Ascender (oz14484)

About this Plan

Ascender. Radio control sport canard model for .15 - .25 engines. Wingspan 37-1/2 in, for .15 to 25 engines. Uses the Ace foam wing.

Quote: "My goal in designing the Ascender was to come up with something simple and a bit unconventional. With canards being all the rage these days in the home-built and ultra-light fields, I decided to go with the flow, and the end result is what you see here. It may not be pretty, but it is functional.

I do not enjoy building wings, so the model was designed around ACE foam wings. The fuselage is more or less a slab sided box with the engine and canard surface (elevator) at the front and the wing and radio at the rear. I did not mount the engine pusher style, as it is on most canards, for two reasons. First of all, have a natural aversion to using my prize radio as nose ballast, Secondly, I fly off a dirt field, and prop erosion caused by pebbles kicked up by the nose-wheel is pretty bad on a pusher. The only real disadvantage to the tractor design is the gunk coming out of the muffler and splattering all over your nice covering job. Just be sure to take plenty of paper towels and 409 with you to the field.

Construction: First off, you will need three sets of ACE foam wings; two sets of tapered panels for the canard and main wing, and a set of constant-chord panels for the center section of the main wing. Of course, you will have plenty of the constant-chord wing left over so you might want to talk some of your buddies into building one so as not to be wasteful. That is, unless you plan on building seven or eight of them yourself!

Fuselage: Begin by cutting the sides from 1/8 inch med. balsa and gluing the 1/8 x 1/4 longerons, vertical members, doublers D-1 and D-2, and the hardwood wing mount blocks in place. As the nose curves slightly inward at the firewall, it is best to pin the fuselage sides down to a flat board and block up the front about 1/8 inch while gluing in D-1. When dry, the two sides may be joined, using F-1, F-2, and the soft 1/4 square crosspieces. Use plenty of epoxy around F-1. The tapered sides at the rear should be cut off at the break and re-glued back on after beveling the joint.

The canard is constructed by cutting off the inside portion of the tapered panels until they are 12-1/2 inches long each. Epoxy the two halves together, lining up the mold lines on the leading and trailing edges and making sure the TOP surface is straight (no dihedral or anhedral). Cut off the elevator section and bevel it as shown to provide clearance when it moves down (' up' position), Cut 2-3/4 inches out of the center of the elevator to make the two halves. Make up the elevator horn from 3/32 music wire and 1/8 aluminum tubing, and epoxy in place on the canard. The model was designed for a .15 to .25 engine so, if using one of the larger sizes, I would recommend a couple of strips of glass tape along the bottom (and top) for strength. The canard may now be epoxied in place on the fuselage.

Now is the time to install the elevator pushrod and necessary linkage hardware, as this area will be inaccessible when the top and bottom sheetings are applied. Leave the pushrod long enough to trim to proper length when installing the servos. The threaded end should be positioned midway in the clevis to allow minor adjustments one way or the other without running out of thread.

The 4 ounce Sullivan tank is next. It must be tilted down slightly at the rear to clear the canard. A length of nyrod (inner or outer) should be installed in which to run the receiver antenna forward through the fuselage, as the receiver is mounted at the rear. I used the small size GOLD-N-ROD for my throttle linkage, so now is the time to install the outer tube. Leave enough at the rear for trimming when the servos are installed. The two pieces of plywood for the landing gear mount are epoxied in next and finally the 3/32 top and bottom sheeting is glued on crossgrain. The 1/8 balsa fin may also be glued on if desired.

Wing: The wing utilizes full length tapered panels and a 4 inch piece of the constant-chord section. Using care, and a Dremel jigsaw if possible, cut a slit in each panel for the 1/16 ply spar. The center section is cut in two. Epoxy the center section halves to the spar and, after curing, epoxy the tapered panels to the spar and the center section while blocking up the tips 2 inches. You will have to bevel the outer panels at the joint for a good fit. Use care and lots of eyeballing here to make sure you don't build in any twists. Block sand the trailing edges until they are a 1/4 inch thick, in order to match the aileron stock. Bend the aileron links, as shown on the plans, from 3/32 music wire..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note this plan used the Ace Foam wing. For a plan showing how to construct a replacement wing in balsa (both tapered and straight-chord) see Ace Foam Wing (oz8557) thanks to AndyKunz.

Update 11/4/2023: Replaced this plan with a clearer version, scanned at 600 dpi, thanks to MB2020.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

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