scale Park Pilot
1/15-scale Fairey Swordfish Rob Caso
quack916@aol.com >>
I designed and built my 1
/15 37-inch Fairey
Swordfi sh about 10 years ago as a construction feature for Backyard Flyer magazine (now called Electric Flight). In the interest of simplicity, I left out the ailerons. This wound up being a major mistake, because the model did not do well with only a rudder.
SPECIFICATIONS WINGSPAN: 37 inches WING CHORD: 6.5 inches WING AREA: 360 square inches ASPECT RATIO: 5:7 AIRFOIL: Clark Y LENGTH: 28 inches CATEGORY: Stand-Off Scale SCALE: 1/15 FLYING WEIGHT: 24 ounces
MOTOR: Himax brushless 2812- 1080
PROP: APC 9 x 4.5 ESC: Castle Creations 18-amp ESC
BATTERY: FMA 3S 11.1-volt 1,000 mAh LiPo SERVOS: Hitec HS 35HD
WING LOADING: 9.6 ounces per square foot
CHANNELS: Aileron, elevator, rudder, throttle, torpedo
I always favor dive and torpedo bombers as modeling subjects—my smallish SBD Dauntless design is another that comes to mind—because these aircraft had a lot of wing.
-scale, Designed originally for a
geared, brushed motor and NiCd batteries, the Swordfi sh had no trouble handling its 2-pound fl ying weight. But it would only fl y well straight and level. Get it over on a wing and you were in trouble fast. As a result, I severely crashed the model three times. It was a tough little thing and it never really broke up that badly, despite the ferocity of the crashes. A little CA glue or epoxy, and I was once again ready for the Bismarck. With the ever-improving technical environment in past years, sometime early in the model’s life I switched to a Himax motor and LiPo batteries. As expected, this transformed the model from a sluggish, hard-to-handle model to one having some zip when I needed it. Still, the lack of ailerons held it back, and I was relegated to the tried-and-true process of either crashing or scaring myself on every fl ight. I hung the model up and forgot about it for a few years and chalked it up to experience. Although I had redesigned
the wings for ailerons years ago, my model still sat “unaileroned,” but a recent order for the kit provided the spark I needed. In that very moment, I determined
36 PARK PILOT [Winter 2016]
The ultrasmall Hitec HS 35HD servo is super strong.
The rebuild is in process, with the new lower stub wings installed and painted.
The starboard wing panels after assembly on the dihedral jig are very sturdy.
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