Great Planes DR-1 ARF
Flew my Great Planes Fokker DR-1 ARF for the first time today. What a kitty cat. Stable and easy to fly with the CG about 1/4" ahead of recommended. It was very complete and easy to build, too.
Some suggestions I would make to anyone contemplating this one:
1. Put a big, heavy, powerful engine in it, or you'll be adding a lot of lead to the nose. I used an OS 65 LA with a Zinger 14x4 prop, and it is the perfect combination. Lots of punch, but not a lot of speed, which is just right for this bird, and with the Pitts muffler it doesn't sound like a 2 stroke glow engine, and leaves a lovely smoke trail. I also mounted a 1600 mAh battery way up front, right against the firewall. Consequently, I only had to use about 1/2 oz of lead to balance it.
2. This is not a crosswind aircraft. Land and takeoff into the wind. You can't fight it with this one, it's a giant weathervane, and with the narrow landing gear it will tip over at the slightest provocation.
3. Use the throttle to control altitude during approach, and don't go to idle until you are close to the ground, then FLARE. Try to touch down with as little ground speed as is safely possible, otherwise it'll nose over.
4. Rudder is needed to keep it tracking through turns, but I'm finding that opposite aileron is needed to keep it from overbanking and snapping out. It does really nice, huge loops from level flight when the throttle is properly modulated, as it's thrust exceeds its weight by about 2 pounds. I haven't fully explored the envelope, yet, but it seems as if it will literally turn on a dime and give back change.
5. Not a first or second airplane. Anyone wanting to do this one should have some time on a bird with no dihedral or built in roll stability. I wouldn't put it in the same category as "tail draggers", though. This one needs to be walked out to the TO point, then shutdown after landing and carried back to the line. I suppose one could taxi it around if it had a tailwheel, but all the film clips I've seen of WWI flight operations indicate that ground crew assisted heavily with launch and recovery, so that's good enough for me.
If you have some experience and are looking for something really FUN as well as relaxing to fly, this may be the one for you.