The Storch and Me - 2008/02

February 2008 43
An inside look at the build of a
special Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
b y Doug Crumley
(Editor’s note: The detailed narrative of
the project shown on these pages is only a
fraction of the story. Visit the MA Web site
(www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm) for
the full account, more close-up photography,
additional building tips, and a video about
the model’s special features.)
I STARTED BUILDING flying models as a
teenager in the late 1950s. Even then Scale
aircraft was my only real interest and CL was
my only option for flying them. I was
dormant in the hobby for roughly three
decades in my young-adult years because of
career and family priorities. By the late 1980s
my kids had become adults and I had the time
and means to rekindle the hobby. By that time
RC had become reliable and affordable.
I flew in my first U.S. Scale Masters
Championships in 1991 and have qualified for
and attended that event every year since. My
competition aircraft have been high-wing taildraggers,
and approximately half of them have
been warbirds (such as the L-19 and L-5).
In 2001 I built my first Fieseler Storch. It
was Dennis Bryant’s 94-inch design, with
plans and parts from Bob Holman. The plans
are some of the best I have seen, and it was a
challenging project. While building the Storch
I learned a lot about the subject and what a
unique and outstanding airplane it was for its
time. It has become one of my favorite
aircraft.
02sig2.QXD 12/21/07 8:36 AM Page 4344 MODEL AVIATION
The cockpit insert is jig-welded from
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates
the frame of the full-scale Storch.
The scale baggage hatch was the perfect
place to hide the radio-control equipment.
The elevator horn assembly was fabricated
from silver-soldered round and square
brass tubing and .060-inch brass plate.
Ed Newman’s kits offer laser-cut parts, a fully articulated main landing gear, a
fiberglass cowl, and helpful vacuum-formed ABS parts.
A custom-built stabilizer-incidence
mechanism allows the stabilizers to plug
in. The plywood blade will locate and
support the vertical stabilizer.
The hand-fabricated
tail-wheel assembly
uses a pull-pull setup.
A leather boot will
complete the scale
appearance.
Threaded rods permanently hold the wing
mounts in place. The plywood blade matches
pockets in the wing.
The main landing-gear
mounting points and wingstrut
attachment points are
attached to the underside
of the plywood floor.
Static shots by the author Flight shots by Jim Embree
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:54 AM Page 44February 2008 45
The exhaust system is made from brass
tubing and standard 3/8-inch-copper-pipe
elbows. It exits the cowl at the same angle
and location as on the full-scale aircraft.
The Laser 200’s exhaust ports exit the
rear of the cylinders and are easily
routed to a scale exhaust system.
The fuselage is covered with a single piece of fabric. The keel line along the bottom
of the fuselage is the only seam.
No special tools were required to make the scale details. Most of the work was done
with Dremel tools and jewelers’ files. A small hand drill served double duty as a lathe.
Aluminum lithoplate pieces were fitted
into the windows and taped in place
during the painting process to serve as
patterns for later.
The I.Gruppe Imperial falcon crest was the
hardest insignia to paint. It is 2 inches wide,
has four colors, and required five individual
masks.
The full-scale Storch’s flaps were operated
by a hand crank located by the pilot’s left
knee. Notice the weathering detail.
The MG15 gun was a significant
project of its own. It was made from
scratch using assorted pieces of brass,
aluminum, and wood.
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:43 AM Page 4546 MODEL AVIATION
The Storch tracks straight easily and has plenty of power.
Flap testing proved that the initial radio program was
perfect.
Extending the flaps is not required for takeoff or landing. The
onboard rudder gyro helps the model maintain a heading.
Above: The Storch has a long span and a
high-aspect-ratio wing with fixed slats. A
radio setup to counter adverse yaw is
required.
Left: An objective when finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use
stick-on decals or dry transfers for
insignia and markings.
What’s to like about the Storch? Its sleek,
flowing, aerodynamic lines? Hardly. The
aircraft looks as if it were designed by a
committee of architects and structural
engineers that had never heard the term
“parasite drag.”
However, the Storch has a distinctive
look and always gets attention at the flying
field. Its “unclean” appearance lends itself to
an incredible amount of small surface-detail
work, if you are so inclined.
In spite of its looks, the Storch was
probably the best aircraft ever designed to
accomplish its intended function, which was
to take off and land in the smallest space and
on the roughest surface possible. Even
today, if you want an aircraft that will get in
and out of tighter spaces than the Storch, you
use a helicopter.
