Bob Wischer’s Pober Pixie
The full-scale Pober Pixie traces its roots to the 1931 Heath LNB-4 Parasol. Paul Poberezny, founder and former president of the EAA, designed the Pixie and used the Heath as the basis for most of the Pixie’s dimensions.
Modeler Bob Wischer made no changes to the original design. Built to 1/5 scale with a 72-inch wingspan, Bob’s Pixie was designed and built directly from EAA drawings.
Bob built the flat-bottomed wing halves first, directly over the drawing. He noted that front spars could be either hard balsa or spruce. Wing halves were then connected with plywood joiners. The fuselage was made in two sections, with the forward fuselage sides made of 1/16 plywood. Tail surfaces were of conventional construction, with a sheet balsa base. The ribs and edges were cemented on to add shape.
The engine cowl was made from fiberglass cloth laid in epoxy resin over foam core. The foam was later removed and the bulkheads cemented inside. An internal plywood baffle in the cowl directed incoming air over the Ross twin .60 engine and held the cowl in place by means of a single 4-40 machine screw threaded into the front of the lower engine mount.
Wheel pants were made from two blocks of 3/4-inch balsa that were tacked together. Bob used Robart scale wheels. His preferred windshield material was .031-inch acrylic (Plexiglas) or butyrate sheet.
Because the full-scale Pixie had a fabric cover with dope finish, Bob covered the model with silk and dope. The logo was hand painted in oil colors on blank decal paper. Bob finished with a varnished wood propeller and no spinner, but noted that the model would be authentic with or without a spinner.
Bob’s Pixie was unintentionally aerobatic, which was a surprise. “It will do axial rolls, but a barrel roll is more realistic,” he said. “Spins are possible, but they require more than the recommended 1 inch of up-elevator travel. As Scale models go, the Pixie is one of the easiest to fly.”
The 7-pound Pober Pixie was featured in the June 1983 MA as AMA Plans Service listing 410 and is available for $24 plus shipping and handling.
AMA members can access the MA’s Digital Library on the AMA’s website to read more about it. See page 147 or go to www.modelaircraft.org/plans.aspx for ordering information.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
