Ffoxy (oz8295)

 

Ffoxy (oz8295) by Rod Lewis, Dave Ackery 1990 - plan thumbnail

About this Plan

Ffoxy. A1 towline glider model.

Quote: "Got FFOXY - last month's full-size plan? Good! Here's Rod Lewis with all the building gen...

PUBLICATION of this attractive All glider A/1 in Aeromodeller will, it is hoped, have the same effect on Junior free-flight aeromodelling in the UK as it has in New Zealand, its country of origin. For in NZ we have managed to dramatically reverse the world-wide - at least in the West - trend of few or no young people taking an interest in aeromodelling. The genesis of our programme was in the observation of the French CLAP scheme which features a simple towline glider and real guidance by experienced free-fighters, both in the construction of the aircraft and also in their trimming, flying and eventual competition participation and enjoyment.

Guilty! It then occurred to me that I was guilty, along with most of the others, of not being as supportive of Juniors as I should be. Certainly, when casting my mind back to my youth, it seemed that I had benefitted from much more encouragement and real assistance such as transport to the flying field, donations of modelling material, and flying guidance, than I myself was now giving young people on the fringes of our sport. I thus decided to promote the construction and flying of an A/1 that I had designed a couple of years before - the FFOXY.

Noteworthy features were its ease of construction, excellent towing characteristics (thanks to the relatively thick wing section and 'hatchet' fuselage) and ruggedness. We produced some lucid 'how to build' diagrams and notes, coupled with John Cooper's guide to towline techniques, which appeared in Aeromodeller back in 1979, and offered them free, with a 'Free Flighters of New Zealand' transfer, to any young person wishing to build a F/F aeroplane.

Announcements were made in The Fliers World (the NZMAA journal) and naturally, FFoNZ NewZ. More than sixty sets of plans were sent out, Friday-evening building sessions attracted up to 25 ten-to-fourteen year-olds. Before long I was privileged to see no fewer than ten young lads tow and launch their new A/1s. Most rewarding. Now - over to the youngsters - start building!

Building: Study the plan - if you already haven't - which was featured in last month's Aeromodeller. Read the following instructions - and don't start building until you understand how each part is constructed

Make sure you have obtained all the materials required according to the list published last month (and repeated here, in case you missed it). Stripwood must be straight and firm. Aliphatic Resin is a good choice of glue. Your building board must be flat, or you will be unable to create 'true' wings and tail. And a sharp blade in your modelling knife is essential.

You have the potential to create a splendid flier, but only if you take the time to build an accurate model. No rushing the task, please.

Let's get going: Cut out the fuselage sides according to Fig.1. This means you will get them both out of one sheet of 1/16 x 3 x 36 in. Careful, though; there's only about 1/4 in to spare at overlap. Next, cut the fuselage core from 3/8 in balsa. Follow the outline shown on the plan. Cut the outline first; then the cut-outs for timer, ballast - and at the rear. See Fig.2.

Roughly shape the noseblock from 3/8in hardwood. Ply is a good choice; but don't use balsa which is far too soft. Now glue the fuselage together. Make sure all is flat and 'square'. Leave overnight to dry. Next sand the fuselage to remove 'high' grain. Round the corners slightly. Then give one coat of dope, and cover with tissue, doped on, except where the wing mount goes. See Figs 3 and 4.

Now add all the fittings. Carefully cut and sand away the tissue so that the fins and alu-minium tube guides can be blued directly to the wood of the fuselage with epoxy glue. To glue then over issue means they will fall off. Add no ballast yet..."

Scan from DBHL, cleanup by theshadow.

ref DBHL-5041.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 05/01/2017: added article, thanks to David Foster.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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Ffoxy (oz8295) by Rod Lewis, Dave Ackery 1990 - model pic

Datafile:
  • (oz8295)
    Ffoxy
    by Rod Lewis, Dave Ackery
    from Aeromodeller
    June 1990 
    48in span
    Glider F/F
    clean :)
    all formers complete :)
    got article :)
  • Submitted: 27/12/2016
    Filesize: 246KB
    Format: • PDFbitmap
    Credit*: DBHL, theshadow
    Downloads: 1087

Ffoxy (oz8295) by Rod Lewis, Dave Ackery 1990 - pic 003.jpg
003.jpg
Ffoxy (oz8295) by Rod Lewis, Dave Ackery 1990 - pic 004.jpg
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User comments

Hello Outerzone! I thought you might like to have the build article which was published a month after the plan was issued. At the end of the article it states that trimming and flying instructions would feature in the following month's issue of Aeromodeller, but I have not found another article on Ffoxy, so maybe it didn't happen.
DavidFoster - 05/01/2017
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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.

 

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