My first Storch went to the Scale Masters
for two successive years. I really liked it, but
it had some shortcomings that left me
wanting to do better. First, even spanning 94
inches the model was only 1/6 scale; that was
small for competition. All my other aircraft
have been 1/4 scale, which is much easier to
detail.
The second problem applies to almost all
model designs of high-wing aircraft. Typical
model-construction methods leave fuselage
bulkheads extending into the cockpit area,
making an accurate cockpit interior nearly
impossible. This is further complicated when
the designer extends the wing-spar structure
across the top of the cockpit.
When a subject, such as the Storch, has a
full greenhouse cockpit, the cockpit interior
is an important part of the presentation. And
there is only so much you can do to
approximate a scale appearance using
conventional model construction methods
and materials.
Ed Newman is a friend and fellow Scale
competitor who has been modeling the
Storch for many years. He has developed his
own design, produced plans, and
commissioned fabrication of critical
structural components, which allows a
modeler to build an exceptional subject.
Knowing about my interest in the Storch,
Ed asked if I would like to build one of his
designs and share my evaluation of his
efforts with you fellow modelers. I accepted
the offer, but this will not be your typical kitreview
article.
For one thing, I have never built an
airplane per the plans. I can’t even put an
ARF together without making a few
modifications. Also, roughly 75% of this
airplane is of typical model construction. I
don’t see any point in telling you how to
frame a wing. I just want to show you the
25% that makes this worthy of a story.
In addition, since this is the second Storch
I have built, I applied lessons learned from
the first one to it. If you like what you see
here, check out the Internet presentation of
this story.
CONSTRUCTION
Ed’s design is 1/5 scale with a 112-inch
wing. The plans are excellent-quality fullsize
CAD drawings. He has produced CAD
drawings for Proctor kits for sometime.
Ed offers laser-cut ribs, formers, and
plywood parts. A fully articulated mainlanding-
gear assembly is a must-have unless
you have a machine shop. There is an
excellent fiberglass cowl and helpful
vacuum-formed ABS parts.
The key component that sets these plans
apart from all others is the cockpit insert.
This is jig-welded from aircraft-quality
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates the
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:57 AM Page 4648 MODEL AVIATION
full-scale Storch’s tube frame within the
cockpit area. It is fully structural and supports
the wings, struts, and main landing gear.
The Storch’s front and side windows are
faceted, planar surfaces, so the frames are
intersecting straight lines. I chose to work
with brass tubing, round and square, and
soldered all the pieces in place.
Along the top edge of the cabin wall,
where it meets the lower down-looking side
windows, I used 1/4 angle brass to form the
structural edge. Then I glued 1/4 square
basswood into the angle. This was necessary
to give a wood surface to which the outer
fabric would attach.
As I worked my way through this project
I called on every skill I have developed
during years of Scale building, used the entire
contents of my toolbox, and may have added
a few more skills and tools in the process. I’ll
share some areas of this project you might
find useful in yours.
For any good solder joint the parts should
be fit as tight as possible and all surfaces
should be sanded clean. Do not let the torch
melt the solder. The material needs to be hot
enough to melt the solder when touched to it.
Be careful with Mapp gas on brass or
copper. As these metals reach the Silver 45
melt temperature, they become cherry red. Be
quick with the silver at that point because the
Mapp gas can easily melt the part.
Ed’s tail-section design is basic model
construction that is similar to that of many
other aircraft of this type. There’s nothing
wrong with that, but having built the Storch
before there were lessons learned that I
wanted to address and incorporate into this
project. I also wanted a higher degree of scale
detail than his design allowed.
This aircraft has large tail feathers. The
horizontal span is approximately 37 inches. I
wanted a plug-in horizontal stabilizer for
transport flexibility. It also improves scale
accuracy since the full-scale aircraft had a
variable-incidence trim, similar to a Piper
Cub.
In addition, the plug-in stabilizer allows
the fuselage and tail surfaces to be covered
and painted separately, as was done with the
full-scale Storch. It also allowed me to build
in a mechanism to ground-adjust the
horizontal stabilizer’s incidence.
The Storch has an exceptionally long,
slender fuselage with a nearly rectangular
cross-section. It will twist effortlessly unless
it’s extensively crossbraced. Ed’s plans show
many traditional 1/4 square crossbraces. Many
World War I aircraft were similar; internal
cables and turnbuckles were often used as
crossbracing. I wondered if I could simplify
that idea.
