Philibuster (oz6257)

About this Plan

Philibuster. RC aerobatic sport model.

Quote: "A 42in span, one-piece sports aerobatic model with asparkling performance on 3.5cc motors.

IMAGINE getting chicken pox at the age of 26, well I did and believe me it was no fun. Well, there I was, covered in spots and forbidden to make contact with man or beast for 3 weeks. Having read every copy of RCME that I possessed from cover to cover I began to feel like building a new model.

I had plenty of wood, a Veco 19, some 2-1/4 diameter wheels from my old Shoestring Formula 1 Racer, a 4 oz Kavan fuel tank, paint, tissue, dope, an engine mount, what more could I want? Well! it would have to be a small model with only '19' on hand, although it was a good one at that. My Skyleader SLX with Kraft KPS-12 servos was certainly compact and light enough for a small model, but I only had a 500 mAH power pack. Could I trust my wife to venture down to the local model shop and buy me a 225 mAH pack? Well I had to, and luckily she came back with the right battery. So there I was feeling better already and with everything I needed to build a new model.

The design of Philibuster owes nothing to any one particular model but as can be seen it bears more than a slight resemblance to my FAI pylon racer Manneater. The model is built in 'one piece', or should I say finally assembled and finished in situ with the wing permanently fixed to the fuselage. Access to engine and radio compartments is by removeable fuselage top deck which is detachable from the canopy forwards. There is plenty of room in the radio compartment for any of the modern miniature gear so long as you use a 225 mAH power pack. The use of a 500 size pack would tend to make the model nose heavy as well as restricting space.

The one-piece model configuration has proved no disadvantage. In fact, on a model of this size it is a distinct advantage. After a flying session one has only to give the model a quick wipe over and it's ready to stow in the car boot.

The aerofoil section is fully symmetrical from root to tip and to my own profile, I'll have to buy a new set of French curves. It has proved ideal on this model giving a really first-class acrobatic performance without any nasty tip-stalling tendencies at slow speed. In fact its aerobatic performance quite surprised me. All the usual aerobatic manoeuvres such as axial rolls, bunts, cuban eights, stall turns, etc were performed with ease but when I tried the more difficult manoeuvres like sustained knife edge flying, full power avalanches and inverted spins, the design really proved itself. I had to be careful though not to get too carried away because a small model eating up great expanses of sky soon becomes very difficut to see... "

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 29/06/2016: article pages, text & pics added, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text & pics.

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