Michael in the typical ’60s Nats pose,
wearing the famous white-outfit look
that Bob Gialdini brought to the Nats.
Many competitors at that time flew
with oil-soaked jeans and dirty rags
hanging out of their back pockets.
BOB GIALDINI’S ECLIPSE was the first
Precision Aerobatics (Stunt) model to win
the AMA Nats with a muffler installed. The
history of Bob and the family tree of the
Sting Ray and Rayette was highlighted in
the February, March, May, and June 2007
issues of Flying Models magazine.
Those CL Stunt columns were composed
to encourage builders to look at FM and
other plans services as excellent sources of
great Classic-legal Stunters. Look through your older but early
2007 Flying Models for more basic background information
about Bob and his models.
During a telephone conversation with Bob, he said that the
Eclipse was originally to have been an enlarged version of the
Olympic in 1957 with identical shapes to the Mark VI version.
The Eclipse was to receive a “Lee” tuned Veco .45 engine for
power and Spin Flow muffler.
Bob was interested in the new sound that the Spin Flow
muffler put out and how it would present with the upscaled
Olympic. The Eclipse paint scheme was to be similar to his
earlier dynamic schemes, and Bob would dress in his usual
“professional” Stunt attire to fly it.
Construction began on the new Olympic/Eclipse in 1961.
Bob was constantly banging the wingtips in his shop when he
would flip over the model with its original 72-inch span. He
decided to cut off some wing and reshape the tips, and he the
final version was finalized at a 63-inch wingspan.
Then Bob turned his attention to constructing a new Sting
Ray, and he put the Eclipse up out of the way in the ceiling
storage area in his basement. The Sting Ray won Bob the 1963
Nats and the Walker Cup.
The Eclipse stayed safely in the rafters until Jerry Worth,
of the Chicago, Illinois, area (of Elektra XP-35 and Mirage
fame), saw it languishing in Bob’s shop and encouraged him
to finish it.
When time came to cut wood again, Bob lopped off the top
block aft of the double-pilot canopy and removed the twin
rudders. Thus the shapes of the new Eclipse became more
Stingray-like in appearance than resembling the Olympic.
The newly finished Eclipse won the 1965 Los Alamitos,
California, Nats. Bob took the model to the F2B Team Trials
later that year but was bumped from first to fourth when he
One of Michael’s “classic”
shots of himself, his handle,
and his new Eclipse.
08sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.deleted the triangles from an otherwise wellflown
pattern.
Bob then decided to “give back” to the
hobby by becoming a judge. He served
extremely well as a local, Nats, and
international FAI judging staff member.
The Eclipse was a giant among Stunters
at the time, and it was in the same size
category as the original Sharks that Lew
McFarland was flying. Lew was retired from
the US Air Force during this period and was
working as a pharmacist in Lexington,
Kentucky. Bob Palmer also put his foot in
the door, by designing the Skyscraper.
The Veco .45 Stunt engine was the power
plant of choice for all three prolific
designers. The muffled version that Bob
Palmer used and the squeaky-clean persona
that Mr. Gialdini exuded surely wowed the
judges; they topped the field in 1963 and
1965.
The construction of the Eclipse is no
different from that of the Sting Ray. The
spar structure held the ribs in place. Notice
the shape of the spar and the holes cut in the
ribs to allow them to be slipped over the spar
and located precisely in their respective
areas for gluing.
The basic structure of the box-type
fuselage is simple, but the outward lines
gave the impression of jets slicing through
the stratosphere.
Jets were symbolic of the fastest of the
fast, and they had been used successfully in
the Korean Conflict. The American F-86
Sabre jet inflicted much damage to the
Russian MiG-15s, -17s, and -19s that both
Russian and Chinese pilots flew.
The Sabres were the speed demons of the
time, and Bob shadowed those sleek,
propeller-less designs in the Sting Ray and
the Eclipse. The canopy position and swept
vertical tail emphasized speed, but Bob did
not incorporate swept wings into his slick
original drawings.
The canopy area featured plenty of
gauges, knobs, levers, and a pair of duplicate
pilots, similar to what was in the new jets of
the era. Color was not an option; Mr.
Gialdini kept his designs clean and effective,
with a multitude of small decals to represent
the openings on a full-scale aircraft.
You might notice that Bob dresses up
intake and exhaust apertures with extremely
fine screen wire. That final process would
cause gray hairs on many builders’ heads for
the installation process and the difficulty to
prime the engine, but isn’t this final product
neat?
You will even find the screen wire on
fake air intakes located on both sides of all
landing gear spats. This is to duplicate air
induction for the cooling of “brakes” on the
Eclipse Stunter.
