Dear NMS169:

The PIPE Here yet AGAIN...





...and a LOOONNNNNGGGG time SWIZZLER owner!!!!

The Swizzler in these photos is one I've had for some TWENTY years now...weighing in a 5-1/2 pounds, with a "pre-Surpass" OS FS-40 four stroke (ALL my engines are four strokes!) in (or is that ON) its nose, and EASILY flyable at ONE THIRD throttle, with a Master Airscrew "regular series" 11x5 prop turning at upwards of 9600 RPM at full power...!

Mine has a custom designed Douglas fir fuselage "crutch" for its main fuselage structure, with all PLYWOOD for the sheeting on the fuse (NO balsa on THIS Swizzler's fuselage)...the wings have been refitted with Frise-type barndoor ailerons, both driven "the OLD school way" with a single servo operating a carbon fiber pushrod setup running transversely through the wing, going to two scratchbuilt epoxy-fiberglass PC board 90º bellcranks...and a TOTALLY custom designed tail, since the Swizzler I had before this one had the "original" WW I Albatros-shape vertical tail...which was TOTALLY in the slipstream of the radio box (hence it was NOT very effective), so I made up a Mooney private plane-shaped vertical fin/rudder assembly instead, for this second one, that is QUITE a bit TALLER than the original vetical tail surfaces were, and ended up projecting ABOVE the level of the radio box/wing mount, so IT has been a WHOLE lot more effective.

There's a few pages on the Internet I've come across that have dealt with the Swizzler, such as those at http://www.rcnightflying.com/nfbiostick1.html and http://www.rcnightflying.com/nfbiostick2.html (THIS one at the second link sure DOES look almost EXACTLY like my FIRST one did...LOL!!)...the Swizzler sure DOES have a flat bottom airfoil, and therefore CAN easily change its pitch trim with various engine power settings! I've placed about three degrees of downthrust in mine, but building a new Carl Goldberg Falcon 56-airfoiled (semi-symmetrical airfoil) wing for my Swiz is about the ONLY thing I THINK that could be done to dampen down the pitch trim changes on my aircraft...that pitch trim changing characteristic can't "really" be fully eliminated, where it IS a high winged aircraft, but perhaps a new wing with a Falcon 56's semi-symmetrical airfoil can TAME it enough for the 3º of downthrust that's already ON my example, to have more of a dampening effect.

Mine had a SOLAR GLARE crash (lost sight of it at 8:00am near the horizon the day it crashed...it went in VERY slowly, so NO traumatic damage of any sort) in September of last year, and where my Swizzler HAS been my only flyable plane since I got back to RC in 2001 (I was away from RC for FIFTEEN LONG years before that) I've been "grounded' ever since then...but once I get caught up with some HOME IMPROVEMENT tasks I'm doing for my mother here at home these days, I should EASILY be able to get back to finishing up its repairs...! The Swizzler's fuselage as it exists right NOW is attached to this message for you to "initially" check out for yourself-the repairs on IT are just about FINISHED!

If you DO choose a four stroke engine for your Swizzler, the newer Saito 40, or the OS FS-40 Surpass four strokers, should give your PLENTY of power for a 5-1/2 pound "finished-weight" Swizzler...and I can even send you the info on what I've used for the TAIL SURFACE pushrods on my example..it's based on the Sullivan "Gold-N-Cable" .058 inch diameter metal cable pushrods, but with the cable running inside some of CST Sales' hollow FIBERGLASS tubing for a really SLOP FREE pushrod setup...Email or PM me a message if you'd like the WHOLE story and details on THAT one (it can even include DIGITAL photos of how that setup looks if you'd like-just got an Olympus C-770 digital camera)...!

Hope to hear from you at either this forum thread, by Email OR PM...good luck on your Swizzler project!

Yours Sincerely,

The PIPE!