Therapy

It's now leaving 2D world and 3 dimensional. Yeah!

Therapy

To spare some unneeded details, I finished the lower fuse to where I needed to do other stuff. Brought the tail together and fit the cross pieces and landing gear mounts. Now I need to work the tail group. Before that starts I must tell the story. I originally intended to modernize this planes looks by imitating an Ultimate. My son talked me into doing it old school and well, of course I went that way. This plane lends itself well to imitating a "fun scale" Curtiss F6C Hawk with the flat sides and radial cowl, so I went that way. (I love radial engines and now have an excuse!) This is where I take off from original plans.

Therapy

Bear with me. I said "Fun Scale". Kinda sorta resembles it in the end. I hope. One issue with the Phaeton was the vertical stab needed more area. The F6C lends itself well to the need as you notice the large V stab. Great! So first order was changing the shape of the Horizontal Stab. This pic shows me drawing in the plans for it. On the bottom side is original plan and top is my drawn plan with the dashed lines showing the original outline.

Therapy

This took a lot of time as after that was drawn up I had to (old school) trace the one side and flip it over and trace it again to itself to make a full plan. It needed to be wider and a bit longer than original match the ratio better. Now I can build. I love the look of the new tailplane!

Therapy

So I have the horizontal stab finished. (mostly) In the pics below you'll see I opted to reduce weight more by a built up elevator instead of the 5/16 slab directed by the kit. I'm really leaving the original design behind here now. BUT, I had to order in some more wood. You think you have every size wood needed but nooooo........

Therapy

So this is my re-designed elevator. (don't know why it looks stained in the pic)

motoman326

Hey there,
Just picked up an old Phaeton 90 and it didn't come with the metal wing struts.
I'm having a bit of trouble making the ones I ordered form Balsa USA fit. Did they change the design of these things.
Any close up photos of the mounting areas would be greatly appreciated. Or if you have that page in the manual that would be great as well.
Thanks
John

MJM

My Feedback: (1)

I looked in the photo album. Here are some photos of mine. My wing N struts are steel wire, then I covered them in balsa. That's why the look so thick.

Wing N Struts, the wire slides into the wing, then it is held to the wing with a bolt.

View of the two plywood mounts in the wing for the N struts.

The two holes in the covered wing for the N struts. One hole is for the wire and the other for the bolt to hold it in place.

motoman326

Yeah it looks like I don't have the double hole configuration everywhere.......
Thanks

MJM

My Feedback: (1)

Balsa USA, must have changed the design of the wing N strut mount. I think I purchased and built my Phaeton 90 in 2007. Balsa USA may send you the
manual if you call them.

motoman326

Yea...8 bucks for the manual and 15 for shipping....not that desperate....yet....

G.F. Reid

My Feedback: (1)

I'm following as well.
I had a Phaeton 90 it was one of the best planes I've ever had. Flew it with a converted 28cc weed wacker. Underpowered but very realistic looking in the air. I got many compliments on it for that reason.
As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I'm responsible for that article linked to on page one. People were writing to me for copies of that for 15 years at least.
Mine wasn't my best work cosmetically speaking but it's flying qualities won me over. I would definitely build another one and take.more time with it.
I've always wanted to do just what you're doing, bash that Phaeton into something scale. Se-5 comes to mind

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

I built several Phaeton 90's years ago and finished another one last year. I used to fly them with Super Tiger 2500. It was a great choice for the bird. This one has a Stinger 20cc twin which is super smooth!

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

Here are some planes I made in the 80's. They were all set up to haul a 35mm camera in the leading edge. One was a rebuilt crash we put a full size camera and Ham transmitter which in those days, including the batteries added 5.5 lbs. The other one had a removable deck for a camcorder. My have things changed!

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

Funny thing, every error in the manual in 1985 is exactly the same now. Not a thing has been changed or fixed.

foodstick

I believe this is a phaeton 90 that went straight in wide open into flood waters.. It was a disaster ! And if you knew everyone involved..it was also very funny.... even to the pilot..