62 MODEL AVIATION
Plane Talk: 1/4-scale Fokker D.VII
The kit box contains everything shown. Before removing the
parts from the die-cut sheets, label the parts—especially the
ribs since their differences are subtle.
THE FOKKER D.VII was designed and built by the Fokker
Flugzeugwerke GmbH and was first used in World War I in March or
early April 1918. Manfred Von Richthofen—the famous German
Ace—tested the D.VII in the trials at Adlershof but never had the
opportunity to fly one in combat. He was killed just days before it
entered service.
The D.VII was not without problems when it was introduced. On
occasion its wing ribs would fracture in a dive and high temperatures
sometime ignited airplanes armed with phosphorus ammunition or
caused their gas tanks to explode.
Even so, the D.VII proved to be durable and easy to fly. Highly
maneuverable at all speeds and altitudes, it was more than a match for
any of the British and French fighters of that time.
The D.VII came equipped with one of two engines: a Mercedes
D.III six-cylinder, liquid-cooled in-line with 160 horsepower or a
BMW IIIa in-line with 185 horsepower. The BMW engine gave the
aircraft slightly more performance with approximately an hour and a
half of flying time.
The D.VII had a wingspan of 29 feet, 3.5 inches, and a length of 22
feet, 11.5 inches. It was armed with two Spandau 7.92mm machine
guns, and more than 2,694 of the aircraft were eventually built for
combat service.
The Balsa USA Fokker: The addition of the Fokker D.VII to Balsa
USA’s growing fleet of World War I models makes it a desirable kit
for builders who have an affinity for warbirds of that era. When I
popped the box lid I was greeted with a mountain of balsa sticks and
sheets. Further examination revealed some plastic parts, two bags of
hardware, five sheets of plans, a 63-page instruction manual, and
preformed wire parts.
Wing ribs, bulkheads, and other miscellaneous parts were cleanly
die-cut from balsa and lightweight poplar plywood. Basically all the
materials needed to build the airframe is included. You will need
wheels, covering, decals, a pilot (painted or unpainted), and wood
machine-gun kits, all available as options from Balsa USA.
I read through the manual several times before I started building,
just to get acquainted. This is a wise thing to do before trying to pick
out a specific piece of wood from the pile. It’s all in there.
Because this is a builder’s kit, most modelers with average or more
building experience should take it on. Oh, the joy of building your
own. Yes, there are some of us left who do so!
Construction: The manual starts you out with the upper wing. I found
it easiest to pull all the parts for the upper wing together, familiarize
myself with the building task in the manual and on the plans, and then
go at it. I followed this procedure throughout the building process. I
was pleased with the supplied wood; it was great!
An inconvenience I encountered at the beginning was identifying
the die-cut wing ribs. You can do this by looking at the die-cut
diagrams in the manual, which have the part numbers marked on them,
and then marking the individual parts, which don’t have the numbers
marked on them.
This builder’s kit
is a joy to put together
and a pleasure to fly
The D.VII comes in for a low pass. It’s a honey to fly. Roughly the amount of down-elevator trim shown is required for level flight.
JERROLD SMITH
July 2006 63
Classic built-up construction gives the Fokker high strength with light weight. This
view makes the model look quite a bit like the full-scale D.VII would have.
The G-26 fits completely inside the cowl. The dummy engine is included in the kit.
The author covered the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric and the rest of the surfaces with
Super Coverite and Model Master paint.
This subject’s popularity among the World
War I German squadrons means there are
several colorful schemes to choose from
with which to finish this model.
The machine gun, wheels, and pilot are
optional items available from Balsa USA.
The wheel shown is Du-Bro’s Vintage 7-inch
scale variety (Balsa USA item 488).
A removable top cowl section gives access
to the engine. Note the open section at
the top of the hatch for cooling air to exit.
Some of the die-cut sheets were hard to
match up with some of the diagrams in the
manual. Generally, the upper wing ribs are
located on the 15-inch lengths of sheet balsa
and the lower wing ribs are on the 12-inch
lengths. That will help you.
The upper and lower wings are built in
three parts: a center-section and the outer
panels. You must take care to see that each rib
is in its proper place. The outer wing panels
taper in thickness from root to tip. Even
though the wings are constant chord, each rib
varies in height. After pinning down the main
spar and placing the ribs in position, a
straightedge across the top of them will
quickly tell you if any were placed in the
wrong spot.
When joined with the center-section, the
top of the wing is flat and the taper becomes
dihedral in each of the outer panels. The
ailerons on the upper wing only are then built
in and cut loose after the wing is constructed.
Each aileron is driven by its own servo.
Otherwise, the wings are built in the
traditional method of construction with LE
sheeting and rib capstrips. Throughout the
wing construction I used Balsa USA thin
cyanoacrylate to tack the parts in place,
followed by white glue for final gluing. By
tacking the components in place it was easy to
break them loose in case of a mistake in
location.
Before you start building the fuselage you
will have to decide on an engine size. The
firewall location shown on the plans will
accept a Zenoah G-26 gas engine or a 1.50
glow-powered four-stroke. Opt for the heavier
Photos by the author
64 MODEL AVIATION
• Great instruction manual.
• Good kit design to promote
airframe strength.
• Excellent performance and looks
of finished model.
Pluses and Minuses
+
-• Die-cut parts unnumbered.
• Wood in kit not bundled to
separate sizes.
Type: Sport Scale WW I biplane
Pilot skill level: Intermediate to
expert, with building skills
Wingspan: 88 inches
Wing area: 2,225 square inches
Length: 68.875 inches
Weight: 18-20 pounds
Engine: 25-35cc gas or 1.50 fourstroke
(Zenoah G-26
recommended)
Radio: Four channels (minimum)
with six servos
Construction: Balsa, light
plywood, hardwood, .010 sheet
aluminum
Covering/finish: Super Coverite,
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozengepattern
fabric on the wings, Model
Master paint
Price: $313.95
Specifications
Test-Model Details
Engine used: B.H. Hanson/
modified Zenoah G-26
Propeller: JZ 18 x 6-10
Fuel: Du-Bro 24-ounce tank with
gas modifications, unleaded gas
with 32:1 gas/oil mix
Radio system: Futaba 8U with
PCM receiver, 6-volt 1400 mAh
battery, Hitec HS-635HD servos
Ready-to-fly weight: 20 pounds
Wing loading: 19.6 ounces per
square foot
Flight duration: Exceeds 10
minutes
power plant because you will need nose
weight. The engine must be positioned
properly with a slight angular tilt in the
fuselage to fit under the cowl.
With a wide variety of suitable engines
available, the fuselage has been designed so
the firewall can be repositioned, within the
fuselage, to accommodate your engine
choice.
Fuselage construction starts out simple
and gets more complicated in the front. You
will spend more time building the radiator,
cowl, and dummy engine and attaching the
subwing to the wheel struts than on the rest of
the fuselage.
However, the well-written assembly
manual by Dave Lewis will guide you
through, provided that your skills are up to
it—especially the wrapping and soldering
required on the landing gear, cabane, and
interplane struts.
Sheet aluminum, .012 inch thick, is
supplied to make the side panels in the front
of the fuselage. Balsa TE stock is cut, shaped,
and glued on the sides to simulate the louvers.
