Right side view of the aircraft (above left) showing the failed attempt at a DT and the “fuel tank” hook-up. The tank is simply several coils of a length of clear plastic tubing and tied into the two brass tube bulkhead fittings—one to the engine and one for pressure from the prop disc. Although barely half the size (Peanut sized 13-inch span) (above right) of its more famous contemporary, the Joe Wagner designed Dakota,the planes share many features and both fly
surprisingly well in a very similar manner and are characterized by an ageless charm that the cabin biplane evokes. Typical Kodak 110 photo (below left) of one of the several Dakotas built by the Walton brothers and flown at the Sepulveda Basin in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This one is held by youngest brother, Andrew. The Baby Biwinger (below right) and some of the modern micro R/C equipment.
do for one example of this model. You will have to cut your parts out very carefully to be able to achieve this, but if you start with the really big parts (upper wings, fuselage sides, lower wings, tail surfaces) then a quick trip to the scrap wood box can take care of the rest if you run short of material. It is fairly simple construction and the original article had only a few pictures of the final model. No construction pictures were provided. But there are not many parts to it and if you have ever built a plane like Joe Wagner’s Dakota this plane will be a snap. The real trick is to keep it light. That means not covering it with a lot of dope and adhe- sives. I used CyA to build my second one and only applied two sanded coats of clear fol- lowed by one coat of thinned color for the fi- nal coat (darker colors cover better than lighter ones). This provided the weight for the model tabulated elsewhere in the article. The only other hint is in obtaining the cambered air- foil in the wing. When the wings have been cut out and
rough sanded to shape, lay them on a table so there are a left and right wing, top and bottom and then use a sponge to wet only
FLYING MODELS
the top surfaces of the wing blanks with wa- ter using a quick wiping action. The blanks will then curl along the cross grain direction like magic. Pin them to the building board with about 1⁄8-inch camber and allow them to dry with this cambered airfoil shape. When dry, remove the pins and then lightly sand the top surfaces smooth and install them onto the fuselage in their proper location with the top wings being first and installing the proper dihedral. The bottom wings will follow and the interplane struts will set the dihedral. All the rest is standard construc- tion procedure for a sheet balsa model. Like I said, a real snap. Because of its construction and small size
the model was, however, very difficult to fit with a DT unit of any conventional type. The solution that was to be employed by this model was a c.g. shift type scheme that I had seen as a youngster. It would use a small weight that was attached to a thread about 2–3 feet long and then the other end of the thread was glued to a wing tip. The thread was to be wound up around the weight and the package strapped beneath the fuselage with a silly putty anchored retainer. When the silly putty let loose the rubber
band would release the weight, which would unfurl to the end of the thread causing the wing tip to which it was attached to go heavy and spiral the plane down in a tight turn. Then, when the weight hit the ground first, the wing would be relieved and the model would pull out of the spiral in time to land half way safe. But I was never able to get the silly putty
part of the timer to work consistently and fi- nally just removed the weight and string and hoped for the best. So flying this model at all but the flattest, largest fields was still a risk. Yes, it does thermal and has threat- ened to fly away on several occasions. I’ve even had Veco/Dumas Dakotas fly away in thermals in my life, so it can happen to you also.
When I was first able to get started (fi- nancially) in R/C back in the mid 1970s the radio systems were extremely expensive, heavy and cumbersome. The digital propor- tional systems were finally beginning to go mainstream but were still quite large and heavy. Fast forward to 2010 and we now have a very strong and reliable micro R/C line of products out there that are readily available, reasonably priced, reliable and
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