Son of Vertigo (oz14895)

About this Plan

Son of Vertigo. Radio control sport model. Wingspan 40 in, for .15 engines.

Quote: "Son of Vertigo. Based on the 'must have' model of the 70s, a 40 in sports model for .15 engines, by Colin Prior.

If you have been flying R/C as long as I have, you will remember back in the '70s Frank Vanden Berg's 'Vertigo' was the model to fly - as in the last ten years, the Wot 4 has been the model seen in every club in the UK.

My Introduction to Vertigo: I first flew the Vertigo around 1970 with a Merco .61 and later re-engined with a HP .61, which was the first commercial motor with snuerle porting. It was used for every club competition imaginable, open pylon race, limbo, spin competitions - it was also a serious contender for aerobatics.

A couple of years ago another house published a free plan of a 1:2 scale size Vertigo by Mr Flair' - Dudley Pattison. This came out a 27 in span model which I thought, due to my advancing years, would be a bit of a handful. Back in the seventies I flew FAI Pylon at the Nationals and also Slope Pylon, in which I had considerable success with my Mi-Jet design. Anyway, I put out of my mind any thoughts of a 27 in Vertigo which would be a bit much after flying my 74 cc powered 10 ft span 'Eurobat' (as I previously reviewed in R/C Model World). However, it is strange how things turn out, as a few weeks later we had a new member join our club. He asked me if I would test fly a Vertigo which was 30 years old and powered with a 30 year old rear induction 0S61. It had been given to him by Martin Mackintosh, who used to be one of the UK's top aerobatic pilots in the 70s and also a previous National Champion.

After giving the model a serious check-out I went ahead and flew. I had the most fun I have had in a long time with my trousers on. I immediately decided to build another Vertigo but this time I would build a 40 in version, to give my slowing reactions a bit more time. Also, I wanted a model that I could transport in one piece and cheap to build, with an engine that would not break the purse strings. I spoke to 'Just Engines' who suggested a .15 size motor, from ASP or LEO. I went for a LEO .15 at under £40.00 and have found it to be superb value for money. An easy starting motor, ball-raced, easy throttling with loads of power.

Let's Get Building: You won't need a very large building board for this one and the cost of building is around £25.00 for wood and hardware.

Building the Fuselage: It is very easy to cut out the sides and bond on the ply doubler with contact adhesive (don't use PVA otherwise you will end up with bowed sides). Fit longerons, uprights and D2 rear doubler. Make sure you make a port and starboard side, the port side is fractionally longer to give the correct side thrust.

Frame up the fuselage using F2 and F4 formers, then fit F1 and F3 and pull in the rear fuselage ends together. Add forward cross member to top of fuselage, followed by upper cross-grained sheeting. Next add the stern post, check that it is square to a straight edge laid across fuselage top..."

From R/C Model World, May 2003.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note see also Minivert (oz12129), a 27 inch plan in RCME, May 1999.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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