Pattern Junkie

Actually, I built the plywood muffler on my first one. It lasted fine, until I switched to the Max .40. A little restrictive, because of the tiny muffler volume, but it worked fine, and made for a really clean nose. When I build the kit I have currently, I'm probably going to build it electric, but make it convertible to glow. I have several NIB K&B .15 Schuerles that I got on e-bay in the early days before prices on that sort of thing went out of sight. If memory serves, I bought a package of 5 of the K&Bs; 2 NIB FF version, and 3 slightly used R/C versions for $60, and then turned around and sold 2 of the R/C version to the guy I was bidding against a few months later for $75. I converted the FF version to R/C, so I didn't have the exhaust baffle. One of these would be perfect with the plywood muffler, since there is no provision for muffler (or header) on the K&B. I would scratch-build the muffler so it has more volume though. With the new radios (instead of a pound worth of Heathkit radio like my first one, lol), I'm thinking it could come in comfortably under 3 lbs.

jkpape

I've always wanted to build one

Pattern Junkie

jkpape: If you read the thread from the beginning, there are several possibilities. Several have commented on either already having laser cut kits, or thinking about it. The kits come on ebay from time to time, but any more they are pretty expensive.

I've built from the kit plans before, but there is only one rib shown. I cut root and tip templates out of ply and then gang sanded all the "in-between" ribs, and it worked, but it's not terribly precise. I had to slightly change the wing saddle, because the root chord was slightly oversize, but it wasn't traumatic, lol.

I have an unbuilt kit, and could probably get a copy of the plans made for you if you can't find any other resource. I originally copied the plans because the ones in the kit were very old and fragile. I think it cost about $10-15 to copy. I keep threatening to draw it up in Deltacad, but things come up, lol. I also have the builder's manual scanned in (see earlier posts).

I'm glad I posted on this thread a couple of months ago. I love this plane, and am happy that the thread has "revived" itself, :-)

rcs1313

I built this Bushwacker 27 plus years ago. The last time it was flown was at a Polar Bear fly in 2 below zero weather at La Grande, Oregon, with a 30 mph wind....lifted off like a heli and went straight up flat....I had an OS35 on it, but it was all it could do to handle the wind. Flew it around the patch twice and landed it under 3/4 power. I sold it after about a year. The new owner never flew it and sold it to the local hobby shop. A friend of mine in Hermiston, Oregon bought it from the hobby shop for 35 bucks, an extra wing came with it....that was in 1990.

Recently I was visiting this friend and spotted the Bushwacker in an old boat he had stored in a shed....he had never put it in the air, long story short, nostalgia got the best of me and I bought it back from him less the engine for 40 bucks....storage fee I guess.....

It is now back in the hanger where it belongs....I am 71 now...so old plane for an old guy...seems fitting....

I still have the original plans for it....haven't looked to dig around for the manual....may not have that anymore.....will have to manufacture a new cowling and canopy, altho Snoopy the pilot is still in the old one, probably wonders where the he-- I have been all of these years.....

Purchased a 480 for it with a folding prop setup....should work out ok


Will see if the pictures will upload...haven't tried that for a long time..

Rod

thailazer

Boy, it sure looks good for all it has gone through!

Pattern Junkie

I'll say. Very nice color scheme too. I might have to steal parts of it.

The Bushwacker taught me to make wooden wheel pants, and I STILL prefer them. They're much easier than fiberglass (or plastic), you can fix them easily, without it even showing.. You also don't have to try to match paint to your heat shrink covering. I'll bet I've made 20 sets of wheel pants over the years using the exact same technique Mark Smith taught me with this kit.

If you'd like a new manual, I've got the whole thing scanned in. Let me know. [email protected]

A 480 ought to be perfect. The manual calls for a weight of about 48 oz (3 lbs) with a .19 engine, and full sized (1974) servos. With the modern super mini servos, I'll bet it could be built closer to 2 lbs. A 2200 3 cell pack weighs 5 ounces. Back in those days, a 450 mAh receiver pack (4 AA nicads) weighed 4 ounces, and the servos were about 1.8 ounces each. The Heathkit receiver that I used in my first Bushwacker weighed 2 1/2 ounces, so the flight pack weight was about 12 oz. An Enya .19, motor mount and fuel tank was about 10 more oz., so 22 oz for the radio and powerplant. If you go with a 480, and modern 9 gram servos, the entire flight pack and power setup weighs about 11 oz, for a 3/4 lb savings.

