The intention was to produce an easy to build and fly model aircraft. The end product is a rugged everyday workhorse model which is more than capable of flying the “Gold Wings” schedule. 

The speed envelope is wide; it has good high speed characteristics which derive from the comparatively narrow chord wing but it is also capable of flying safely at low speed.

The symmetrical wing section not only contributes to the aerobatic performance it also permits the aircraft to be flown safely in windy conditions. The wing has no dihedral but the anti-stall wing tips provide ample stability at low speed/landing approaches. 

The firewall is pre-drilled to suit the 46-50 Engine mount provided and, as far as possible, “Tag and Slot” components are provided. 
 

FUSELAGE.
The fuselage components are almost totally “Tag and Slot”. We do recommend using a good quality 30 minute Epoxy on all glued joints from the firewall up to and including the trailing edge area of the wing. A good quality woodworking glue can be used in other area/s. (“Triton” Brand etc). We recommend the fuselage be “Dry Fitted” to ensure all component location/s are noted and memorised prior to actual fitting and epoxying. We suggest dismantling the fuselage and laying the parts out in a recognisable order before proceeding The actual fuselage crutch should be assembled first making sure all components are placed squarely and in line with each other laterally/crosswise.

The wing seating plate can be fitted/epoxied to the rear wing bulkhead, if you consider the 10-32 tapped holes in the wing seat to be inadequate it is quite acceptable to increase the hole diameter to accept ¼” bolts, and, if you wish, add blind nuts to suit. (If blind nuts are not fitted we suggest adding thin CA to the threaded section to improve the strength and durability of the threads). 
Assemble/epoxy the rest of the crutch, the triplers, and the servo tray. Ensure the front bulkhead is round the right way, (Refer throttle cable pre-drilled hole).  Small sections of scrap ply can be added to the underside of the servo tray to provide additional purchase for the servo attachment screws. The completed fuselage crutch together with the triplers becomes an immensely strong sub-assembly.

The fuselage crutch assembly can now be fitted/epoxied to the sides and the intermediate formers can be glued in place. After the epoxy has set attach the engine firewall, (30 Min Epoxy essential), again making sure the firewall is around the right way. (Engine “Leans” at 45 degrees to the RIGHT when viewed from aft). The 6-32 Blind nuts can be epoxied to the firewall either before or after fitting to the fuselage.  If desired small sections of scrap balsa can be fitted to the inner firewall corners for added strength/vibration absorption. The undercarriage support plate can now be epoxied in place. The remainder of the fuselage can now be fitted to the crutch using good quality woodworking glue. 

A neat way to fit the front hatch is to bevel the leading strap across the firewall at  45 degrees and add the main hatch to fit, securing the main hatch with a small bracket leading below and touching the main fuselage bulkhead. (Screw from inside the  wing zone). 
If a more traditional securing method is desired an optional “Tongue” is provided to engage the leading edge strap and small screws engaging with scrap triangular corner timber sections can be used at the aft end of the hatch. We do recommend fuel-proofing the tank area with “Estapol” or clear enamel etc.

A “Sullivan” slant type tank placed sideways is ideal for this aircraft, not only does it fit perfectly in the available space the spray bar feed height is excellent. (There is room for a 12oz tank if required).  The throttle cable also has a straight stress free run to the engine. (Take both feed and pressure line/s out on the RHS of the firewall).

When installing the engine we prefer to drill and tap the excellent engine mount provided for 4-40 UNC pan head mounting screws. (.46 Size Engines). The undercarriage centre section can be drilled with clearance holes for three 10-32 Nylon bolts. Arrange the holes in a triangular formation, 2 at the front and 1 at the rear of the undercarriage centre section. Spot drill through these holes and drill through the fuselage undercarriage support plate. Add, using 30 min epoxy, the three 10-32 Blind nuts. This provides a secure “Knock Off” undercarriage assembly.

WING.
The wing can be assembled in two halves as is usual and traditional, however, as the wing has no dihedral the main spars can be “Spliced” using 30 min epoxy and the wing built as one complete unit. If this, recommended, option is adopted the “Splice” area should be in the order of 2”+ length for maximum strength. (CASA states a wooden spar splice should have a 12:1 Thickness/Length Ratio for 1:1 Scale). The ribs are all “Tagged” therefore if the building board is perfectly flat the resulting wing will be straight and true.  

Commence by placing the spar/s on the building board making sure they are straight and remain in contact with the board throughout the building process. (If the board is covered with two thicknesses of waxed lunch wrap paper glue will not adhere to the board). Add the ribs as required using the notches and the sheer webs to establish the spacing required. CA Adhesive can be used for this but we do recommend “Backing Up” the joints with a wood glue for added strength and durability.
The centre ribs are fashioned from Plywood, these will be cut to fit the main centre braces. Line up all three braces using the dowels provided. (Use 30 minute epoxy in this area). 

The outside ribs and the wing tips are also plywood for added strength and durability. Add the top wing sheeting whilst the wing is still anchored to the board. A tedious but worthwhile exercise is adding, using CA Adhesive, small pieces of scrap, (Approx ¼” wide x 3/32” thick), Balsa to the leading edge bays level with the ribs before adding the sheeting. This gives a better glue bonding area for the wing sheeting. (Front edge and underside as opposed to a butt joint front edge only). Thin Contact adhesive is ideal for adding the sheeting. Only apply in the needed, (Contact), areas. 