It is hard not to find a point of interest on
every portion of the Eclipse. That’s true of
many Stunters of the era, such as Jerry
Worth’s Electra XP-35 and Mirage, Jim
Kostecky’s Formula S, and The All
American Eagle and Novi I, II, III, and IV
by Dave Gierke.
The more detail in the cockpit, the more
tiny lettering you could apply, the more
almost hidden but finely carved openings
and exits exemplified the mid-1960s style of
sleek, clean, and fussily executed Stunt
models.
One might imagine that it takes twice as
many hours to apply the paint and details
than it does to build the airplane. But what a
magnificent model you will own to display
and behold when you are done.
The landing gear might give you, the
builder, fits, but the system was designed to
enhance the best takeoff and landing
characteristics in all conditions. Tricyclegear
models must assume a 0° incidence or
1/2° of negative incidence to allow the best
releases and landings.
The woodwork required to get the
landing gear supports in place might seem
difficult, but the resulting project is so
effective. Now for Michael Schmitt’s words
about the Eclipse.
—Allen Brickhaus
[email protected]
The Eclipse project started for me when
Allen Brickhaus came to the Windy City
Classic: a Stunt contest that my club, the
Chicagoland Circle Cutters, hosted. He had a
mission in mind the day before the event,
and he invited me to go along.
Allen had been in contact with Bob
Gialdini (1963 Nats Champ, third-place
finisher at the 1964 World Champs, and
1965 Nats champ), and he planned to pick
up the Eclipse from Bob’s home in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Allen planned to
reverse-engineer the model so that plans
could be made available to everyone.
We had a great afternoon, and it was a
wonderful experience to meet Bob. He filled
us in on the design and its history. He had a
successful run with his Olympic series but
started on the Eclipse when he wanted a new
model. It began life looking similar to an
enlarged Olympic.
One evening, with a few of his friends
around, Bob took out the new project to
show. After some discussion and feedback
from those present, he decided the Eclipse
should have a different look from the
Olympic. So with knife in hand, Bob
removed the turtledeck and twin vertical
stabilizers.
Unsure of his design direction, he put the
airplane aside for several years. At this point
he started the Sting Ray, and it served him
well. He won the 1963 Nats at Los Alamitos,
California, with it. The next year he flew the
Sting Ray to a third-place finish at the F2B
World Championship in Budapest, Hungry.
Feeling that the Sting Ray had run its
course, Bob decided to design a new aircraft.
He took out the half-finished Eclipse and
started to work on it, including, as Allen
wrote, shortening the wingspan by removing
a foot from each side.
Bob enjoyed the looks of the Boeing 707
airliner and thought its vertical stabilizer and
rudder would look good on the Eclipse. He
spent a lot of time thinking about how the
fuselage should blend into the verticalQXD 6/23/11 9:28 AM Page 39
stabilizer and rudder assembly.
The Eclipse was also a successful model
for Bob. He won the 1965 Nats with it at
Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
“The interesting part of this win is the
fact the Eclipse was the first aircraft at the
Nats to use a muffler,” he said.
Bob employed a Spin Flow muffler that
he had brought back from England. The
engine was a side-exhaust Lee Veco .45 that
spun a three-blade propeller.
CONSTRUCTION
There were no plans for the Eclipse, but
the original airplane was intact and in good
shape. Bob did have the original rib
templates he used and even a rib set.
In January I received a pencil drawing of
the Eclipse outside dimensions from Allen.
I had also ordered a set of plans for the
Stingray from the AMA Plans Service. Bob
had said that he used all the construction
techniques he used with the Sting Ray to
make the Eclipse. So I started work using
the drawing that Allen provided.
I wanted the model to be Classic legal
and to stay as true to the original design as
possible; yet I wanted to update it with
some goodies. I wanted to improve the
aircraft by installing a Tom Morris control
system with carbon-fiber pushrods, a 4-inch
bellcrank, and adjustable leadouts. I also
wanted to use a larger engine.
Bob had said that the Lee Veco .45 he
used had had plenty of power. But this is a
big airplane and I tend to build a tad heavy,
so more power is good.
I also wanted removable flaps and
elevators. I wanted access to the tank for
maintenance and setting tank height.
The vertical position of the tank can
affect the type of engine run whether the
model is upright or inverted. This presented
me with a dilemma because the tank access,
nose-gear mounting, and my PA .65 rearexhaust
engine want to live in the same
space. I will cover this more under the
fuselage construction.
Wing: “Why all the ribs?” I asked Bob.
“I just loved the way the gliders looked
with all of those ribs,” he said.
