Woodpecker (oz1967)

About this Plan

Warburton's Woodpecker. AKA Procaer Picchio F-15A. Scale stunt control line model. Fox 40 engine shown.

Quote: "England's current control line stunt champion picks the Italian Procaer Picchio (Woodpecker) as an appealing subject for aerobatic contest work. Young Warburton's reputation as a designer/flyer achieved international stature as a result of his appearance at the FAI Kiev World Championships. To make things simple, Hobby Helpers offers full size drawings for this magnificent project.

If you are looking for a really eye-catching control line stunter to gather the crowds (and the loot!) at coming contests then get out your building board and try our model.

At the end of last season I was looking around for a really slick subject for semi-scale stunt on which I could try out some theories. I was curious to see if a really wide fuselage would affect the maneuverability of a stunt job, and I also wanted a nose wheel undercarriage layout that I could use for ground running at exhibitions. After flipping through countless flying mags I settled on the Picchio. The Procaer Picchio ('peakyo') is an Italian light plane, somewhat similar to the Piper Comanche, with a spectacularly smooth finish and sleek lines.

The finished model came out with 575 square in effective wing area, or 620 sq in if area is projected through fuselage. Span is 58 in and weight 46-oz all of which gives no trouble to the Fox 40. The Fox 40 could probably handle 55-oz without difficulty on a calm day, but a model of this weight would be hard on your arm in a wind.

The Picchio surprised me with its performance right from the start. Take-offs are a dream, and level flight is rock steady. The turning circle is the tightest I have seen and yet the maneuvers are free from kicks. So much for fears about fuselage width!

Although to date I have saved my Picchio mainly for exhibition purposes it turns in just as good a stunt schedule as my hottest competition model, and I am sure it would do as well as my faithful Tony (oz2458).

For demonstration work ground running never fails to impress while stunts such as double wing-overs, triangles, and hourglasses, all started from ground level, really cause gasps. Rock-steady inverted flight at 2 or 3 inches altitude is quite easy over runways, as are touch and go landings.

Construction is perfectly straight forward and should cause no difficulty. There is a bit more work in the fuselage than on more simple designs. The main thing to watch is the grade of wood. This is a big model and it would be easy to build too heavy, so use very light wood where possible.

Begin the wing by cutting 1/16 ply templates of ribs R-1 and R-10. Then for the port half of the wing sandwich eight 1/16 in balsa blanks between the templates and carve and sand to shape. Cut leading and trailing edge notches and then separate ribs. Hold each rib in turn over plan and mark and cut spar and lead-out holes. Repeat this for starboard wing half using only 7 blanks. The ribs W-11 and W-12 for each half must be cut separately because of increased taper of spar towards tip... "

Update 18/07/2016: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Update 22/8/2022: Replaced this plan with a clearer copy scanned from full size at 400 dpi, thanks to dfritzke.

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