Windfree

[octagon]

So, I found a company in Arizona that does short kits. Kitcutters. I looked at their site and found they kit a Windfree. It is very old school now but in 1970 it was the rage and won the Nats. I had one in the mid 70s, and managed to tip stall it on a high start and my memory is of the poor thing being dragged by the high start, shedding wings, tail and servos along the sod farm we flew on at the time. Up to that point it was just a superb flying plane. Light, would almost find it's own thermals, and just a joy. Luckily, I kept the plans as Kitcutters does not offer them. And I have a wreck of a Windfree I built in a hurry a few years ago and killed on the maiden flight. So, this one I am spending time on to get square and true. The wings went well, with a few kinks but are good now. I built the fuse this afternoon. I will start on the tail feathers tomorrow. I am going to put the micro servos in the tail section instead of using control rods from servos mid ship. I think the weight will be the same and it makes it much simpler with the full flying tail the plane has. Might make the rudder bigger than the plans to be able to turn more effectively than the original.

[pmackenzie]

FWIW, Windfree plans and the original article are on Outerzone

https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1637

[octagon]

Thanks Pat. I am lucky in that I saved the plans from the original as well as the building manual. If I was starting the wings from scratch again I would build the inner 3 ribs of  1/16th ply. not so much for strength in the finished plane, but because before the bottom sheeting is on the rear main spar, which only extends to the 3rd rib is, supported only buy those first 3 ribs and both sides broke on me. I built new ribs and siameesed them to the original broken ones, but if they had been ply to start with there would have been no problem. I told Kit Cutters about it and they are going to redo those ribs in ply I think.

[Frank v B]

Rob,

I found an original ad for the plane in a 1974 model magazine.  I will get it to you.

Frank

[octagon]

The Windfree is now at the covering stage. I am being very slow and methodical. For instance, it took me 2 days to decide if the elevators should be transparent orange or white. It came down to I would just do one or the other and then if I didn't like it I would just do the other option, but I do kind of like them clear. I finally worked out a cowl for the plane, carved balsa top with 1/16 ply sides all held together with 1/4 triangle stock. The fuse will be plain white as I find white to be an easy colour to see when, (hopefully), the plane takes of in a thermal. But, orange, being the opposite of blue on the colour wheel shows up very well in a blue sky (again, hopefully). I have the motor arriving tomorrow, (yet again hopefully), and then I figure about another few hours covering and all the other loose ends that always crop up as you get close to finishing a model, and we should be ready for nice warm days in May.