With the cables and longerons held in
place only by friction, they would maintain a
set position but could be twisted into a new
arrangement. Once I achieved a set position
with the front square with the rear, I applied
thin cyanoacrylate to all the joints and cable
holes. That permanently locked the position.
Once all the joints and holes were glued
securely, I added tension to the cables by
drawing the Xs together with Kevlar string.
This worked well. It was quick, lightweight,
and an easy way to square up the tail.
While documenting the subject of a
project approximately 15 years ago, I learned
that it had been finished with Stits Poly-Tone
paints. To get a match I went to the local
aircraft supplier and got the same paints he
had used. My color documentation for that
project was perfect.
Shortly thereafter, Chip Mull came to our
club meeting to demonstrate the product line
for a business he was starting: F&M
Enterprises. The material was Stits Lite fabric
for modelers. Chip was just in time for my
next project, and the subject had also been
covered and painted with the Stits system.
Once again my color documentation was
dead-on, and I have used Chip’s products on
every model since then.
Covering the Stits system’s advantages
would require a complete article, and many
have been written about it. One of the
benefits for a project such as this is that Chip
sells Stits Lite by the yard, and he cuts it from
a 60-inch-wide roll to any length requested. I
ordered 4 yards for the Storch.
Because of this, and because I had built
the tail surfaces to plug in separately, I was
able to cover the fuselage with a single piece
of fabric. The keel line along the bottom of
the fuselage is the only seam.
Finish: An excellent documentation source is
the plastic modeling industry. Most of those
manufacturers thoroughly research their
subjects for accuracy and offer a selection of
finishing options that are well documented
for color-and-markings.
A 1/32-scale Hasegawa kit supplied all the
information I needed for an interesting
subject. The German RLM (Reich Aviation
Ministry) colors and decal placement are
clearly defined in all views. I scanned the
decal sheet and scaled it up to the correct size
to use as patterns. The decal sheet is part of
my documentation package for judging.
The Stits paints dry to a semigloss finish.
Gloss is achieved by using clear Stits with a
retarding thinner. You can add a flattening
agent to the last color coat for a matte finish.
The same effect can be obtained with a spray
technique.
When I am satisfied with the coverage of
the main colors, I apply a coat with an
airbrush. I hold the airbrush farther than usual
from the surface so the paint begins to dry as
it contacts the surface. I keep the airbrush
moving so the droplets cannot break surface
tension with each other and gloss over.
One of my objectives in finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use stickons,
decals, or dry transfers for insignia and
markings. I masked and painted all of them. I
scanned the Hasegawa decal sheet into
Photoshop, enlarged the images from 1/32 to
1/5 scale, cleaned up any imperfections, and
created individual JPEG files.
Walt Farrell, a friend and fellow modeler,
frequently judges at the Kansas City Regional
Qualifier I attend each summer. He has his
own computer laser and offered to cut all my
masks from Frisket paper. What a great
friend to have!
Power: Making the Storch perform well
requires special considerations when setting
up the flight controls. It does not fly like a
Cub. Incorporating all the full-scale aircraft’s
control features requires a high-end computer
radio. I am using an Airtronics Stylus PCM
transmitter with the Aero Card.
The Storch has a long-span, high-aspectratio
wing with full-span fixed slats. This
makes adverse yaw a significant factor, and
the aircraft will tend to oscillate in yaw while
in level flight through smooth air. I installed a
gyro on the rudder to compensate for this
attribute. My setup has the gyro on anytime
the receiver is on.
Modern gyros are electronic with no
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:45 AM Page 48mechanical parts and use little battery power.
However, the rudder servo will operate
continuously, so a strong, double-ball-bearing
servo should be used. An open channel is
used to switch between high and low gain
settings. The low setting is adjusted to zero,
or off.
A gyro does not prevent the aircraft from
turning. Oriented on the vertical axis and
coupled to the rudder servo, it can only detect
and respond to yaw. There is no yaw in a
properly coordinated turn. You can still
override the gyro and turn the aircraft with
rudder input.
For instance, a stall turn would be
performed the same, with or without the
gyro; however, it reduces oscillation on the
up- and down-lines. The gyro will fine-tune
rudder input in turns, smooth the in-flight
oscillations, and respond to crosswind gusts
on takeoff and landing before you can see it
occurring.