These louvers’ location shown on the
plans represents a late-model Fokker. Some
of the earlier models had different louver
spacing. With some research you can come
up with your own custom set of louver
spacing. This kit allows you that flexibility.
Building the tail is straightforward. To
increase strength and stiffness and reduce the
chance of warping, many of the tail parts are
laminated together. To save weight, the
stabilizer’s center-section is sheeted top and
bottom. You build the stabilizer first and then
decide whether the elevators will be split or
joined.
The entire tail on the full-scale D.VII was
constructed from steel tubing and welded,
making it flat. I was disappointed in the tail
skid; it could have been made to look more
realistic rather than being just a plain wire
strut.
Before gluing on the stabilizer, make sure
you have positive incidence relative to the
lower wing. The manual calls for 1°-2°. I
ended up with 2° positive.
Covering: Balsa USA recommends covering
with fabric for strength and a scale
appearance. I covered the fuselage and tail
with Super Coverite and the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric, which is extremely light and has an
adhesive back. I painted the fuselage and tail
surfaces with Model Master paint, which I
thinned and sprayed on over several coats of
clear dope primer.
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models) sells a
fabric in five-color light and five-color dark
camouflage. However, installing it is much
like going back to the days of silk and dope;
there is no adhesive on the backside. Another
option is to cover the D.VII with Solartex and
paint it.
There are many colorful schemes to
choose from that era. I picked that of a
Fokker D.VII flown by German Lieutenant
Joseph Veltjens, with the white-winged arrow
on the side. Veltjens, who was an ace with 35
kills, was lucky enough to survive World War
I. He was killed when his airplane ran into a
mountainside while on a mission for Hermann
Göring during World War II.
Engine: Regardless of the engine you plan to
mount in your D.VII, the installation
procedure in the manual will be similar. I
installed a B.H. Hanson/modified Zenoah G-
26 with ignition module. I chose a B&B
Specialties muffler because of its smaller size,
but I still had to grind some off the front edge
to provide clearance with the cowl and keep
the engine completely enclosed.
An 18 x 6 propeller seemed reasonable, or
maybe an 18 x 6-10. Test flights were made
with the 18 x 6 propeller. The G-26 with the
muffler I mentioned will just fit under the
cowl. A larger gas engine would require
modifications to the front end. The idea is to
keep everything under the cowl and get as
much weight as possible up front, so I
strongly recommend a gas engine.
The nose moment is short, so expect to
add weight. There is plenty of room under the
cowl to mount the 24-ounce Du-Bro fuel tank
and still put the flight battery up front.
Radio: I installed a Futaba 9CA with an FM
receiver, along with five Hitec HS-635HB
servos—one on each aileron, one on each
elevator half, and pull-pull on the rudder. The
throttle servo was a standard Futaba S148.
The Hitec servos have Karbonite gears and
provide 69/83 inch-ounce of torque with
4.8/6.0 volts respectively.
I installed a 1400 mAh five-cell pack to
operate the system, which I located on top of
the fuel tank under the engine cowl up front.
The radio compartment above the lower wing
is not the largest, but with a little planning it
can be easily accessed to hook up the servo
linkage.
Flying the Fokker: Before flying the D.VII I
balanced it according to the plans and had to
add 2 pounds to the nose, bringing the total
weight up from 18 to 20 pounds; this was
expected. My concern was how the G-26
would fly it at that weight.
The engine thrustline was offset with 11/2°
down to counter the stabilizer, which has
built-in 2° positive incidence. It’s important to
note that the landing gear wing should be
mounted at 0° incidence. Once the model was
properly balanced on the CG, it was ready to
fly.
At the field the engine started immediately
and control movement was checked. A few
taxi runs indicated that ground handling and
turning took some technique. Being a taildragger
with a nonsteerable tail skid, it was
necessary to give some down-elevator, kick
the rudder, and burp the throttle to turn by
slightly lifting the skid off the ground, as they
had to do with the full-scale Fokker D.VII.
With the elevators set at neutral, the
Fokker took off and immediately began to fly
in a nose-up stalled position. A great deal of
down-trim was quickly put into the elevator
to level it off. Finally, after adding more
down-trim, it would fly hands off at full
throttle. When the throttle was cut, the
model would go into a nice descending
glide. That was great, but why all the
down-trim in the elevator?
add downthrust and gives you three options to
check out. So I added another degree of
downthrust, making it 21/2°. The next test
flight indicated less down-elevator, but it was
not completely eliminated.
Most of the Fokker D.VII owners I talked
to said they flew with a slight amount of down
in the elevator. So we left it at these settings
and went on to fly some maneuvers.
The D.VII is capable of all standard World
War I-style maneuvers. You will have no
trouble doing Stall Turns, Split “S”s, Loops,
barrel rolls, Immelmann Turns, and, best of all,
slow flybys.
When it comes time to land, keep a little
power on it until the wheels touch. The D.VII
does have a high drag factor and bleeds off
speed quickly. When in ground effect, ease in
some elevator and flare for a wheel or threepoint
landing. To avoid ground looping, be
ready with the rudder to keep the rollout
straight.
I thank my good friend and fellow club
member John Mueller for helping me with this
review. With his flying skills I was able to
photograph the flight shots. The color scheme
presented on the D.VII was his idea, which I
thought was outstanding. John is also an
excellent builder.
Balsa USA has done a creditable job of
producing a kit that should prove to be popular
with the World War I addicts. During
construction I found a couple things I thought
could be improved.
Manufacturer/Distributor:
Balsa USA
Box 164
Marinette WI 54143
(800) 255-7287
www.balsausa.com
Sources:
Arizona Model Aircrafters
(602) 971-5646
www.arizonamodels.com
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models)
(919) 423-8530
[email protected]
B.H. Hanson
(702) 436-4422
www.bhhanson.com
B&B Specialties
(574) 277-0499
www.bennettbuilt.com
Du-Bro Products
(800) 848-9411
www.dubro.com
Futaba (Great Planes)
(217) 398-8970
www.futaba-rc.com
Hitec
(858) 748-6948
www.hitecrcd.com
For some reason the company does not
organize the wood in the kit. It would be less
time consuming for the builder if common
sizes of wood were bundled, making it
easier to find related sizes.
It would have been nice to have a scale
tail skid rather than just a piece of wire. I
found it frustrating to try to pick out the
unmarked die-cut parts and mark them.
Why not have die-cut parts that are
marked?
The assembly manual by Dave Lewis
was excellent, providing a step-by-step
construction technique with good, clear
pictures. He included some historical
commentary about the Fokker D.VII, which
makes it more interesting as you progress
through the building process.
This is a builder’s kit, and it requires
considerable time to assemble with various
skills involved. There are few of us
modelers left who find joy in building,
knowing the feeling and gratification of
having done it ourselves.
If you are a builder, you will enjoy
putting the Balsa USA Fokker D.VII
together. It was a classic and colorful
airplane of the era that has much history,
making it enjoyable to read about. It was
widely regarded as the best German fighter
of World War I.
