Beginners Towline Glider (oz8249)

 

Beginners Towline Glider (oz8249) by Paul Del Gatto 1948 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Beginners Towliner. Free flight towline glider model. All-sheet towline class C design. Wing area 116 sq in.

Quote: "A clean design capable of excellent performance, we recommend this model to beginners. Beginner's Towliner, by Paul E Del Gatto.

HAVE you ever had the urge to build a model the night before a contest? Well, I did. The result was a Class C towline ship that performs as well as its big brother towliners. It is stable on the line and will take a long towline, in fact much more than is required in competition. All these desired characteristics are due to the nature of the design, which incorporates a high aspect ratio wing with low drag characteristics; also the fact that the model is constructed entirely of balsa wood, therefore reducing skin friction to a minimum.

Through careful selection of balsa for the various parts, this towliner can be made light enough so that the model will not exceed the required weight for AMA rules. The original weighed slightly less than 3 oz while the ballast brought the weight up to 3-1/4 oz. Since present rules call for 4 oz per 100 sq in, the model must weigh at least 4-1/4 oz for contest flying.

WING AND TAIL CONSTRUCTION: To construct the wing, select a sheet of balsa 1/4 in thick, quarter grain preferred. The desired wing profile is shown on the plans. With the aid of a long blade knife, rough out the desired shape. The undercamber is sanded in with the aid of rough sandpaper.

The stabilizer is made from 1/8 sheet stock. However, it will be necessary to lay out grids for the full size pattern, which will be four times the size of those on the drawing. Therefore they will be 1/4 in squares. The next step is to reproduce intersection points in order to obtain identical curvature. The rudder and sub-rudder are similarly constructed with the exception that the drawing illustrates it half scale. However, for full size the grids are still 1/4 in square.

FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION: The fuselage consists of four pieces: the boom, centerpod, and two sides for the pod. The boom is blanked out of a piece of hard balsa stock, 1 x 1/2 x 17-3/8 inches. Do not shape the boom until all parts of the fuselage are assembled.

To construct the pod, first draw sufficient grids consisting of 1/4 in squares and outline the shape of the pod, referring back to the half scale drawing. The sides of the pods have the same shape as the center except for the portion which overlaps the joint between center pod and boom. This overlap eliminates almost entirely the possibility of breaking there.

To assemble the fuselage, first glue the boom to the center pod or core. Allow to dry for about an hour, then cement the sides in place. Allow another hour for drying... "

Note this is not a fullsize plan, this is a scan of the drawing as printed in the magazine. Formers are shown at 100%, the wing and tail layout is shown at 25%, the fuselage at 50%.

Supplementary file notes

Article page.

Corrections?

Did we get something wrong with these details about this plan (especially the datafile)? That happens sometimes. You can help us fix it.
Add a correction

Beginners Towline Glider (oz8249) by Paul Del Gatto 1948 - model pic

Datafile:

Do you have a photo you'd like to submit for this page? Then email admin@outerzone.co.uk

User comments

No comments yet for this plan. Got something to say about this one?
Add a comment

 

 
 

Download File(s):
  • Beginners Towline Glider (oz8249)
  • Plan File Filesize: 148KB Filename: Beginners_Towliner_oz8249.pdf
  • Supplement Filesize: 460KB Filename: Beginners_Towliner_oz8249_article.pdf
  • help with downloads
 

Notes

* Credit field

The Credit field in the Outerzone database is designed to recognise and credit the hard work done in scanning and digitally cleaning these vintage and old timer model aircraft plans to get them into a usable format. Currently, it is also used to credit people simply for uploading the plan to a forum on the internet. Which is not quite the same thing. This will change soon. Probably.

Scaling

This model plan (like all plans on Outerzone) is supposedly scaled correctly and supposedly will print out nicely at the right size. But that doesn't always happen. If you are about to start building a model plane using this free plan, you are strongly advised to check the scaling very, very carefully before cutting any balsa wood.

 

Terms of Use

© Outerzone, 2011-2025.

All content is free to download for personal use.

For non-personal use and/or publication: plans, photos, excerpts, links etc may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Outerzone with appropriate and specific direction to the original content i.e. a direct hyperlink back to the Outerzone source page.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's owner is strictly prohibited. If we discover that content is being stolen, we will consider filing a formal DMCA notice.