Separating the channels for both aileron
servos is essential. This allows for an ailerondifferential
setup, which will decrease
adverse yaw. That occurs because the down
aileron increases the undercamber of the
wing, increasing lift to roll the aircraft, but it
also increases drag, which yaws the aircraft
in opposition to the desired direction of the
turn.
The up aileron acts as a spoiler to reduce
lift on the opposite wing and does not
induce the same drag. Rudder input is
required to compensate and coordinate the
turn. Aileron differential reduces this
effect. I use roughly twice the up aileron
travel as down. I also use aileron/rudder mix.
The Stylus uses a three-position switch to
select from off, low, and high settings. On my
previous Storch it used an 80% aileron/rudder
mix, which proved to work well at slow
speed.
The full-scale Fieseler Storch was
powered by an air-cooled Argus V8 engine,
mounted inverted, which produced 240
horsepower. Ed Newman initially flew his
22-pound design prototype with a Saito 1.50,
which delivered scalelike performance. The
problem with any large single-cylinder
engine is that the cylinder head sticks out of
the cowl.
The engine of choice is the Laser 200v
four-stroke twin, which AGC Sales Ltd.
manufactures in England. It is powerful,
dependable, and smooth running. I have seen
many Laser twins at the Scale Masters
through the years, and they have always
performed flawlessly. They are manufactured
in 160, 200, 240, 300, and 360 sizes.
For electrical power I am using two Li-
Ion battery packs. Each is rated at 7.4 volts
with a 2600 mAh capacity. These packs
combined are still smaller than a single Csize
Ni-Cd pack. Each is connected to a
heavy-duty slide switch with a built-in charge
receptacle, then to a 5.4-volt regulator, then
to the receiver.
The batteries are mounted under the
cowl, on top of the fuel-tank compartment.
I mounted the two switch plates on the
cockpit floor, just behind the pilot’s seat.
They are inconspicuous and easy to access
through the cabin door.
This gives me total redundancy in
electrical power. With any single failure of a
battery, switch, or regulator, the other set will
carry the load. A full charge will be good for
a full weekend of flying without recharging.
Flying: When the day for test-flying finally
arrived, the Laser engine fired up beautifully
and sounded great. The other pilots stood on
the sidelines to watch the event and stay out
of the way. It was time to launch.
The takeoff was straight and true, down
the center of the runway, accompanied by the
spectators’ cheers. I flew a few conservative
circuits around the pattern to get the feel of
the Storch and adjust the trims, and then I
brought the model around for a nice, easy
landing. There were more cheers from the
gallery. The first flight was remarkable in that
it was totally uneventful.
After a postflight inspection and a few
adjustments, it was back in the air for the
second flight. The objective for this attempt
was to test the flaps’ operation and
performance. I set up for a fly-past at
approximately 100 feet altitude, reduced
power to half throttle, and then selected full
down on the flap switch.
Because my initial mix settings were only
an educated guess, I expected a process of
trial and error, making adjustments during the
course of several flights to get it right.
However, I watched in amazement as the
Storch continued to track level, started to
slow, and, finally, required extra power to
maintain altitude—just like it should have.
The reverse process was equally smooth. I
50 MODEL AVIATION
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:46 AM Page 50had gotten it right on the first shot, and after a
few dozen flights I still have not changed
those settings.
The Storch was very stable in slow flight
with full flaps and droop ailerons. As a poweron
stall condition is approached, the nose
attitude is high and the aircraft starts to sink
straight ahead. Adding power and slightly
relaxing elevator pressure regains control. I
think the gyro on the rudder contributes
greatly to this low-speed controllability.
Every once in awhile you get one of those
perfect flying days that make this hobby
special: perfect weather with the wind down
the runway, a great flying site with people you
enjoy being around, and going home at the
end of the day with nothing to fix except an
empty fuel bottle. When that includes the
successful maiden flight of an aircraft you
have invested more than a year in building, it
just doesn’t get any better. MA
Doug Crumley
[email protected]
Ed Newman’s 1/5-scale Storch Kit
Specifications:
Wingspan: 112 inches
Wing area: More than 1,500 square inches
Length: 78 inches
Height: 17.75 inches
Stabilizer span: 37 inches
Weight: 22 pounds
Power: Laser 200 or equivalent
Sources:
Ed Newman Storch kit
www.storchman.com
F&M Enterprises
(817) 279-8045
www.stits.com
Laser Engines
+44 (0) 1525 210596
www.laserengines.com
MA
www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm
(765) 287-1256

February 2008 43
An inside look at the build of a
special Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
b y Doug Crumley
(Editor’s note: The detailed narrative of
the project shown on these pages is only a
fraction of the story. Visit the MA Web site
(www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm) for
the full account, more close-up photography,
additional building tips, and a video about
the model’s special features.)