The kit is a good value, as are all Balsa
USA kits, so why not buy one and build your
own for a change? It’s worth the effort. MA
Jerrold Smith
[email protected]
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 62,63,64,66
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 62,63,64,66
62 MODEL AVIATION
Plane Talk: 1/4-scale Fokker D.VII
The kit box contains everything shown. Before removing the
parts from the die-cut sheets, label the parts—especially the
ribs since their differences are subtle.
THE FOKKER D.VII was designed and built by the Fokker
Flugzeugwerke GmbH and was first used in World War I in March or
early April 1918. Manfred Von Richthofen—the famous German
Ace—tested the D.VII in the trials at Adlershof but never had the
opportunity to fly one in combat. He was killed just days before it
entered service.
The D.VII was not without problems when it was introduced. On
occasion its wing ribs would fracture in a dive and high temperatures
sometime ignited airplanes armed with phosphorus ammunition or
caused their gas tanks to explode.
Even so, the D.VII proved to be durable and easy to fly. Highly
maneuverable at all speeds and altitudes, it was more than a match for
any of the British and French fighters of that time.
The D.VII came equipped with one of two engines: a Mercedes
D.III six-cylinder, liquid-cooled in-line with 160 horsepower or a
BMW IIIa in-line with 185 horsepower. The BMW engine gave the
aircraft slightly more performance with approximately an hour and a
half of flying time.
The D.VII had a wingspan of 29 feet, 3.5 inches, and a length of 22
feet, 11.5 inches. It was armed with two Spandau 7.92mm machine
guns, and more than 2,694 of the aircraft were eventually built for
combat service.
The Balsa USA Fokker: The addition of the Fokker D.VII to Balsa
USA’s growing fleet of World War I models makes it a desirable kit
for builders who have an affinity for warbirds of that era. When I
popped the box lid I was greeted with a mountain of balsa sticks and
sheets. Further examination revealed some plastic parts, two bags of
hardware, five sheets of plans, a 63-page instruction manual, and
preformed wire parts.
Wing ribs, bulkheads, and other miscellaneous parts were cleanly
die-cut from balsa and lightweight poplar plywood. Basically all the
materials needed to build the airframe is included. You will need
wheels, covering, decals, a pilot (painted or unpainted), and wood
machine-gun kits, all available as options from Balsa USA.
I read through the manual several times before I started building,
just to get acquainted. This is a wise thing to do before trying to pick
out a specific piece of wood from the pile. It’s all in there.
Because this is a builder’s kit, most modelers with average or more
building experience should take it on. Oh, the joy of building your
own. Yes, there are some of us left who do so!
Construction: The manual starts you out with the upper wing. I found
it easiest to pull all the parts for the upper wing together, familiarize
myself with the building task in the manual and on the plans, and then
go at it. I followed this procedure throughout the building process. I
was pleased with the supplied wood; it was great!
An inconvenience I encountered at the beginning was identifying
the die-cut wing ribs. You can do this by looking at the die-cut
diagrams in the manual, which have the part numbers marked on them,
and then marking the individual parts, which don’t have the numbers
marked on them.
This builder’s kit
is a joy to put together
and a pleasure to fly
The D.VII comes in for a low pass. It’s a honey to fly. Roughly the amount of down-elevator trim shown is required for level flight.
JERROLD SMITH
July 2006 63
Classic built-up construction gives the Fokker high strength with light weight. This
view makes the model look quite a bit like the full-scale D.VII would have.
The G-26 fits completely inside the cowl. The dummy engine is included in the kit.
The author covered the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric and the rest of the surfaces with
Super Coverite and Model Master paint.
This subject’s popularity among the World
War I German squadrons means there are
several colorful schemes to choose from
with which to finish this model.
The machine gun, wheels, and pilot are
optional items available from Balsa USA.
The wheel shown is Du-Bro’s Vintage 7-inch
scale variety (Balsa USA item 488).
A removable top cowl section gives access
to the engine. Note the open section at
the top of the hatch for cooling air to exit.
Some of the die-cut sheets were hard to
match up with some of the diagrams in the
manual. Generally, the upper wing ribs are
located on the 15-inch lengths of sheet balsa
and the lower wing ribs are on the 12-inch
lengths. That will help you.
The upper and lower wings are built in
three parts: a center-section and the outer
panels. You must take care to see that each rib
is in its proper place. The outer wing panels
taper in thickness from root to tip. Even
though the wings are constant chord, each rib
varies in height. After pinning down the main
spar and placing the ribs in position, a
straightedge across the top of them will
quickly tell you if any were placed in the
wrong spot.
When joined with the center-section, the
top of the wing is flat and the taper becomes
dihedral in each of the outer panels. The
ailerons on the upper wing only are then built
in and cut loose after the wing is constructed.
Each aileron is driven by its own servo.
Otherwise, the wings are built in the
traditional method of construction with LE
sheeting and rib capstrips. Throughout the
wing construction I used Balsa USA thin
cyanoacrylate to tack the parts in place,
followed by white glue for final gluing. By
tacking the components in place it was easy to
break them loose in case of a mistake in
location.
Before you start building the fuselage you
will have to decide on an engine size. The
firewall location shown on the plans will
accept a Zenoah G-26 gas engine or a 1.50
glow-powered four-stroke. Opt for the heavier
Photos by the author
64 MODEL AVIATION
• Great instruction manual.
• Good kit design to promote
airframe strength.
• Excellent performance and looks
of finished model.
Pluses and Minuses
+
-• Die-cut parts unnumbered.
• Wood in kit not bundled to
separate sizes.
Type: Sport Scale WW I biplane
Pilot skill level: Intermediate to
expert, with building skills
Wingspan: 88 inches
Wing area: 2,225 square inches
Length: 68.875 inches
Weight: 18-20 pounds
Engine: 25-35cc gas or 1.50 fourstroke
(Zenoah G-26
recommended)
Radio: Four channels (minimum)
with six servos
Construction: Balsa, light
plywood, hardwood, .010 sheet
aluminum
Covering/finish: Super Coverite,
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozengepattern
fabric on the wings, Model
Master paint
Price: $313.95
Specifications
Test-Model Details
Engine used: B.H. Hanson/
modified Zenoah G-26
Propeller: JZ 18 x 6-10
Fuel: Du-Bro 24-ounce tank with
gas modifications, unleaded gas
with 32:1 gas/oil mix
Radio system: Futaba 8U with
PCM receiver, 6-volt 1400 mAh
battery, Hitec HS-635HD servos
Ready-to-fly weight: 20 pounds
Wing loading: 19.6 ounces per
square foot
Flight duration: Exceeds 10
minutes
power plant because you will need nose
weight. The engine must be positioned
properly with a slight angular tilt in the
fuselage to fit under the cowl.
With a wide variety of suitable engines
available, the fuselage has been designed so
the firewall can be repositioned, within the
fuselage, to accommodate your engine
choice.
Fuselage construction starts out simple
and gets more complicated in the front. You
will spend more time building the radiator,
cowl, and dummy engine and attaching the
subwing to the wheel struts than on the rest of
the fuselage.
However, the well-written assembly
manual by Dave Lewis will guide you
through, provided that your skills are up to
it—especially the wrapping and soldering
required on the landing gear, cabane, and
interplane struts.
Sheet aluminum, .012 inch thick, is
supplied to make the side panels in the front
of the fuselage. Balsa TE stock is cut, shaped,
and glued on the sides to simulate the louvers.
