Hi there!! First time post here, and I wanted to happily report that my Scratch-Built Ace Whizard project has been completed!! I ordered the plans from RCM a few years ago, and finally had some time to complete this project.. I designed and built my own wing from Balsa (instead of using an Ace Foam Wing), using the airfoil shown on the plan to make the wing ribs.. It worked great! Using two mini-servos, standard size receiver, standard size battery, and a Cox .049 Black Widow (with integral tank), it came in at 20 oz. in flight-ready trim!

After much sim time on Realflight G2, I flew it for the first time this last Saturday, and it flew great! What a fantastic plane- very beginner friendly! That was my first time flying a real plane (I've flown the sims since the R/C Aerochopper days!). Not much talk about Whizards on the newsgroups, but I just found this forum, and I see that some others were in the process of building Whizard kits.. How are you guys doing? Did you finish yet? If not, hopefully this message will get you fired up about finishing your kit, as this is one very cool plane..

Jason

as of right now I need to tighten up the servos, attach the pushrods and hinge the rud/elev....but we got weather problems down here again and my mother just had her 4th stroke back on friday, so plane is back burner material for right now..Rog

great job jason,
where did you fly at?how big an area was it?was the wind blowing?


tell us more about the first flight.i guess this is your first plane and your first flying expearence.so please tell us everything.

john

Ok, I'll give more details!! I had decided a while ago that I wanted to build a small plane that would fly very well, fit in my car, be easy to build, and cheap. I wanted to go this route after buying a TowerTrainer 40 from tower hobbies, only to be a little intimidated by it's size.. A 40 size plane is BIG! And, it requires a large area to fly in. My local flying field wants 250 bucks to join, and then dues is like 100 bucks a year. This is on top of the AMA membership fee (I DO plan on joining AMA however..) That field is just too expensive- I will be a rogue flyer, and fly in schoolyards.. I'm responsible- I only fly with no other people around, and I am careful not to fly in an area where I could possible damage someone's car or other property. I didn't want to be utterly foolish and crash my plane from NO experience, so I practiced my butt off using Realflight G2.

So, back to the plane. I ordered the plans from RCM, and I built the plane with the intention of learning.. If I crashed, I wanted to be able to stamp out another plane, so I carefully traced the plan onto tracing paper. I then used the tracing paper to cut out the parts for the plane. I cut a little larger than the plan, then sanded to get the perfect size. All parts were compared to the actual plan before continueing, and after the plane was built, the plan that I ordered is still in new condition, so it can be used again if needed.

I also decided that I didn't want to worry about fuel lines, throttle servo, etc. I used a Cox Black Widow with the built in tank for simplicity, and it runs well and is VERY easy to start.. Even though I imagine I could get a few more RPM's out of the motor if I took the spring starter off, I left it on to make it easier to start.. I used 2 towerhobbies mini servos for the rudder and elevator, a standard tower 3000 6 channel receiver, and a standard battery. The only place where I deviated from the plan is that I built my own balsa wing to the same dimensions as the foam one.

Once I finished, I broke the motor in and balanced the c/g (or so I thought..) Took the plane to an empty school yard (about the size of two football fields side-by-side). It was a Saturday, so school was out. I'd say there was mostly no (to almost no) wind, with an occasional gust of maybe 5mph.. I range checked, ran I small amount of fuel through the tank to verify the motor was warm and running right.. Then I refilled the tank to the top, did another range check, fired up the motor, and had my wife (she was my hand launcher/picture taker!) hand launch the plane..

On the first flight, I had the c/g wrong (tail heavy).. The plane was wildly out of control, and believe it or not, flew almost vertical directly into a tree about 50ft. off the ground, and stayed there with the motor still going full-bore. Once the plane ran out of gas, my wife and I were actually able to get the plane outta the tree (took an hour). It survived this run in with only a minor tear in the wing monocote, which was fixed temporarily with scotch tape. While I had the tape out, I taped a quarter and two nickles to the front of the plane, and then filled the tank again. This time, I flew the Whizard with complete control. I added a tiny bit of down trim, and it actually was becoming fun to fly!! Once it ran outta fuel, It glided very nicely, and I lined up, flared slightly, and had a gear landing where it rolled (as well as you can roll on grass) landing! PERFECT!! We couldn't believe it, and we both laughed for a few minutes before getting the guts to fuel up and try one more flight..

This one went the same way, only I managed to try out a loop that looked nice and helped me ease my nerves a little.. Then another good dead-stick landing. I cleaned the plane up, and packed up for home, where I patched the monocote wing.

All in all, I feel this was a great experience, although I would have felt a little more comfortable with a bigger flying field. Perhaps I'll look around and see if I can't strike up some kinda deal with a farmer or something. But, if anyone has been looking for a small, cheap, great flying plane to fly, this one sure fit the bill for me.. I highly recommend it!!

