White Baron (oz14345)

About this Plan

White Baron. Radio control sport biplane model, for electric power.

Quote: "The 'White Baron' - so named by John Worth after he saw a photo of it - began as a 'body double' for my kit-bashed Guillow 18 inch span Fokker D-VII (oz10741). I was hesitant to experiment with the good-looking (to my eyes, anyway!) D-VII and was not keen to reduce it to a kit again. I then became aware of Cloud 9 RC's 18-inch-span foam wings; they have about 57 square inches of area, come in a six pack, and you need only to cut them out with scissors.

Now I'd be able to make a model similar in size to the D-VII using the same motor, batteries and control system as I had originally planned for the D-VII. To simplify construction. I decided to use a profile fuselage. For power, I chose the WES-Technik 5-2.4 careless motor with a VL 5:1 planetary gearbox and a 5.5-inch GM-63 prop (the one that comes with the GM-63 CO2 motor) and six Double Time 110mAh NiMH cells.

The rudder and elevator flight-control surfaces are built-in rudder device (BIRD) magnetic actuators powered by Lahti DPCs (digital pulse converters). The BIRDs include a magnet-and-coil actuator motor. I wanted a light radio system, so I chose the 2-gram RP27/DD7 combo (RP27 super-regen 27MHz radio/7-channel digital decoder). The motor speed control is handled by a Lahti DCMC (direct current motor control) with a 5V BEC. This requires that you use a 3-channel 27MHz transmitter such as the Hitec Focus 3 SS 27MHz AM. Alternative receivers include the 72MHz GWS R4P and the light, no-socket, Pro model from Sky Hooks & Rigging, both of which can be used with standard 3-channel or more FM 72MHz transmitters. The Sky Hooks unit is not very selective, but neither is the 27MHz super-regen RP27.

Building the Baron: For the fuselage, select a flat, medium-weight C-grain balsa sheet that is at least 2 inches wide and cut it to shape. Note that there are several degrees of positive wing incidence. The nose profile shown on the plan fits the WES-Technik 5-2.4 VL gearbox. The motor is available from David Lewis for $30, and the gearbox is available from Cloud 9 for $15 (or, for $20, you can substitute the Cloud 9 HY5OF Firecracker motor, which already includes the gearbox). It is about 4 grams heavier than the WES-Technik VL combo.

The 1/3 landing-gear wire fits in a slot in the fuselage and is secured with medium CA (all the CAs I used are foam-compatible). On both sides of the nose, I used 1/64-inch-thick plywood for doublers, fastened with thin CA wicked under the edges. Shape 1/4-inch scrap balsa to cradle the motor/gearbox so that it has no upthrust or downthrust and about 3 degrees of right thrust. Use a 1/16 dowel to hold the motor..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction