Manito (oz15107)
About this Plan
Manito. Free flight power model.
Quote: "If you want a top performing model that fits easily in a small car but a ship that the bigger A jobs can't bully - then, instead of a 1/2A you should go this .09 route. This ship, an entirely new design, was developed out of the 1/2A Maverick. Manito, by Tom Hutchinson.
Editor's Note: We are pleased and proud to publish this excellent free flight. Its story began in 1972-73 when these pictures and plans were prepared - and a special challenge led to its publication. After reading his introduction you'll agree that Tom made all his points. What he goes on to say about construction and flight adjustments belong in any pro freeflighter's scrap book.
THIS article is dedicated to George Sugiuichi, one of those rare trusting souls with a spirit of adventure that every free flight designer dreams about. George built one of my 1/2 A Maverick designs and really liked the way it flew, but had trouble winning with it in Class A because of its small size. All the ships that kept beating him were larger .19-powered models like my Flying Burrito Brother. The Maverick more than held its own against ships its own size, but these bigger bullies took advantage of the laws of nature and outclassed any 1/2A flying against them. (The smaller' A model also had a visibility problem, since it tended to get lost easily, both in the air and on the ground.)
The obvious solution was, if you can't beat them, join them by building a top-of-the-line Class A ship, but George usually went to contests in a small car. He phoned me one day and asked what I thought about the performance capability of an .09-powered Class A model, since he hadn't seen many of them around. The more I thought about George's idea, the more it made sense to me. A Cox TD .09 has one of the highest power-to-weight ratios of any engine currently available. It hadn't been too widely used because you can't readily switch engines and fly two classes with the same model. But a model built strictly for Class A competition with this engine would be more potent than a 1/2A because of its larger size and higher power. You'd also have a model that didn't take up very much more room in the car than a typical 1/2 A.
Since George liked the way the Maverick flew, we decided that the new design would be based on its proportions as much as possible. I made some quick calculations and phoned back the dimensions to George. The next day, he showed up with a complete set of working drawings for my approval. Within two weeks, he had the first prototype completed and ready for test flights. I missed witnessing the initial test flights, but George reported back with enthusiasm the day after. The ship had flown right off the board, with the same good flight characteristics of the 1/2 A. He also mentioned that he was starting another one right away, as a backup model in Class A.
Bob Ohly accompanied George to this first testing session and subsequent ones. He wanted to build one of these models, too, so he asked George to borrow his set of working drawings. While he had them, he decided to make up a set of inked plans from them. After seeing them, George and I thought we might have come up with a design worth publishing. We knew we had a good-flying airplane, a distinctive concept, a well-drawn set of plans and an experienced author to write the text. The name came easily enough: 'Manito' is East LA Spanish for 'little brother,' which we felt was appropriate, considering its Burrito Brother/Maverick ancestry.
I took some photos of George at a Lake Elsinore flying session, then sat down at my typewriter in the spring of 1973 to prepare the article. I had the rough draft half-completed when I came back from spring vacation, only to learn the shocking news that George had died of a sudden heart attack while I was away. Since he had provided so much of the inspiration for the project, I just put away the plans, photos and rough draft. After getting married, starting a new career in teaching and moving several times, I'd almost forgotten about the Manito until last fall.
That's when your editor wondered in print if there were any good free flight designs suitable for publication that weren't 'just another look-alike 1/2A.' His words jogged my memory, so I went up into the attic and pulled out the Manito plans to see if it would meet his stringent requirements.
After six years, the Manito still looked like a good idea. Flying fields, engine runs and automobiles have all shrunk in size, so a compact Class A model with better-than-1/2A performance should still be attractive to most fliers. Your editor agreed, and so the Manito will finally appear in print just as George, Bob and I envisioned it.
The Manito was originally designed around the Cox TD .09, but there are alternative power choices. Any plain-bearing .15, like the OS Max or Enya, would provide comparable performance, but would weigh about an ounce or so more. The design would probably be able to handle the power of a ball-bearing .15 like the ST GI5, but the extra engine weight would probably cause the glide to suffer. With an .09 or .15 engine, total weight of the model shouldn't exceed 12 oz. (George's models weighed about 10 oz with a TD .09.)
Construction: The model will go together much more quickly if all parts are cut out in advance, like a kit. For parts where only one or two pieces of the same shape are needed, trace the outline out on drafting vellum, then stick to the balsa with a removable rubber spray cement like 3M Spray-Mount. The ribs can be cut out individually using a plywood template, but greater uniformity will occur if you stack-cut them on a Dremel jigsaw or bandsaw..."
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Manito, Model Aviation, February 1980.
Update 13/2/2024: Added missing final page to the article, thanks to RFJ.
Supplementary file notes
Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
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
-
(oz15107)
Manito
by Tom Hutchinson
from Model Aviation
February 1980
52in span
IC F/F Pylon
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Submitted: 27/01/2024
Filesize: 613KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: Circlip, RFJ
Downloads: 219

Do you have a photo you'd like to submit for this page? Then email admin@outerzone.co.uk
User comments
No comments yet for this plan. Got something to say about this one?Add a comment
- Manito (oz15107)
- Plan File Filesize: 613KB Filename: Manito_oz15107.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 2713KB Filename: Manito_oz15107_article_.pdf
- help with downloads
Notes
* Credit field
The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.
Scaling
This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.
Terms of Use
© Outerzone, 2011-2025.
All content is free to download for personal use.
For non-personal use and/or publication: plans, photos, excerpts, links etc may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Outerzone with appropriate and specific direction to the original content i.e. a direct hyperlink back to the Outerzone source page.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's owner is strictly prohibited. If we discover that content is being stolen, we will consider filing a formal DMCA notice.