Pilatus Porter (oz1687)

About this Plan

Pilatus Porter. Scale model for rubber or CO2 power. Versions with both long (Turbo Porter) and short nose, plus with floats are shown.

Update 10/03/2021: Added article, thanks to hlsat on AF site.

Quote: "The Pilatus Porter and Turbo-Porter are not what one might call beautiful models. They are angular and not very well streamlined. However, beauty is as beauty does, and the Pitalus Porters do an awful lot. They are extremely efficient workhorse types of airplanes and they have good short field takeoff and landing capability.

So far our Porters have taken two firsts, a second and a seventh place. The firsts were as a landplane Junior entry at the August Orbiteers scale contest, and as a Junior seaplane entry at the second NAR Flightmasters contest. The second was an Open entry at the Flightmasters seaplane contest. The models shown are convertible, seaplane to landplane and CO2 to rubber power, and fly extremely well in either of the several configurations. The seaplane will consistantly ROW unassisted, although the rubber-powered version requires twice as much power to get off the water as it does to take off the ground on its wheel landing gear.

The CO2-powered version is a Pilatus PC-6 and the Turbo-Porter is a PC-6/B-H2 powered for real with a 550 shp Pratt and Whitney PT6A-6 turboprop engine. Turbo-Porters have been equipped with several different engines, but this version has the simplest cowl shape.

Although the plans look a little complicated, especially because two versions are shown, it can be built by a beginner who has never built a scale model before - provided he is careful and patient. Several have been built by Juniors with little experience, In fact, their building efforts and questions resulted in several changes to the plans, and hopefully to an improved model article, It is my hope that these Porters will inspire some newcomers to try Scale and so a description of the model construction is in order.

The body is started by building two sides directly over the plans, using 1/8 square balsa for the longerons and 1/16 x 1/8 on edge for the uprights. Cut the fuselage cabin ribs front 1/8 sheet and make them part of the sides. To obtain the sharp corner in the longerons aft of the wing, carefully break the stick at the correct point and cement it back together, bent the correct amount as you lay the longerons down over the plan. To get the sides exactly alike, it's best to build them both at the same time directly over each other. It is also important to have all the longerons made of balsa of the same stiffness.

While the sides are drying, cut out the fuselage formers, the fuselage bottom plate and the parts for the motor mount if you are making the CO2 version. This version is made so it will hold a quick change motor installation as shown on the plans, It was designed this way because anyone owning one of these great little engines will want to put it in several models. The motor mount thus consists of an open-ended box built into the first two fuselage formers aft of the cowl. This box can be omitted if you are building only a rubber-powered version, but will be needed for the CO2 and the convertible model which will have the rubber motor running through it when it is not being operated as a CO2 job.

Cement the two forward formers to the bottom plate and build the motor mount box inside the formers, being careful to have everything properly aligned. Now remove the sides from the plan. Carefully separate them, inspecting them for any loose joints, and remove any fuzz or plan paper stuck to them. Then carefully cement them in place on each side of the bottom plate and former assembly. Next, install all the cross members in the forward parallel sided part of the fuselage..."

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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