Swee Pea and Stinger (oz10403)

About this Plan

Swee Pea and Stinger. Control line profile racers.

Quote: "A pair of mini Goodyear racers for engines up to 1.5cc designed by Chris Coote.

MINI-GOODYEAR racing is fun! The models are cheap to build, quick to make, easy to fly, and do not require expensive engines - and thus they appeal equally to Juniors and fly-for-fun modellers who would like to try their hand at a little racing without getting too involved. Even if you have no wish to race, these little models make good, robust trainers when fitted with any beam-mounted engines of 0.5 - 1.5 cc capacity.

Following the first competition for these models at the '75 Nationals, it became apparent that the flying qualities of some of these models in the unfavourable weather conditions, left quite a lot to be desired. In an effort to overcome some of these shortcomings a search was made for a suitable pro-totype with the desired aerodynamic characteristics.

The main problem with Mini Goodyear racers is that the motor constitutes some 50% of the total weight, thus creating an excessively far forward CG position, leading to lack of control response. It was obvious that Goodyear prototypes favoured for the 1/8th scale SMAE Goodyear event eg Argander, Ginny, Owl, were not the optimum choice for the 1/12th scale class with relatively heavy motors. Hence Swee' Pea - it has the shortest nose of just about any Goodyear combined with good wing area and an interestingly different V-tail configuration.

Next design to catch the eye was the Stinger - an attractive machine, but with a somewhat longer nose moment. However, this is by no means excessive and provided a reasonably light engine (ie not a ball race unit) is fitted, then it will be fine - it certainly flies smoothly. They both proved particularly economical to build (and hence attractive to Juniors with their limited budget) requiring little more than one sheet of 1/4 x 4 in and half a sheet of 1/8 in x 4 in hard balsa apiece. Note that hard balsa is specified; most of the wood is behind the CG so harder, heavier wood will save having to add useless tail ballast..."

Scan from DBHL, cleanup by theshadow.

ref DBHL-7623

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 04/09/2018: added article, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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