Me and my Dad are at it again. When on vacation a couple weeks ago I thought of how hard it would be to make a Diddle-Bug style Mud Duck. Well my Dad thought it was an interesting idea. So when we got back he set to work scaling down the Mini Mud Duck templates we made.

The end result..... The Diddle-Duck. Made from Dollar Store foamboard, it has a 30" wingspan. We adjusted the templates to enlarge the rudder and elevator. What I think led in part to the final crash of my Mini Duck prototype. I didn't scale the control surfaces up because of the less airflow over them. We changed that with the Diddle-Duck, it has about 10 percent more elevator and rudder.

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looks like the makeings of a good flyer

Looks like more dihedral in the wing would help it to turn.

Also, the motor looks low relative to the wing. That will require lots of down thrust. You could mount the stick lower and turn the plastic mount 180 degrees to get the motor thrust line up. Or use one of my mounts that clamps an 8 mm bearing tube to the stick. Mounts are on sale for $1 each and are available here http://www.strongrcmotors.com/Mounts.htm. Be sure to sellect your shipping ($3 for padded envelope) from the shipping page before checkout.

I still have to put the wing supports in the wings and the tail. I left them off so it would be easier to paint. As for the motor, was tryin to make room up front for all the electronics. I figured with the motor stick up high in the forward compartment would make space for the battery and ESC.

Shes being built for the KIEF 2009 Funfly in Muncy, PA on Friday so I won't have time to get one of your motormounts and get it on the plane.......but I do believe I'm gonna invest into a few for future projects. How well would that round stick motormount work for an Eflite SE5A? The motor in the Duck was originally destined for that. But the motor doesnt fit on the stick. Would everything fit inside the cowling with one of those stick mounts?

Either way I think I just hit the jackpot thanks BZ1.

Roughly how much downthrust do you think it will need?

I'd start at 3-5°. May need more with the low mount.

Imagine a line through the motor to the center of lift of the wing.

Well, I went and just rotated the motor mount so its facing upward. Its almost in line with the wing, sort of slow stickish lol. I have all the electronics installed, now I just need to make the control rods and the wing and tail supports. Now I do have one question. Hopefully Gene or someone can give me a pointer or two.

What size prop should I start with? It weighs in at 6oz even. Heres my setup:

Hextronic 1300kv 24g outrunner
Castle Creations Thunderbird 9 ESC
Corona RS410II receiver
Towerpro 9g servos
Enerland 2s 400mah lipo

I Just put the finishing touches on it today. AUW is 7oz RTF. Just need to do make sure the CG is correct and its ready for KIEF 2009!

Maiden at KIEF 2009......It flies! Due to its small size I had WAY too much throw on the elevator and rudder. With the help of a nice guy at KIEF (I never did catch his name), set up a starting point for dual rates and added 45% expo on the control surfaces. It ROG in less than 10 feet, and buzzes happily at about half throttle. I also went to a 9x4.7 APC prop. I had trimmed a slowflyer prop to fit (all I had to work with at the moment). Theres still some more work to be done with the trimming but overall I'm really happy with the results. Hopefully someone at KIEF got some video of it flying. I can't wait to get a set of Agri-Duck Sport plans so I can make a Diddle out of it too. I'm already plannin for next KIEF lol.

That is a really neat plane. Good job. It might look more duckish if you used a firewall mount intead of a stick mount, mounted in the top half of your firewall but still completely in the firewall and then use washers like Gene said to get your 5 degrees down thrust. Just glue a piece of painted gift card material or credit card over the front of the square firewall. 2mm screws will hold the mount very well. That is how I mount all of my motors whether it be into foam board or epp.

If you post some plans, it looks like something my father in law might like so I might build it for him.

[QUOTE]If you post some plans, it looks like something my father in law might like so I might build it for him.

I can't post plans, I would if I could. But the templates I used to make this duck came from the Plans of the full sized Mud Duck Sport. Greg at MDA has been very helpfull in the designing of these little Mud Ducks and I'd like to stay on his good side lol. Trust me Buy a set of plans from Greg, and the plane is a BREEZE to scale up and down. I'm planing on getting a set of Agri-Duck Sport and Maybe even Crikit plans. The price he's asking for the plans is well worth it.