1939 Kit # D5 Cruiser Redraw

[kittyfritters]

There was some discussion at an O.F.F.C. (Old Farts Flying Club, for those who didn't know.) meeting, last month, about a one design contest later in the year. There were several opinions about which design to use.

Some years back I downloaded the plan for the D5 Cruiser from Outerzone and I thought that it might be simple enough and light enough to be a good choice for an indoor contest. I decided to redraw it to contemporary standards, with a one piece wing, one piece stabilizer, removable nose block, rear peg moved forward and one piece wire landing gear struts. Since this is a somewhat geriatric group I considered redrawing it with sheet sides and an alignment former to minimize the amount of 1/16" square balsa work to build the box fuselage but Dave G. said that we should build prototypes first. If this is the model chosen I will laser cut parts sheets with 6 pound wood and pass them out to the club members who want to participate. I gave parts sheets and plans to Dave G., Rob H., Gary T. and myself. With four different people building them we will see if they are as easy to build as they look and if they fly consistently. I've done this before and it's amazing how differently models built to a single design with laser cut parts can be even when built by experienced modelers.

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I already have the wing built so pictures this weekend.

KF

[Ray Klein]

Very nice! Good job! What program did you use to do the redraw?

[kittyfritters]

Very nice! Good job! What program did you use to do the redraw?

I usually work in Inkscape which is actually an illustration program (Think Adobe Illustrator) but works well for model plans.

Things have not gone as well as I hoped this past weekend and the wing frame, wheels and nose block were all I got done but, Don B. finished his and had it at the OFFC meeting Wednesday morning. Being Don he attached the wing with magnets and double covered the flying surfaces so it came out a bit heavy at 15-1/2 grams but it flies. The trimming trouble he is having is getting it to turn, not a good thing for a model intended for an indoor contest! It seems a bit nose heavy but he chose the 6 inch Peck prop rather than the 5 inch which is a gram and a half lighter so changing it may solve the trim problem.

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KF

[Ray Klein]

Looks great. A heavier motor peg may help the nose heavy issue?