Shoo-Fly (oz716)

About this Plan

Shoo-Fly. Class D towline glider.

Quote: "Be prepared with this high-flying towline glider when Spring's first balmy thermal comes swirling along! Shoo-Fly, by Chuck Giessen.

Shoo-Fly is a sharp little Class D towline glider of just a shade over 200 square inches. Cross section and weight is up to par - it can be flown in contests as well as for sport. In either case you are assured of many fine flights if instructions are followed closely. The original model has several OOS flights to its credit, plus a very good flight average on the normal 100 ft of towline. If you happen to be a bit lazy, you'll be glad to know that the ship also works well with the Hi-Start launching method.

Construction is very simple, yet rugged. The plans are full size, ready for use. However, space permitted us to showonly the left halves of the wing and stabilizer - it will be necessary to make right hand tracings of these parts.

The fuselage can best be described as a balsa sandwich. It has a core of 3/16 sheet and 3/16 squares, covered on both sides with 1/16 sheet. To make a real 'Dagwood' of it, blocks are cemented on each side of the nose to bring the fuselage to the required cross section (see drawings of Section A, B and C, on Plate 2).

Start construction by shaping the 3/16 sheet core to outline and pinning it in place on the plans. Now add the longerons and cross pieces which are shown as dotted lines in the plans.

While this is drying, go to work on the rudder, which is very simple. Simply cut the outline from 1/8 medium hard sheet, lay it in place on the plans, add cross-pieces, and allow to dry.

Let's hop back to the fuselage. Remove it from the plans and ce-ment the 1/16 sheet outer layer to each side. Use plenty of pins to hold the sheet in place until it is dry. Now add the 3/8 x 3 x 11 soft balsa blocks to each side of the nose. When dry, shape the fuselage to the cross section, using the three typical cross section views shown on Plate 2. The rudder should be dry by now so remove it from the plans, shape its leading and trailing edges and cement it in place.

Next the 1/16 plywood stabi-lizer platform (Plate 2) should be cut out and cemented in place. Use several coats of cement around the rudder and stabilizer platform to assure a strong joint. Now drill holes in the fuselage for the three rubber pegs, which are cut from 3/32 birch dowel. Cement these in place securely. Cut a slot in the top of the fuselage and cement in place the front wing hook, made of 1/16 piano wire. Coat this several times to assure a good joint.

The last job to ready the fuselage for covering is to dig a well in the nose to use as a ballast box for balancing the model.

Start the wing by cutting the wing ribs fom quarter grained 1/16 in sheet balsa..."

Update 25/01/2019: Added article, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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