Breezease (oz14925)

About this Plan

Breezease. Radio control follow on trainer model. Wingspan 51 in, for .20 engines.

Quote: "A follow-on 51 in span trainer, designed for breezy weather flying. Breezease, by Peter Holland.

The-Tri-Fli basic trainer, recently published in the Nexus Plans Service, is ideal for those first training sessions in calm or light winds It will happily spend much time weaving up wind and stooging around in a forgiving manner for sport flying. When there is more breeze, Peter's latest offering in the trainer range penetrates well, getting to grips with that drift, by having a rather higher flying speed, yet it is stable enough to continue those training sessions without having to pick the day more carefully. No-one, with any sense, starts to learn to fly in gusty conditions.

A good instructor should help you to master flying technique when the weather is fair and the model is slow, but you will soon notice that, on a breezier day, long periods of the flight are spent in getting well up wind, before making circuits and figure eight turns.

Why? A slow model does not have the same smooth type of flight in breeze as it does in calmer weather. This is because it is not moving fast, relative to the ground, when boreing into the breeze. A model that flies at 25 mph in dead calm is going at exactly 25 mph, relative to the ground. This is rather like starting to learn to ride a bike by going uphill (you wobble because you can only go very slowly). But then speed is not what is needed for those early training flights, because you have to think faster. Thus, you learn on the level (calmer conditions). Your model can go at enough speed to aid stability. We call that kinetics. In other words, something moving fast (in relation to the ground) is less easily pushed off course by outside influences than one moving slower, and if put into a fast curving path, by controls, needs less correction to keep it following that path. We call that type of flight 'groovy'. It is helpful, when the air is not all that smooth. Near the ground, the air is quite bumpy, due to turbulence produced by trees and hedges upwind of the flying patch. That is the last thing you need when practising those landings. Gentle breeze -slow models; more breeze -faster (but not very fast) models.

Follow-on: When you have got over the first hurdle with 'Tri-Fli', go for it with 'Breezease', because flying in breezier weather is something that you cannot avoid if you are to enjoy full and regular use of your flying field. The practice you get will help you to avoid being caught out by weather that does not trouble the more experienced fliers. 'Breezease' uses a similar size engine and R/C gear, so you can transfer it from your 'Tri-Fli'.

The wing is fully sheeted and thinner, but dihedral aids stability; the fuselage is a more simple box, for ease of repair, and the undercarriage is knock-off, in case the gusts spoil the landings, and two wheeled, for lower drag. The engine is upright this time, to avoid ground contact, because, unlike 'Tri-Fli', there isn't a nose leg. This gives you some different type of practice in doing takeoffs. Let's get building.

Wings: Join two pairs of 1/16 sheet, edge to edge, each pair 25 in long, for the bottom skins. Do the same for the upper skins and put aside. While they set, cut out 14 ribs from 3/32 sheet and six from 1/8 sheet. Pin them all together and sand to make uniform notches, 1/8 wide, for the spar. Widen the notch in four of the 1/8 ribs for the braces in the centre to 5 mm. Use hard 1/8 sheet for the spar, notch the top edge to locate the ribs and angle the inner ends to accommodate the dihedral. You can use the rib dihedral template for this. Sand a small chamfer on the strips of 1/4 x 3/8 as shown on the plan, for the leading edges.

Start assembly with the starboard half, shown full on the plan. Chamfer the rear edge of the bottom skin as shown. This will accommodate the top skin, which is not chamfered. Simply lay the sheet on the plan and slip a scrap of 3/16 packing under the tip, where shown. Pin down the rest of the trailing edge inboard of the point shown (third rib in from the tip). Glue the spar and leading edge (chamfer upwards) onto the skin and add all of the ribs except the 1/8 centre ones. The reference marks shown on the plan outside the skin will help you to align them. Add the tip gussets, and cut out the dihedral braces from 0.8 mm plywood..."

Breezease from Radio Modeller, April 1997.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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