When the leading and trailing edges are ready for shaping masking tape added to the sheeting protects it during the shaping process. Reading from the wing tip the 6th bay in becomes the servo housing bay; using this bay the standard servo leads are long enough to protrude through the wing centre sheeting. We do recommend rolling a simple A4 paper tube and placing/gluing it in the appropriate rib holes to assist with servo lead insertion and removal after covering the wing. 

We also recommend adding the tips after sheeting etc as the wing is easier to handle sans tips. If small 3/16” wide thin ply or Balsa strips are added to the tips it is much easier to cover the tips, (Better covering material adhesion). Cover the wing tips separately, perhaps in contrasting colours, before covering the wing proper. The ailerons can be cut from the 9.5 x 25mm strip provided but special aileron stock is in the process of manufacture. 

We recommend 8 Hinges, (Total), be used for wing hinging. We suggest placing one hinge approx 1”inboard of the control horn site, another hinge approx 2” in from each end of the aileron and the other hinge approx midway between the outboard hinge and the hinge nearest the control horn.

STABILIZER & FIN.
We do recommend fitting these pre-covered items after the wing is trial fitted to the fuselage. Carefully remove the covering material as required to ensure maximum adhesion to the fuselage. If the stabilizer and fin are trial fitted and marked the covering material can be cut away approx 1/8” from the mark/s thus no unsightly edges will show after final assembly.

It is essential the stabilizer is parallel to the wing and this can best be determined by sighting along the attached wing. After securing the stabilizer with 30 min epoxy the fin can be added to the fuselage at right angles to the stabilizer. (Again using 30 min epoxy). 
For added strength and better aerodynamic efficiency a corner triangular fillet can be epoxied to the zone where the stabilizer meets the fuselage. Prior to fitting/hinging the elevator a small rounded notch should be cut to clear the tail wheel assembly wire which, in turn, goes under the rudder and is secured to it with a small strap to provide tail wheel steering. Using this system it is easy to replace the tail wheel assembly without disturbing the elevator should it be necessary to do so. 

It is easier to add the control horns before fitting/hinging the rudder and the elevator to the fin and the stabilizer. We recommend 4 Hinges, (Total), be used for the elevator and 3 Hinges be used for the rudder.

If you elect to use dowel type push rods the following will ensure ultra strong units. Drill the holes for the 2-56 wires approx 1” in from the ends, groove to suit, and bind the exposed wire section with terylene thread or fishing rod binding thread. Open the binding up to about ¼” spacing until the other exposed wire is met then bind as before. On completion thinly coat the whole push rod with 30 min epoxy. 

Prior to flying the aircraft please check the balance point with an empty fuel tank. A safe initial position is 28% of the chord back from the leading edge of the wing.

Suggested control throws as follows-

Here is a view of the flight line and you can see there’s an interesting variety of them, and variety is the word, there was everything from WWI biplanes to a six motor electric Convair bomber and some large aerobatic types, but the best was definitely the RE 8 of John Herberts.  He also had a Flair Fokker DVII with hand painted lozenge camouflage but the RE 8 was better by far. He told me it was the first serious scale plane he had built and it was from plans.  He had used the full size one in the Shuttleworth collection for the details and it showed.  The lacing on the fuselage was perfect and the dummy motor very impressive. He had routed the Laser 100 exhaust through the vertical pipes of the model so smoke came out in a scale fashion, those of you in Oz may remember David Tresseder’s BE 2C (essentially a smaller version of the RE) that had a similar feature.  The sprung tailskid was a little gem and the elevator horns even had the wooden inserts in the metal just like the big one and the fittings on the interplane struts were nothing short of works of art!  These photos don’t do it justice nor, of course, show how good it looked in the air. Like the real one it was hardly aerobatic but looked so good coming by in low, slow passes.

Here’s another pic just to show some more fine detail and also the Fokker. All those lozenges were hand drawn and brush filled in.  The curious markings on the tail are not some obscure camouflage pattern but the shadow of the chicken wire fence!

And so to the full size ones. If you want to find out everything they have go to the website www.

Here’s a few of my favourites.  Firstly the Magister which I modelled mine on in ummmmm … I think it was 1985. I remember writing to the curator at Shuttleworth to confirm their one never had wheel pants and also to check the colour of the gas panel on the top of the rear fuselage.  That’s the diamond of special paint that was supposed to change colour if you flew through a cloud of mustard gas ( I would have thought the stinging eyes and hacking cough were a bit of a giveaway!).

He wrote back “it’s either a greenish shade of yellow or a yellowish shade of green” so that’s what I painted it.

This is their “Grosvenor House” DH 88 Comet that had an undercarriage leg collapse on landing three years ago, it’s nearly ready to fly again after many hundreds of hours of volunteer work. The original U/C was built from very flimsy tube as everything had to be light as possible to allow for the massive fuel load it needed to give a range of nearly 3000 miles (it’s unladen weight was 2840lbs and loaded was 5320lbs!).  It won the race to Australia in 1934 in 70hrs 54mins. The new U/C has been “beefed up” a bit.

And then there’s the Sopwith Triplane. 

This has been in my “one of these days” book for a long time. I mean everyone makes bloody Fokker Tripes but you don’t see so many of these. Still got the same number of ribs to cut out though! That’ll do for Shuttleworth, I have to get back and finish my Zagi.  Actually I have finished it but haven’t got a charger for the flight batteries yet. More on that in the next letter.   Remember real aeroplanes have two wings (or three of course) and round engines. Regards, Mike