Ole Blue (oz10333)

About this Plan

Ole Blue (Ol' Blue). Control line model. Goodyear racer for 2.5cc engines.

Quote: "Nationals Winning Goodyear Team Racer. A very competitive yet simple to build control liner for 2.5 - 3.5 cc engines. Ole Blue, by Graham Howard.

The full size Ol Blue is a fairly recent Goodyear racer. It first appeared in 1971, and has since established itself as one of the faster racing planes.

At the end of last season, looking through the Racing Planes Annual I saw this likely-looking aircraft as an alternative to the Deerfly, being very similar in size and areas, so guessed it would probably fly just as well. The original model was built with true-scale tail area, but the model shown here has the tail area increased by 25% (as allowed by the rules), to improve the handling in wind.

Construction. I begin with the wing. Using PVA glue throughout the construction, glue together the two pieces of 1/4 x 3 in sheet balsa, keeping them flat while the glue dries. Cut the wing to shape and add the spruce leading edge, then form the bellcrank hole and make the leadout passages in the wing. Carve, plane and sand the wing to section, install the bellcrank mount and controls, then cover in the wing centre section with 1/32 ply, cutting holes to clear the bolt head and nut, and to allow access for the pushrod. Add the tipskids with epoxy, and the wing is finished!

The fuselage has a core of very hard 3/8 in sheet balsa, to which are glued the bearers. The rest of the profile is made up from medium soft 3/8 sheet. Assemble the fin and glue in place. The fuselage is then tapered to blend into the fin from the end of the ply doublers. Now make up the tailplane from 1/8 sheet, but do not attach the elevator at this stage. The wing and tailplane are now positioned and glued into the fuselage - it is extremely important that the wing and tailplane are at zero incidence to the engine thrust line. Time spent ensuring this will give you a model that will fly properly. Just look around at some of the Goodyear models which do not handle when the engine cuts, and are unreliable in a wind. You will find that most of them have got some very strange incidence angles indeed.

Add the 1/32 ply nose doublers, carefully cutting out the holes for the wing, together with the ply tail reinforcement. These are to stop the tailplane rolling off the fuselage in a fast catch. Make up the undercarriage mount as shown, and after cutting the slot for it..."

Ole Blue, Aeromodeller, November 1975.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction