hogflyer

The big brown truck just dropped off my latest toy. Since I can’t string out a high start at my field to fly gliders I decided to go the closest route right now. Hobby People has a little ARF plane called the Schoolboy on sale and I decided to pick it up. I saw this plane several years ago, but didn’t get on at that time, but heard it was a decent little plane. Well, soon after I thought about it, it went off the market. Now it’s back as a “Special Buy”. The box says it’s a Hobby Shack ARF, and it also says Model Tech whom I’m assuming is the manufacturer, for what ever that’s worth. They claim right on the box that it’s “The best 90% ready to fly R/C trainer”. We’ll see about that claim. It has a polyhedral wing, and is 3-ch (R/E/T).

Specifications, per the box:
Length 34.63”
Span 50”
Area 325 square inches
Weight 30 – 36 oz (empty 11-ounce)
Engine 09 - .15 required (they recommend the AP Hornet .09)
Radio 3-channel with 3 servos required

My plans are to build it stock, and power will from an OS .10 (I’m too cheap to buy the AP Hornet, and have a brand spanking new 10 year old OS .10 sitting on the bench right next to it). I’ll use (2) HS-81 servos for the rudder and elevator, and (1) generic micro for the throttle. The receiver will be a Berg 7-ch, and the batter will be a 270mAh 4.8v NiCad (only because it was given to me, is brand new, again I’m too cheap to buy a Ni-Mh right now). Hopefully it will come out toward the lower end of the weight spectrum and be able to do some thermaling next summer. It even might make a nice little late afternoon/early evening park flyer. I think it should be able to handle a baseball field, if not a football field to get up and down in.

So, is there any interest of doing a build thread on it here (since its .10 power it seems to fit into the rather loose definition of 1/2A that prevails here), or should I move it to the beginner or ARF forums?

Hogflyer

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

I love build threads. They encourage others to try their hand at building and I always learn a few new things from watching other modelers. So, YES!

injunnut1

I too would like to see this 'School Boy' build thread, so please DO IT (right here)!!! And Thanks a Lot too!
Donald Garry

Half-A-Hec

Hogflyer,


You crack me up. You fly planes that are FAST and maneuverable and you can do every maneuver in the book, then you get a school boy? I assume this plane is to allow you to just relax and thermal around.

As for the build thread? Don't ya mean assemble thread. This is after all an ARF. Can't wait to see how she works out. You don't happen to have a .15 laying in your shop that you would like to trade a brand spanken new Norvel .25 for?

Hec

hogflyer

Hec,

Your right, it is more of an assembly thread. Yes, I have it just for relaxed flying and thermaling. I've done enough comeptition in the past - I'm in the hobby now just for the fun of it - sport flying and flight instructing. There are time's I'm just as happy sitting on the tailgate of my truck shooting touch-n-go's in an empty parking lot with a slow flyer than flying a screaming aerobatic bird. I've probably flown more with gliders than powered and love silent flight. Nothing is more relaxing that being in a big open field, kicked back on a lounger, and hearing the sounds of the wildlife (animal version, not the inner city kind ) while still being able to fly hour+ duration flights. What's more fun is when you can get into the same thermal as a buzzard or hawk and they don't chase you out.

Sorry, but I really don't have a spare .15 to swap. The one I do have belongs to a friend back in St. Louis, so I don't think it would be right to swap it out. I'll let you know if I do come across one, though.

Hogflyer

Silvaire

My Feedback: (50)

Hogflyer,

Your up comming thoughts and experience with your Scoolboy will be appreciated!

I couldn't pass up an NIB one at a swap meet with a bench run only AP 09 for a ridiculously low price - and that was over a year ago. I have had absolutely no enthusiasm to do anything with it. Hopefully you will soon have something good to say about yours and I can figure out to do with mine...

Arlen

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

That AP .09 makes a real good fishing sinker. Much better than it makes a model airplane engine. The little experience I've had with them shows that a Cox Queen Bee .074 is a superior engine putting out more power at less weight. The OS engine on the other hand should be quite a nice little powerhouse. Not overpowered by any means, but far more capable of the task at hand.

MJD

My Feedback: (1)

Wow, if the Queen Bee outperforms the AP .09, that AP must be a total dog! The Queen Bee is not much more than an overweight .049 in terms of performance.

MJD

hogflyer

That's why I'm going to use a my OS .10.

Got a start on it over the weekend. I'll do an update and post some pictures later tonight.

Hoglfyer

ptulmer

My Feedback: (5)

MJD, Flyswatter put one in an old Ace Pacer. After getting it to balance the wingloading was fine and it should have been a real hotrod. I don't think it ever turned a 6x3 over 14k and wouldn't even get the Pacer airborne. We spent a whole lot of time messing with the engine and well over ten tanks trying to break it in and get more RPM. He sold it at the Perry swapmeet after demolishing the twenty-year old Pacer. I felt guilty taking the poor sap's money and didn't sleep well all week. That wasn't the only one I heard of with the same level of performance. I believe it's just a poorly designed engine with timing and maybe compression issues. The fit and finish seemed just fine.

Hogflyer, is that an LA or older model? I haven't owned a .10la yet, but have read good things about it. The .15la was a reliable and hard running engine.

hogflyer

Mine is a .10 FP, it's a good 10 years old, but NIB. One that I could have made a 3 time what I've got in it, just couldn't part with it - it was rather difficult to get a hold of even when it was in production.

Hogflyer

Silvaire

My Feedback: (50)

Well jeez Pat, I thought I'd scored good with my Schoolboy/AP09 deal.

(If I had had enough extra money in my pocket for the tax though, I could have bought a new Aero Ace at Target instead of that "swap meet Schoolboy" with its likely worthless engine.)

I will give my AP09 a little run in time soon and see if maybe I got a "lucky" one. If mine's as bad as yours was, I do have a few used OS 10s around, or a Norvel .074 that I could try if I get motivated to do anything with this plane.

On the other hand, I still don't YET have any enthusiasm for the Schoolboy...

Arlen

Update: I just dug my Schoolboy box out from under a big pile... The AP09 was actually new and never run - not test run as I had thought. Perhaps better yet, there was a new in the package OS glow plug in there too!

hogflyer

The School Boy is sold through Hobby People, formerly Hobby Shack, and is made by Model Tech. Its touted as a basic trainer for .09 - .15 sized engines and three channel control. Per the instruction book the plane was designed by a modeler named John Greenshields. It’s of all balsa construction with plywood in places as required. The main landing gear is also pre-installed.

Here’s the kit as I opened the box, then started unpacking. Everything was well packed as separated to prevent damage – there was none. All the pieces where wrapped in plastic bags, and the hardware was separated and bagged.

The covering appeared to be the typical low temp Chinese covering. It’s thin and semi-transparent. There is a bit of looseness, but not much. I figure after one season of flying I’ll probably have to recover it.

Initial inspection showed all the pieces where there with no apparent damage

When I unwrapped the fuselage, I found the firewall and fuel tank compartment have already been fuel proofed at the factory, and all the glue joints looked OK.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

The wing comes in two pieces, and has the polyhedral panels pre-joined. The dihedral brace is made from 6mm plywood 7-1/2” long. The panels fit well with no gap between them, and the dihedral brace fit snugly in its slot in both panels. There was only a small amount of covering that had to be removed from the center joint. I used 30 min epoxy to join the panels and used tape to hold it to cure. After I glued them, I checked the tips and they appeared to have the same amount of washout in each tip.

After the glue had dried, I trimmed the covering back and installed the plywood rubber band supports on the top of the trailing edge using thick CA.

I did take some excess epoxy and put a bit at the fuselage to bulkhead joints for the firewall and both bulkheads, just for added insurance.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

Here I prepped the horizontal stabilizer, tail and fuselage for the installation of the empennage. I had to install the wing hold down dowels first and they fit tight in their holes. I set them with thin CA, and then used thick CA on the inside of the fuselage to make sure they stay in place. Now I could put the wing on to align the horizontal stab.

I used a quick clamp to hold the stab in place making sure it was square and parallel to the wing and true to the fuselage, them made the final alignment marks.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

Here I’ve glued the stab in place with 30 minute epoxy. After that cured I aligned the tail, gluing it with 30 minute epoxy. Afterwards I installed the control horns on the rudder and elevator, and attached them. The control surfaces come with CA hinges pre-installed on one side, so it’s a piece of cake to attach them.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

Next came the installation of the landing gear. First I had to install the control rod, then insert the nose gear through the pre-installed bearing block and hook up the control arm. After that came the nose gear tire followed by the installation of the main gear tires. Everything was installed using loctite.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

Here I’m trying the engine fit to make sure there is adequate clearance for the muffler. Typical of a cheap ARF, one of the blind nuts for the engine mount came loose. Luckily everything in the engine compartment is wide open so it will be any easy fix. I did have to run the mount screws into the blind nuts to tap them out – again typical of cheap ARF hardware.

This plane was designed for the AP Hornet .09 but the OS .10 FP fits just fine. I will have to work a bit to get the control rod to fit better as it is a bit low and has some bends that I don’t care for, but that’s for another day. Still plenty of other work to be done.

Hogflyer

jessiej

I have a couple of the .10 FPs. Terrific little engines!

pywackit

HogFlyer, you won't have time to give me anymore lessons with that Schoolboy! [] That's a cool little plane...gonna let me at the sticks? LOL!

hogflyer

pywackit,

I should be a lot easier to fly and land than your Alpha. A heck of a lot slower.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

I relocated the throttle pushrod to better work the OS .10. I had to replace the metric mounting screws and blind nuts with 4-40 cap screws on the bottom mount. The blind nuts for the upper mount were in good shape, and almost impossible to get to with out damaging the structure, so I left them in place. After drilling the mounts for the engine they where installed, followed by the engine.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

The fuel tank is assembled and installed next. The tank is 115cc, or 3.88 oz. It should be adequate for this size plane. The tank fits fine in the nose, there is a hole in the firewall for the fuel lines to run through. I still need to put some foam around the fuel tank and seal the hole in the firewall.

Lastly, the hatch was through and installed using the supplied sheet metal screws. There are two recesses for the screw heads, but they were not drilled all the way through.

Hogflyer

hogflyer

Since the basic assembly is finished, I decided to weight it. The basic airframe with the engine and radio installed weight 1 lb 5.8 oz (21.8 oz.), and with the servo’s, battery and receiver weighs in at 1 lb 9.7 oz (25.7 oz.). This is considerable less than I expected, but I still have the pushrods, foam for the fuel tank and radio, and finish mounting the radio. I’m shooting for a weight less than 30 oz. which is at the bottom end of the listed weights.

Hogflyer

rainedave

My Feedback: (1)

hogflyer, thanks for documenting your build for us. That plane looks like it will be great fun. At your weight you might even catch a thermal! Say, you don't have any more NIB FP .10s lying around do you?