These louvers’ location shown on the
plans represents a late-model Fokker. Some
of the earlier models had different louver
spacing. With some research you can come
up with your own custom set of louver
spacing. This kit allows you that flexibility.
Building the tail is straightforward. To
increase strength and stiffness and reduce the
chance of warping, many of the tail parts are
laminated together. To save weight, the
stabilizer’s center-section is sheeted top and
bottom. You build the stabilizer first and then
decide whether the elevators will be split or
joined.
The entire tail on the full-scale D.VII was
constructed from steel tubing and welded,
making it flat. I was disappointed in the tail
skid; it could have been made to look more
realistic rather than being just a plain wire
strut.
Before gluing on the stabilizer, make sure
you have positive incidence relative to the
lower wing. The manual calls for 1°-2°. I
ended up with 2° positive.
Covering: Balsa USA recommends covering
with fabric for strength and a scale
appearance. I covered the fuselage and tail
with Super Coverite and the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric, which is extremely light and has an
adhesive back. I painted the fuselage and tail
surfaces with Model Master paint, which I
thinned and sprayed on over several coats of
clear dope primer.
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models) sells a
fabric in five-color light and five-color dark
camouflage. However, installing it is much
like going back to the days of silk and dope;
there is no adhesive on the backside. Another
option is to cover the D.VII with Solartex and
paint it.
There are many colorful schemes to
choose from that era. I picked that of a
Fokker D.VII flown by German Lieutenant
Joseph Veltjens, with the white-winged arrow
on the side. Veltjens, who was an ace with 35
kills, was lucky enough to survive World War
I. He was killed when his airplane ran into a
mountainside while on a mission for Hermann
Göring during World War II.
Engine: Regardless of the engine you plan to
mount in your D.VII, the installation
procedure in the manual will be similar. I
installed a B.H. Hanson/modified Zenoah G-
26 with ignition module. I chose a B&B
Specialties muffler because of its smaller size,
but I still had to grind some off the front edge
to provide clearance with the cowl and keep
the engine completely enclosed.
An 18 x 6 propeller seemed reasonable, or
maybe an 18 x 6-10. Test flights were made
with the 18 x 6 propeller. The G-26 with the
muffler I mentioned will just fit under the
cowl. A larger gas engine would require
modifications to the front end. The idea is to
keep everything under the cowl and get as
much weight as possible up front, so I
strongly recommend a gas engine.
The nose moment is short, so expect to
add weight. There is plenty of room under the
cowl to mount the 24-ounce Du-Bro fuel tank
and still put the flight battery up front.
Radio: I installed a Futaba 9CA with an FM
receiver, along with five Hitec HS-635HB
servos—one on each aileron, one on each
elevator half, and pull-pull on the rudder. The
throttle servo was a standard Futaba S148.
The Hitec servos have Karbonite gears and
provide 69/83 inch-ounce of torque with
4.8/6.0 volts respectively.
I installed a 1400 mAh five-cell pack to
operate the system, which I located on top of
the fuel tank under the engine cowl up front.
The radio compartment above the lower wing
is not the largest, but with a little planning it
can be easily accessed to hook up the servo
linkage.
Flying the Fokker: Before flying the D.VII I
balanced it according to the plans and had to
add 2 pounds to the nose, bringing the total
weight up from 18 to 20 pounds; this was
expected. My concern was how the G-26
would fly it at that weight.
The engine thrustline was offset with 11/2°
down to counter the stabilizer, which has
built-in 2° positive incidence. It’s important to
note that the landing gear wing should be
mounted at 0° incidence. Once the model was
properly balanced on the CG, it was ready to
fly.
At the field the engine started immediately
and control movement was checked. A few
taxi runs indicated that ground handling and
turning took some technique. Being a taildragger
with a nonsteerable tail skid, it was
necessary to give some down-elevator, kick
the rudder, and burp the throttle to turn by
slightly lifting the skid off the ground, as they
had to do with the full-scale Fokker D.VII.
With the elevators set at neutral, the
Fokker took off and immediately began to fly
in a nose-up stalled position. A great deal of
down-trim was quickly put into the elevator
to level it off. Finally, after adding more
down-trim, it would fly hands off at full
throttle. When the throttle was cut, the
model would go into a nice descending
glide. That was great, but why all the
down-trim in the elevator?
add downthrust and gives you three options to
check out. So I added another degree of
downthrust, making it 21/2°. The next test
flight indicated less down-elevator, but it was
not completely eliminated.
Most of the Fokker D.VII owners I talked
to said they flew with a slight amount of down
in the elevator. So we left it at these settings
and went on to fly some maneuvers.
The D.VII is capable of all standard World
War I-style maneuvers. You will have no
trouble doing Stall Turns, Split “S”s, Loops,
barrel rolls, Immelmann Turns, and, best of all,
slow flybys.
When it comes time to land, keep a little
power on it until the wheels touch. The D.VII
does have a high drag factor and bleeds off
speed quickly. When in ground effect, ease in
some elevator and flare for a wheel or threepoint
landing. To avoid ground looping, be
ready with the rudder to keep the rollout
straight.
I thank my good friend and fellow club
member John Mueller for helping me with this
review. With his flying skills I was able to
photograph the flight shots. The color scheme
presented on the D.VII was his idea, which I
thought was outstanding. John is also an
excellent builder.
Balsa USA has done a creditable job of
producing a kit that should prove to be popular
with the World War I addicts. During
construction I found a couple things I thought
could be improved.
Manufacturer/Distributor:
Balsa USA
Box 164
Marinette WI 54143
(800) 255-7287
www.balsausa.com
Sources:
Arizona Model Aircrafters
(602) 971-5646
www.arizonamodels.com
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models)
(919) 423-8530
[email protected]
B.H. Hanson
(702) 436-4422
www.bhhanson.com
B&B Specialties
(574) 277-0499
www.bennettbuilt.com
Du-Bro Products
(800) 848-9411
www.dubro.com
Futaba (Great Planes)
(217) 398-8970
www.futaba-rc.com
Hitec
(858) 748-6948
www.hitecrcd.com
For some reason the company does not
organize the wood in the kit. It would be less
time consuming for the builder if common
sizes of wood were bundled, making it
easier to find related sizes.
It would have been nice to have a scale
tail skid rather than just a piece of wire. I
found it frustrating to try to pick out the
unmarked die-cut parts and mark them.
Why not have die-cut parts that are
marked?
The assembly manual by Dave Lewis
was excellent, providing a step-by-step
construction technique with good, clear
pictures. He included some historical
commentary about the Fokker D.VII, which
makes it more interesting as you progress
through the building process.
This is a builder’s kit, and it requires
considerable time to assemble with various
skills involved. There are few of us
modelers left who find joy in building,
knowing the feeling and gratification of
having done it ourselves.
If you are a builder, you will enjoy
putting the Balsa USA Fokker D.VII
together. It was a classic and colorful
airplane of the era that has much history,
making it enjoyable to read about. It was
widely regarded as the best German fighter
of World War I.
The kit is a good value, as are all Balsa
USA kits, so why not buy one and build your
own for a change? It’s worth the effort. MA
Jerrold Smith
[email protected]
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 62,63,64,66
62 MODEL AVIATION
Plane Talk: 1/4-scale Fokker D.VII
The kit box contains everything shown. Before removing the
parts from the die-cut sheets, label the parts—especially the
ribs since their differences are subtle.
