Jodel D.117 (oz12245)
About this Plan
Jodel D.117. Radio control sport scale model.
Quote: "Build our pretty 58 inch span Jodel 117, designed by Keith Humber.
The Jodel 117 came about from a chat with your editor when he commissioned me to design a suitable model for the December 'Superplan'. A scale model was required but not too complicated, so after a bit of thought the Jodel 117 came to mind. It is a pretty little aeroplane with any amount of colour and canopy variations for the individual modeller to produce differing models.
It is also a good flying aircraft with quite a bit of inbuilt stability with the tip dihedralled wing. The paper size dictated a model of about 58 in span - certainly no larger! This in turn suggested 40-48 four-stroke or 35-40 Surpass power but would be a bit more sprightly with an OS 48 Surpass. Still, the 40 is quite adequate.
The basic model is accurate, or reasonably so. Surfaces, etc, are as near as possible but the horns, hinges, etc, are simplified for ordinary mortals like myself! The really dedicated modeller could, of course, go the whole hog and produce a really superb scale model by dressing up my original plan/model with additional detailing - very nice indeed.
Get building: The construction is not rib-for-rib as the full-size, but I have endeavoured to simulate the large box spar of the original Delmonte wing by splitting the sheeting down its length and lapping and rejoining same. Also the ribs are in the correct relationship as the full-size, ie any construction which is under fabric is as the full-size and therefore shows through the fabric in a very convincing manner. Which leads me on to a brief resume of the more tricky parts of the construction and even these are not really complicated.
Commence by cutting the basic fuselage sides from 1/8 sheet and the 1/32 ply doublers as shown. Glue the doublers with either contact adhesive or white glue making sure they are handed. Cut formers from 1/8 ply and make up the 1/8 balsa formers over the drawing. Frame up the engine bearers and F1-F2 using epoxy. When dry glue sides to this basic unit using good epoxy. Make sure the triangular fillets are in position before continuing the rest of the fuselage construction (fuselage sides are rather bowed and will spring away unless there is good glue area on the formers F1, F2 and F3). Fix the rest of the formers and bottom sheeting. Make up the stern post and 10 swg rudder pivot and glue into position. Make up the tail unit and glue into position with epoxy. Insert pushrods and plank rear tune deck with 1/8 sheet cut about 3/8 in in width. Front decking is sheeted with flexible 1/8 sheet, the rest of the fuselage construction is self-explanatory.
Wings: The wings are, perhaps, a bit more tricky. Start by cutting all the ribs from 1/16 balsa except the dihedral break ribs. These are 1/8 sheet. The leading edge is 3/8 sheet cut oversize. The centre panel is framed up first over the bottom 1/4 x 1/4 spruce main spar. Glue the ribs into position on the lower spar (over the drawing) then fit and glue the 1/16 trailing edge ditto followed by the top 1/4 x 1/4 spruce main spar. Then glue into position the 3/8 sheet leading edge.
I then built the tip panels jointed into position with epoxy and 1/8 ply braces (do make sure the 1/4 in washout is built in). The ailerons are flat ie no washout or twist (this is as full-size). Remove basic wing structure from drawing and sheet the false box mainspar portion top and bottom followed by the leading edge sheeting top and bottom. Finally capstrip and fix the false riblets from scrap 1/16 sheet then sand and plane leading edge to fair in. And that is the wing except I have forgotten to mention the undercarriage blocks which, of course, should be positioned before the final wing sheeting is fixed!
The ailerons are built up using the 1/16 sheet core method, 3/8 sheet leading edge and 1/8 half ribs. They are top and bottom hinged with mylar tape or similar. In hindsight I suppose the individual builder could do away with the false mainspar and use a conventional model 'D' box leading edge construction - though I must say I do like the simulated full-size appearance of the dummy spar.
The rudder is conventional except that it has a plastic tube pivot bearing inserted between two halves of 3/8 soft sheet as a leading edge, and a rather natty bottom hinge made from 1/8in ply ie the bottom 1/8 tail wheel ply unit is slightly longer than the fuselage bottom which enables a 3mm pviot bolt to be locked into position into the similar 1/8 ply plate glued to the rudder bottom ribs. This arrangement supports the bottom of the rudder and stops vertical movement fouling the elevator bridge.
