Nova (oz9231)

About this Plan

Nova. 50inch span S/C high wind slope soarer.

Quote: "It is not uncommon for single channel slope soaring enthusiasts to have a model, over-elevated, drifting slowly back over the top of the hill and the transmitter keying switch chattering frantically in a desperate attempt to keep the nose 'pointing forward.' This can have disastrous consequences at Clwyd if a west wind is blowing, where there are two and a half miles of forestry over the back of the mountain.
This happened once to me with Quasar, one of my previous designs but, fortunately, I had taken the precaution of putting my name and address on it and, luckily, it was picked up some three miles from the launching point, beyond the trees! This convinced me that I had been right in designing and building Nova some weeks before.
I had begun to think about a single channel model specifically for strong winds, after watching a number of multi models soaring in anything up to 40 mph at Clwyd, and I felt sure that the right kind of rudder-only model would be able to take this type of flying in its stride. Certainly, as far as I knew, there was no other s/c soarer designed for this purpose that was as tough as I wanted. Perhaps because nobody else was mad enough to fly s/c in gales?but there was the challenge and I had to try.
I decided that, as it would be flying in strong lift, it would have to be heavy - very heavy. However, after working at this problem for a short time, I began to see a number of other advantages in building a heavy model. For instance, one can afford to beef it up a little without worrying too much about the extra weight. Also, a heavy model does not get thrown all over the sky if it hits turbulence, but mainly, if thin wing and tail sections were used, it would be nice and fast to improve penetration. I also wanted to make the model fairly small, as I have found, previously, that smaller models are more suited to high winds. (Besides being aero-dynamically more suited, they seem to bounce more times than break!)
In designing the model, I took these and a number of constructional factors (which will be discussed later) into account. Furthermore, I wanted this model to look different and I decided that a sleek canopy over a tapered wing, a small, swept-back fin, and generally clean lines would serve this purpose. The result was a very fast, racy looking model..."

Nova, Radio Modeller, November 1970.

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, thanks to RFJ.

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