Chicken Trainer (oz11040)
About this Plan
Chicken Trainer. Radio control sport trainer model.
Quote: "Here's a sports model that is definitely no turkey! As a next step up from a basic trainer, try this 54 inch span .35 to .61 powered acrobatic bird. Chicken Trainer, by Terry Badis.
IT IS INEVITABLE that R/C modellers like Designer Terry Badis who were balsa bashing in their youth, and who now return to their hobby some thirty years later, will have found it hard to come to terms with the modern quick build plastic and foam models of the 1980s.
Although the construction of built-up models takes a little longer, it is very satisfying to go through the process of fixing your drawing to the bench or building board and converting the balsa into a flying machine that will give you hours of flying pleasure.
Chicken was designed by Terry to be a strong, practical and versatile club model that could be built by most people who aim to move on from basic trainers to something more exciting, and visually stimulating. If you have not undertaken the structure of a built-up model before this is the model for your, as it will help you to acquire building skills that will enable you to construct the most complicated models.
Development. Why Chicken? Most modellers ask this question as the Chicken is a bird that cannot fly. The first built did not fly well due to small ailerons and wings set up with a few degrees of positive angle of attack and it is easy to understand that these design faults resulted from vintage model habits where models were basically free flight with radio assist.
Pilot error provided the opportunity to construct another model (!) together with a third model being built by Terry's son Ian, and many experiments in aileron and rudder size have produced an acrobatic model that will perform most manoeuvres even with the standard flat bottom wing section. The model has survived many prangs and the undercarriage is very robust and has a nice wide track.
The Chicken, then, is much like its farmyard namesake in that it can be either a docile bird or a fighting cock and the choice is therefore yours in tailoring your model to fit your current flying ability, together with the advantage of converting to the symmetrical wing section as your flying experience grows..."
Chicken Trainer, Radio Modeller, February 1986.
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Supplementary file notes
Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
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-
(oz11040)
Chicken Trainer
by Terry Badis
from Radio Modeller
February 1986
54in span
IC R/C
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 20/03/2019
Filesize: 734KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: Circlip, RFJ
Downloads: 978

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User comments
My Father, Terry called it the Chicken Trainer as he was more into building them than flying them. He left that to me so he called it the Chicken Trainer as he was too “Chicken” to fly it :) Dad passed a way this January, my best friend who I always wanted to make him proud. I went on to fly Unmanned aircraft and spent 20 years traveling all over the world flying them for guns and missile anti aircraft training. My Dad's chicken trainer was just the best fun fly in its day jus like my dad was the best dad ever.Ian Badis - 17/06/2025
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- Chicken Trainer (oz11040)
- Plan File Filesize: 734KB Filename: Chicken_Trainer_oz11040.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 1624KB Filename: Chicken_Trainer_oz11040_article.pdf
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Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
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