Chief (oz2582)

About this Plan

Debolt Chief. Radio control pattern plane. Classic from Model Airplane News 1967.

Quote: "Another outstanding multi contest plane from the very productive and accomplished drawing board of modeling's top designers. It's good reading as Pappy is not a bit reluctant to admit that he can make errors like any of us.

The most interesting part of the design, in addition to its performance, is the construction used. Let's go over the methods and see if you get the message. In building a model the most time consuming is the making of the various parts which must be sub-assembled. By comparison the final assembly is much shorter. With this in mind the number of parts in the Chief is reduced to a minimum and all sorts of 'cute' tricks are used to accomplish this.

Just one example: the design has a neatly cowled engine, in most models a cowl of this sort is composed of many pieces all cut and fitted so as to get the final result. In the Chief, this cowl is but ONE piece and NO cutting or fitting is required to get it ready to carve to shape! Carry this theme throughout the model and you carve big chunks out of the building time.

The fuselage is well streamlined and yet no more work than one of a boxy nature. This is accomplished by using plywood for the forward fuselage sides and radially mounting the engine. The plywood removes all need for doublers and reinforcements while at the same time acting as the engine and servo mounts. There are few bulkheads and the nicely curved top is simple sheet balsa bent into place, no tedious block carving to do!

The secret of the cowl is that it starts as a solid block into which you band saw a 'key hole.' The round portion of this hole is a good fit for the round radial mounting plate and the slot portion is sized to the engine's cylinder. To align the cowl to the fuselage, simply bolt the engine mounting plate to the firewall and use this and the key hole in the block to align things when cementing the block to the firewall..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 24/11/2016: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Update 11/03/2021: Replaced this plan with a clearer copy, thanks to theshadow.

Supplementary file notes

Alternate version of the same plan, thanks to MikeDenest and UncleWillie. This one is on a single sheet 84 x 63in, at 200 dpi.
Article.
Previous scan version.

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