Whew! Hope I didn't talk anyone's ear off!!
Jason

wornderful just fantastic jason,
thats what's all about.i know you and wifey talked about flying the rest of the day RIGHT.thats what i did,i was so exitied that i almost wet my pants.just to watch it fly knowing that you have total controll of where it goes.gets my heart raceing as i type this.i have to stop now before i have a heartattack.
thank for bring back memories, john

OK, I'll try (for the 50 millionth time) to attach a pic of this plane..

Jason

looks great man, congrats, $250!!! thats crazy talk, my club is $35 the first year and $30 after that(of course it is out in the middle of no where)....... ,thats where I plan on flying the whizard, but I'm building a .010 stick for the schoolyard too...hope I can get a first flight in soon,, like the colors too, nice and bright! mine is red and the wing, you'll just have to see....your making me wish I had gone the blackwidow route now, but I had to do something with this Norvel .074..\

I started out 10 years ago with a Goldberg eagle 2 with a .40 and didnt like the size factor either and ended up giving up with that stuff until I found parkflyers last spring and caught the bug for something glow again... so 1/2a here I come!!

Rog

My clubs $100 a year, but we own the field and have to pay the taxes but it is a top flying site with grass an asphalt runways, as well as a pay phone, out house, club house, with power, wood stove and a fridge and micro wave, and a mountain view to top it off!!

Hey, thanks for the complements, Rog!! It did come out looking good! ANd, I think the balsa wing looks sweet! Almost too good looking, and then I wouldn't want to fly it! But, this ship was built to fly!! Black Widow is ultimate in simplicity, and starting is very easy..

Yeah, I'm gonna look for another flying field that is maybe cheaper, but it can be flown in a school yard no prob..

Post some pics of your when you get a chance!

Yes, fastlash, the flying field by me does have an asphalt runway, but no payphone, no mountain view, no clubhouse with fridge, microwave and woodstove.. None of those creature comforts, and it is WAY expensive.. I forgot to mention, on top of all that expense, they want you to put in a couple of workdays too! I wouldn't mind the work days if the proce was reasonable, but that's just crazy!! At least they don't charge you to park in their lot and watch the flying..

Jason

Yup Iam getting alot for my money, have you looked thru the ama web site for fields in your area? my field in Ca. witch was nice was $50 a year, hope you find one, AMA insurance isn't worth squat if your not at a sanctioned field and even then your home owners is primary

Jason,
Good to see another "less is more" type guy.
I fired up my Black Widow today for the first time. It started on the first flip of the prop. I don't know about the drag of that starter ratchet and spring, but it sure makes starting easy.
How many minutes do you get on tank of fuel?
Was the speed of the plane fast or about what you expected?

Lynn S

Yep, these black widows are great!! I just can't figure why some people would claim they are too fussy.. Oh well. I was concerned about the drag of the starter spring, until I got the plane in the air, and I found that the cox engine has plenty of power for this application. I'm using a 6x3 prop, by the way, and I think the plane flies a little faster than what I had initially thought, but by no means too fast. I've heard that when these motors are run in, thet'll turn a 6x3 for 4-4.5 minutes. I haven't timed my motor since when I was breaking it in, and even then, when I was still running it a little rich, it got 3.25 minutes, so I'm thinking the 4-4.5 minutes is probably right on the mark.. I did reposition the fuel pickup to the bottom of the tank before break-in..

Jason

That's a good idea, I'll look on AMA's website- I still need to join AMA also..

Jason

Good to here it goes great for you Jason.

I am still building my Ace Whizard from kit with my 10 year old son (was away on business for a month etc.) and hope it will fly as good as yours. Got Hitec Electron 6 for it (quit small) and a small 2/3 AAA 300 maH NimH (27g). Should be fun to fly.

I have a Norvel 0.061 BigMig for it - runs strong, but bought a Norvel's 2oz tank as we are spoiled with EPP slope soaring for hours at a time and I am afraid that 1oz tank will be too small for us. I also have a throttle on the Norvel!

Good luck - and let us know about your progress with this and your next planes!

I put a Kavan tank extension on my BW that is suppose to double the fuel capacity. It really makes the motor stick out. I'm not sure it is caused by the long tank but I did have quite a bit of vibration on my first runs. It may smooth out some when I start to lean out the engine. I checked the prop and it seamed to be balanced. I got a little over a 5 min run, so it should run longer when I can lean it out.

Here is a picture...

That's great to hear that other people are also using these planes!! They're a lot of fun! I am thinking about buying a kit to build one for my wife!!

Also, that extended gas tank for the BW looked cool!!! Where can I get one?

