Fidget GG Model
Posted: 21 Aug 2020, 09:40
A friend and I both recently built versions of this US-designed "modern" GG model featured by Mike Goulette in the SAM 35 SAM Speaks monthly magazine a few months ago. I have to admit, I was uncertain about the effectiveness of the control surfaces, as the recommended Rand actuator has a limited range of movement and needs care when setting up the control horn geometry. Also, I didn't care much for the back end, so I changed the shapes a little and slimmed it down a bit back there, whilst taking care to keep the areas and moment as per the original.
I think it came out well. Covered in medium weight Polyspan(polyester fabric) with trim details in Litespan, it's colourful and easily oriented in the sky - very important when your peepers are 75 years old!
One thing to note is that to be sure of getting adequate movement, you really have to have the pushrods attached no more than 10mm max. from the surface hinge lines. That's not a criticism of Tobe's cloned actuators. I'm sure he'd agree that you need to careful in this respect.
Long story short, the model flies extremely well. It was an easy, quick build and the controls turned out to be spot on! I'd rate it as a nice little starter model for someone aspiring to the eccentricities of GG. The plan is on Outerzone and, being CAD-drawn, there were no mistakes anywhere as far as I could see. An interesting point is that unlike similar designs like John Ralph's immortal Wagtail, and John Bowmer's lovely Swannee (got two of those), both from the early days of single channel and GG, the Fidget has a semi-symmetrical wing section. I felt that initially this led to a slight tendency for the model to fly slightly nose heavy, so that I needed to be precise as regards the Balance Point location.
Anyway, the Fidget gets a Thumbs-Up, Gold Star and a Highly Recommended from me. And thanks Tobe for all your hard work in perfecting the lovely Rand clone. As they say, without you none of this would have been possible!
David
I think it came out well. Covered in medium weight Polyspan(polyester fabric) with trim details in Litespan, it's colourful and easily oriented in the sky - very important when your peepers are 75 years old!
One thing to note is that to be sure of getting adequate movement, you really have to have the pushrods attached no more than 10mm max. from the surface hinge lines. That's not a criticism of Tobe's cloned actuators. I'm sure he'd agree that you need to careful in this respect.
Long story short, the model flies extremely well. It was an easy, quick build and the controls turned out to be spot on! I'd rate it as a nice little starter model for someone aspiring to the eccentricities of GG. The plan is on Outerzone and, being CAD-drawn, there were no mistakes anywhere as far as I could see. An interesting point is that unlike similar designs like John Ralph's immortal Wagtail, and John Bowmer's lovely Swannee (got two of those), both from the early days of single channel and GG, the Fidget has a semi-symmetrical wing section. I felt that initially this led to a slight tendency for the model to fly slightly nose heavy, so that I needed to be precise as regards the Balance Point location.
Anyway, the Fidget gets a Thumbs-Up, Gold Star and a Highly Recommended from me. And thanks Tobe for all your hard work in perfecting the lovely Rand clone. As they say, without you none of this would have been possible!
David