AMA Plans Service Showcase — 2013/02
Fond memories of Joe Wagner’s original FF design bring inspiration
Joe Wagner’s original Dakota was designed in 1950 and intended for 1/2A power. Randy Wrisley remembered, as a child, helping his father crank the inverted Atwood .049 that powered it.
As an adult, Randy built an RC version of Clarence Haught’s 25%-enlarged Dakota, converting it back to the original inverted engine mount he remembered so well. He then decided to build a Giant Scale version, 2 1/2 times larger than Joe’s original design, and called it Dakota Grande.
Weighing 7 3/4 pounds dry, the Dakota Grande had about 7 1/2 square feet of wing area and was, according to Randy, “overpowered” by a Fox Eagle .60. The fuselage was built from light plywood; the wings and tail were conventional construction from balsa, spruce, and plywood. Randy retained an inverted engine to preserve the character of the airplane’s nose.
Construction details
- Ribs:
- 20 main ribs cut from a template
- 6 center-section ribs
- 4 tip ribs
- 24 false ribs
- Ailerons: fitted to the top wings only to produce a scale-like banking characteristic
- Landing gear:
- Gear plates: 3/16 in. plywood
- Legs: 3/16 in. music wire
- Tailwheel gear: 3/32 in. music wire
- Other notes:
- Randy did not epoxy the wings’ hold-down dowels until after covering the wings
- Windows and windshield were installed after he no longer needed access through the fuselage openings
- A Williams Brothers Model Products 3-inch pilot figure was added for realism
Flying characteristics
Randy said no words could fully describe the feeling of the Dakota Grande’s test flight. Its forte was the fly-by: “If your idea of fun is flying around at 1/3 throttle, making low fly-bys down the runway, and wheel landings at sunset, this is your airplane.”
Availability
Dakota Grande was featured in the November 1981 issue of Model Aviation (MA) as AMA Plans Service listing 351. The plan is available for $19 plus shipping and handling. AMA members can access the magazine’s digital library on the MA website to read more. See page 153 of the November 1981 issue or order at www.modelaircraft.org/plans.aspx.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