Jason

Hey Lynns that's a nice looking Ace 230, hope mine comes out that nice looking..after I get some training time in on my whizard, may put my blackwidow on it to try it sooner......Rog

Jason,
I ordered the tank extension from Hobby Lobby Int. It cost $5.20, shipping is more than the part. They may have glow heads you could add to the order.

www.Hobby-Lobby.com

Thanks flyinrog...

I didn't do that great with covering the foam wing ,its got kind of a krinkle texture on the front. I will have to balsa sheet the next one. I looked at a lot of pictures of Extras and most of them are red and white. I does show up great! Anyway it was "simple" and fun to build.
I just finished installing the radio and have it balanced (I hope) and ready to fly. Now if I can just get enough nerve.....

Yes, first time I heard about Ace Whizard was here, but they have been around for about 20+ years (I think) and lots of people ( 1000s???) have buit these as their first plane - and there seems to be hundreds of them flying now as well. So it seems to me.

If you have your plans and balsa you can probably produce all bits in the kit in one day - the only trickier bit is landing gear to bent... But kits are cheap anyway...

Hey, you're right!! The landing gear was a pain in the cha-cha to bend!! It took me a long time to get it very close to being even, and it's still not perfect, but 99% is close enough.. Does the kit include a pre-bent one??

I have to say, After buying all the odds and ends needed to complete my scratch-built whizard, even with the pieces that I was able to make from balsa already in my scrap box, it still would have been cheaper to start out with the kit.. Assuming the kit includes the control horns and pushrods, landing gear skid and wheels and collers, etc. I don't know. If the kit doesn't include that stuff, the price might be close, but it still took a long time to trace all the pieces onto tracing paper and then cut them out.. I wonder, what is the quality of the pieces in the kit? Are they laser or die-cut? Even if they are die-cut, I heard that when thunder-tiger bought out Ace that tey re-tooled, so maybe the die-cut is a very good quality?? That might make the kit a fast assembling one.. Anyone got any input on this??

Jason

its a good kit, on the box it says all you need are the wheels, a tank, covering and a spinner.......all I had to get were the wheels, had everything else, die cut is pretty good , landing gear wire, pushrods, horns, hardware, strings, decals, are all there...Rog

Awesome.. Seems cheaper to buy the kit than to scratch build.. I have great satisfaction from scratch building mine, but, with the balsa sheets costing around 2 bucks a peice, the plywood maybe 3-4 bucks a piece, then the landing gear wire, pushrods, control horns, hinges, the dowel for the wing, etc.. It adds up.. But, of course, certain supplies, like the plywood, I only used maybe 1/8th of, so that would not have to be purchased again.. Ditto on the wing mounting dowel, landing gear wire, some of the balsa..

This scratch building experiment of mine was phase-1 of my total goal- to teach myself to fly.. Phase-1 was seeing if I could scratch build and fly a plane, using the simplist equipment possible. This is why I only used rudder/elevator, BlackWidow engine with built-in tank, always wide-open until it runs out of gas!!

Phase-2 will be adapting it to 3 channel (adding a throttle sleeve if possible for the BW.. If not, fitting on a Norvel .049 or .061 BigMig R/C.. The receiver that's in the plane will already support additional channels, and I already have an old FMA S90 microservo for the throttle, so that's no sweat.. If I go up to the Norvel, I'll also have to fit an access panel in the front and install a fuel tank.. Also no biggie- a nice upgrade methinks!!

Phase-3 will be building another wing, this one with less dihedral and alirons!! A full-house, 4-channel Whizard!! It's gonna be a fun project!!

Jason

The Ace Whizzard was the first RC Airplane I ever built. Saved money all summer and bought it, a Medallion .049 and a Kraft Built Tower radio 6 channel transmitter with the extra 4th channel servo. Twas 1978 so the airplane has been out at least 25 years. When I showed it to the club members, they had stated that several other guys had played with them several years before. Mine never really flew. It had more than enough power, but was a tad heavy. Of course this guy stuffed 4 full size servos and a pack with a 4 oz. tank in the nose. Deciding that it was too heavy thank to it not trying to lift off the ground itself on a local parking lot, I bought a Medallion 15 and put that on the nose. Now it had power, it not only taxied, it lifted off in about 20 feet. Inexperienced fingers pulled full back on the controls which figure nined it right into the ashphalt and just destroyed it.

I built a gentle lady and taught myself to fly gliders with it.

About 10 years ago, I had a buddy who built one and let me fly it. Sure was nice with micro servos, 3 channels and a Norvel in the nose. Lotsa fun.

The Whizard -- now usually called the Ace Whizard -- was designed by Owen Kampen and initially released as a plan set in RCM in January, '74. It used the relatively new "foam wing" construction and the cores were produced by Ace. The cores were already on the market and Kampen simply designed around them. He had several planes featured in RCM during that timeframe -- all were well designed, with pleasing lines and generally smaller in size.

Regards,
Andrew