Kiwi Mud Duck (oz14112)

About this Plan

Kiwi Mud Duck. Radio control sport model. Wingspan 60 in, for .25 to .30 motor and 3 channels.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "THE KIWI MUD DUCK. I came across this faded old plan when moving house a couple of years ago. It brought back a few pleasant memories and I went looking on several of my regular sites seeking any upgraded information. I couldn't find anything.

Back in the 1990's I was given a basic old PC to play with, but didn't have much joy with it - probably my fault ... However, I do recall somehow making contact with a like-minded modeller somewhere in USA and we swapped notes for a while before we lost contact. Somewhere along the line he raised the name of a novel model aircraft called a 'Mud Duck'. It was a strange looking model and I recall its claims to fame were that it was constructed almost entirely from styrene foam and was pretty big at around 9 feet wingspan.

Somehow he managed to find a plan for a smaller version comprising a more conventional build and sent a small basic plan to my old PC. I spent ages unsuccessfully trying to download same and in desperation eventually taped a quarto size sheet of tracing paper to the screen. Using a regular soft pencil and a lot of patience I came away with enough information to enable me to months later produce the basics of the drawing produced here. This drawing was initially produced for my own use only and was used to produce the red prototype per attached pics.

Although the model is rather unique in appearance, construction is along regular stick-balsa lines with a little plywood in strategic places. The finished model attracted interest from a couple of club-mates and so a few notes were later scribbled in the plan and each of them, Ian and Mike, undertook a build.

Three models were built. All were film-covered and simple 3-function r/c. Mine, the red model pictured, was powered with an old OS 25 r/c engine. I flew all three models and all had very similar flying characteristics. All three were very easy to fly and just invited being tossed around in all manner of crazy manoeuvres.

We flew these models quite regularly for several months until my involvement ended with a bang. Mike and I had been horsing around with our two models when suddenly our sky was full of coloured chaff - we had had a full-on midair collision. The onlookers were most impressed! Mike's model disintegrated in a shower of confetti and all slowly fluttered back to earth. Mine fared a lot better. The engine stopped. The prop was broken and the alloy spinner suffered an impressive dent. Apart from that there was a small piece of 1/4" stick balsa about 2" long stuck in one wing. The model landed safely.

Mike, not at all a prolific builder, was distraught. Maybe I felt a little guilty with the outcome and at the end of the morning's proceedings donated my barely damaged model to him as we left for home. He was happy enough with that and stopped whinging.... He flew that model for a long time thereafter. I never did get around to building another, retained happy memories of it, and moved on to other things."

Update 1/11/2022: Added a copy of the earlier original Mud Duck article, from MA May 1992, thanks to Steven Prosser.

Supplementary file notes

Article (earlier, from MA, May1992).

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