“So it was just for style?” I asked.
“Yep,” he replied.
I made a template using the most
inboard rib and the most outboard rib. Then
I counted the number of ribs needed—52—
and doubled that.
“Making two sets of ribs at the same
time will make the stack of ribs taller,” said
Bob. “A taller stack of ribs will decrease the
angle of the stack and keep the nose of the
ribs closer to square.”
It’s also handy to have an extra set of
ribs around for additional work. I found
some good balsa and cut the ribs roughly to
the shape of the inboard rib. Then I drilled
two holes through the stack of ribs and
bolted the stack together using threaded
rods, nuts, and washers.
I shaped and tapered the stack of balsa
ribs until they were uniform from one
template to the other. This gave me the
correct wing taper and rib positions.
A unique feature of the Eclipse is that
the spars are sunk into the rib so you cannot
see the spar when the wing is covered. I
calculated the position of the spar on the
stack of ribs and drew a location line on
each rib.
I made a square punch from square tube
steel I bought at The Home Depot. Then I
sharpened the edge and punched the spar
cutouts into each rib. I numbered each of
the ribs.
Next I lightened the ribs by cutting away
the center, leaving a 3/8-inch
circumference—being sure to leave extra
meat around those areas that required it. I
glued several vertical-grain 1/4 balsa
stiffeners to each rib, to restore some
strength.
I weighed each rib and put the heavier
ribs on the outboard side. I also weighed the
spars and put the heavier spars on the
outboard side.
Bob Hunt recommends using a chunk
of marble as a building board. Scraps of
marble can be obtained for the asking at
places that manufacture marble
countertops. Look for a piece that is
approximately 16 inches wide and has one
true edge.
For alignment purposes I use the plans
on top of the marble. At other stages I
remove the plans and use the flat surfaces
and edges of the marble for wing alignment.
I installed a 1/4-inch building shim under
the most outboard rib to account for rib
taper. Use the plans under your wing to help
position the ribs.
Slide each rib onto the spars. Start with
the tip and use a square to help position the
ribs vertically and then horizontally. Tackglue
the ribs using a drop of thin CA to hold
them in position.
After you have positioned the ribs on
either wing half, turn the wing LE up and
rest it against the marble. This way you can
check fore and aft alignment of the ribs.
You want to see the surface of the TE of the
ribs contact the marble. Make adjustments
to the spar cutouts in the ribs to get all the
ribs touching the marble.
Lay down the wing and install the TE
spars. If you have a rib that is out of place,
do not force it down and glue it; that will
cause a warp. Instead, with an X-Acto,
adjust the spar cutouts in the rib to get a
good fit. Shim any gaps with balsa as
required.
The LE spar is ready to be installed.
Adjust the cutouts in the nose of the ribs by
cutting away or shimming. Double-check
your ribs for alignment, and hit all the wing
joints with thin CA glue.
Before joining the main spars, ensure
that the wing has no dihedral or anhedral.
Position your 1/4-inch building shim under
the outermost rib. Cut the spars according
to the plans, and epoxy the spars together.
Be sure to reinforce all of the spar joints.
I install the bellcrank in what would
seem to be a backward position (so that the
up-line is forward) on a post system. I use
basswood top and bottom, inset into the ribs
that span across the center-section. The
basswood is glued to the back of the main
wing spars.
During the lightening-the-ribs stage, I
make sure to allow extra material in the ribs
for the basswood inset and bellcrank
clearance. Drill lightening holes through the
basswood. Ensure that you leave plenty of
meat in the basswood around the bellcrank
post. The center-section balsa sheeting will
cover the basswood, so it will be invisible
once it’s finished.
Install shear webs between the ribs,
alternating frontside and backside of the
spars. Install the wingtips, weight box, and
adjustable leadouts.
The Eclipse and Sting Ray are unique
because the landing gear is mounted by the
TE spar. The gear wire is bent forward and
inward.
For my first attempt I mounted the gear
on a plywood plate, as shown on the Sting
Ray plans. As the Eclipse took shape I
reached the point of resting the airplane on
its gear for the first time.
I was disappointed to find that the larger
propeller and flex in the gear did not allow
enough propeller clearance with the ground.
I had to uncover the wing and rethink the
landing gear setup.
Jim Lynch spent some time with me at
the Paducah, Kentucky, contest and showed
me his method of mounting gear in his
Super Ares. It was removable and therefore
adjustable and changeable. Bob Hunt did a
nice series of articles in Stunt News
covering this method.
