I bought this from my local hobby shop used about 8 years ago and the guy didn't know what it was (had been up in the attic and I noticed it in the corner).

Please let me know what it is.
by the way I'm referring to the maroon pattern ship not the yellow and blue scat cat

thank You

Paul

Paul,

It's a wood framed up Dirty Birdy. Either a 40 or a 60 but judging from the stab its a 60. The canopy shape is not right. You can get the correct one from Keith at Park Flyer Plastics. I would partially paint the canopy so it doesn't look like bubble out of place sitting atop the fuse...

What's for power up front?

David

I agree, Dirty Birdy for sure.

Yep, looks like one to me and I've stared at them way too much while building them for others. The canopy looks like it's from a Super Kaos.

while I'm not at all familiar with this planes evolution all the dirty birdy's I've ever seen had a tall thin fuse...not a box type.
I looked at the bridi models on that classic pattern planes site (trentonrcflyers) and they all seemed to have a different stab, shorter coupled, etc.

in any case thank you so much for the info.

the motor is a super tigre blue head.

by the way the plane flies like a brick compared to my minare.
I remember it not wanting to pull out of an outside loop and having to roll it over to save it's butt.
Not sure if it's heavy or if the motor's tired or what.

thanks again for the info!

I just went and looked again and what I thought was part of the fuse was actually the canopy.
I stand corrected..the fuse does look the same.

When building Bridi models from wood, there are gross variations in fuselage cross section from builder to builder. The thick side stock some people complain about, is supposed to be shaved and shaped into a rounded and contoured shape with little material left. Some Dirty Birdy's and UFO's are very square, and others are shaped in a very elegant and artistic fashion.<div>Yours there looks in between, pretty good looking model.</div><div>Chris...</div>

It wasn't uncommon back in the day for a pattern pilot to take a lot of short cuts framing a plane just to get ready for the next pattern contest. So little time was taken with sanding the fuselage round.

Another thing common also was, since they didn't have to stay within specs as todays SPA and CPA, some guys just built a fuselage to go with a set of wings they had on hand and use the tail feathers from another plane. Remember, we didn't have ARFs. We had to build all our planes and didn't much time between contests to have a plane ready to fly.

We really didn't worry too much about weight either. As long as it was under 9 or 10 lbs, we flew it. They handled better in the wind that way. And when you are flying in a contest and the wind is blowing 20 mph, you still had to fly. We used the strongest engines we could find at the time.

Frank

rcjunkee...

I am a huge fan of Joseph Bridi and his designs. The evolution of his aircraft are mostly adjustments made to the Sun Fli series as the needs demanded.

The Dirty Birdy is an interesting subject because there are 2 different versions of the fuselage. The RCM plans version is a lot more rounded, and I think it would make a better airplane than the more squared version of his fiberglass and later kit versions.

I would like to really know why the change. Everyone has there opinion. The later version is easier to mount retracts in... Maybe that is what is behind it. It would be nice to have Mr. Bridi share what was behind that.

Your Dirty Birdy is very nice. It should be one of the straightest flying and faster aircraft you will find.

I hope you get everything set up soon. I am told it is a kick in the pants to fly. I am building one right now myself. Personally, I am building the RCM plans version using the BlueJay kit.

Enjoy!

Brian

Brian,

Are you sure the RCM plans present a more rounded version than the original glass version. I've always believed the glass fuses were the most tear drop in shape.

David

I have to agree with David. The wood planes were boxier and the glass were round.

Frank

Brian-David-Frank,

I happen to have a GreatPlanes/Bridi Glass Dirty Birdy sitting in a mold so I can make a couple more. I also have the plans for the RCM Dirty Birdy as well and they, the glass plan and built up are exacly the same. I purchase the RCM DB plan 2008 and when I got the Glass DB a year later that was the first question I asked myself. How much did they differ? To my amazement they were the same. I had the plans scanned and overlayed them both and the outlines are exacly the same.

If the built up ones you have seen are square then they were that way due too a lazy or scared builder who didn't sand the sides all the way to achieve the symmetry as the built up plan shows. A rounder one could be achieved by more sanding but I think that would weaken the fuse considerably at the corners without beefing them up.

Also someone had to make a plug for the original glass Dirty Birdy and I bet he just followed the RCM plan and sanded the fuse to achieve the correct symmetry as indicated on the plan.

Bryan

It would be worth checking out Joe's original framed-up article pictures (they were in colour and in RCM if memory serves) as they show the model as he first envisioned it. I seem to recall it being pretty arrow shaped in the tail boom which is often where we note whether a builder did a 1/4" radius or took the filthy bird to task as it ought to!

One of the things I decided to change in the re-design of the DB40 for laser kits was to swap out the top tristock (which was 3/8" originally I believe) for 1/2" stock. While this may seem like a lot of unnecessary dead wood, the idea is for it to be sanded to the limit while still retaining a surface of contact between the stock and the top and side sheets. Some like to paint their tristock to measure the extend they've gone deep into it - not a bad idea although I've never tried it.

Regardless, each builders dirty bird will vary is shape and contour based on their comfort level and skill in shaping a box like fuse. I think for this reason we see many wood fuses that are more boxy in shape compared to the glass versions (of the DB60 - I've never seen a glass DB40 or DB20 for that matter) whose shape remained constant in that which was given by the builder of the original plug - as Bryan rightly points out.

Attached are two pictures of Greg's nicely produced DB60's back in the day. He'd have to clarify whether these were glass or wood fuses but in either case, they are both very nicely contoured fuses. Last picture is of a Trenton DB40 which also has a nicely sculpted wood fuse.

David

Hi Guys...

I could be wrong on the glass fuse... I was talking to a friend about the area forward of the wing and I was understanding that it was squared off on the bottom of the fuse like the current wood kit. Maybe that is the new GP DB arf vs the older ones?

The attachment is a copy of the reversed image from the RCM article showing Joe's original DB.

Brian

Some comparison between the newer fiberglass DB, the BlueJay plans for the current wood kit, and the RCM plans at bulkhead #1.

This of course really isn't at all important. Just observation...

Brian