Hobo (oz7166)

About this Plan

Hobo. Radio control sport biplane model. For .40 - .45 sized engines and 3 channel RC.

Quote: "Quick to Build, Easy to Fly. A Sunday Flier's Biplane for Six Channels or Proportional. Hobo by Dr DJ Gerner.

How many times have you wandered down a model flight line and turned back in the middle of it out of sheer boredom because all you saw were the same old low-wingers, mid-wingers and cabin jobs? Oh sure, they had exotic paint jobs and all kinds of gimmicks and all kinds of names, but most of them were crosses between some kind of well-known model airplane or other. If you wandered down that flight line a little further you may have seen a group congregated around a particular airplane, and if you looked a little closer you may have found it was a 'double winger.'

The author may be a prejudiced biplane fan but he finds it difficult not to feel a particular type of thrill every time he sees a biplane in flight. The idea of a six channel bipe came to mind while flying a Cal Smith Wonder Wings (oz1337) and noting its responsiveness on rudder-only control. The years went by with many airplanes coming and going (mostly going), but the thought of finding a true fun-type of biplane kept coming back to haunt this model builder.

With the advent of the RCM design contest it was felt that an opportunity had presented itself to see if that dream biplane could be designed, built, and flown. After gathering together all the notes that had been stored for just such an occasion, and finally sitting down and getting busy, one fine Sunday morning the Hobo lifted into the skies and a dream had been realized. This plane is called 'Hobo,' for it looks like one around all the sophisticated multi ships with their chrome spinners, varigated paint jobs, adjustable flaps and retractable gear. It has only simple functional lines with no more frills and gadgets than those necessary to promote an enjoyable Sunday afternoon's flying. This plane is not wild and flies at almost scale-like speeds. It is quite responsive and is a sight for sore eyes after seeing so many of the hot rod types.

Now that you are convinced that a biplane can be fun you may think that darn bird cage and extra wing aren't worth all the effort. Well, the bird cage is taken care of nicely by being built out of plywood, and if you can't saw out one of these contraptions, take up bird watching as a hobby! The extra wing may take a little extra time but not much, as there is no covering to mess with, just sheeting of the wing and finishing.

Fuselage: Cut out the fuselage sides from 3/32 sheet and cement the 1/32 plywood doublers in place with contact cement. Cement the 1/4 sq spruce into place along with the cabane struts, which may be cut from 3/16 or 1/4 ply-wood if you are squeamish. Cement the 3/16 sq balsa in the aft portion of the fuselage sides. Next cut out and cement into place fuselage formers numbers 1, 2 and 4.

After this has dried, using a taut string to determine the center line of the fuselage, cement in the tail post block; followed with the remaining fuse-lage formers. Omit the eabane cross braces until the last step as they might interfere with the sheeting of the fuselage top and bottom..."

Update 14/01/2016: Replaced this plan with a better copy scanned from a fullsize plan, thanks to Balsaworkbench, scanning by Don at EAC, cleanup by theshadow.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics. Also previous scan version.

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