Mini Pro (oz8012)

About this Plan

Mini Pro. Radio control sport model for .40 power.

Quote: "This simple to build .40 powered low winger was designed for the needs of the simple Sunday flier. Mini Pro by John Boren.

I enjoy flying; in fact, anything that flies I enjoy. I also enjoy designing my own planes and watching them fly. There is no greater feeling to me than to see my own creation take to the air for the first time. Like most of my planes they start on a scrap of paper without any formulas being used at all. I may offend some engineers out there by saying this, but my philosophy is to throw away all those complex formulas. Just start drawing till it looks right. We all know what a plane should look like, so just let your imagination wander a bit, while still maintaining some basic aerodynamics. Some of my designs can only be described as weird, while others are just different.

I now present the Mini Pro, one of my more conservative designs, which is simple to build and does look like any airplane. The Mini Pro came about when my friend Jerry asked me to design a low wing plane to take the place of his Sig Kadet (oz2950). No formulas were used in its design, just good common sense. The airfoil section was not plotted from an NACA number or modified from an existing wing. It was simply drawn and re-drawn till I believed it would do the job.

The job of the Mini Pro is to fit the needs from the simple Sunday flier to the competitive fun flier. It took a few minor changes to achieve these goals but the end result has been very rewarding. To date, at least ten Mini Pros have been built and flown by various club members with positive reports from all.

The prototype was designed around an O.S. .35 engine and a Futaba radio with F26 servos. The flight performance was adequate but somewhat slow for the 3-1/2 pound plane. Needing a fun fly airplane for our monthly club contests, I decided to put a little more power up front with some added room for extra fuel. After some minor changes to the forward fuselage, a .40 size engine fit quite nicely with a little extra room to spare. Like most modelers, I would rather land the plane with the engine running, instead of dead, so I decided to make room for an 11 ounce Kraft fuel tank..."

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics, thaks to hlsat, JHatton.

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