Ryan STA (oz11780)

 

Ryan STA (oz11780) by Maxey Hester 1971 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Ryan STA. Radio control scale model. Wingspan 72 in, for 60 power and 4 channels. Scale is 1/5. Discontinued kit from SIG.

Note this plan also appeared in September 1971 MAN.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note kit instructions are available online from the excellent SIG Model Aircraft Kit and ARF History site at https://wanderings-ds.jimdo.com/sig-rc-kits-21-40/

Quote: "Ryan STA Building Instructions. SIG Craftsman's kit no RC-27. By Maxey Hester.

Like most scale builders, the Ryan STA has always been one of my favorites and I had thought about building a model of it for a long time. Experiences during the RC Scale event at the Bremen World Championships of July 1969 and my selection as a member of the US team for the 1970 Scale World Championships brought the classic lines of this famous airplane to mind again as the ideal subject for the trip to England.

Fortunately, the Antique Airplane ssociation Fly-in is located nearby, so as the Labor Day weekend approached, every day I'd load cameras into my trusty Super Cruiser and fly to Ottumwa to try and catch cry early arrivals. Five or six Ryans generally show up for this annual get-together of rare old timers. But I was looking for a speacial kind of Ryan - one with a painted fuselage instead of bare metal and a covered front cockpit to provide a place to mount R/C equipment, saving the rear cockpit for complete detailing.

As I was watching the activity Friday evening suddenly the search was over. Taxiing by was a real eye-catcher. With a slick red, white and black color scheme, set off by checkerboarding on the bottom of the wing and stab, it was even better looking than I had hoped.

The owner and pilot, John Gosney, had been at a nearby airport practicing for the aerobatic competitien to be held Saturday and Sunday. I introduced myself to him, explained what I had in mind and asked for a few minutes to take pictures of the plane and closeups of the parts. Four cameras were used. This kept the shutters from overheating! Including some measurements of the markings, the job took a lot longer than expected and it was two hours before the man could go flying again.

The pictures were really valuable in designing and building, so it was well worth the extra effort getting them. It took some time to get the plans drawn and construction did not start until early 1970. The basic model was completed in about a month but trying to get the flying wires, rib stitching, pinking tape, fairings, wheel pants and many other fine points to the high standard necessary for world competition took much longer. Six hours for a set of rudder pedals sounds like a long time but the there is a lot of sotisfaction in getting a detail exactly right. I've heard it said that a mole model isn't done until you quit working on it. The departure with the team to London set the date for the completion of the Ryan.

On display in the exhibition tent at Cranfield the model was a favourite of modelers and spectatars alike. It gave the scale judges problems, for due to the way the FAI rules were written it wasn't possible to give as much credit to a model with a lot of detail, such as the Ryan, as they thought should be awarded. Later, at meetings at the FAI Scale Rules Committee discussions of this scoring flaw which favors model subjects with littl or no surface detail, led to proposals for changes that were later adopted and are new part of the regulations for international competition.

During flying rounds, the Ryan turned in a realistic performance, I had watched John perform aerobatics in his Special, so to help make maneuvers as much like the full sized aircraft as possible, flights were performed with the Enya .60 throttled down and swinging a big 11 x 6 prop. Final results found the ship in second place, topped only by Mick Charles of the English Team..."

Note this plan was incomplete when first listed here. There were only 2 of 3 pages here. It is unusual for us to post an incomplete plan (or at least, to deliberately do that). But the most likely way to find a scan was to post this, then ask for help. [Fixed now. Many thanks to all.]

Update 06/12/2019: Added supplement of the missing sheet #1, thanks to thanks to DPlumpe.

Quote: "Steve, Today you posted plates 2 & 3 of Sig's 72 in Ryan STA by Maxey Hester and asked for plate 1. This complete plan was printed in a construction article in Sept 1971, Model Airplane News. As near as I can tell, the plans are identical. I attach a scan of plate #1, the fuselage side & top views, from the magazine article, scaled to match the 11.50 in wing chord shown on your plate #2."

Update 06/12/2019: Added review article (in German), thanks to Hubert.

Quote: "Dear Outerzone, please find attached a copy of a 2 page article about this model, appearing May 1973 in the German magazin 'Modell'. Very nice pics. Regards, Hubert"

Update 06/12/2019: Added SIG advert scan, in colour, thanks to RFJ.

Update 07/12/2019: Added article from MAN Sept 1971, thanks to DPlumpe. Also changed the main plan download file around, now all 3 sheets, complete.

Update 08/05/2021: Added electric conversion article from Electric Flight International, June 1998, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Advert.
Article (MAN Sept 1971).
Electric conversion article.
Instructions, 28 pages complete.
Review (in German).
Sheet #1.

Corrections?

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Ryan STA (oz11780) by Maxey Hester 1971 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz11780)
    Ryan STA
    by Maxey Hester
    from SIG (ref:RC-27)
    1971 
    72in span
    Scale IC R/C LowWing Civil Kit
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 19/11/2019
    Filesize: 3948KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: JJ, DPlumpe
    Downloads: 3226

ScaleType:
  • Ryan_ST | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz11780) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_ST
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

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Do you have a photo you'd like to submit for this page? Then email admin@outerzone.co.uk

User comments

Ok, we have sheet #1 now. Excellent. Thanks to all who helped with this. The clearest and highest res version is the one we'll use here.
SteveWMD - 06/12/2019
Long time dream come true. I have looked for the plans of this superb kit ever since I built a Tern Aero rubber powered model of the ST-A as a kid back in 1980. In my opinion, John Gosney's STA Special is the most beautiful example of an aircraft with outstandingly graceful lines. A true classic. Thank you, folks!
Martin - 06/12/2019
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Download File(s):
  • Ryan STA (oz11780)
  • Plan File Filesize: 3948KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 476KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_advert.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 1143KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_article.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 1442KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_electric_conversion.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 3327KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_instructions.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 2256KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_previous.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 632KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_review.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 1324KB Filename: Ryan_STA_72in_oz11780_sheet_1.pdf
  • help with downloads
 

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

This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.

 

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