cortacesped

I printed the plans for the Scorcher from Dave Fritzke´s site. It´s a nice looking plane, but the wing span looks a little short compared to the fuse (the long chord compensates the wing area). I want to know what kind of performance expect from it. Thanks. Regards.

Claudio

boberos

Since the Ken Willard designed Scorcher was intended as a 1/2A pylon racer, I would expect it to be quite fast for it's size & weight. You will notice it has a very thin wing.
If you want to go fast, this is the plane for you; but if you are a sport flyer, there are lots of great slower designs available.

Good luck,
Bob G

vauxhall

Ditto the above.I built the Scorcher ,and can tell you that it is indeed a 1961 1/2A racer.Mine has an 049 reed with a remote tank and is fun to fly.Very quick,cheap and easy to build,but when it comes to flying , it is what K.W. designed it to be,very good going fast in a straight line and tracking pretty well in the turns. When the motor quits,the rudder response is not so good{that'd be a result of compound escapement control surface flapping nonstop} so you could enlarge the fin and rudder by about 20% I reckon.If you were after a "sports model",make the wing thicker.A Clark Y aerofoil should make it slower .As designed,it has a fast glide,high sink rate and high landing speed.But hey,build it,only costs a few bucks, and you'll be flying a piece of 1/2A history.

cortacesped

Thanks for the information, Yes, I´m looking for a sport model, because now, I cannot fly very often and I dont want to deal with high speed. I think that I´ll build one with the Clark Y airfoil. Regards.

Claudio

boberos

Hi Claudio,
If you want a sport plane from Ken Willard of that era, you may want to consider a 'Breathless'.
It too is a shoulder wing design with a good flying reputation.
Bob G

cortacesped

Bob:

The "Breathless" seems to be what I´m looking for. I ´ll try to get a plan. Regards.

Claudio