THE FOKKER D.VII was designed and built by the Fokker
Flugzeugwerke GmbH and was first used in World War I in March or
early April 1918. Manfred Von Richthofen—the famous German
Ace—tested the D.VII in the trials at Adlershof but never had the
opportunity to fly one in combat. He was killed just days before it
entered service.
The D.VII was not without problems when it was introduced. On
occasion its wing ribs would fracture in a dive and high temperatures
sometime ignited airplanes armed with phosphorus ammunition or
caused their gas tanks to explode.
Even so, the D.VII proved to be durable and easy to fly. Highly
maneuverable at all speeds and altitudes, it was more than a match for
any of the British and French fighters of that time.
The D.VII came equipped with one of two engines: a Mercedes
D.III six-cylinder, liquid-cooled in-line with 160 horsepower or a
BMW IIIa in-line with 185 horsepower. The BMW engine gave the
aircraft slightly more performance with approximately an hour and a
half of flying time.
The D.VII had a wingspan of 29 feet, 3.5 inches, and a length of 22
feet, 11.5 inches. It was armed with two Spandau 7.92mm machine
guns, and more than 2,694 of the aircraft were eventually built for
combat service.
The Balsa USA Fokker: The addition of the Fokker D.VII to Balsa
USA’s growing fleet of World War I models makes it a desirable kit
for builders who have an affinity for warbirds of that era. When I
popped the box lid I was greeted with a mountain of balsa sticks and
sheets. Further examination revealed some plastic parts, two bags of
hardware, five sheets of plans, a 63-page instruction manual, and
preformed wire parts.
Wing ribs, bulkheads, and other miscellaneous parts were cleanly
die-cut from balsa and lightweight poplar plywood. Basically all the
materials needed to build the airframe is included. You will need
wheels, covering, decals, a pilot (painted or unpainted), and wood
machine-gun kits, all available as options from Balsa USA.
I read through the manual several times before I started building,
just to get acquainted. This is a wise thing to do before trying to pick
out a specific piece of wood from the pile. It’s all in there.
Because this is a builder’s kit, most modelers with average or more
building experience should take it on. Oh, the joy of building your
own. Yes, there are some of us left who do so!
Construction: The manual starts you out with the upper wing. I found
it easiest to pull all the parts for the upper wing together, familiarize
myself with the building task in the manual and on the plans, and then
go at it. I followed this procedure throughout the building process. I
was pleased with the supplied wood; it was great!
An inconvenience I encountered at the beginning was identifying
the die-cut wing ribs. You can do this by looking at the die-cut
diagrams in the manual, which have the part numbers marked on them,
and then marking the individual parts, which don’t have the numbers
marked on them.
This builder’s kit
is a joy to put together
and a pleasure to fly
The D.VII comes in for a low pass. It’s a honey to fly. Roughly the amount of down-elevator trim shown is required for level flight.
JERROLD SMITH
July 2006 63
Classic built-up construction gives the Fokker high strength with light weight. This
view makes the model look quite a bit like the full-scale D.VII would have.
The G-26 fits completely inside the cowl. The dummy engine is included in the kit.
The author covered the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric and the rest of the surfaces with
Super Coverite and Model Master paint.
This subject’s popularity among the World
War I German squadrons means there are
several colorful schemes to choose from
with which to finish this model.
The machine gun, wheels, and pilot are
optional items available from Balsa USA.
The wheel shown is Du-Bro’s Vintage 7-inch
scale variety (Balsa USA item 488).
A removable top cowl section gives access
to the engine. Note the open section at
the top of the hatch for cooling air to exit.
Some of the die-cut sheets were hard to
match up with some of the diagrams in the
manual. Generally, the upper wing ribs are
located on the 15-inch lengths of sheet balsa
and the lower wing ribs are on the 12-inch
lengths. That will help you.
The upper and lower wings are built in
three parts: a center-section and the outer
panels. You must take care to see that each rib
is in its proper place. The outer wing panels
taper in thickness from root to tip. Even
though the wings are constant chord, each rib
varies in height. After pinning down the main
spar and placing the ribs in position, a
straightedge across the top of them will
quickly tell you if any were placed in the
wrong spot.
When joined with the center-section, the
top of the wing is flat and the taper becomes
dihedral in each of the outer panels. The
ailerons on the upper wing only are then built
in and cut loose after the wing is constructed.
Each aileron is driven by its own servo.
Otherwise, the wings are built in the
traditional method of construction with LE
sheeting and rib capstrips. Throughout the
wing construction I used Balsa USA thin
cyanoacrylate to tack the parts in place,
followed by white glue for final gluing. By
tacking the components in place it was easy to
break them loose in case of a mistake in
location.
Before you start building the fuselage you
will have to decide on an engine size. The
firewall location shown on the plans will
accept a Zenoah G-26 gas engine or a 1.50
glow-powered four-stroke. Opt for the heavier
Photos by the author
64 MODEL AVIATION
• Great instruction manual.
• Good kit design to promote
airframe strength.
• Excellent performance and looks
of finished model.
Pluses and Minuses
+
-• Die-cut parts unnumbered.
• Wood in kit not bundled to
separate sizes.
Type: Sport Scale WW I biplane
Pilot skill level: Intermediate to
expert, with building skills
Wingspan: 88 inches
Wing area: 2,225 square inches
Length: 68.875 inches
Weight: 18-20 pounds
Engine: 25-35cc gas or 1.50 fourstroke
(Zenoah G-26
recommended)
Radio: Four channels (minimum)
with six servos
Construction: Balsa, light
plywood, hardwood, .010 sheet
aluminum
Covering/finish: Super Coverite,
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozengepattern
fabric on the wings, Model
Master paint
Price: $313.95
Specifications
Test-Model Details
Engine used: B.H. Hanson/
modified Zenoah G-26
Propeller: JZ 18 x 6-10
Fuel: Du-Bro 24-ounce tank with
gas modifications, unleaded gas
with 32:1 gas/oil mix
Radio system: Futaba 8U with
PCM receiver, 6-volt 1400 mAh
battery, Hitec HS-635HD servos
Ready-to-fly weight: 20 pounds
Wing loading: 19.6 ounces per
square foot
Flight duration: Exceeds 10
minutes
power plant because you will need nose
weight. The engine must be positioned
properly with a slight angular tilt in the
fuselage to fit under the cowl.
With a wide variety of suitable engines
available, the fuselage has been designed so
the firewall can be repositioned, within the
fuselage, to accommodate your engine
choice.
Fuselage construction starts out simple
and gets more complicated in the front. You
will spend more time building the radiator,
cowl, and dummy engine and attaching the
subwing to the wheel struts than on the rest of
the fuselage.
However, the well-written assembly
manual by Dave Lewis will guide you
through, provided that your skills are up to
it—especially the wrapping and soldering
required on the landing gear, cabane, and
interplane struts.
Sheet aluminum, .012 inch thick, is
supplied to make the side panels in the front
of the fuselage. Balsa TE stock is cut, shaped,
and glued on the sides to simulate the louvers.
