Guillows Fairchild 24

[Phugoid]

Hi Chaps,

Thought this might be of interest. This is my Friend Pete Fardell's Guillows Fairchild 24 he built from a 30 year old kit he got when he was a kid.

As you can see it flies very nicely, and he finished 5th in the UK indoor Nats held yesterday at Nottingham University, England.

http://youtu.be/4Y5cjW072fM

Andrew

[Bill Gaylord]

The plane flies really well in that video.
This kit was a previous national contest winner in the US from what I remember. I just read about one coming in second in a Flying Aces event, with a 5+ minute flight.

[Bill Gaylord]

Well I went ahead and bought one of these. It is a good bit more work than keel-and-former construction, but lighter also. I imagine keel-and-former seems to be more popular, as it is so easy to assemble. Can't complain about the wood as most of it was light, where the only heavy wood was the sheet with the tail feather parts. If I'm going to cut new lighter parts, the tail is a preferred area to reduce weight.

I should build a rubber flyer for once, since this is probably about as good of a candidate as they come, but it will be an rc flyer. I has a Spektrum AR6400BL board and 5gm motor that I've had stashed away for a project light enough to justify using it. This may get that gear.

[Phugoid]

Keel And former constructions are generally pretty heavy, this is why this model flies well under rubber power......

[Bill Gaylord]

Keel And former constructions are generally pretty heavy, this is why this model flies well under rubber power......

Yes they do tend to be heavy, and with that thought I'm going to try not to make a tank out of this one.
I caught my fuse former mistake also, if anyone noticed, which was easy to correct. The rear formers mount between the stringers, and not on top and bottom of them. Not sure how that one happened.

I'm hoping this may be my first conversion that will actually be suited for indoor flying. This is definitely a good candidate for it. I tend to build for scale looks, using sheeting on fuses where the full scale plane is metal covered, thus adding too much weight for indoor flying. I plan to sheet the nose area, as that area just does not look quite scale correct with covered framework, but the sheeting stock used will be nearly weightless 1/32" balsa. The gear is all Spektrum micro gear with 1.5gm servos for the ailerons, and a 5gm bl motor. At this point it looks like balancing will not be an issue, using a 2s-180 lipo.

[Bill Gaylord]

Somehow I was not aware that this kit is now a laser cut kit, as this is the older die-cut version. I looked at my receipt and found that the LHS only charged me $19, for the old kit price, so at least I got a bit of a price break to not have LC parts. When they get LC kits in stock, their computer system automatically raises the price of all the kits to the LC price, based on the new invoice. The LC kits sell out, and they still charge the new price for the old die-cut kits in stock, with them priced improperly on the price tags. For this kit, the die-cut wing parts were accurate, which are the parts I most prefer to be accurate, versus fuse parts. LC would have been nice, but it went together just fine.

[Bill Gaylord]

The project is now pretty much at the "ARF" state, with the windows now installed after the photo below was taken. The glass installation went well, with a bit of patience, and is a bit tedious with this style of front windshield. No glue smears on this one. The scheme that will be used is shown below, and it looks like I'm somewhat committed now, with the wheel pants painted blue. I think the light blue looks good for a vintage scheme.


Guillows Fairchild ARF, ready for final assembly and painting.

[Pauli72]

Looking good Bill!

That baby blue color sure does give it a 50's retro look. How many minutes of flight time do you generally get out of a fully charged battery pack?

[Bill Gaylord]

Looking good Bill!

That baby blue color sure does give it a 50's retro look. How many minutes of flight time do you generally get out of a fully charged battery pack?

Thanks. I rarely fly them long enough to run the packs out, but I could probably get at least 5 minutes from the tiny 2s 180 or 200mah pack that I plan on using. This plane could easily fly with a pack twice as large, but I usually get bored in a single flight after 5 minutes or so anyway. This will be an interesting experiment to see how little power it needs to fly and what the flight times are, as it's looking like it shouldn't weigh much over 3oz. My similar planes this size are all heavier, such as the Guillows Cessna 150 which is in the 5oz range.

[Wildpig]

Really nice job sheeting the nose. I agree, it does give that a better sheetmetal cowl look. Fantastic covering job.

[Wildpig]

That's pretty good even at 5th place. From what I can gather, there is fierce competition at those meets in the UK , such as Nottingham or Old Warden. All in good fun, of course.

[Bill Gaylord]

That's pretty good even at 5th place. From what I can gather, there is fierce competition at those meets in the UK , such as Nottingham or Old Warden. All in good fun, of course.

That's what I thought also. I follow FF to some degree and the UK has some incredible contributors. Kinda what pushed me over the edge to finally build this plane, since most of my small jobs are too fast/heavy for indoors.

The works done are incredible, and are worth taking the time to scroll through, for those who haven't. I've spent hours looking through the subjects:
http://www.ffscale.co.uk/

[Bill Gaylord]

Mostly complete, other than installing the aileron horns-pushrods, and a few other details. The AUW was pretty good until I had to spray blue paint all over it and is hopefully still pretty good. I'm hoping this one will be able to fly in a reasonable sized gym, like the one Phugoid posted in the beginning.
The double wing struts are a nice feature, as they hold the washout setting in place, after taking the time to trim them to the exact length needed before installing. Usually after painting, I have to carefully tweak the settings with a high powered hair dryer or very carefully with a heat gun, as the paint relaxes the covering and reshrinks a bit differently after drying. This one seems to have held the washout setting, with the double struts.

[Pauli72]

Excellent looking plane there Bill! The finish turned out great. Good luck with flying her!

[Bill Gaylord]

Excellent looking plane there Bill! The finish turned out great. Good luck with flying her!

Thanks Pauli. I REALLY need to get this one and the Beaver out for a flight. I have a bad habit of building planes and letting them sit.