Filou (oz6530)
About this Plan
Filou. Radio control sailplane model. Wingspan 1270 mm.
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Update 24/05/2016: Added instructions for Graupner Pylon engine mount for Filou/Jolly/Dandy gliders.
Quote: "Found this engine pylon for 3 German Graupner gliders. Someone out there might want to replicate this original for his glider. It's for the Cox 0,49 baby bee engine. The printed plywood is 1,5 mm, the printed balsa 4 mm, the aluminium plate 1 mm."
Update 16/3/2023: Added kit review, from Radio Modelisme, thanks to Pit.
Quote (google-translated from the French): "Test Bench: Planeur Le Filou.
The Filou is a small glider of simple construction and good performance, intended for both free-flying and radio control. Able to be built quickly and adjusted without difficulty, it is the type of model accessible to the almost beginner. Its elegant lines add to its appeal.
The construction box, as always with Graupner, is very well designed; three sheets of plans and instructions, with numerous photos showing the stages of assembly and a large exploded view ensure easy identification and help in understanding the construction teak. The balsa, of uniformly light quality, is perfectly stamped, so that the pieces come off the boards without any difficulty.
The structure of Le Filou is very simple. The fuselage is of classic rectangular section, in planks, the angles being reinforced by rods also serving as primary reinforcement. The battery compartment is reinforced with an inner lining. A long lower block makes it possible to ovalize the section of the front, thus improving the aesthetics and above all, very usefully reinforces this part of the fuselage containing all the mass of the radio equipment.
The horizontal stabilizer has a classic single-spar structure. The profile is plano-convex. The fin is permanently glued between the two central ribs, which ensures perfect solidarity of the two elements. It is constituted, as well as the direction component, by two laminated boards imprisoning the hinge consisting of a strip of perlon fabric.
We found that the front part of the fin, narrow and with the grain of the wood askew, was particularly fragile, which is awkward, because it contributes to the centering of the assembly on the fuselage. We have adopted a very simple remedy which consists in placing between the two thicknesses, before gluing which will necessarily be done with epoxy glue, a small strip of aluminum or brass tinsel. Thus reinforced, the piece is indestructible.
The wing, trapezoidal like the horizontal stabilizer, has a simple dihedral reinforced by pieces of plywood. The two central reinforcements, occupying the entire thickness of the profile, transform the spars into a closed box throughout the central part of the wing.
The profile is plane-convex, quite thick, ensuring good flight behavior and sound, non-critical reactions from the aircraft, even with an imperfect setting. The construction is light, including a leading edge formed by a baguette placed flat, a trailing edge of sufficient section and two spars..."
Supplementary file notes
Engine mount instructions.
Review.
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(oz6530)
Filou
by Horst Diemer
from Graupner (ref:4209)
1963
51in span
Glider R/C Kit
clean :)
all formers complete :)
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Submitted: 03/04/2015
Filesize: 2085KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: PatrickUrbain
Downloads: 7624
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User comments
Dear Steve, Good to see the plans for the Graupner Filou. I had kept mine and rebuilt most of it last year [see more pics 003,004] but I did not have fin profile until your plan turned up. Fifty years ago radio models weren't very progressive in Gloucestershire. Accepted wisdom was to build a Keil Kraft Super 60 or , for the advanced modeller , an Olsen Uproar. I never saw any thing with a low wing : the only innovation seemed to be unsilenced glow engines which caused unhappiness with locals. Given the circumstances a migration of interest to slope soaring initially at Rodborough and later at Selsley was unsurprising, The Aeromodeller Aries was the airframe of choice but our local model shop proprietor persuaded me to buy a Graupner Filou together with a MacGregor Minimac receiver and a Fred Rising escapement. It was a super kit, all the parts were die cut , the spars spruce ,the dihedral braces doubled full depth ply. With nylon covering to the wing the model was indestructible which it needed to be as the low frontal area made it fast and even with rudder only it was easy to loop. One former Aries flyer was so impressed that he borrowed the plan and built one scaled up by 50 % . The only problem with mine was that with my cheap single channel gear everyone else had to vacate the sky to allow the Filou to fly although in three minutes it could manage the same number of manoeuvres as an Aries did in fifteen...RichardFalconer - 24/04/2015
...This should have been the start of many happy years of soaring but whether the Filou deceived me with its abilities or flattered my own , my subsequent efforts were complete failures. I acquired a Graupner K 10 - with hindsight sheeting the fuselage might have compensated for the complete unsuitability of expanded polystyrene for the structure. The abs fuselage for a Graupner Foka might have been better but I couldn't afford adequate radio gear to find out. I am not quite sure what to do with the Filou now but I might just tissue cover it , fit some cheap radio and bungee launch it.
RichardFalconer - 24/04/2015
...and, further to my comments on the Filou five years ago, here it is in 1965 [pic 005]. Dave a friend, with his back to the camera and talking to my mother, so liked the model that he made his own twice-size version with rudder and elevator. It flew very well.
Richard Falconer - 18/05/2020
Hi Mary and Steve, here is a picture of my Graupner Filou [main pic]. Cheers,
tiptipflyer - 04/06/2023
Photo of the Filou [pic 007] with my brother Pedro, in 1969 or 70.
Ignacio Gil - 20/11/2024
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- Filou (oz6530)
- Plan File Filesize: 2085KB Filename: Filou_oz6530.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 4152KB Filename: Filou_oz6530_engine_mount_instrs.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 959KB Filename: Filou_oz6530_review.pdf
- help with downloads
Notes
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Scaling
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