These louvers’ location shown on the
plans represents a late-model Fokker. Some
of the earlier models had different louver
spacing. With some research you can come
up with your own custom set of louver
spacing. This kit allows you that flexibility.
Building the tail is straightforward. To
increase strength and stiffness and reduce the
chance of warping, many of the tail parts are
laminated together. To save weight, the
stabilizer’s center-section is sheeted top and
bottom. You build the stabilizer first and then
decide whether the elevators will be split or
joined.
The entire tail on the full-scale D.VII was
constructed from steel tubing and welded,
making it flat. I was disappointed in the tail
skid; it could have been made to look more
realistic rather than being just a plain wire
strut.
Before gluing on the stabilizer, make sure
you have positive incidence relative to the
lower wing. The manual calls for 1°-2°. I
ended up with 2° positive.
Covering: Balsa USA recommends covering
with fabric for strength and a scale
appearance. I covered the fuselage and tail
with Super Coverite and the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric, which is extremely light and has an
adhesive back. I painted the fuselage and tail
surfaces with Model Master paint, which I
thinned and sprayed on over several coats of
clear dope primer.
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models) sells a
fabric in five-color light and five-color dark
camouflage. However, installing it is much
like going back to the days of silk and dope;
there is no adhesive on the backside. Another
option is to cover the D.VII with Solartex and
paint it.
There are many colorful schemes to
choose from that era. I picked that of a
Fokker D.VII flown by German Lieutenant
Joseph Veltjens, with the white-winged arrow
on the side. Veltjens, who was an ace with 35
kills, was lucky enough to survive World War
I. He was killed when his airplane ran into a
mountainside while on a mission for Hermann
Göring during World War II.
Engine: Regardless of the engine you plan to
mount in your D.VII, the installation
procedure in the manual will be similar. I
installed a B.H. Hanson/modified Zenoah G-
26 with ignition module. I chose a B&B
Specialties muffler because of its smaller size,
but I still had to grind some off the front edge
to provide clearance with the cowl and keep
the engine completely enclosed.
An 18 x 6 propeller seemed reasonable, or
maybe an 18 x 6-10. Test flights were made
with the 18 x 6 propeller. The G-26 with the
muffler I mentioned will just fit under the
cowl. A larger gas engine would require
modifications to the front end. The idea is to
keep everything under the cowl and get as
much weight as possible up front, so I
strongly recommend a gas engine.
The nose moment is short, so expect to
add weight. There is plenty of room under the
cowl to mount the 24-ounce Du-Bro fuel tank
and still put the flight battery up front.
Radio: I installed a Futaba 9CA with an FM
receiver, along with five Hitec HS-635HB
servos—one on each aileron, one on each
elevator half, and pull-pull on the rudder. The
throttle servo was a standard Futaba S148.
The Hitec servos have Karbonite gears and
provide 69/83 inch-ounce of torque with
4.8/6.0 volts respectively.
I installed a 1400 mAh five-cell pack to
operate the system, which I located on top of
the fuel tank under the engine cowl up front.
The radio compartment above the lower wing
is not the largest, but with a little planning it
can be easily accessed to hook up the servo
linkage.
Flying the Fokker: Before flying the D.VII I
balanced it according to the plans and had to
add 2 pounds to the nose, bringing the total
weight up from 18 to 20 pounds; this was
expected. My concern was how the G-26
would fly it at that weight.
The engine thrustline was offset with 11/2°
down to counter the stabilizer, which has
built-in 2° positive incidence. It’s important to
note that the landing gear wing should be
mounted at 0° incidence. Once the model was
properly balanced on the CG, it was ready to
fly.
At the field the engine started immediately
and control movement was checked. A few
taxi runs indicated that ground handling and
turning took some technique. Being a taildragger
with a nonsteerable tail skid, it was
necessary to give some down-elevator, kick
the rudder, and burp the throttle to turn by
slightly lifting the skid off the ground, as they
had to do with the full-scale Fokker D.VII.
With the elevators set at neutral, the
Fokker took off and immediately began to fly
in a nose-up stalled position. A great deal of
down-trim was quickly put into the elevator
to level it off. Finally, after adding more
down-trim, it would fly hands off at full
throttle. When the throttle was cut, the
model would go into a nice descending
glide. That was great, but why all the
down-trim in the elevator?
add downthrust and gives you three options to
check out. So I added another degree of
downthrust, making it 21/2°. The next test
flight indicated less down-elevator, but it was
not completely eliminated.
Most of the Fokker D.VII owners I talked
to said they flew with a slight amount of down
in the elevator. So we left it at these settings
and went on to fly some maneuvers.
The D.VII is capable of all standard World
War I-style maneuvers. You will have no
trouble doing Stall Turns, Split “S”s, Loops,
barrel rolls, Immelmann Turns, and, best of all,
slow flybys.
When it comes time to land, keep a little
power on it until the wheels touch. The D.VII
does have a high drag factor and bleeds off
speed quickly. When in ground effect, ease in
some elevator and flare for a wheel or threepoint
landing. To avoid ground looping, be
ready with the rudder to keep the rollout
straight.
I thank my good friend and fellow club
member John Mueller for helping me with this
review. With his flying skills I was able to
photograph the flight shots. The color scheme
presented on the D.VII was his idea, which I
thought was outstanding. John is also an
excellent builder.
Balsa USA has done a creditable job of
producing a kit that should prove to be popular
with the World War I addicts. During
construction I found a couple things I thought
could be improved.
Manufacturer/Distributor:
Balsa USA
Box 164
Marinette WI 54143
(800) 255-7287
www.balsausa.com
Sources:
Arizona Model Aircrafters
(602) 971-5646
www.arizonamodels.com
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models)
(919) 423-8530
[email protected]
B.H. Hanson
(702) 436-4422
www.bhhanson.com
B&B Specialties
(574) 277-0499
www.bennettbuilt.com
Du-Bro Products
(800) 848-9411
www.dubro.com
Futaba (Great Planes)
(217) 398-8970
www.futaba-rc.com
Hitec
(858) 748-6948
www.hitecrcd.com
For some reason the company does not
organize the wood in the kit. It would be less
time consuming for the builder if common
sizes of wood were bundled, making it
easier to find related sizes.
It would have been nice to have a scale
tail skid rather than just a piece of wire. I
found it frustrating to try to pick out the
unmarked die-cut parts and mark them.
Why not have die-cut parts that are
marked?
The assembly manual by Dave Lewis
was excellent, providing a step-by-step
construction technique with good, clear
pictures. He included some historical
commentary about the Fokker D.VII, which
makes it more interesting as you progress
through the building process.
This is a builder’s kit, and it requires
considerable time to assemble with various
skills involved. There are few of us
modelers left who find joy in building,
knowing the feeling and gratification of
having done it ourselves.
If you are a builder, you will enjoy
putting the Balsa USA Fokker D.VII
together. It was a classic and colorful
airplane of the era that has much history,
making it enjoyable to read about. It was
widely regarded as the best German fighter
of World War I.
The kit is a good value, as are all Balsa
USA kits, so why not buy one and build your
own for a change? It’s worth the effort. MA
Jerrold Smith
[email protected]
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/07
Page Numbers: 62,63,64,66
62 MODEL AVIATION
Plane Talk: 1/4-scale Fokker D.VII
The kit box contains everything shown. Before removing the
parts from the die-cut sheets, label the parts—especially the
ribs since their differences are subtle.
