RE: Pattern Plane
 

Ahhh! But Gene, the REAL world experience that you bring to the table is just as valuable and up to date as anything I read in that particular forum.

Humility. I have learned that the ones that feel they have nothing to prove are the true people that we learn the most from, and offer ther most as well.

Brian

RE: Pattern Plane
 

I saw this thread by coincidence. The Arial was designed by Dick Hanson's son I believe, and is a wonderful plane to fly. Most of Dick's old designs are still available from Rich Lee. Here is some info I posted a while back:

<
The Hanson kits are made by Rich Lee. His contact is richlee _at_ directinet.com , insert the ampersand. Rich is a nice guy and is a talented glass molder. As I recall he has all the original molds. Here are the prices as of last time I checked:

Runaround : $275.00
Zlin (fiberglass): $285.00
Elite: $325.00
Excess: $375.00
Ariel: $400.00
EMC: $485.00
>

RE: Pattern Plane
 

The glass work is great, as old as my plane is the only stress cracks on the fuse are from ham hands squishing the sides to hold it while removing the wings. If the prices are still correct then people are getting a lot of bang for the bucks. Any ideas where the Hansons are from?? Mine also has a pilots AMA number but I couldn'r find a name to go with it.

RE: Pattern Plane
 

Dick lives in Murray, Utah. His son Guy is a musician and I think he lives around the SLC area somewhere (last time I saw him).

Rich Lee does fabulous glass work. I have a Runaround in my attic, and my dad still has a 21+ year old Zlin that looks perfect. The Zlin had alll the rivets, panel lines, etc molded in. Beautiful, and LIGHT.

Remember, those "kits" are a glass fuse/belly pan/cowl, foam wing, rudder, and stab cores, a firewall and maybe some fuse formers, etc. Supply your own wing sheeting, hardware, etc. They are a very good deal on a high quality kit.

FYI those prices were from 3 years ago, so they may have gone up in the mean time.

RE: Pattern Plane
 

I keep looking at the Zlin and the gears in my head start turning, the price is sure there,I just don't have the cash, even if it has gone up a little it's still a good deal!!

RE: Pattern Plane
 

All
I sent Rich an e-mail to inquire about those vintage kits you mentioned. I'll keep you posted on his reply. Regards, NM

RE: Pattern Plane
 

A friend purchased the Zlin kit last year and IIRC the price was about the same as what I listed above. I don't know that he has built it yet but the bare fiberglass fuse is a work of art.

RE: Pattern Plane
 

All
Here is the reply I got from Rich. Regards, NM

Yes, I do some of the older pattern stuff, namely Dick Hansons pattern kits of yore.
They include:
Ariel
Elite
Elan
Runaround
Zlin
EMC2
Excess
I also have short kits for Dicks Bucker Jungmann from the 1990 Toc that Steve Rojecki flew.

I also cut the cores & have cowls available for the 26% & 30% Dalotels.

You should be able to google anyone of these to find pics of them from others. If any of these interest you, we can talk further.

Thanks, Rich

RE: Pattern Plane
 

Just in case anybody wants to know what these planes look like, here is an archived version of Dick's webpage with the pics of the pattern planes: http://web.archive.org/web/200212132...s/pattern.html

The Zlin is here (this one is identical to my Dad's plane, but his has a YS 1.20 - WAY too much power): http://web.archive.org/web/200308250...dels/zlin.html

To my eye, the EMC2 is still one of the best-looking planes ever designed.

As I recall, the Elite and Elan designs were essentially design iterations of the Tiporare design. He basically stretched, squished, and tweaked it a bit.

In the meantime Dick designed a very scale-looking Dalotel Viking, and had good success with it (Chip Hyde flew it in the Nats around '84).

The Runaround was effectively a combination design, blending some of the elements of the Tipo series (fin/rudder, elevator/stab) with the force arrangement, some of the fuse lines (relatively aftward canopy, sloping turtledeck), and taildragger setup from the Dalotel.

Good stuff.

The Zlin used a wing and stab that was extremely similar to the Runaround, but with a beautiful scale fuse. It is an excellent flyer.

The EMC2 was a 2 meter version of the Runaround, with a wider fuse profile. I believe it would be pretty competitive today (at least through Advanced), despite being a 15 year-old design.

RE: Pattern Plane
 

I just triped over my blue prints for an 80 inch ZLIN I was going to build. Reason it never got built was if you wanted the canopy or cowl you had to send over seas to buy them from the designer. The plans were also more scale then I wanted to fart with. After looking at the plans I may end up building it?? If I ever do I will build my own cowl and try to locate someone with a canopy that would fit. The plans I bought are from MAN.