Tiger Moth (oz351)

 

Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

DeHavilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth. 33 in span scale gas free flight model, by Mercury Models.

Quote: "The Tiger Moth is one of the world's most famous aircraft, and more pilots have learned to fly in the Moth than in any other machine.

During the war the Moth was a standard trainer for the RAF and was also extensively used in the Empire Air Training Plan, special versions for operating under unusual conditions being developed for use in different parts of the Empire. In Canada, for instance, the cockpit had a sliding transparent hood and the undercarriage could be fitted with skis for operating under very cold and snowbound conditions.

The Moth is still used in many civilian flying clubs and is frequently to be seen on club airfields. It has a wonderful reputation for reliability, case of control, low landing speed - in fact, for all those characteristics that are essential to a trainer without vices.

The Tiger Moth has always been a favourite with aeromodellers although there has not been a kit marketed before for making a true-to-scale free flight model for the modern small diesel motor.

This new Mercury kit now makes it possible for modellers of average experience to build and fly the Moth with every confidence. It is not, however, a beginner's model, and the trimming of the Moth, when built with scale dihedral (of 1 in under each wing tip), is really a job for the experienced flyer. With the extra dihedral suggested on the plan (1-1/2 in under each tip) trimming is much easier and the model is more stable in tight turns.

In the air the Moth model is most realistic, and cannot fail to delight the heart of every keen scale fan. The knock-off wing arrangements were thoroughly tested on the prototype model and proved absolutely crash-proof. It is not recommended that you modify the wing mounting in any way. The CG position is not critical, but it must nevertheless be adjusted carefully to match your incidences. The trimming instructions make this quite clear.

Build your Tiger Moth according to the plan and the following building instructions, and you will have a model that will give you many hours of enjoyable flying. "

Update 13/05/2015: Formers were indeed too small. Have rescaled formers (sheet 3) to now match sheets 1 and 2 at fullsize.

Supplementary file notes

Previous version. Also, kit instructions, 3 pages of text, thanks to gravitywell on HPA.

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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - model pic

Datafile:

ScaleType:
  • De_Havilland_Tiger_Moth | help
    see Wikipedia | search Outerzone
    ------------
    Test link:
    search RCLibrary 3views (opens in new window)


    ScaleType: This (oz351) is a scale plan. Where possible we link scale plans to Wikipedia, using a text string called ScaleType.

    If we got this right, you now have a couple of direct links (above) to 1. see the Wikipedia page, and 2. search Oz for more plans of this type. If we didn't, then see below.


    Notes:
    ScaleType is formed from the last part of the Wikipedia page address, which here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Tiger_Moth
    Wikipedia page addresses may well change over time.
    For more obscure types, there currently will be no Wiki page found. We tag these cases as ScaleType = NotFound. These will change over time.
    Corrections? Use the correction form to tell us the new/better ScaleType link we should be using. Thanks.

Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 003.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 004.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 005.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 006.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 007.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 008.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 009.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 010.jpg
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Tiger Moth (oz351) by HJ Nicholls 1953 - pic 011.jpg
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User comments

Print wood undersize
anon - 13/05/2015
Thankyou! Got right size printwood
anon - 18/05/2015
Built in my kitchen from an Outerzone plan, converted to three channel lightweight RC and electric power [more pics 003-007].
RobG - 29/03/2018
Beautiful model to build and fly but those square wing tips just ain't right. Could easily be altered for a more scale appearance.
RobG - 30/03/2018
The Tiger Moth flies well - too well. Years ago a friend of mine was flying one and finished for the day and strapped the model box on his back and cycled down the hill (he was flying at the back of the Cave Hill in Belfast) when he pulled over to let assorted fire engines, ambulances and RAF trucks pass as they raced up the hill. He continued home and, in the local paper the next day he read of a mystery crash at the back of the Cave Hill. It seems someone spotted an aircraft and heard the engine, a Mills .75, cut out and it dropped its nose and glided down out of sight, so he (like a good citizen) dialed '999' and reported a crash. A photo of Norman and the Tiger Moth appeared on the front page of the paper after that
Daithi - 04/04/2021
Hi Steve, Hi Mary, 55 years after my first attempt at this model aged 14, I’ve just completed another one [main pic, 010, 011]. Built on the kitchen table 'out of the box' with no modifications to the original Mercury kit that I found on eBay, this one is again for Mills .75 and pure free flight. The earlier one looked pretty good as I recall but it didn’t fly too well as it wasn’t built accurately enough and the all-painted yellow finish made it far too heavy. The new one’s minimalistic colour scheme (crimson enamel over doped white tissue from the kit) is an approximation to that worn by airworthy Tiger G-AOJK, befitting of the model’s rather notional representation of the full-size. I’m now waiting for the wind to drop for the first test flights.
Richard Scott - 06/06/2024
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Download File(s):
  • Tiger Moth (oz351)
  • Plan File Filesize: 450KB Filename: DeHavilland_DH82_Tiger_Moth_oz351.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 778KB Filename: DeHavilland_DH82_Tiger_Moth_oz351_instructions.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 454KB Filename: DeHavilland_DH82_Tiger_Moth_oz351_previous.pdf
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Notes

* Credit field

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Scaling

This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.

 

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