THE FOKKER D.VII was designed and built by the Fokker
Flugzeugwerke GmbH and was first used in World War I in March or
early April 1918. Manfred Von Richthofen—the famous German
Ace—tested the D.VII in the trials at Adlershof but never had the
opportunity to fly one in combat. He was killed just days before it
entered service.
The D.VII was not without problems when it was introduced. On
occasion its wing ribs would fracture in a dive and high temperatures
sometime ignited airplanes armed with phosphorus ammunition or
caused their gas tanks to explode.
Even so, the D.VII proved to be durable and easy to fly. Highly
maneuverable at all speeds and altitudes, it was more than a match for
any of the British and French fighters of that time.
The D.VII came equipped with one of two engines: a Mercedes
D.III six-cylinder, liquid-cooled in-line with 160 horsepower or a
BMW IIIa in-line with 185 horsepower. The BMW engine gave the
aircraft slightly more performance with approximately an hour and a
half of flying time.
The D.VII had a wingspan of 29 feet, 3.5 inches, and a length of 22
feet, 11.5 inches. It was armed with two Spandau 7.92mm machine
guns, and more than 2,694 of the aircraft were eventually built for
combat service.
The Balsa USA Fokker: The addition of the Fokker D.VII to Balsa
USA’s growing fleet of World War I models makes it a desirable kit
for builders who have an affinity for warbirds of that era. When I
popped the box lid I was greeted with a mountain of balsa sticks and
sheets. Further examination revealed some plastic parts, two bags of
hardware, five sheets of plans, a 63-page instruction manual, and
preformed wire parts.
Wing ribs, bulkheads, and other miscellaneous parts were cleanly
die-cut from balsa and lightweight poplar plywood. Basically all the
materials needed to build the airframe is included. You will need
wheels, covering, decals, a pilot (painted or unpainted), and wood
machine-gun kits, all available as options from Balsa USA.
I read through the manual several times before I started building,
just to get acquainted. This is a wise thing to do before trying to pick
out a specific piece of wood from the pile. It’s all in there.
Because this is a builder’s kit, most modelers with average or more
building experience should take it on. Oh, the joy of building your
own. Yes, there are some of us left who do so!
Construction: The manual starts you out with the upper wing. I found
it easiest to pull all the parts for the upper wing together, familiarize
myself with the building task in the manual and on the plans, and then
go at it. I followed this procedure throughout the building process. I
was pleased with the supplied wood; it was great!
An inconvenience I encountered at the beginning was identifying
the die-cut wing ribs. You can do this by looking at the die-cut
diagrams in the manual, which have the part numbers marked on them,
and then marking the individual parts, which don’t have the numbers
marked on them.
This builder’s kit
is a joy to put together
and a pleasure to fly
The D.VII comes in for a low pass. It’s a honey to fly. Roughly the amount of down-elevator trim shown is required for level flight.
JERROLD SMITH
July 2006 63
Classic built-up construction gives the Fokker high strength with light weight. This
view makes the model look quite a bit like the full-scale D.VII would have.
The G-26 fits completely inside the cowl. The dummy engine is included in the kit.
The author covered the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric and the rest of the surfaces with
Super Coverite and Model Master paint.
This subject’s popularity among the World
War I German squadrons means there are
several colorful schemes to choose from
with which to finish this model.
The machine gun, wheels, and pilot are
optional items available from Balsa USA.
The wheel shown is Du-Bro’s Vintage 7-inch
scale variety (Balsa USA item 488).
A removable top cowl section gives access
to the engine. Note the open section at
the top of the hatch for cooling air to exit.
Some of the die-cut sheets were hard to
match up with some of the diagrams in the
manual. Generally, the upper wing ribs are
located on the 15-inch lengths of sheet balsa
and the lower wing ribs are on the 12-inch
lengths. That will help you.
The upper and lower wings are built in
three parts: a center-section and the outer
panels. You must take care to see that each rib
is in its proper place. The outer wing panels
taper in thickness from root to tip. Even
though the wings are constant chord, each rib
varies in height. After pinning down the main
spar and placing the ribs in position, a
straightedge across the top of them will
quickly tell you if any were placed in the
wrong spot.
When joined with the center-section, the
top of the wing is flat and the taper becomes
dihedral in each of the outer panels. The
ailerons on the upper wing only are then built
in and cut loose after the wing is constructed.
Each aileron is driven by its own servo.
Otherwise, the wings are built in the
traditional method of construction with LE
sheeting and rib capstrips. Throughout the
wing construction I used Balsa USA thin
cyanoacrylate to tack the parts in place,
followed by white glue for final gluing. By
tacking the components in place it was easy to
break them loose in case of a mistake in
location.
Before you start building the fuselage you
will have to decide on an engine size. The
firewall location shown on the plans will
accept a Zenoah G-26 gas engine or a 1.50
glow-powered four-stroke. Opt for the heavier
Photos by the author
64 MODEL AVIATION
• Great instruction manual.
• Good kit design to promote
airframe strength.
• Excellent performance and looks
of finished model.
Pluses and Minuses
+
-• Die-cut parts unnumbered.
• Wood in kit not bundled to
separate sizes.
Type: Sport Scale WW I biplane
Pilot skill level: Intermediate to
expert, with building skills
Wingspan: 88 inches
Wing area: 2,225 square inches
Length: 68.875 inches
Weight: 18-20 pounds
Engine: 25-35cc gas or 1.50 fourstroke
(Zenoah G-26
recommended)
Radio: Four channels (minimum)
with six servos
Construction: Balsa, light
plywood, hardwood, .010 sheet
aluminum
Covering/finish: Super Coverite,
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozengepattern
fabric on the wings, Model
Master paint
Price: $313.95
Specifications
Test-Model Details
Engine used: B.H. Hanson/
modified Zenoah G-26
Propeller: JZ 18 x 6-10
Fuel: Du-Bro 24-ounce tank with
gas modifications, unleaded gas
with 32:1 gas/oil mix
Radio system: Futaba 8U with
PCM receiver, 6-volt 1400 mAh
battery, Hitec HS-635HD servos
Ready-to-fly weight: 20 pounds
Wing loading: 19.6 ounces per
square foot
Flight duration: Exceeds 10
minutes
power plant because you will need nose
weight. The engine must be positioned
properly with a slight angular tilt in the
fuselage to fit under the cowl.
With a wide variety of suitable engines
available, the fuselage has been designed so
the firewall can be repositioned, within the
fuselage, to accommodate your engine
choice.
Fuselage construction starts out simple
and gets more complicated in the front. You
will spend more time building the radiator,
cowl, and dummy engine and attaching the
subwing to the wheel struts than on the rest of
the fuselage.
However, the well-written assembly
manual by Dave Lewis will guide you
through, provided that your skills are up to
it—especially the wrapping and soldering
required on the landing gear, cabane, and
interplane struts.
Sheet aluminum, .012 inch thick, is
supplied to make the side panels in the front
of the fuselage. Balsa TE stock is cut, shaped,
and glued on the sides to simulate the louvers.