I have an original kit that I got on a little known (at the time) website called eBay, in 1999. I also have a TON of contest grade balsa, because I had a fire, which burnt about $200 worth of balsa, and I made the insurance company buy me contest grade (I didn't tell them, heh). When I get around to building the kit, I'll replace all the sheeting with contest grade, which ought to shave another 3-5 oz.

The heaviest part of the original kit was the landing gear wires, at about 4 oz. I have this trick where I laminate up .007 carbon fiber with 1/64th plywood and clamp it in a form, which makes super light landing gears, without the hassle of trying to mold one out of glass or c/f. I just need to get off of my duff and do it one of these years...

rcs1313

I haven't weighed this plane, but I think it is heavy......It seems in shifting thru the cobwebs, I can remember making a serious boo--boo with it in the painting phase. In the days when K&B Superpoxy paint was King I was in a big hurry ( had to be somewhere, like work ) one day to get the wing painted. I mistakenly mixed "Clear Coat" with the yellow thinking it was the catalyst. Didn't think I would ever admit to that one , but on returning a day later and finding the paint still wet, (imagine that!) what would any really smart guy do?

Well, spray straight catalyst over the paint of course. It appears to be cured out now.....

I probably will not change this little error and keep her the way she is and fly her heavy. In a way, it would be a shame to change anything at this point. I'll fly her with the 480 before building a new cowling as it may need a bit more power because of this....will weigh her out and see.


Pattern Junkie.........
Thanks for the offer on the manual...am sending you an email..

Rod

rcs1313

I just weighed mine and it came out at 2.4 oz....no servos or radio gear , motor etc...so it will come in on the heavy side on the maiden...

Rod

rcs1313

Bushwacker was converted to electric. Turnigy G10 motor....70 amp ESC...3S--40C---4000ma Zippy battery...10x7E APC prop...DX7 radio...

Added new cockpit and canopy for old Snoopy and manufactured a new cowing for the motor. She is up on the balance poles, just a tad bit on the nose heavy side. If the weather holds, she will see her first flight in over 30 years...

wed-subawu

My Feedback: (1)

I've been working on mine off and on for some time, but I want to get it ready to maiden this spring or summer. It's almost ready to cover, just the finish sanding to do. Interesting kit, as others have said. I kept a few of the design features, like the single aileron servo driving bell-cranks (never tried it before, and less weight out on the long wings), but changed others to suit my preferences. I made a balsa canopy / hatch that bolts on, the landing gear will be an aluminum bracket for a little more ground clearance for my grass field, a regular tail-wheel bracket and lite-ply wingtip plates.

The engine will be an Enya SS15 with stock muffler and a conventional radial mount. It's fairly heavy for a 15 but pretty powerful, so should be enough. Covering will be yellow Ultracote. Not sure about wheel pants, yet. I might build the wood ones in the kit or use some plastic ones I have lying around. We'll see how it does with the grass field. I agree with Mark, though - it looks so much better with the pants!

Pattern Junkie

Looks really great! I'm hoping to start my kit soon. Actually, I'm going to cut new parts out of contest grade balsa, and build a super light version for a 480 electric, and save the original kit to build for a glow engine. I have a couple of really sweet K&B .15s from the '70s. They were pylon racing engines for quarter midget, and they scream. Since it was designed for glow, if I build it out of light balsa, I can also cut down a lot of weight in other places, since it doesn't have to endure the pounding of a piston engine.

A lot of the weight in the original airplane was the landing gear wire, you're right. I often "mold" gear out of laminated 1/64th ply and pre-preg (.007) carbon fiber. Three layers of c/f with two layers of ply give you a super thin, super stiff gear which is much lighter than either wire or dural (aluminum) gear. I just use a bandsaw to cut a 2 x 4 in the profile of the gear I want, laminate all the layers with slow cure epoxy, and then clamp it into the wooden form, then trim and sand to shape when it's cured. They don't EVER bend, and if you somehow manage to break them, then there likely won't be enough left of your model to worry about having to make another set, heh.

The Enya isn't THAT heavy. It's also considerably more powerful than a non-schnuerle engine from the '70s. Just be aware that the model was designed in the days when radios weighed 3/4 of a pound or more (look at the servos on the plans), so you probably want to mount your elevator and rudder servo in the tail or you're liable to come out nose heavy. The instructions call for a dry weight of 3 lbs (48 oz). With a modern radio, and say, 15-20 gram servos, you ought to easily be able to bring it in around 2 1/2 lbs or less. When I build my electric version, I'll be shooting for 35 oz. With contest grade balsa, c/f landing gear, and a flight pack AND power system that together weigh less than just the radio in the original, I think it's very doable.

