da50ex

Well after 40 years, I actually completed a Rivets racer that my father started in 1967. The kit was from K & K Fibreglass, My dad had secured the fuselage halves, installed the firewall, sheeted the wings and then stopped. I remember it sitting in the basement for years until I inherited all his old R/C stuff around 20 years ago. I had been out of the hobby for the last 25 years and just got back into it in February. I decided to tackle this project so away I went and it wasn't long before I discovered why he shelved it. He had sheeted and joined the wing halves but forgot to install the control rods. back in those days of course dual aileron servos were unheard of. I was able to bore some holes in the foam to run servo wires and problem solved. All I had was the fuse, wing, wheel pants and plans. I decided that the "T"-tail was beyond my skills so proceeded to design and install a conventional tail. Painted it black and yellow with #20 on the tail since I remember that that was my dads original plan. I stuck an old Webra .61 on it even though the plans say it's a .40 size. I've had to leave the wheel pants off as our grass feild wouldn't accept them. Since I went with wing mounted aileron servos, I also modified it to have full span ailerons. I have 4 flights on it and just love it. It has very quick and responsive controls and sets up nice for landing, but doesn't like to slow down. I wont be doing any racing just sport flying.
Any one have a Rivets unmodified that i could see a picture of?
John Dominick

Wide Open

thats a nice airplane. it looks alot like an F1 racer to me except with a taller fuselage. hows the yaw respond? it looks almost like the canopy would blank out the rudder.

da50ex

The yaw response is excellent. The original Rivets was a Formula 1 racer. It had a t tail and in the unfinished pic, you can see that the verticle stab and rudder were a lot smaller than i made it. The white (fiberglass section was all it had. I pretty much doubled the area. I wanted it to fly more than just turns around pylons as it was originally designed for and it does most manuvers nicely. Well as good as I can do them
John

jlingrel

Is that a 40 size? I have a 1/4 midget Rivets (15 size) kit that is missing the plans and I would love to get plans so I can get it built.

John

aerowoof

actually with the webra 61 you have just a bit more power that the racing engines used back then.there was no throttle.it was full bore,turn left as fast as you could co.when landing the engine was killed[fuel cut off] and you landed dead stick.because it is a racing airfoil it is thinner at the tips so if you slow too much it will snap,most racing desuigns incorperated washout in the tips to prevent that from occuring.do not know about you model.Sterling made a denight special that was a pylon racer and a scale ship.power was for a .40 to a .61 as racing only engine was .40 size.scale a 61 would be about right.

da50ex

The plans call for a .40, but the .61 is a lot nicer like you said. It will snap in a heartbeat with no warning, but it sets up a nice descent for landing and handles the wind well. I tend to land all my planes hot anyway. I have the plans, but as they're for a 40 size and consists of a foam cored wing and fibreglass fuse, I don't know what good they will do you. I had to trace the plans out to see them better. I'll attach a pic of the plans but they'rs pretty old and brittle. I remember watching some old races and like you said, the trick was carrying enough gas to finish the race but not an ounce more than needed.

tom czenthe

Many moons ago I scratch built a modified Riverts.....It was a sweet flying plane.