Citabria (oz966)

About this Plan

Citabria. Free flight scale rubber power model.

Quote: "I decided to build the Citabria because I was looking for a scale plane that could be flown in the small field behind my house. The Citabria turned out to be excellent for this, being one of the most stable and predictable fliers I have ever built. In a ten to fifteen mph wind the Citabria will climb almost straight up like a helicopter and land again near your feet. Still air flights of around a minute are common. Sorry to say I do not own the field in question, a new school is scheduled to be built three in a few years, so there goes another flying site.

The overall construction is simple for anyone who has previously built similar models, but I will outline certain items peculaiar to this model.

Fuselage: First, cut the longerons from 1/16 sheet. Note each side is made from two pieces, so that maximum strength is gained from grain direction. Build two fuselage sidea and install the 1/16 sq diagonal braces before gluing the longerons in place. These run outside of the fuselage, so don't forget at this point to glue these longerons to make a left and a right fuselage side.

When both sides are dry, install formers F-1, F-3, F-4 and cement tail posts together, making sure everything is true while drying. Next attach remaining formers and carve the nose block from medium hard balsa.

The undercart is mad from two pieces of wire, 16 swg for the main legs, and 22 swg for the spreader bar. Althoiugh there is little give in the systsem, the model is light enough to survive landings, without damage in over two years of flying.

WING AND TAIL SURFACES The wings and tail are quite straight-forward in construction and need no special instructions. These surfaces along with the fuselage should be covered in light-weight tissue before assembling the model. The original was Covered in white with a red tissue sun-ray pattern doped on. You have a choice of a multitude of colour schemes for the Citabria which can be seen in many of the flying magazines. Keep it light however, coloured dopes are not recommended for this model, but if you must use coloured dopes at least spray them on.

PROPELLER The prop is carved from hard balsa, or preferably American white wood or sugar pine. With all the effort required to carve, finish, and balance a prop the added dura-bility of hardwood is well worth the slightly harder carving. I always use hardwood and the prop will usually outlast the model..."

Update 19/03/2013: Added a better scan of this plan, thanks to Algy.

Supplementary file notes

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