Faser (oz8113)

About this Plan

Faser. Radio control pattern model. For .19 to .25 power.

Quote: "Bogged dwon in a sophisticated project? The author gets back to basics with this spirited .25 size fun machine.

Al Trapanese seems to have met his design criteria of something sleek but simple with a mid-wing and conventional gear in his .25 size Faser.

About 10 years ago I picked up a brand new Fox 25 at one of our club swap meets. At this time, I didn't have a particular project in mind for this size motor so I stuffed it in a drawer along with a variety of other motors that I didn't have an immediate use for.

Much has happened in the intervening years. My modeling interests have changed direction from small sport aircraft to 1/5 scale military aircraft, sporting liquid cooled motors, landing flights, flaps, retracts, etc. I have always found this type aircraft challenging and exciting when everything works as designed but terribly frustrating when everything doesn't work such as the gear not retracting, or worse, not extending due to a faulty control valve or the radiator popping a coolant hose and motor overheating, etc. Anyway, after 10 years of aggravation I decided to get back to the basics and find a home for my 'brand new' 10 year old Fox!

I originally planned to purchase an off-the-shelf sport type aircraft but when a couple of fellow club members bought a garage full (literally!) of balsa from a now defunct kit manufacturer, I decided to purchase some of the balsa and scratch build my own design.

What I had in mind was something sleek but simple: midwing, conventional gear, set up for a side exhaust motor with or without a tuned pipe.

As with most of my aircraft, I first started with a pleasing wing design. The remainder of the aircraft was then designed to complement the wing. I have always been partial to swept back wings. Just looking at an aircraft with swept back wings makes it look as if it's going 100 mph! The only difficulty with this type of wing is that its construction is non-trivial, In an effort not to violate my original intent of sleek but simple, I elected to utilize a symmetrical airfoil built in one piece, top-side down. Because of the wing taper, chord dihedral is automatically established. Rib feet were incorporated to ensure proper alignment.

The empennage was designed using solid 3/1 6 medium grade balsa and for the sake of consistency, swept back. A built-up empennage would of course have been lighter but more difficult to construct. Hence, the reason for solid sheet.

The fuselage required considerably more design work than the empennage! I had to ensure that all the moments were correct and
that there was sufficient room for the 'worst case' 25 schnuerle type motor, a four ounce tank, a 500 mA pack, an average size receiver, and four mini (not micro) servos. The first design didn't quite make it. Too tight! The second go-around looked good. I increased the height of the canopy section 1/2 inch over the original design and lengthened the tail one inch. I also moved the wing back 1/2 inch to ensure proper clearance for a four ounce tank. Presto! All my hardware now fit without using a shoe horn!

Conventional gear was a must; less drag plus it looked better. Wheel pants helped dress up the model so I added them. Almost any commercially available glass or plastic wheel pants could be used. Many methods are available to attach the pants to the gear. I chose the simplest approach I could think of, by gluing a piece of 1/16 inch ply to the inside of the pants, drilling two holes through the pants and gear and bolting the pants on using 4-40 hardware. Crude maybe, but effective!

The part I hate the most, the wing, was constructed first with the help of two fellow modelers, Craig Brooks and Kevin Robertson...."

Quote: "I cleaned up this copy I found online of the Fazer, a 25 size pattern plane, designed by Al Trapanese. Originally published in Flying Models Magazine. Regards, Steve"

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 18/10/2016: article pages, text & pics added, thanks to RFJ.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text & pics.

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