Flashfire (oz15895)

About this Plan

Flashfire. Radio control sport model. Dalta wing layout with tractor prop. Wingspan 35 in, for .20 .32 engines.

Note the Flashfire and Quickfire (oz15896) both appeared in the same article in RCMW, July 1997.

Quote: "FlashFire & QuickFire. Two Free plans, designed by Peter Button, to give you an adrenaline buzz!!

Pay attention all you nitro-sniffing, 0.40 powered, weekend hot-doggers! How about something just a little different and just a bit more fun? For the budding fighter pilots with rigor-mortis of the left thumb, we have the speedy FLASHFIRE, and for the ground attack types with the tin hats we present the highly manoeuvrable QUICKFIRE. Both run on flying site friendly 20-32 power and both throw on to the back seat of the car for that 'fill up and fly' speedy action!

Construction time of about a couple weeks of evenings only, with no TV, will do for one, and three and a bit will probably get you both. The idea for QUICKFIRE came from F-15 Advanced meets A10 in a darkened room! The potential for extreme pitch control offered by the three surface configuration was just asking to be explored.

FLASHFIRE came out of a desire for something fast to chase with QUICKFIRE. It had to have a modern fighter shape, but retain the front mounted engine. HINT If you reinforce the lower rudder fairing with some 1/64 ply it makes an ideal anchor for string and streamer for a dogfight. A pretty mean match with the same engine!

The Build: It is an unfortunate fact of life that as soon as you position an I.C. engine, prop and spinner at the front end of a jet-like shape you have an inherent nose-heavy balance problem; so keep this in mind at all times when selecting wood, glues, etc.

Both models go together essentially the same way and most people will be quite happy to build straight from the Plans, however for those who like a blow-by-blow account, here goes

Start with The Wing: First trace out the root and tip shapes from the Plan. If your Club 'wing cutter' can be persuaded to cut you a set of wings. then your luck's in so get on with the fuselage, if not, cut out nice smooth Formica templates for root and tip and get going! No sweat!

Wings with a high taper ratio can be difficult to cut without a lot of 'ridging, deltas are no exception! The trick is to get the 'small end' to cut itself. Cut out a small piece of Formica 4 x 1.5 in then sawcut a slot of about 3 in in length down the long centreline. Smooth the edges of the cut then screw to the edge of your cutting hoard with the slot vertical. Size up your block of Polystyrene and attach the root and tip templates, with their datum lines parallel to the board in the usual way. Position the block so that the extended lines of TE and LE intersect at the slot - use little bits of double sided tape to stop it skidding about. When you're ready to cut, slot one end of the wire into the guide slot and draw the other end of the bow across the root template, keeping a light downward pressure on the other end of the bow to ensure contact is maintained with the tip template. This simple system works exceptionally well as the wire is drawn round the short tip template at a much more constant speed than is normally achieved..."

Flashfire from R/C Model World, July 1997.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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