Scale Rebirth of the GP 1/4 Scale Patty Wagstaff

[fencelake]

So I flew my first 2 IMAC competitions this year with my trusty Great Planes 1/4 scale Patty Wagstaff Extra 300. It's powered by a DLE 55. After the contests ended and I realized I was hooked, it was time to aim for a 100cc bird. I bought this 50cc bird used at a hobby shop here in DFW and it was my first large aerobatic plane. It flies amazing, will go vertical all day, and slows way down for landing. If you can find one out there I suggest buying it because they're really fun and docile planes. Anyway, after my last competition, this plane had taped up holes, covering coming off... I could feel cracked balsa under the covering, and the fiberglass cloth hinges were brittle and broken. I thought about selling this plane, but it's so easy to put in the truck and be flying at the field really quickly, plus a great flyer that I decided to keep it and just give it an update.

Here's the before picture of the plane:

 

[fencelake]

So the afternoon I got home from competition I began stripping the covering off the plane and removing some of the electronics, hardware, landing gear, etc. Here she is basically stripped down and ready for repairs. I also began to use balsa filler and go back over the plane and fill in knicks and holes. It's not perfect, but I spent a lot of time working on it.

 

[fencelake]

I wanted the plane to be as scale to something real as possible. I follow a lot of the Red Bull pilots on Facebook, and one of them is Nicolas Ivanoff, who is sponsored by Hamilton Watch. In one of his photos from another airshow I spotted this plane in the background, and began to dig up info and photos on it, because I really liked it and fit the bill. HB-MSW resides in Switzerland. I couldn't find too much, but I believe the pilot is Thierry Vagnieres. After a couple of weeks of work in Adobe Illustrator and AutoCAD I got the graphics finished and sent them to Eric at B&E. He printed everything for me, and I'll say they were perfect... and all the sizes were perfect, which was critical.

Here are a couple of shots of the full scale HB-MSW.

 

[fencelake]

So, for updating my GP Extra 300. I replaced all the hinges that were the fiberglass tape with Robart Pins. I used Ultracoat covering throughout. I used one of the rolls as a conduit inside to run my servo wires to the tail. I did some nit picky stuff with my electronics, and redid my servo connections to make sure everything was 90 degrees. So here are a few shots of the finished plane. The one thing that's not quite right is the paint on the canopy and cowling, which I may try to repaint, or order a new cowling from Fiberglass Specialties and try again. I thought I had a match on the paint... I'm not sure what ga what happened. Here's a shot with the covering before the graphics and paint.

 

[fencelake]

Here are some photos of the completed plane. I flew it on Sunday and it's like a whole different plane. So much tighter with the new hinges and improvements. I'm really happy with it!

 

[HurtinAlbertan]

Looks awesome.

 

[fencelake]

So now, a plane that was flying loose, and was sort of in shabby shape is now like a brand new bird.

 

[fencelake]

Looks awesome.

Thanks so much! I appreciate it!

 

[tylerzx9r]

Very nice work! was this your first overhaul?

 

[fencelake]

Very nice work! was this your first overhaul?

Thanks so much!! Other than just covering a wing or something, yes. This was my first time to take a flying airplane and totally strip it down, cut off all the control surfaces, etc. The key to covering is, "Don't Panic and Go Slow!" Haha. I will say, this was my first time to use Ultracoat, and it seems to be quite a bit easier to use than monokote. It sort of straightens out on its own with very little heat without wrinkling up.