I STARTED BUILDING flying models as a
teenager in the late 1950s. Even then Scale
aircraft was my only real interest and CL was
my only option for flying them. I was
dormant in the hobby for roughly three
decades in my young-adult years because of
career and family priorities. By the late 1980s
my kids had become adults and I had the time
and means to rekindle the hobby. By that time
RC had become reliable and affordable.
I flew in my first U.S. Scale Masters
Championships in 1991 and have qualified for
and attended that event every year since. My
competition aircraft have been high-wing taildraggers,
and approximately half of them have
been warbirds (such as the L-19 and L-5).
In 2001 I built my first Fieseler Storch. It
was Dennis Bryant’s 94-inch design, with
plans and parts from Bob Holman. The plans
are some of the best I have seen, and it was a
challenging project. While building the Storch
I learned a lot about the subject and what a
unique and outstanding airplane it was for its
time. It has become one of my favorite
aircraft.
02sig2.QXD 12/21/07 8:36 AM Page 4344 MODEL AVIATION
The cockpit insert is jig-welded from
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates
the frame of the full-scale Storch.
The scale baggage hatch was the perfect
place to hide the radio-control equipment.
The elevator horn assembly was fabricated
from silver-soldered round and square
brass tubing and .060-inch brass plate.
Ed Newman’s kits offer laser-cut parts, a fully articulated main landing gear, a
fiberglass cowl, and helpful vacuum-formed ABS parts.
A custom-built stabilizer-incidence
mechanism allows the stabilizers to plug
in. The plywood blade will locate and
support the vertical stabilizer.
The hand-fabricated
tail-wheel assembly
uses a pull-pull setup.
A leather boot will
complete the scale
appearance.
Threaded rods permanently hold the wing
mounts in place. The plywood blade matches
pockets in the wing.
The main landing-gear
mounting points and wingstrut
attachment points are
attached to the underside
of the plywood floor.
Static shots by the author Flight shots by Jim Embree
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:54 AM Page 44February 2008 45
The exhaust system is made from brass
tubing and standard 3/8-inch-copper-pipe
elbows. It exits the cowl at the same angle
and location as on the full-scale aircraft.
The Laser 200’s exhaust ports exit the
rear of the cylinders and are easily
routed to a scale exhaust system.
The fuselage is covered with a single piece of fabric. The keel line along the bottom
of the fuselage is the only seam.
No special tools were required to make the scale details. Most of the work was done
with Dremel tools and jewelers’ files. A small hand drill served double duty as a lathe.
Aluminum lithoplate pieces were fitted
into the windows and taped in place
during the painting process to serve as
patterns for later.
The I.Gruppe Imperial falcon crest was the
hardest insignia to paint. It is 2 inches wide,
has four colors, and required five individual
masks.
The full-scale Storch’s flaps were operated
by a hand crank located by the pilot’s left
knee. Notice the weathering detail.
The MG15 gun was a significant
project of its own. It was made from
scratch using assorted pieces of brass,
aluminum, and wood.
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:43 AM Page 4546 MODEL AVIATION
The Storch tracks straight easily and has plenty of power.
Flap testing proved that the initial radio program was
perfect.
Extending the flaps is not required for takeoff or landing. The
onboard rudder gyro helps the model maintain a heading.
Above: The Storch has a long span and a
high-aspect-ratio wing with fixed slats. A
radio setup to counter adverse yaw is
required.
Left: An objective when finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use
stick-on decals or dry transfers for
insignia and markings.
What’s to like about the Storch? Its sleek,
flowing, aerodynamic lines? Hardly. The
aircraft looks as if it were designed by a
committee of architects and structural
engineers that had never heard the term
“parasite drag.”
However, the Storch has a distinctive
look and always gets attention at the flying
field. Its “unclean” appearance lends itself to
an incredible amount of small surface-detail
work, if you are so inclined.
