Mike Argander Special (oz5697)

About this Plan

Mike Argander Special. Control line profile Goodyear racer by David Giles. From Aeromodeller June 1973.

Quote: "David Giles' contest proven Goodyear Racer, the MIKE ARGANDER SPECIAL Easy to build and fly. Fit a hot 2.5 - 3.5 cc engine and away you go!

THE ORIGINS of the No. 39 Mike Argander Special (full size that is!) date back to 1947 when an aeroplane oddly named Pffft was built as a low-wing monoplane for the Goodyear Formula 1 class. Later is was extensively rebuilt by Mike Argander, renamed the Argander Special and was voted the 'racer showing most promise' at the 1949 National Air Races, being noted for its exceptional finish and clean aerodynamic form. During its career it has been variously named The Sorensen Special, Sorensen Deerfly, Keith Sorenson's Mike Argander Special, and latterly just Deerfly.

Various models of this machine have been built by the designer and others, all proving to fly extremely sweetly, having the 'feel' of an FAI class teamracer, an essential feature of a good 'Goodyear' - especially as it always seems to be windy at British rallies!

Construction should commence by cutting the wing blank from soft 4 in. sheet, ensuring that the sheets chosen are straight and free of warps. Attach the hardwood leading edge to the blank using PVA glue and leave to dry. Cut the fuselage from in sheet, medium to hard stock, once again ensuring that the wood is straight. Cut the tailplane and fin from hard, springy balsa.

Return to the wing blank and cut the hatch for the bellcrank. Fashion leadout ways by cutting right through the, blank, removing the thin strips, then cut out the centre portion and replace the upper and lower strips. At this stage epoxy the leadout tubes in position Cut out recesses for the bellcrank 'supports and channel the blank for pushrod clearance. Next epoxy the bottom bellcrank mount into the wing, make up bellcrank assembly and leaving leadouts over-length. Install the bellcrank. Space with washers, then add top bellcrank mount followed by a nut on the pivot bolt. Put a blob of epoxy on the bolt head and nut to prevent any chance of loosening. Lubricate pivot, leadout connections and pushrod with a small amount of grease or Vaseline, then fill in hatch with four pieces of 1/16 sheet.

Mark a line all round the edges of the wing blank up from the bottom, mark fuselage position, area covered by cheek and mark a line in. inboard of pushrod channel. Carve and sand wing to section, using these lines as a guide. An accurate and smooth section is essential: leave centre section areas square for accurate and strong location.

Now return to the fuselage and cut apertures for the tailplane, wing, engine bearers and undercarriage mount. Epoxy the bearers in position, replacing the piece of balsa at the front, and epoxy the 1/16 doubler in position.

Having made up the dural engine mounting blocks, roughen them on the back with a file, wash in solvent to degrease and mount carefully to engine. Epoxy the blocks to the bearers in the required position, using the engines as a jig, sighting to ensure zero thrustline. Now remove and spot through woodscrew holes and about 1/16 deep into bearers, to clear excess epoxy. Drill small pilot holes in bearers and insert woodscrews, cleaned with solvent, and spread lightly with epoxy. Ensure heads are underflush, otherwise engine will not sit down properly.

Add 1/2 in sheet laminations for side cheek, also epoxy the fin in position, making a fillet of epoxy at the joint to fair into top of fuselage. Carve cheek to shape (see section A-A and top view on plan) blend into spinner as required and round off remainder of fuselage outline. Make up and fit tailskid. Epoxy 1/16 ply into top of undercarriage aperture and bend up undercarriage leg as shown on the plan. Note that the wheel is inboard of the leg and use a good quality solder for the skid as this joint takes a terrible beating. The beech U/C block is grooved vertically at the front and chilled at the rear to enable the U/C to sit centrally as shown. Bind the U/C to the block, fill the groove with 1/8 sheet then epoxy the 1/16 ply patch onto the fuselage, thus making a box for the U/C mount to sit in..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

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