Basically, the wing ribs by the gear are
reinforced with 1/64 plywood to help absorb
the shock of landing. The mount is a 3/4 x
31/4-inch block of spruce with a channel
routed out lengthwise on the bottom. The
block is inset into and across four ribs and
also glued against the aft spar.
The landing gear wire mounts in the
groove in the block and has a cover plate
to hold the gear in place. A hardwood
block is installed on the backside of the
landing gear mount. A hole is drilled
through the groove and into the hardwood
block.
The gear wire is bent so it will run
along the channel and drop into the drilled
hole. Because the landing gear is located at
the TE, there is not much depth for the
block on the backside. As a result, you
should reinforce the hole with a roll pin
that has the same inside diameter as your
gear wire.
I prefer removable flight controls that
use a single hinge pin through all the
hinges on each surface. After the wing and
flight controls have been notched and
slotted and covered, it’s time to install the
hinges.
Glue the hinges into the wing or
horizontal stabilizer and let the glue dry.
Mix 15-minute epoxy and fill the hinge
slots with glue; wipe off the excess right
away.
Insert the hinges into the slots and
make sure that the hinge wire lays flat
against the rear spar. Having the hinge pin
resting flat against the spar assures that the
hinges are located exactly where they need
to be. This will give you a control surface
that moves easily without binding.
You can make a hinge-pin retainer from
1/16-inch-diameter tubing and insert it into
the aft spar. Using the same method, epoxy
the flight control surfaces onto the aircraft
hinges that are already installed.
Fuselage: Bob Gialdini told me:
“Back in the day, we glued the fuel
tanks in place. Before the Nats I had some
trouble with the leaks and had to access the
tank by removing the canopy and cockpit
floor.
“At the 1965 Nats the Eclipse
developed another fuel leak. I mixed up a
mixture of alcohol and epoxy and shot it
into the tank and moved the airplane all
around, trying to coat the inside of the tank
with epoxy. Sealing the tank worked; I
flew my flights and won the Nats.
“Afterwards bits of junk clogged the
fuel system. I could not bear tearing into
the cockpit again. So I stopped flying the
Eclipse. About that same time I started to
judge.”
On my Eclipse, fuel tank access, rear
engine exhaust, and nose landing-gear strut
mounting coexist in the same fuselage
compartment space. The fuel tank
compartment forward bulkhead is installed
at a 15° angle so that the nose gear will tilt
rearward per the plans. The nose-gear strut
is mounted to the angled bulkhead with
nylon straps found on RC airplanes.
To make this bulkhead removable, two
top and bottom mounting supports were
installed at the forward end of the fuel tank
compartment. The 1/8 plywood fuel tank
compartment bulkhead mounts to the two
supports with four bolts and blind T-nuts.
Access the tank by removing the four
bolts and the bulkhead and nose gear
assembly. The tank slides out between the
two supports.
Bob was the first to use a muffler in
competition. If I had a PA .65 with side
exhaust, my Eclipse would have been built
the same way. However, I wanted to use
an engine I had on hand (my PA .65 with
rear exhaust) and make it fit.
After a typical fall Thursday evening of
flying with my buddy, Dennis Vander
Kuur, we went to Portillo’s for dinner. We
discussed the Eclipse, and on a napkin we
designed a header muffler that looks
similar to a tuning fork. The dual exhaust
ends of the tuning fork exit the bottom of
the fuselage on either side of the nose gear
strut.
To build the header muffler, I started
with the header pipe used on PA
engines. The boss end of the header is the base of the tuning fork.
I cut the header pipe in half. The cutoff
I found some blocks of balsa and carved
the wood so it would fit over the engine.
Next I cut away everything that did not look
like Eclipse cowling. I even added working
cheek vents, as were on the original. I
covered those and engine cooling exit with
screen.
I used an 8-ounce Sullivan Products
plastic clunk tank, set up in the uniflow
configuration. I’m able to remove the nose
gear bulkhead and shim the tank up and
down, to produce even engine runs upright
and inverted. When I assembled the engine
mounts, I undercut the engine beams in the
tank compartment to allow room to adjust
the tank position.
Another unique feature of the Eclipse is
two concave channels that run along the top
of the fuselage. I asked Bob how he made
those. He said that he used several sizes of
dowel rods covered with sandpaper.
That method worked fine. Just be sure to
leave the top thick enough to sand into.
I did have trouble finishing this area. I
covered the fuselage with carbon-fiber veil
and dope. I found that as the dope dried, the
carbon-fiber veil lifted over the channels,
causing blisters. I sliced the blisters and used
thin CA to glue them down.
I had a conversation with Windy
Urtnowski about this problem. He suggested
that if I had used thin CA to begin with, the
carbon-fiber mat would not have lifted.
