Escapade (oz4891)

About this Plan

Escapade. Radio control pattern model. For .45 to .60 power.

Quote: "It can cut the mustard! Goldberg Retracts in a fully cowled tail-dragger. Super Tigre .60, Kraft system. Fast, fully aerobatic, smooth on the sticks. Escapade, by Gene Rogers.

If you are a strictly calm weather flier, then the 'Escapade' won't mean anything very special to you, however, if you're the type who just won't be grounded under turbulent conditions, then you might appreciate this aircraft's capabilities. With the retractable landing gear and the fully cowled in engine, drag is cut to the abso-lute practical minimum.

Flying in windy weather requires a fast airplane. If you're a beginner at R/C flying, then this design should come at a later day. At this writing the ship's wind penetration still amazes its designer. Taking off into a strong headwind at full power gives me the impression the wing has been left behind or maybe that I've taken off down-wind! Since the ship is not small in size and has a distinctive profile, following it without becoming disoriented is not difficult.

The Escapade has fine stunt capabilities for all FAI and AMA pattern aerobatic maneuvers. If you happen to be competing with this design at a contest event, with the wind making things a bit dicy over those concrete runways, then you will be at a decided advantage with your entry.

For reasons of simplicity and light weight, the design utilizes a two-wheel Goldberg Retract system. If this is your first experience with retracts, it will make things much easier for you, as it did me. The absence of the nose gear cleans up the nose area considerably by allowing a large and unrestricted cooling air passage behind the inverted engine. This also leaves more room for the fuel tank installation. The cowled, inverted engine incidentally runs cooler than a fully exposed engine, just as in most full scale aircraft. The stock glow plug with a Super Tigre ran too cool, necessitating a change to a hotter plug!

The Goldberg Retract Gears offers an easy to install system, at a moderate cost. The two-wheel gear arrangement on the aircraft functions very well, This set-up has been reliably operated on a standard 90
degrees servo, using an extended rotating arm to give more travel. A 180 degree servo is presently on the Escapade, but this is not a necessity.

The original prototype used a brand new Kraft 6-channel Series '72 radio system, with their tiny KPS-12 servos. The smallest servos were chosen for their compact-ness on a later water-tight seaplane design installation to come. There is ample room in the design for the use of the largest variety of servos. The Kraft system functions, as now almost taken for granted, flawlessly..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 19/04/2016: Article pages, text & pics added, thanks to RFJ.

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Article.

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