Club Project, DH 60 Moth 2006
Conceived as a club project to teach some basic aeromodelling techniques we decided to build a simple mid-sized De Haviland DH60 series Moth from a free magazine plan. This aircraft was the grandfather of the DH-82 Tiger Moth which taught thousands of pilots to fly during the WWII. This earlier Moth is simpler than the DH82a Tiger Moth in that its wings are straight and not swept back and its engine is not mounted inverted.
Why a Moth?
It is a SCALE mode, It is a BIPLANE, There is plenty of documentation in a range of really nice colour schemes, Simple non-swept back/non-tapered wings, No complicated nose cowl, No spinner, No complicated canopy to mold, Simple undercarriage, Minimum hardware, Straight forward construction, Plenty of scope to add scale detail, |
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Mike and Andrew in Andrews shed early in the building phase (note essential sustenance in foreground) Other pics are of Ian's moth before covering
Why Build from a plan?
ARFS are great but they are so cheap and they build so quickly that you can soon find yourself with a squadron of them and storage can becomes a real problem. What do you do then? What do you do on days you can’t fly or during holidays? Can I recommend you think of building a model from a plan for a change?The aim of this project is to impart skills necessary to build a scale model from a set of plans. Building from plans is a dying art but one that has a lot going for it, especially for those with a bit more time on their hands. This happens from time to time throughout life. If it hasn’t happened yet don’t worry it will; holidays, retirement, career breaks, kids leave home etc.
Building from a plan is a great experience. You have a wide range of prototypes out there so you are only limited by your imagination. Cost of an airframe can be so low ($20-30) that the main costs become hardware (wheels/tank/engine mount etc.), covering and painting. Hardware costs can be reduced by recycling parts from crashed ARFs or making your own fuel tanks, horns, pushrods etc. You can also add as much or as little scale detail as you like. It’s an engineering exercise in miniature. There are plans to read, interpret and modify to suit materials you have on hand, larger or smaller servos, engine and personal preferences. Mulling over these things in fact will take quite a bit of your time, add to your enjoyment and help combat Alzheimer’s by exercising your brain. There is plenty of scope for experimentation and novel solutions to old problems. The plan we are working off I think originated as a 48" David Boddington design but we have scaled it up ~10% (via photocopier) to give us a bit more wing area and to be able to use larger motors. • The same plan has been published at different sizes from park fly/micro models to ¼ scale size so later on we can build bigger or smaller versions using the experience gained. • Rubber band or screw wing attachment options. • 3 or 4 channel operation. • At about 52” wingspan it will fit across the rear seat most cars in one piece. • Can use a wide range of servos incl. standard size without increasing wing loading too much • Can use a wide range of motors from 20 four stroke (perhaps, if built light!) to 46 two stroke.
How did it go?
Three members committed to the project early in 2006. Andrew and Ian made a start in April 2006 by getting all the material together, making templates etc. and cutting the formers and side frames. Working on 3 hours on Friday nights. Engine bearers were stripped out by bandsaw from seasoned hardwood and epoxyed to the pre-constructed side frames. After about 4-6 weeks Mike came on board and caught up with us in a week!
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Andrew finished and flew his model which took to the air on the 19th November. Finished in royal blue fuselage and silver wings the model is complete with cockpit detail. Unfortunately it was missing its nicely finished cowling that he unfortunately trod on. It was a blustery day but the Moth took it all in its stride. The test flight showed the model to have a gentle stall and to have nicely harmonised controls although like all biplanes of this type it seems to steepen up in the turn somewhat requiring opposite aileron to be applied. Even the crosswind landing and taxiing went well. Andrew now only needs to apply rego. trim and a pilot.In the meantime Mike has crashed his model (wrong model selected on Tx!).You are going to rebuild arn't you Mike? We need a picture of them all together in the air!
Ian finally test flew his model in June 07 and like the others it flew well straight off. A fancy sprung undercarriage was the only problem. He was so busy watching how it worked on landing that he fogot to flair on touchdown and the model 'nosed in' coming to an abrupt full stop cracking the top wing off at the struts. This was soon fixed with some epoxy. The model now sports a nice cowling but really needs some rego lettering and pilots. These normally get added after the test flights. No reason to go to the time and expense to add detail to a model that might only last one flight!
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| scale-ish sprung undercarriage | scale-ish engine cowling | lettering and pilots to be added |
