Half Wild Goose (oz2590)

About this Plan

Half Wild Goose. Free flight power model. Nationals winner.

Quote: "Half Wild Goose. During 1950 this extraordinary AA free flight model won eleven firsts, including its event at the Nationals. Features a straight ahead climb.

It was only three days before registration time for the '50 Nationals at Dallas. Ted and Mary Samuelson had been experimenting with AA free flight designs for more than a year. Now Ted hand-launched their final perfected design, the Half Wild Goose, into the wind at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats on one last test flight. With a sizzling rocket-like climb the tiny plane streaked upward, straight as an arrow, heading continuously into the wind until it was just a speck in the sky in 15 seconds. As the timer snapped off the fuel supply the engine sputtered to a stop and the plane leveled off with hardly a dip going into a lazy, graceful glide in small circles to the left. The model glided on the verge of a stall but her long moment arm and lifting stabilizer kept her in an almost perfectly level glide. She circled slowly and seemed to get tinier and tinier as rising air currents carried her ever upward until the blue sky swallowed her up completely.

The model was gone but Ted and Mary both knew they had finally perfected an AA free flight design that would be hard to beat. They stayed up until 2 am building another Half Wild Goose and then left for Dallas at six the same morning. They drove straight through, arriving barely in time to get registered, and then flew their precious Half Wild Goose to first place Class AA Open on only two flights - the last one a ten minute out-of-sighter.

In addition to winning a first place in the '50 Nationals, Half Wild Goose models have won 11 other first places in local and regional contests. It still holds several official AMA endurance records. Two features of the Half Wild Goose make it such a fine flier. Its ten-degree downthrust gives a straight steep climb continuously into the wind with no 'hanging on the prop,' stalling or circling; and its long moment arm gives it one of the flatest glides possible for an AA free flight model.

Cut the fuselage sides to shape from medium hard 1/16 sheet. Pin and cement them together at the rear; while sides are drying cut out the formers, also from 1/16 sheet, and cement in place from rear to front. Cut the two fire-walls (numbers one and three) from 1/16 birch plywood and former number two from 1/16 balsa so that numbers two and three fit inside the fuselage sides and number one fits outside. Bend the landing gear from .045 music wire, sandwich it between the firewall pieces numbers one, two and three, and squeeze with pliers, thereby imbedding landing gear into the balsa firewall piece number two..."

Update 18/09/2018: Replaced this plan with a clearer copy, thanks to dfritzke.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

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