Gator Flea (oz8402)
About this Plan
Gator Flea. RC pattern plane.
Kitted by Southern RC.
Quote: "Our two-time National Champ, in keeping with the times, has become energy and economy concious and developed an outstanding .40 powered (80% sized) variation of his Compensator - it's the way to go!
Gator Flea? For those of you who are not familiar with Florida, a Gator Flea is a hellgrammite. For further clarification, hellgrammites are the larvae of dobsonflies and are in high demand among all Floridians as fish bait for bream, bass, etc. The Gator Flea resembles a small alligator and is so mean and tough, he has been known to actually grab a fish swimming by!
Getting back to the airplane (this was beginning to sound like a Field and Stream article) the Gator Flea is actually a 40 sized, 80% version of the Compensator (oz10234). It started out to be just a fun airplane but turned out to be competitive and quite capable of winning in today's pattern events.
My initial intentions were to scale down the Compensator by 20%. Upon doing this, I found that the wing area was somewhat low and that the fuselage was too narrow for a comfortable radio installation. The wing area was then increased to make nose-high landings easier, and the fuselage width was also increased to ease radio installation. For further design theory you might read the Compensator article, (MAN Jan 1974). It describes in detail the ideas of design used in the Compensator and incorporated in the Gator Flea.
Today, more than ever, 40-sized airplanes could become a reality in serious pattern competition. Because of the current fuel situation, more compact cars are in demand and ease of transportation is a definite plus factor. Have you ever tried to carry a 63 inch wing and fuselage in a Volkswagen? Also, with the price of our model fuels..."
Supplementary file notes
Article pages, thanks to RFJ.
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(oz8402)
Gator Flea
by Rhett Miller
from Model Airplane News
March 1975
57in span
IC R/C LowWing
clean :)
all formers complete :)
got article :) -
Found online 30/01/2017 at:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3644634...
Filesize: 284KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: Roguedog
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- Gator Flea (oz8402)
- Plan File Filesize: 284KB Filename: Gator_Flea_RC_oz8402.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 2568KB Filename: Gator_Flea_RC_oz8402_article.pdf
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Notes
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