In spite of its looks, the Storch was
probably the best aircraft ever designed to
accomplish its intended function, which was
to take off and land in the smallest space and
on the roughest surface possible. Even
today, if you want an aircraft that will get in
and out of tighter spaces than the Storch, you
use a helicopter.
My first Storch went to the Scale Masters
for two successive years. I really liked it, but
it had some shortcomings that left me
wanting to do better. First, even spanning 94
inches the model was only 1/6 scale; that was
small for competition. All my other aircraft
have been 1/4 scale, which is much easier to
detail.
The second problem applies to almost all
model designs of high-wing aircraft. Typical
model-construction methods leave fuselage
bulkheads extending into the cockpit area,
making an accurate cockpit interior nearly
impossible. This is further complicated when
the designer extends the wing-spar structure
across the top of the cockpit.
When a subject, such as the Storch, has a
full greenhouse cockpit, the cockpit interior
is an important part of the presentation. And
there is only so much you can do to
approximate a scale appearance using
conventional model construction methods
and materials.
Ed Newman is a friend and fellow Scale
competitor who has been modeling the
Storch for many years. He has developed his
own design, produced plans, and
commissioned fabrication of critical
structural components, which allows a
modeler to build an exceptional subject.
Knowing about my interest in the Storch,
Ed asked if I would like to build one of his
designs and share my evaluation of his
efforts with you fellow modelers. I accepted
the offer, but this will not be your typical kitreview
article.
For one thing, I have never built an
airplane per the plans. I can’t even put an
ARF together without making a few
modifications. Also, roughly 75% of this
airplane is of typical model construction. I
don’t see any point in telling you how to
frame a wing. I just want to show you the
25% that makes this worthy of a story.
In addition, since this is the second Storch
I have built, I applied lessons learned from
the first one to it. If you like what you see
here, check out the Internet presentation of
this story.
CONSTRUCTION
Ed’s design is 1/5 scale with a 112-inch
wing. The plans are excellent-quality fullsize
CAD drawings. He has produced CAD
drawings for Proctor kits for sometime.
Ed offers laser-cut ribs, formers, and
plywood parts. A fully articulated mainlanding-
gear assembly is a must-have unless
you have a machine shop. There is an
excellent fiberglass cowl and helpful
vacuum-formed ABS parts.
The key component that sets these plans
apart from all others is the cockpit insert.
This is jig-welded from aircraft-quality
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates the
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:57 AM Page 4648 MODEL AVIATION
full-scale Storch’s tube frame within the
cockpit area. It is fully structural and supports
the wings, struts, and main landing gear.
The Storch’s front and side windows are
faceted, planar surfaces, so the frames are
intersecting straight lines. I chose to work
with brass tubing, round and square, and
soldered all the pieces in place.
Along the top edge of the cabin wall,
where it meets the lower down-looking side
windows, I used 1/4 angle brass to form the
structural edge. Then I glued 1/4 square
basswood into the angle. This was necessary
to give a wood surface to which the outer
fabric would attach.
As I worked my way through this project
I called on every skill I have developed
during years of Scale building, used the entire
contents of my toolbox, and may have added
a few more skills and tools in the process. I’ll
share some areas of this project you might
find useful in yours.
For any good solder joint the parts should
be fit as tight as possible and all surfaces
should be sanded clean. Do not let the torch
melt the solder. The material needs to be hot
enough to melt the solder when touched to it.
Be careful with Mapp gas on brass or
copper. As these metals reach the Silver 45
melt temperature, they become cherry red. Be
quick with the silver at that point because the
Mapp gas can easily melt the part.
Ed’s tail-section design is basic model
construction that is similar to that of many
other aircraft of this type. There’s nothing
wrong with that, but having built the Storch
before there were lessons learned that I
wanted to address and incorporate into this
project. I also wanted a higher degree of scale
detail than his design allowed.
This aircraft has large tail feathers. The
horizontal span is approximately 37 inches. I
wanted a plug-in horizontal stabilizer for
transport flexibility. It also improves scale
accuracy since the full-scale aircraft had a
variable-incidence trim, similar to a Piper
Cub.
In addition, the plug-in stabilizer allows
the fuselage and tail surfaces to be covered
and painted separately, as was done with the
full-scale Storch. It also allowed me to build
in a mechanism to ground-adjust the
horizontal stabilizer’s incidence.
