DH-89 Dragon Rapide (oz16991)

About this Plan

DH-89 Dragon Rapide. Radio control scale model twin biplane, for electric power. Wingspan 42 in.

Discontinued kit from Dumas.

Quote: "Building Instructions. Dumas DeHavilland DH-89a Dragon Rapide. By Pat Tritle for Dumas Products.

Before beginning construction, take a few minutes to read through the instructions and study the plans to become familiar with the design and construction style of your new model.

Also, it's worth the time to separate the strip wood into sizes and bundle them individually. Then, during construction, select the strip wood by weight and firmness to best accommodate the area where it will be used. Keep the tail light, and use the harder wood for stringers. The medium weight wood is best for fuselage longerons and tail section outlines.

Introduction: This series of Scale Park Flyers was designed specifically for small, economical, electric power systems, and as a result are not suitable for liquid fueled engines. Recommendations are made for mounting the GWS EPS style power systems, but a variety of small systems are available, which might mount differently. So, in some cases, you might need to come up with a suitable mounting system for the drive unit you have selected.

The radio system will require a minimum of 3 R/C channels. Sub-micro servos are used to control the rudder and elevator, and an ESC (Electronic Speed Control) with BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit) is used to control the throttle. The servos are mounted in the fuselage on balsa rails, with the rudder and elevator being actuated by a wire pushrod.

The servo location is called out on the plans. The servo rail spacing will be determined by the specific type servo you use. A micro full range receiver is recommended, as the models are fairly large as 'Park Flyers' go, and can be easily flown out of range of the short range indoor type receiver. Generally you should avoid 'single conversion' receivers. The main exceptions to this warning are JR receivers, which use a different RF filtering system called ABC&W; they work great

The new 2.4 GHz Spread Spectrum radio systems are working very well in Park Scale models. Part of the charm of these type models is their slow flight capability, so whatever equipment you choose, be sure it's light, and don't overpower the model. If the model gets too fast, or too heavy, you won't be able to fly it in the small parks and fields the models were designed to fly in.

We recommend lithium polymer (LiPo orLiPoly) batteries to fuel your model. This type of battery chemistry creates a light battery with a nice long run time. Lipoly batteries require a certain degree of discipline and knowledge to use properly. You need a charger designed specifically for lithium polymer batteries and you should stop flying when the voltage drops to 2.8 volts per cell. Many high current ESC's are designed to cut off when the battery voltage drops to the danger point. However most of the tiny ESC's used in planes like this lack this feature. You will have to watch the performance of your plane and when the speed starts to fall sharply, land and recharge. There are accessories that monitor your batteries and either warn you that the voltage is low with a bright led or shut off the power to the motor. If you discharge the battery below 2.5 volts per cell, it probably will not recharge..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

See archived listing on the (now defunct) Dumas site at: https://web.archive.org/web/2025021717...

See prototype build thread by Pat Tritle on RCGroups at: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?559571-The-DeHavilland-Rapide-for-Twin-IPS

See also build thread by captainborg on RCGroups at: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3986449-DeHavilland-DH-89a-Dragon-Rapide-Dumas-Kit-1815

Supplementary file notes

Bowing patterns.
Decals.
Instructions.
Printwood.
Printwood (dxf) zipfile.
Printwood (svg) zipfile.

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