Mew Gull (oz6402)

About this Plan

Mew Gull. Radio control scale model racer.

Quote: "Don Srull's .19 powered sport-scaler is a must for the Sunday flier with an interest in vintage aircraft. For lightweight didital proportional or galloping ghost systems.

The 'Golden Age' of RC sport flying is here! Especially what can be labeled as sport-scale flying. Radio technology and material advances have made it so. Even the pure novice can buy into this great sport for a minimum investment and fly magnetic actuator, proportional rudder airplanes. With this light weight, simple equipment having fantastic reliability by standards of only 5 years ago, he can learn the principles of guided flight and have a ball. For just a few dollars more, he can go with a GG set-up which will give fairly good proportional rudder, elevator and motor control. Again, simplicity and reliability are now outstanding due to people like Herb Abrams and the folks at Min-X, Controlaire, and Ace. Very recently available, and I think the biggest boon to the younger sport flyer who has limited funds and time, is the two actuator pulse system.

The renaissance of the old 'Kicking Duck' system as it used to be referred to, has to be credited to the beautifully engineered Rand Dual Pack. This package of twin actuators and built-in decoder electronics, used with any of several transmitter-receiver combinations, gives fully proportional rudder and elevator plus trimmable throttle control. Again simple, lightweight, and relatively low in cost.

Finally, for those who don't want to be limited in any way by their radio gear and have the additional money, the new minaturized digital systems are the ultimate, providing fantastic performance in extremely small, lightweight packages. Until very recently I had stuck pretty much with pulse rudder and GG systems, not for economic reasons but principally due to the fact that I personally prefer compact models. Big airplanes with A5 and .60's up front, a gallon fuel tank, and a station wagon full of support equipment just turned me off. The new mini-digitais compete pretty well weight and space-wise with any of the single channel stuff giving three controls.

What this all means to sport flying of course is that you can fly what used to be considered small (or even Mickey Mouse) sized airplanes with the precision and reliability of the big, heavy gals eaters. Small fields are big enough now! And best of all, from my view-point at least, is that there is no longer any excuse to avoid scale models, even for sport flying. They don't have to he large, expensive, year-long projects to handle full-house gear. Nor are you restricted to the use of stable, high wing-type airplanes because of equipment limitations. So, whatever now gear you may have or are planning to buy, let yourself go and try a sport-scale airplane. They can fly just as well as the balsa boxes and will give you a lot more kicks.

The Mew-Gull presented here was selected as an outstanding sport-scaler which covers the GG thru small digital equipment range. Using a .15 and rudder plus elevator control it's a spry performer with GG or dual actuator systems. With power up to a .19 and one of the small digital sets, all the maneuverability and speed you want is available. In this case, coupled ailerons and rudder (CAR) can be used if desired to give smoother, more precise rolling maneuvers.

To be perfectly honest, I selected the Mew-Gull for my next sport-wale project strictly on the basis of looks. I saw a 3-view and some pictures one evening in Walt Mooney's garage (also known as the Southern California Aviation Archives) and decided I had to build one no matter how togh iit would be. I only noticed its fine model characteristics while drawing up the plans... "

Hi Steve - Here is Don Srull's Percival Mew-Gull from RCM magazine issue 09-70.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics.

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