Schoolyard Special (oz7788)

About this Plan

Schoolyard Special. RC Sport Trainer. For Cox TD .049 - .051 power and 2 channel radio. Uses the Ace Mini foam wing.

Quote: "RCM's Racing At Random Editor comes up with another outstanding Half-A aircraft for the sport flier. Designed for small field flying, this 35 inch span, high wing model can be built in a couple of evenings and can take its share of bumps in the local schoolyard. Schoolyard Special, by Fred Reese.

The Schoolyard Special is an .049 powered two channel air-plane designed for the Ace foam wings. Either the constant chord or the tapered wing can be used without modification and both fly equally well. It is an excellent schoolyard or small field type flyer. It is light and rugged and can take its share of bumps. This I have proved beyond any doubt!

The Schoolyard Special can be built quickly using contact cement and 5-minute epoxy. After first cutting out all of the parts, I assembled the fuselage and tail in less than one hour,

After trying the Golden Bee, Medallion and the .049 TD engines. I prefer the Medallion as it is reliable and can be fitted with the QZ muffler. The plans are the right size for either the TD or Medallion on the Tatone mount. I started out with the red plastic tank mount but later it was changed to a 1 or 2 ounce tank mounted inside, The front end would have to be shortened to fit the Golden Bee. With the TD and racing fuel, the 'Schoolyard Special' really moves. The weight is only 18 to 22 ounces ready-to-fly depending on radio used. With the muffled Cox Medallion, the airplane is considerably slower.

Construction. First, cut out all of the parts as shown on the plans and lay them out so as to get a right and left side. Mark off the firewall and bulkhead locations. Contact cement the doublers to the fuselage sides leaving slots between the doubters for the firewall and the bulkhead. At this time, also add the stabilizer support doubler. If you decide to build the tricycle landing gear version, bind the wire nosegear to the firewall before epoxying the firewall in place.

Epoxy the firewall and the bulkhead to one side of the fuselage and, when set, add the other fuselage side. Glue on the 1/8 sheet balsa top front and the 1/16 ply front fuselage bottom and the cowl blocks. Pull the tail together and glue, being certain that the fuselage is straight. Add the 3/32 sheet balsa rear fuselage top and bottom. Add the interior 1/8 ply landing gear support in a puddle of epoxy. The aluminum strap landing gear is later bolted on with two small 4-40 bolts.

While the fuselage is drying. glue the rudder to the stabilizer. Shape and sand the fuselage and cut the slot in the top for the rudder. Slide the rudder and stabilizer into the slots using lots of glue..."

Note this plan used the Ace Foam wing. For a plan showing how to construct a replacement wing in balsa (both tapered and straight-chord) see Ace Foam Wing (oz8557) thanks to AndyKunz.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics.

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