These louvers’ location shown on the
plans represents a late-model Fokker. Some
of the earlier models had different louver
spacing. With some research you can come
up with your own custom set of louver
spacing. This kit allows you that flexibility.
Building the tail is straightforward. To
increase strength and stiffness and reduce the
chance of warping, many of the tail parts are
laminated together. To save weight, the
stabilizer’s center-section is sheeted top and
bottom. You build the stabilizer first and then
decide whether the elevators will be split or
joined.
The entire tail on the full-scale D.VII was
constructed from steel tubing and welded,
making it flat. I was disappointed in the tail
skid; it could have been made to look more
realistic rather than being just a plain wire
strut.
Before gluing on the stabilizer, make sure
you have positive incidence relative to the
lower wing. The manual calls for 1°-2°. I
ended up with 2° positive.
Covering: Balsa USA recommends covering
with fabric for strength and a scale
appearance. I covered the fuselage and tail
with Super Coverite and the wings with
Arizona Model Aircrafters lozenge-pattern
fabric, which is extremely light and has an
adhesive back. I painted the fuselage and tail
surfaces with Model Master paint, which I
thinned and sprayed on over several coats of
clear dope primer.
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models) sells a
fabric in five-color light and five-color dark
camouflage. However, installing it is much
like going back to the days of silk and dope;
there is no adhesive on the backside. Another
option is to cover the D.VII with Solartex and
paint it.
There are many colorful schemes to
choose from that era. I picked that of a
Fokker D.VII flown by German Lieutenant
Joseph Veltjens, with the white-winged arrow
on the side. Veltjens, who was an ace with 35
kills, was lucky enough to survive World War
I. He was killed when his airplane ran into a
mountainside while on a mission for Hermann
Göring during World War II.
Engine: Regardless of the engine you plan to
mount in your D.VII, the installation
procedure in the manual will be similar. I
installed a B.H. Hanson/modified Zenoah G-
26 with ignition module. I chose a B&B
Specialties muffler because of its smaller size,
but I still had to grind some off the front edge
to provide clearance with the cowl and keep
the engine completely enclosed.
An 18 x 6 propeller seemed reasonable, or
maybe an 18 x 6-10. Test flights were made
with the 18 x 6 propeller. The G-26 with the
muffler I mentioned will just fit under the
cowl. A larger gas engine would require
modifications to the front end. The idea is to
keep everything under the cowl and get as
much weight as possible up front, so I
strongly recommend a gas engine.
The nose moment is short, so expect to
add weight. There is plenty of room under the
cowl to mount the 24-ounce Du-Bro fuel tank
and still put the flight battery up front.
Radio: I installed a Futaba 9CA with an FM
receiver, along with five Hitec HS-635HB
servos—one on each aileron, one on each
elevator half, and pull-pull on the rudder. The
throttle servo was a standard Futaba S148.
The Hitec servos have Karbonite gears and
provide 69/83 inch-ounce of torque with
4.8/6.0 volts respectively.
I installed a 1400 mAh five-cell pack to
operate the system, which I located on top of
the fuel tank under the engine cowl up front.
The radio compartment above the lower wing
is not the largest, but with a little planning it
can be easily accessed to hook up the servo
linkage.
Flying the Fokker: Before flying the D.VII I
balanced it according to the plans and had to
add 2 pounds to the nose, bringing the total
weight up from 18 to 20 pounds; this was
expected. My concern was how the G-26
would fly it at that weight.
The engine thrustline was offset with 11/2°
down to counter the stabilizer, which has
built-in 2° positive incidence. It’s important to
note that the landing gear wing should be
mounted at 0° incidence. Once the model was
properly balanced on the CG, it was ready to
fly.
At the field the engine started immediately
and control movement was checked. A few
taxi runs indicated that ground handling and
turning took some technique. Being a taildragger
with a nonsteerable tail skid, it was
necessary to give some down-elevator, kick
the rudder, and burp the throttle to turn by
slightly lifting the skid off the ground, as they
had to do with the full-scale Fokker D.VII.
With the elevators set at neutral, the
Fokker took off and immediately began to fly
in a nose-up stalled position. A great deal of
down-trim was quickly put into the elevator
to level it off. Finally, after adding more
down-trim, it would fly hands off at full
throttle. When the throttle was cut, the
model would go into a nice descending
glide. That was great, but why all the
down-trim in the elevator?
add downthrust and gives you three options to
check out. So I added another degree of
downthrust, making it 21/2°. The next test
flight indicated less down-elevator, but it was
not completely eliminated.
Most of the Fokker D.VII owners I talked
to said they flew with a slight amount of down
in the elevator. So we left it at these settings
and went on to fly some maneuvers.
The D.VII is capable of all standard World
War I-style maneuvers. You will have no
trouble doing Stall Turns, Split “S”s, Loops,
barrel rolls, Immelmann Turns, and, best of all,
slow flybys.
When it comes time to land, keep a little
power on it until the wheels touch. The D.VII
does have a high drag factor and bleeds off
speed quickly. When in ground effect, ease in
some elevator and flare for a wheel or threepoint
landing. To avoid ground looping, be
ready with the rudder to keep the rollout
straight.
I thank my good friend and fellow club
member John Mueller for helping me with this
review. With his flying skills I was able to
photograph the flight shots. The color scheme
presented on the D.VII was his idea, which I
thought was outstanding. John is also an
excellent builder.
Balsa USA has done a creditable job of
producing a kit that should prove to be popular
with the World War I addicts. During
construction I found a couple things I thought
could be improved.
Manufacturer/Distributor:
Balsa USA
Box 164
Marinette WI 54143
(800) 255-7287
www.balsausa.com
Sources:
Arizona Model Aircrafters
(602) 971-5646
www.arizonamodels.com
GTM (Glenn Torrance Models)
(919) 423-8530
[email protected]
B.H. Hanson
(702) 436-4422
www.bhhanson.com
B&B Specialties
(574) 277-0499
www.bennettbuilt.com
Du-Bro Products
(800) 848-9411
www.dubro.com
Futaba (Great Planes)
(217) 398-8970
www.futaba-rc.com
Hitec
(858) 748-6948
www.hitecrcd.com
For some reason the company does not
organize the wood in the kit. It would be less
time consuming for the builder if common
sizes of wood were bundled, making it
easier to find related sizes.
It would have been nice to have a scale
tail skid rather than just a piece of wire. I
found it frustrating to try to pick out the
unmarked die-cut parts and mark them.
Why not have die-cut parts that are
marked?
The assembly manual by Dave Lewis
was excellent, providing a step-by-step
construction technique with good, clear
pictures. He included some historical
commentary about the Fokker D.VII, which
makes it more interesting as you progress
through the building process.
This is a builder’s kit, and it requires
considerable time to assemble with various
skills involved. There are few of us
modelers left who find joy in building,
knowing the feeling and gratification of
having done it ourselves.
If you are a builder, you will enjoy
putting the Balsa USA Fokker D.VII
together. It was a classic and colorful
airplane of the era that has much history,
making it enjoyable to read about. It was
widely regarded as the best German fighter
of World War I.
The kit is a good value, as are all Balsa
USA kits, so why not buy one and build your
own for a change? It’s worth the effort. MA
Jerrold Smith
[email protected]