Frisco Kid (oz8998)

About this Plan

Frisco Kid. Radio control sport model. Based on the earlier FF John Tatone design.

Quote: "I have been both a fan and friend of John Tatone since back in the fifties. As a sixteen year old fledgling modeler I had the pleasure of attending the 1954 International FAI Free Flight Championships, which was held at the Suffolk AFB in Westhampton, Long Island (NY). Fellow LI Gas Monkeys club members, Bob Geyer and Don Martin, were good enough to transport me to this event on two separate days. Very early on my first visit to the AFB I met up with John Tatone, who I had read about extensively in the model press. John had a very clean and yet simple free flight design, which he had perfected over a period of years. The design was called the Frisco Kid (oz8392) understandably because of John's home town (San Francisco). John was one of the few people at that meet who took the time to answer a load of questions from an eager beaver kid. Over the years I never forgot that.

I was so impressed by the Frisco Kid design that I built my first from sketches supplied by John Tatone right after that 1954 contest. From that point until I went into the service in 1959, I flew Frisco Kids in four different sizes. The first was the original .15 size; then there was a 1/2A with a McCoy .049 diesel that I placed with at the 1955 New York Mirror meet; a .19-.23 version which I flew in class A/B and finally a large 900 square inch version powered by a K&B .32 for class C free flight.

1989 Frisco Kid: My goal was to build the original .15 powered (FAI) version of the Frisco Kid as close to the original format and construction as possible. The only thing different planned in this case was to add a three channel R/C system to provide me with an 'assist'. Before I go any further, let me just say that this entire project was done strictly for my own personal fun and as a tribute to my friend, John Tatone. I have no intention of entering this model in any R/C assist free-flight competition, nor do I want to enter into any of the current debates or controversy over such an event.

This .15 powered version of the Kid has a 56-inch wing span along with a constant chord of 8 inches, which provides a wing area of roughly 450 square inches. The original FAI, free flight rules called for either a 15 or 20 ounce weight minimum (I'm not sure which is correct after all these years). With the addition of a small three channel R/C system and a Super Tiger .15 engine (with a muffler) I knew I would far exceed these original weights. Just how far I could actually exceed it and still obtain reasonable performance was the big unanswered question at the start of this project..."

Frisco Kid R/C, Flying Models, August 1989

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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