As far as using the bellcranks for the ailerons, keep it tight. There are two main reasons you don't see that anymore. 1) Independent servos for each aileron keep the linkages very tight, and eliminate a lot of slop, and 2) When that kit was new, servos almost all weighed in the neighborhood of 50-60 grams, and cost $35 each (in 1974 dollars; equivalent to about $160 today). Also, having a bit of extra weight outboard on the wings won't slow down the roll rate appreciably, however, it will tend to damp out twitchiness in the roll axis caused by turbulence. In other words, the wind will bounce it around less, especially on landings.

Also, DO build the wheel pants. They're easy to build, easier to mount than plastic or fiberglass ones, and then forevermore, if you ever need wheel pants on any airplane, you can just whomp a pair out of some balsa. Cheaper than ordering a pair, and quicker than priming, painting and mounting them. I'll bet I've built 15 sets for different airplanes, since I learnt how from my original Bushwacker kit in '76. Cheers, and keep the thread updated, when it's finished!

Flyitorcrashtrying

It is great to see this thread. I have one I built back in the 70's. I put a Fox .19 in it and could never get it to run so it never flew. Was sitting on the bench when my brother was was pissed and tossed a saw on it and broke the tail. I have been thinking about rebuilding it since it was my first build back then and I just might have done some No-No's and possibly the 8 coats of paint may have added a little too much weight. There is enough on the plans to build this if you know what you are doing. The wing is still in great shape though. I will dig it out and post a few pics before I begin rebuilding it.

wed-subawu

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the input, Pattern Junkie. I like that idea for the cf landing gear - might try that in the future. I agree with you on the aileron bell-cranks, but figured I'd try it on a light-weight model like this one. I know what you mean about servos - the old Kraft ones shown on the plans are huge. I'm using 3 standard servos and a micro servo for the throttle plus a modern receiver, so a lot lighter, there. Will post more when I get it covered. Back to the sanding...

John

rcs1313

Looking good....I have flown my 30 year old bird several times now since I kind of refurbished her and the 3s-- G10 motor conversion is a great power combination ...thanks to Pattern Junkie's advice on what to use. I still want to change out the landing gear as it would make ground handling much better also.... Neat old bird!!

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Very Nice.

Don

wed-subawu

My Feedback: (1)

A little update - covering done, hinging done. I think it needs a little something on the vertical tail. Servo hook-ups, final assembly and balancing to do. I did a rough weight check, and it looks like it will be close to 3lbs even, so right where it should be. Went with the plastic wheel pants painted with Ultrapaint. It's no longer available, but I happened to have some yellow on hand, though the colour match isn't the greatest - another reason to make them from balsa..?

John

thailazer

Fine looking plane which will be a beauty in the air.

Pattern Junkie

Nice looking model! Of course I'm prejudiced because I like yellow.

A simple adornment for a vertical tail is to just put a quarter inch wide black stripe outlining it, spaced about a quarter inch in from the actual edge of the fin. Makes it very visible when you're flying by and it goes with any color scheme. If you decide later to put something more on the fin, the center is still blank and waiting. Also easy to remove if you decide you don't like it.

Flyitorcrashtrying

will look even more beautiful in the air. Would love to see some video of it

Pattern Junkie

Just a quick reminder to new people on the thread. I have digital copies of both the manual and the plans for the Bushwacker. The manual has line drawings of ALL the die cut parts in it, although they are of an indeterminate scale. I think they are accurate drawings though, so if you sat down with the plans, you could figure out what scale to blow them up to, to make fairly accurate templates for all the parts. The plans are just a digitized photocopy, not a CAD plan, but I'm pretty sure that if you took them to Kinkos (or whatever they call it these days...FedEx?), that they should print out to the proper size. Just drop me a line at dabraze@gmail, and I'll forward them.

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Plans, manual are at Outerzone as well:
http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=5826
Dave

coolbet

I know this is a pretty old thread, but here goes to see if we can get any responses.
I was given a partially built Bushwacker a while ago and am just now looking at it. Plans and a mess of balsa parts and main gear are in box, but no instruction manual. Anyone want to share the manual or know where I can get one? Or, anyone want to buy what I have?

email me at: [email protected]
Jim

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

See the post right above yours.

Don

coolbet

Thanks, Don, got it!