The elevator is purely an open framework with a 14 swg reinforcing bridge epoxied into position. The engine cowling is made from two 1/8 ply formers covered with 1/32 ply sheeting. Cut C1, C2 from 1/8 ply, frame up on 1/4 x 1/4 longerons and clad same with 1/32 ply. Face up C1 with 3/8 laminations to form the cowl front then shape with plane and sandpaper. The cowl is retained on my model with two screws through two 1/8 ply plates into the front ends of the hardwood engine bearers. The model is covered with Solartex and Solarlac, fuel proofed with Tufeote. The C/G should be at approx 25% - not much further back or you may have a tiger by the tail! Finally, I do hope anyone who builds the 117 will enjoy her as much as I do mine - and don't forget some photos.
Flying: As mentioned earlier, the C/G should be positioned at approx 25% chord measured back from the leading edge. My model wanted 4 oz or so of lead bolted to a ply plate which in turn was epoxied and screwed to the front of F1. The control movements were set up as follows: Ailerons 1/2 in up, 3/8 in clown; Rudder 1-1/2 in either way; Elevator 1/2 in up, 1/2 in down.
My prototype is a super flyer on these settings; the rudder may be just a touch on the powerful side but, once you get used to her, it is super. In fact, I rolled and looped the model within half a minute of take-off followed by rolls off the top, spins, inverted and bunts with the odd flick roll thrown in to boot. Rather too manoeuvrable for a Jodel - but you don't have to do this! If you want to fly sedately and slowly past, it looks so scale. This was all on the maiden flight; the Jodel just doesn't have any vices and really did fly 'straight off the the board'!"
Hi Mary, One more for the queue. I think this is the last of the large two-toned "Superplans" in my collection, though a few more normal sized ones are still to come! It's Keith Humber's Jodel 117 from December 1991 Radio Modeller. Potential builders are advised to check the plan carefully - the formers seem far from symmetrical (particularly F3 which is stepped for the fuselage sides with about 1/4" discrepancy between left and right - this is not a scanning issue but on the original print). LE dihedral braces seem a bit suspect too - they seem to be bent in impossible ways. There may be other issues... shame the article wasn't longer!
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Note this plan was originally printed in colour (blue and red lines). Here the main planfile is monochrome. See supplement file for colour version - a compressed jpg file at at 240 dpi.
Supplementary file notes
Article.
Alternative colour plan.
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(oz12245)
Jodel D.117
by Keith Humber
from Radio Modeller
December 1991
58in span
Scale IC R/C LowWing Civil
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 18/05/2020
Filesize: 838KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: RMC
Downloads: 1395
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User comments
This one is a duplication of oz9162, Jodel 58" span by Keith Humber.RC Yeager - 06/06/2020
No. This is not a duplicate. At all. In any way. Maybe it will help if you open the two plans up side by side, and then start checking through all the differences. Starting with which Jodel aircraft is being modelled.
SteveWMD - 06/06/2020
Whoa! Ok... my bad! Well... a quick glance flashed the following data through my brain: Jodel, Keith Humber, Radio Modeller, 58" wingspan... the combination of these four descriptions, which fit both submittals, was enough to blind me to all other facts. In fact, I didn't take a look at anything else, not even the plans. Rather embarassing! My apologies Steve!
RC Yeager - 07/06/2020
I have the original magazine, plan, and article and the plan shown here on OZ is the exact same. Best regards JBP
John Boy Paddy - 07/06/2020
Does anyone have contact details for the owner of the model in this photograph G-AXAT? I own the full-size Jodel with that registration. I’d be happy to give the owner a flight in her.
Andy - 22/08/2021
That would be Keith Humber, who designed the model and and wrote the article. Am emailing you more info Andy, thanks to RFJ.
SteveWMD - 22/08/2021
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- Jodel D.117 (oz12245)
- Plan File Filesize: 838KB Filename: Jodel_D117_oz12245.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 900KB Filename: Jodel_D117_oz12245_article.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 3314KB Filename: Jodel_D117_oz12245_colour_plan.pdf
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Notes
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Scaling
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