G-Dunk (oz6821)

About this Plan

G-Dunk. Radio control sport model.

Quote: "If you want heads to turn at the flying field, get yourself a G-Dunk. It builds easy and flies superb. If you're an ex-navy man, you'll rememeber how good a G-DUNK was.

ge-dunk (ge dank) n. Sweets, desert, esp. ice cream. WW II US Navy usage. Dictionary of American Slang.

The first time that Bob Oblinski brought this little red 1930s vintage biplane to the field, we fell completely in love with it. We think the design and the British identification letters both hit us at the same time and registered, fantastic. The G-DUNK was not an intentional play on the word ge-dunk, it just appealed to Bob as something to put on the wing and fuselage of his plane. The name for his plane, Whatzit, came about because that is what everyone asked when they first saw it. It has been hinted that it resembled the Handley Page HP 42 Hannibal, however the Hannibal has four engines and was a taildragger. The names of quite a few other planes of that vintage have been mentioned by fliers seeing it for the first time. It is not scale - Bob said so.

When we decided to build our model, for simplicity, we made a number of changes to Bob's original. We eliminated the second engine, we made the airfoil flat bottom and removed the braces on the empennage. Since we are in love with the British identification G-DUNK, that is what we named our plane. Whatzit spent quite a few days sitting on our drawing board so measurements could be made and construction notes written so that a set of plans could be drawn from which we would construct G-DUNK.

There is very little difference in flying characteristics. The Whatzit weighs exactly one pound more than G-DUNK which can be blamed on the second engine and the second fuel tank. The G-DUNK is more of a floater because of the flat airfoil, while the Whatzit, with its semi-symmetrical airfoil, penetrates better. They will, to some extent, fly upside-down but the high dihedral makes this difficult. If, while upside-down, you give them too much rudder, they will just roll out to a standard position. Sitting side by side, it is difficult to tell them apart.

The second engine is absolutely unnecessary; Whatzit will fly steady as a rock with only the front engine. In fact, that is what happens at the end of the flight, because the Cox .15 usually runs out of fuel first. G-DUNK is light enough that full throttle on the OS .25 FSR Schnuerle is never used except on take-off. Generally, unless we are performing a stunt, the practice is to keep it at 1/4 throttle through the whole tank. So without further ado, let's get into construction. Since we like fuselage construction best, we will start with the wings and save the best 'til the last.

Construction. Wing. If you completely kit the wings, cutting out all the ribs, trim the spars, and leading and trailing edges to the exact length, construction will go much faster. Each wing is constructed in three pieces starting with the center section, so let's start with the top wing. Lay down on waxpaper covered plans the trailing edge, the bottom spar and the leading edge. Glue in place the bottom center sheeting of 1/16 balsa and ply. Add the three center ribs which have 1/16 removed from top and bottom. Add the top spar, glue in place, and allow to set up. Remove vertically the first 1/16 behind the spars of each wing rib, and fit a dihedral brace into this slot. When everything is flush, epoxy and clamp this brace to both spars..."

Supplementary file notes

Article, thanks to hlsat, JHatton.

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