Nova (oz2018)

About this Plan

Hallock Nova. Radio control model for .19 engine and 4 channels.

Quote: "No matter what phase of our hobby a modeler pursues, he will, at times, come to a standstill in his activity, reflecting upon the things he would most desire in the perfect model. From his own experience, he will sort out the bad ideas and characteristics and retain the ones he knows are desirable for this particular model. Then he will begin to design that ship which he feels will provide the top performance for a certain job to be done. Out of these efforts may come many failures, but persistence will usually lead to success.

In effect, the foregoing thinking led to the development of the Nova design. Too many times wings came apart, nose gears caved in, fuselages split apait, rudder movements weren't adequate to keep control, engines broke out, ad nauseum, in the usual commercial kits. It was finally decided that, just as a better mouse trap could be built, so could a better radio con-trol plane!

Thinking back through many years of modeling, we decided to set down the points we felt were needed in an ideal RC model. The following are the characteristics we felt every modeler wants in an RC plane:

1. Easy and economical to build and operate.
2. An easy, stable flier with built-in recovery tendencies, yet outstanding in contest performance.
3. Rugged and dependable - built to take punishment, but without ex-cessive weight.
4. Maintenance free - leaving more time for flying instead of repairing!

These are the main reasons behind the Nova design - but we were also thinking about a versatile design - one that could be built and flown by beginner or expert alike, yet would be able to perform exactly the way the flier desired. It would also have to be adaptable to any number of channels or to any type of radio gear. Sound impossible?

It was felt that, in order to accomplish all of these prerequisites with one model, a design was needed that would fly well on rudder-only equipment, yet with the area and room to accommodate the addition of any number of control surfaces and extra equipment necessary for their operation.

In order to determine if the first characteristics (easy to build) would meet the test, it was decided to let another person build the first model from the original plans. For this we wanted a person with very little modelling experience, and decided upon my wife, Velam, as a good choice for the test. She had only built one RC model prior to this attempt and had required con-siderable help in order to get it built and flying.

With only the plans and materials for the Nova before her, she began the task, and in short weekend had the plane ready for painting. One more day, and she proudly produced the completed model for approval - it was a beauty! All red, trimmed with white and black, and as professional looking as might be expected of a far more experienced modeler. A couple of days later we installed the radio equipment and prepared the model for the first test flights.

Now satisfied that the first requirement had been met, we went on to test the second. (Is it stable? Does it have built-in recovery tendencies?) We loaded the plane and flying gear into the car and headed for our club field, north-west of Fresno, California.

After getting the plane ready and checking the prevailing wind direction (about 12 to 15 mph - really too much for a first flight), we started the motor and checked the controls. Velma released the model and the test began. The big question in my mind at that moment was, "Would it be stable enough to control in such a breeze?", but it was too late to worry about that as the plane roared straight down the runway into that small gale! It lifted off the ground and continued to climb straight out into the wind with only a slight turn, noticeable about 200 feet after lift-off. It continued to climb steadily, even down wind. After throt-tling back to cruising speed, we made a couple of turns around the field and the nentered into the approach pattern for a landing. It set down smoothly and with ease. After adjusting the on the rudder horn to stop the slight right turn tendency, we filled up the tank, revved up the motor, and took. off again - this time to find out just what- the Nova could do maneuver-wise.

We found the Nova to be highly manuverable in the stunts as well as very smooth and easy to handle in the procedure turns. Above all, we noticed three outstanding characteristics that most rudder only jobs lack..."

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics, thanks to JimFlint.

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