White Trash (oz14107)

About this Plan

White Trash. Radio control sailplane model.

Quote: "White Trash, designed by Rick Walters. Text by Le Gray.

How do you write about a boy and his model airplane without it sounding like an episode from Lassie? It's simple - if you're writing about Richard Fredrick Walters of Saratoga, California. The 'Lassie' bit fades quickly, because Rick Walters is hardly a boy by any standard. This 17 year-old young man stands a cool and slender 6-foot-4 in his basketball-team-center-stocking-feet, and he and his 'White Trash' sailplane have repeatedly humbled the best R/C soaring pilots the West Coast competition circuits have provided.

There are more brass cups in this kid's room than at a Martian Beauty Contest. Any Flash Gordon fans out there? And the really maddening part is that they have all been won with disgustingly good sportsmanship. If there's anything I can't stand, it's a good winner.

If I were getting paid by the word, I'd list all his trophies. Suffice it to identify the major awards, such as the South Bay Soaring Society Annual Championship, 1st Place, 1969; 2nd Place, 1970; 1st Place, 1971; and the LSF Soaring Tournament, 10th Overall in 1970; 1st Place Overall, 1971 with a 1st Place in both the Duration Event and the Precision Event for good measure.

Without doubt, White Trash holds the record of being the winningest sailplane in the country - at least. Well, figure it up: twelve SBSS contests per year lor 3 years is 36 trophies, plus the Championship Cups; say another 24 at the NBSS contests; allow for 3 from the 71 LSF Soar-lympics; a few from the North-South and Santa Crui meets; and a couple of 'field record' placques. Add these and you get upwards of 70 real quick. Any questions? Rick only claims 37, but you know how kids are - they lie a lot.

So that's sorta the background of competition pilot Rick Walters, LSF Member No. 003 and Level IV, and the pedigree of his White Trash. The design is just over 3 years old, is in its sixth configuration, and obviously can provide championship performance with appropriate piloting.

White Trash isn't just a one man airplane. About half a dozen have been built to date. Younger brother Jeff Walters flew his to a big First Place in Sportsman Class Duration Event at the 1970 Tournament. Neighborhood buddy Chris Maunt, was pushing Rick hard and pulled a close Second Place, Precision at the '71 Soar-lympics. These young gentlemen, too, have collected much additional hardware with White Trash.

But we're not selling kids, we're selling sailplanes. What's with this super machine? Well, super it's not, but as Benny Howard, of yesteryear Mr Mulligan racing fame identified his airplanes, it is a DGA - darned good airplane. All in all, White Trash is a simple but direct solution to a set of complex problems.

Construction is basic, proportions are conservative, and layout is conventional. This results in a sound and practical tool with which to work when attacking the challenge of micro-meteorology - R/C soaring.

Rick Walters' White Trash is stable, and will circle tightly enough to give the impression that it's pivoting on its own wing tip. It has good speed range. Put the nose down and it penetrates as good as, and better than, most other lightly-loaded thermal machines. Ease back on the stidk and it'll slow-fly to feel for the lightest hit. Loop it, spin it, go inver ted if you can handle it - polyhedral prefers to be upright. If you've got a slope nearby, remove the plug-in wing tips - or fly the shortened wing on gusty or strong lift thermal days.

Those tips, incidentally, remove for a very practical reason - for easy transport. There just aren't many cars or wagons that can accept a ten foot wing. Remember, Rick built his first White Trash before he had a drivers' license. In order to get to contests, he needed a sailplane that would lit into whatever car had an available extra seat. Besides, the wing configuration used on White Trash provides an excellent weight-to-strength ratio for the load carrying center sect ion. And - it's easy to build.

All up weight is about two and a hall pounds. It's a floater, no doubt about it. But be ready for a pleasant surprise when you push the nose over.

Look at the drawings. Simplicity personified. Quick and easy - and inexpensive. So have at it.

There's one problem, though. Atter you build your White Trash, if you don't start winning hardware, all the world's going to know that you're a lousy pilot. Me? I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.

Okay, so let's build one. Take time to look over the drawings. You'll find the construction is beautifully simple, with a direct solution to about everything. A few minutes spent here will clear up must problems, so very little text will be necessary. But, just to cover the high points:

Fuselage: Glue up one left and one right side with the 1/2-inch corner triangle pieces as shown. If necessary, make a small cut in order to make the bend in the top triangle piece just below leading edge of stabiliser. On bottom triangle piece, make splice joint in the F2 bulkhead area so as to accomplish slight angle change while extending triangle strip beyond the 36-inch stock length.

When assembling sides, take care to keep all square and aligned. Note that the fin is sandwiched between the of extremes of the fuselage sides. Add top and bottom sheeting and nose block. Carve and sand to contour as shown..."

White Trash, Model Builder, January 1992.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note for a later redrawn version of this design see White Trash (oz4103).

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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