodak 15 engines to keep the speeds down.

I was thinking of building a Clown for Geezer next year with a .15 LA-S on it, but with adjustable leadouts.  That way I could fly it with the leads way forward like they do in Clown racing, but then move the leadouts back for Sport flying.

Rusty, thanks for bringing this thread back up.

For my education, is it the original or the Brodak version that has the thicker wing?

The Geezer Mark

The wing thickness is the same. The chord is slightly different. I used the PDQ wing to build mine with the Brodak fuse shape. The Brodak version uses a built up leading edge and trailing edge with cap strips. A poor feature for racing. The built up wings can break off right in the hands of your pitman. I believe Control Line Classics offered a Flying Clown and between all of them, there's no consistency.

I was referring to the Baby Clown, not the Flying Clown. In my case I had to enlarge the wing cutout to get the Brodak wing to fit. I therefore made an assumption that the PDQ Baby Clown must have had a thinner wing. I’ve been wrong before.

Ron, you could be correct. I though Mark was asking in regards to the Flying Clown. I did have a original Baby Clown. It was the worst plane I ever flew. It had too short of a wingspan, it flew terrible and was not very responsive. Mine was using a K&B Torpedo .09. It was well built and finished. I sold it at a swap meet a few years ago. The Brodak version of the Baby Clown is a great little plane.

Ken Cook wrote:          Ron, you could be correct. I though Mark was asking in regards to the Flying Clown. I did have a original Baby Clown. It was the worst plane I ever flew. It had too short of a wingspan, it flew terrible and was not very responsive. Mine was using a K&B Torpedo .09. It was well built and finished. I sold it at a swap meet a few years ago. The Brodak version of the Baby Clown is a great little plane.

That’s why I used a Brodak wing for the rebuild. Everything else was traced from the PDQ kit. It flys very well.

Yup, I was asking about the Baby Clown.  I even thought about the Brodak ARC Baby Clown, but when I looked on the Brodak site today, the ARC is $71.99!  Plus shipping!!!  I'll scratch build, thank you.  

The Center Ring Mark

Well, that's pretty much ridiculous. They will sit a long time at that price and possibly fossilize. The early versions were from the 1st gen ARF manufacturer and then the design was changed. I don't know how the new beam version kits fly. I do know that a fellow club member just built the F-82 twin Mustang. Brodak makes the ply doublers stop short of the leading edge about 1" and to top it off leaves them squared off. When he was flipping the engine over he snapped the entire fuse off where the doublers stopped. I couldn't help myself from laughing and this didn't sit well with him. It's one thing to pay money for the kit, it's another thing to throw parts and pieces away. I wondered if the other beam mounted kits offered the same useless doublers.


For the longest time Brodak was out of stock of many of the 1/2A kits. Seeing that the Brodak kit of the Baby Clown is $43.99 it certainly is a better option knowing that you have control over the build and covering that peels off. I find even at that cost a bit expensive but knowing how the plane flies I would opt for the kit.

I got a 051 Killer Bee or Texaco 049 that will fit right in there but it looks like your set up with the Mighty TEE DEE!!!! Crank up that Plane Man!!!!!!!!!! Real Men Run Cox Engines !!!!! Cox Action Power!!!!!!!!!!