I've really had a blast designing and flying these little planes. I hadn't really ever thought about designing small planes like this until Dave Blum showed us his amazing little planes here in the Diddle Scale Style thread - what a cool concept! I liked the idea of having a nice light weight plane I could quickly and easily fly out in front (or in back) of my house any time the weather was good.

My first attempt was with the Howard DGA "Pete". while it flew, it wasn't as good of flyer as I wanted it to be...so I decided to design another (I need to revisit the "Pete"). This time it was the Hawker Hind, a pre-WWII light bomber biplane. This time it flew perfectly! And the best part was I had it built, covered and ready to fly in one day! I showed it to my wife and her comment was "That's whimsical"....hence the name 'The Whim' series.

Those that know me know these three things:
1. I hate to have a lot of money tied up into a single plane.
2. I can't leave a design alone until I feel it's the best I can make it.
3. I like things to be easy to do...build, fly, whatever...

So I started thinking....why do I have to have so much money in electronics tied up with such an inexpensive plane? That really bugged me. So I started tinkering with some ideas of a pallet concept that has been used in some other planes to be able to move the electronics (receiver, servos, ESC and motor) from one airframe to the next.

But with a plane this small, messing with control linkages whenever you wanted to move the electronics whould be a major hassle. So I thought about which components could be moved the easiest between airframes and settled on the receiver and speed control. I figured that this would save at least $50-$60 bucks to be able to move these two components from one airframe to the next.

So I settled on a 'tray' that would hold the receiver and ESC and be held in place by a 1/8" dowel 'pin' and a couple of rare earth magnets. Simply unhook the servos from the receiver and the motor from the ESC and move the 'tray' to another airframe! So now each plane is designed around this concept.

I didn't originaly intend to kit any of these, but there has been more than enough interest, so I decided not only to kit, but to keep expanding this line of designs.

So here is the guide line I am using for all of these designs now:
1. Low cost
2. Scale outlines
3. Quick build, simplified construction, low parts count and interlocking/self aligning parts
4. A great flyer!

Kits include all laser cut parts from contest grade wood and 1/32" ply (as necessary), carbon fiber rod (as necessary), 1/8" dowel and rare earth magnets.
http://www.parkscalemodels.com/shop/

ZRS4's SE5a Build thread
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=908213

Mike Tully and Chris Parent's SE5.a and Fokker D-VII video thread
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=813501

I'm usually not good at keeping new designs a secret, but this one I did. This will be my next kit to release in the next couple of months - a North American P-51C Mustang. I started this design about 3 weeks ago as I could find the time between my 'real' job, family time and a vacation. I maidened it yesterday and I am SUPER pleased! I'll post specs for it later.

Next up will be:
FW-190
P-47
ME-109
F-6 Hellcat
Zero

I cant wait to get my fleet going and when I get home I will post pics of my SE5 in civilian barnstorming colors. I am also picking up a few at NEAT.

Here's the specs for the P-51C Mustang -

Span: 23-1/4"
Length: 18-5/8"
Wing Area: 96.5 sq.in.
Controls: Rudder/Elevator (will be experimenting with Aileron/Elevator)
Motor: 10g brushless outrunner w/7A ESC
Weight: 3.8oz w/2S 300mAh LiPo, 4.1oz w/2S 450 mAh LiPo
Wingloading: 5.67oz/sq.ft - 6.12oz/sq.ft.

There will be some changes to the design and there are some area where I know I can shave some weight off. Given the wing area, I don't know that I can get it down to the wingloading necessary for indoor flight (I'd have to lose about 1oz. ), but it is definitely a backyard flyer for sure.

My maiden flight was with a 6x3 prop and while it flew well enough, I knew it could fly better so I switched to a 5x4.3 prop - what a difference! It easily loops from level flight at 3/4 throttle. The stall is what you would expect, one wing drops but recovery is fast. With the power cut off, I did another stall test, it would porpoise a little, but would not drop a wing.

It really wants to climb with full power, so I may adjust the thrust line on the motor mount or the change incidence of the wing a little. I had a lot of fun doing 'strafing runs' in my back yard - full throttle and a slight dive to about 10' off the ground then pull up while turning to the left slightly...looked just like a Mustang should!

I did some spins, stall turns and hammerheads - typical rudder only aerobatics. Ailerons would offer the ability for rolls, split-s and cuban 8 manuvers.

Given the weight/wing loading, I have decided to design for the little burshless outrunners only. I just don't think I can get the weight down enough to where a GWS LPS motor would fly it like it should. Besides...these little outrunners barely cost more than the LPS drives and deliver almost twice the power!

I kow for one that I can not wait to get my hands on this new plane and fly it hard and fast. When is it going to be available? More I want more of these little planes. Besides they look good and dont take up too much room. I can even keep them in the living room and my woman doesn't complain.

that's awesome. more small balsa parkies, there's not enough of 'em around!

Hi Zeke,

Chris and I will bring Snoopy and Hermann to NEAT for you to have in the booth Saturday/Sunday.

The P-51 looks great. Just a thought about aileron-elevator on a undercambered wing plane - the ailerons have zero effectiveness as the stall approaches. If you get the nose too high, then all you can do is push it back down and wait until you have sufficient speed to regain directional control. No such problem with rudder-elevator control planes, but they do lousy victory rolls.

Originally Posted by Mike Tully

Chris and I will bring Snoopy and Hermann to NEAT for you to have in the booth Saturday/Sunday.

Great Mike...hopefully we can get in a couple of early morning dogfights! It would be cool to see three of these flying around together! A couple of SE5's laying in wait to pounce on Hermann.

Zeke

Ron and I will be bringing the SE-5a and the Fokker up to NEAT so there are a few extra planes for the Dawn Patrol. Lets see if we can schedule a dawn (or close to dawn) flight on Saturday AM weather permitting of course.

Brian Allen

Veni Vidi Volavi

I came I saw I flew

Zeke-nice to see you will be expanding the line. Can't wait to see your Hellcat! I just ordered the SE5a and Fokker.

-Jon

I may be there for Saturday morning as well with my Yellow barnstorming SE5

Originally Posted by Mike Tully

Just a thought about aileron-elevator on a undercambered wing plane - the ailerons have zero effectiveness as the stall approaches. If you get the nose too high, then all you can do is push it back down and wait until you have sufficient speed to regain directional control.

I had thought about that which is why I was considering going with a full length strip aileron. That way you would at a minimum have air from the prop going over part of the aileron. Not ideal, but it's something to experiment with.

Originally Posted by Brian Allen

Ron and I will be bringing the SE-5a and the Fokker up to NEAT so there are a few extra planes for the Dawn Patrol. Lets see if we can schedule a dawn (or close to dawn) flight on Saturday AM weather permitting of course.

Excellent! This should be fun!

These are very neat.

What size battery packs are recommended?

I use a 2s 300mah polyquest in mine.