Weavers Whatsit (oz14362)

About this Plan

Weaver's What'sit. Radio control sport fun-fly model, complete with floats. Wingspan 46 in, wing area 725 sq in, for .32 power.

Quote: "Weaver's What'sit, by Jim Weaver.

While receiving my annual humility check at the Northwest Seaplane Championships, Jim Weaver asked me if I would build one of his What'sit fun-fly ships. What could I say, the Portland Sky Nights allow me to place occasionally, and Jim, a past Sky Night president, is a nice guy.

I have watched the What'sit ships pick off top places year after year and, with my curiosity aroused, I set to work armed with a copy of his plans and a package of his foam ribs. A borrowed OS .32, a couple of weeks, and a few bucks later, a red and yellow What'sit emerged from my shop.

With 700 squares, the .32 dashed 4.25 pounds of What'sit around the sky like a Tasmanian Devil. On high rates, it was wild, on low rates, it defied me to find any faults. I was so delighted with its honest predictable performance I spent a whole afternoon playing.

Typical of fun-fly machines, Jim's What'sit is strictly business and flies accordingly. It goes where you point it, fast or slow, and is nearly neutrally stable at the medium CG. It will loop in nearly its own length and can easily be helicoptered with judicial use of rudder and throttle. For the water ship, its take7offdistance is around 25 feet. The 4-ounce tank runs for about nine minutes.

Since this model is designed with the experienced modeler in mind, the instructions have been kept brief; there are, hOwever, many construction notes on the plans. As with most fun-fly type models, this one is assembled as a one-piece aircraft, with the emphasis on sturdy, lightweight construction, with great performance!

Construction: Fuselage: First, let's think about what we're doing here. We're assembling a crutch (fuselage) and sliding 1/4 in wing spars through - then sliding wing ribs over the spars. No matter how carefully the plans are drawn and how carefully the wing ribs are cut, some miss-match of the spar holes could occur. To eliminate this potential problem later, just lay a wing rib over the fuselage sides and mark the holes exactly. Now, they'll fit for sure.

Drill the holes and install the 6-32 blind nuts in the firewall. Assemble the crutch, sheet the bottom. and install the appropriate plywood internals like the gear support, float strut hard points, servo rails, and tank platform, Basically. that's the fuselage.

Wing: Lay out the four spars, then, using a square, mark the fuselage and rib locations all together. Slide them through the previously cut holes, align with the marks, and glue them in place. Next, slide on the ribs and secure them with Titebond. (Note: The original What'sit used 1/2 in thick foam ribs. but 3/32 balsa ribs are perfectly okay if you prefer to use balsa.) Rubber bands will hold the LE and TE tight while they dry.

CA two pieces of .007 carbon fiber TOW on the top and bottom of the spar caps. No dress the edges of the LE sheets and, using the old masking tape technique, glue them together with thick CA. After sizing the sheets, secure one edge to a spar cap..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Scan by MarkD, cleanup by Circlip.

Supplementary file notes

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