It was hard trying to get the ball link and
carbon-fiber pushrod assembly to work in
the small space that makes up the Eclipse
tail. I found some small hardware and made
it work. I also installed an access hatch so I
can adjust the pushrod length and the control
horn up-and-down adjustment.
When the airplane was covered but not
painted, I drove up to Milwaukee to get Bob
Gialdini’s approval. He was very pleased
with the Eclipse and said, “You did a
yeoman’s job.”
His only concern was that my wheel
pants were too large. When Bob built the
Eclipse, he was conscience of the
aerodynamic and vertical CG of the airplane.
He had put forth a real effort to make the
landing gear and wheels as small as possible.
Flying: The Eclipse was ready for flight.
After so much work, I was never so nervous.
Because I fly from a grass field at Ned
Brown Meadow (part of Bussie Woods),
where the Circle Cutters fly, and many of the
contest venues I fly at have grass surfaces
(including Classic at the Nats), the ability to
land and take off from grass was important.
Once the Eclipse broke ground, I was in
good shape. I added 1/4 ounce of weight to
the tail and adjusted the elevator so that it
turned to suit me. However, getting the
model up and down proved to be a problem.
Because of the larger engine and
propeller, the aircraft would need to stand
taller. The propeller would also need to be
kept mostly out of the grass.
The problem with the taller gear was that
the main gear angles brought the main
wheels farther forward and the nose gear
portion would be turned sideways and
trimmed to fit inside the width of the
fuselage. The ends of horizontal pipe
needed to be welded shut.
I drilled three holes into the horizontal
pipe to accommodate the exhaust flow. The
center hole allows exhaust flow into the
horizontal pipe, and the other two, at
opposite ends and rotated 180° apart from
the center hole, allow the flow to exit the
dual 1/2-inch-diameter aluminum tubing
exhaust stacks. Then I had the parts welded
together.
I mounted the PA .65 on a .125
aluminum U-shaped plate and installed the
plate on top of the maple engine mounts. I
taper-sanded the plate to add a touch of
downthrust and a tad of out-thrust, and then
I drilled several lightening holes in the
plate to keep it as light as possible. I used
this plate method to help stiffen the nose
and tie it all together.
The engine cowling had to be made
differently to accommodate the larger PA
.65. But I wanted the looks of the cowling
to be as close to the original as possible.
Window screen covered the entire inlet
of the original Eclipse so that you could not
see the engine at all. I liked the idea of a
screen, but I needed to lay a finger on the
venturi and pull the propeller through to
prime the engine. So covering the entire
inlet with screen was out. I also wanted
easy glow-starter access.
wheel farther aft. The result was a small
fore-and-aft landing gear footprint. The
longer 1/8-inch-diameter wire gear was also
flexing too much.
My first flights had me cutting grass. If
I pulled the handle to tighten the lines at
the start of takeoff, the airplane would lean
inward and my Bolly propeller would hit
the dirt. It was far from graceful. I tried
many combinations of landing gear wire
size, wheels sizes, and wheel pants and
positions.
The result was 5/32-inch-diameter gear
wire; 21/2-inch Dave Brown Products thin,
light wheels; and the nose gear wire bent
forward instead of aft to regain stability.
When I was satisfied with the landing gear
configuration and performance, I needed to
make another set of wheel pants.
Bob’s conversation with me about
vertical CG and keeping the gear as small
as possible kept coming back to me. With
that in mind, I carved out the smallest
possible wheel pants with the same shape
as those on the original Eclipse.
The 2010 flying season is over, and I had a
successful summer with the Eclipse. I thank
Bob Gialdini for his help and great design
and also all my friends who helped me
through this project. If you would like an
airplane that gets noticed wherever you go,
this is it.
“The Eclipse is a very stable platform,”
Bob told me, and he was correct. I love the
way it flies, and I think you will too. MA
Michael Schmitt
[email protected]
Sources:
Wood, engines, building fixtures, paint
stands, etc.:
Byron Barker of C.F. Slattery
Home: (812) 944-8511
Cell: (812) 948-9167
[email protected]
Controls, building fixtures, etc.
Tom Morris
(256) 820-1983
[email protected]
Graphics, letterings, maskings:
Control Line Central (Jim Snelsen and
family)
(505) 332-8007
[email protected]
All Stunt-type items, PA engines:
Aero Products (Randy Smith)
(678) 407-9376
www.aeroproduct.net
Spinners, Stunt supplies:
Brodak Manufacturing
(724) 966-2726
www.brodak.com
Graphics, maskings: