Fly Baby (oz5837)

About this Plan

Fly Baby. Radio control scale model for .60 power. Plans include details for three different undercarriages: floats, skis and normal wheeled gear. Design by Larry Gelo and the Twin City Radio Controllers (TCRT)

Note: Here this plan appears as 3 sheets, combined. Originally, it was Published by RCM as two separate plans. First in RCM May 1980 appeared the plan #798 (the airplane - 2 sheets), then next month in June 1980 came plan #801 (the floats - 1 sheet). Here on this Oz page they are combined.

Quote: "By The Twin City Radio Controllers. Photos by Michael Kuller.

PART I. It was a hot Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1963 when 'Red' St Aubin brought his Fly Baby to the Twin City Radio Controllers' field. It was built with the best equipment of the day - F&M radio, Annco servos, Veco .45 engine, silk and dope covering, and lots of number 64 gum bands to strap the wing onto the fuselage. Red fueled up the new Fly Baby, started the engine and taxied past the other ships in the pit - a couple of Tauruses, a Mambo and several rudder-only Champs - and took off crosswind to avoid the pine trees on the south side of the field. Just then a small tumbleweed was also making a take-off run of its own, blown by the wind, on a collision course with Red's Fly Baby. Other flyers looked up from their task of winding escapement rubber bands or tuning their superregen tank coils and gasped as the Fly Baby hit tumbleweed just as the Fly Baby was rising off the ground.

Both plane and tumbleweed arose together into the air: the tumbleweed was snagged on the Fly Baby's tailwheel. Although Red was the best flyer in the club. we all wondered how he would handle this problem. Red flew Fly Baby as if the tumbleweed didn't exist. He pulsed the five switches on his ten channel transmitter through rolls. loops, hammerheads, inverted flight - the whole acrobatic sequence. The Fly Baby flew as though the tumbleweed wasn't there. Most of us were so fascinated that we collapsed the antennas on our Orbit and Ace tone transmitters and watched the entire flight.

Since those early days of 'multi' radio control at least eighteen Fly Babys have been built by TCRC members. Its popularity is due to those flying properties that made Red's tumbleweed duet possible - a large tail area for stability, generous control surfaces for positive handling and a simple rugged structure to survive the unexpected.

The plane is as popular as ever. To date there are seven Fly Babys in active use by TCRC club members.

Larry Gelo designed the TCRCs model version of the popular homebuilt in the early 1960's. Larry's original Fly Baby is still flying, having changed hands among club members several times and flown with skiis and floats as well.

The Twin City Radio Controllers feel that it is about time that we share the Fly Baby with the rest of the aeromodeling world. So we proudly present the Gelo Fly Baby brought up to date as it is built and flown by the TCRC today.

The Full Sized Fly Baby: Pete Bowers designed the full sized Fly Baby, but Pete started his career in aviation as a model builder. He designed a high wing free flight also named Fly Baby and flew it in the Ntionals in 1940. Much later the full sized Fly Baby was designed; its construction remarkably similar to its model predecessor. Fly Baby was designed in response to a contest sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association to develop a homebuilt design that would be safe to Cy and easy to construct by the many amateur air enthusiasts remaining after World War II. The Pete Bowers Fly Baby won the EAA contest and the design has been very popular among homebuilders ever since. Given this history, it is not surprising that returning the Fly Baby to model form has resulted in a rugged and well flying model.

Construction Notes: The plans presented here show the Fly Baby as Stand-Off Scale in the original intent of the term, ie the outline and shape are close to scale, yet scale details have been simplified. The intention is a model that build easily, flies great and looks scale in the air. To win contests might require inverting and cowling the engine, adding flying wires and cockpit details. Scale references are shown on the plans for those who wish more attention to scale.

Fuselage: The fuselage is a time honored stringer and former structure. Start by building the fuselage sides over the plans. Glue medium to soft 1/16 sheet balsa slightly larger than the fuselage sides to the side frames while the frames are laying flat on the work bench. Trim the side sheeting. Now lay one of the fuselage sides flat on the bench, sheet side down and glue formers F1 and F4 in place. Be sure that these formers are perpendicular to the fuselage side by using a protractor or triangle. Then glue the other side in place, with weights above F1 and F4 while the glue dries. Add the formers and cross braces between F1 and F4. If you have used the same density balsa for the two fuselage sides, it is possible to pull the ends of the fuselage together, each side bending by the same amount. Add the remaining formers and cross braces. Cut the pushrod exits and fit, but don't install, the rudder and elevator pushrods..."

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics. Note there are two articles, part 1 and part 2, from May and June 1980.

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