Medicine Man (oz10422)

About this Plan

Medicine Man. Vintage styled glider model for RC or free flight.

Quote: "Medicine Man is a small, handy sport glider, designed with the beginner or Sunday flier in mind. Design and structure echo the free-flight towline gliders of the 1940s and 50s. This provides the curvy good looks and introduces the beginner to a variety of useful construction techniques while yielding tremendous durability.

I designed the Medicine Man to reintroduce this largely lost art, drawing on my own experience and discussions with fellow modelers. I made it a glider because gliders are the purest form of flying machine, they’re cheaper to build, and they develop piloting skills without the distraction of engine management. It’s R/C compatible so you can fly it in city and suburban parks, or you can make a free-flight version for larger expanses. Its 5-foot wingspan makes it stable enough for beginners (larger planes are more stable), yet with the wings dismounted it will fit in a small car. I hope you enjoy it!"

The Medicine Man was released by the designer as a free plan for free download on the Makezine site at : http://makezine.com/17/model_airplane/ - but the plan now seems to have been removed from that site. Note see Wayback Machine archive for the original plan download at http://web.archive.org/web/20110811135833/http://makez... as both a full size plan and an A4 size tiled version.

See the designer's Medicine Man article on the Makezine site at : https://makezine.com/projects/make-17/medic... for full build instructions and step by step photos, and a detailed materials list.

Also a full kit for the Medicine Man (includes rolled plans, balsa and spruce stock, printed wood sheets, and hardware for landing skids and hinges) is available from the designer himself at http://realkits.com/home.html

Quote: "This is the kit that is being produced in conjunction with the Make magazine construction article. Why buy the kit if one can download the plans? You may ask. Answers: 1) Convenience. The first frustrating step - transferring the images of the kit parts on to the wood - has been done for you. 2) Quality. The wood itself, being organic, can vary greatly in density and grain direction. I have carefully selected and tested the wood that goes into every kit in a three-step process to ensure nothing but appropriate materials go into your airframe. 3) Economy. All this for substatially less than what you'd pay retail for the required material, plus you don't have to blow a Saturday running all over town to find it!"

Note there is a good long (Dutch) thread on the Medicine Man with lots of build pics, some videos and more useful links at http://www.modelbouwforum.nl/threads/groeps-bouwverslagen-en-ervaringen-medicine-man-60.102115/

Note for the Italian redrawn plan by Maurizio Maggi of this design see Lo Stregone (oz9075) this one is in PDFvector format.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Added article (inc kit build review) from RC Soaring Digest, June 2009, thanks to Pit.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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