The Storch has an exceptionally long,
slender fuselage with a nearly rectangular
cross-section. It will twist effortlessly unless
it’s extensively crossbraced. Ed’s plans show
many traditional 1/4 square crossbraces. Many
World War I aircraft were similar; internal
cables and turnbuckles were often used as
crossbracing. I wondered if I could simplify
that idea.
With the cables and longerons held in
place only by friction, they would maintain a
set position but could be twisted into a new
arrangement. Once I achieved a set position
with the front square with the rear, I applied
thin cyanoacrylate to all the joints and cable
holes. That permanently locked the position.
Once all the joints and holes were glued
securely, I added tension to the cables by
drawing the Xs together with Kevlar string.
This worked well. It was quick, lightweight,
and an easy way to square up the tail.
While documenting the subject of a
project approximately 15 years ago, I learned
that it had been finished with Stits Poly-Tone
paints. To get a match I went to the local
aircraft supplier and got the same paints he
had used. My color documentation for that
project was perfect.
Shortly thereafter, Chip Mull came to our
club meeting to demonstrate the product line
for a business he was starting: F&M
Enterprises. The material was Stits Lite fabric
for modelers. Chip was just in time for my
next project, and the subject had also been
covered and painted with the Stits system.
Once again my color documentation was
dead-on, and I have used Chip’s products on
every model since then.
Covering the Stits system’s advantages
would require a complete article, and many
have been written about it. One of the
benefits for a project such as this is that Chip
sells Stits Lite by the yard, and he cuts it from
a 60-inch-wide roll to any length requested. I
ordered 4 yards for the Storch.
Because of this, and because I had built
the tail surfaces to plug in separately, I was
able to cover the fuselage with a single piece
of fabric. The keel line along the bottom of
the fuselage is the only seam.
Finish: An excellent documentation source is
the plastic modeling industry. Most of those
manufacturers thoroughly research their
subjects for accuracy and offer a selection of
finishing options that are well documented
for color-and-markings.
A 1/32-scale Hasegawa kit supplied all the
information I needed for an interesting
subject. The German RLM (Reich Aviation
Ministry) colors and decal placement are
clearly defined in all views. I scanned the
decal sheet and scaled it up to the correct size
to use as patterns. The decal sheet is part of
my documentation package for judging.
The Stits paints dry to a semigloss finish.
Gloss is achieved by using clear Stits with a
retarding thinner. You can add a flattening
agent to the last color coat for a matte finish.
The same effect can be obtained with a spray
technique.
When I am satisfied with the coverage of
the main colors, I apply a coat with an
airbrush. I hold the airbrush farther than usual
from the surface so the paint begins to dry as
it contacts the surface. I keep the airbrush
moving so the droplets cannot break surface
tension with each other and gloss over.
One of my objectives in finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use stickons,
decals, or dry transfers for insignia and
markings. I masked and painted all of them. I
scanned the Hasegawa decal sheet into
Photoshop, enlarged the images from 1/32 to
1/5 scale, cleaned up any imperfections, and
created individual JPEG files.
Walt Farrell, a friend and fellow modeler,
frequently judges at the Kansas City Regional
Qualifier I attend each summer. He has his
own computer laser and offered to cut all my
masks from Frisket paper. What a great
friend to have!
Power: Making the Storch perform well
requires special considerations when setting
up the flight controls. It does not fly like a
Cub. Incorporating all the full-scale aircraft’s
control features requires a high-end computer
radio. I am using an Airtronics Stylus PCM
transmitter with the Aero Card.
The Storch has a long-span, high-aspectratio
wing with full-span fixed slats. This
makes adverse yaw a significant factor, and
the aircraft will tend to oscillate in yaw while
in level flight through smooth air. I installed a
gyro on the rudder to compensate for this
attribute. My setup has the gyro on anytime
the receiver is on.
Modern gyros are electronic with no
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:45 AM Page 48mechanical parts and use little battery power.
However, the rudder servo will operate
continuously, so a strong, double-ball-bearing
servo should be used. An open channel is
used to switch between high and low gain
settings. The low setting is adjusted to zero,
or off.
A gyro does not prevent the aircraft from
turning. Oriented on the vertical axis and
coupled to the rudder servo, it can only detect
and respond to yaw. There is no yaw in a
properly coordinated turn. You can still
override the gyro and turn the aircraft with
rudder input.
For instance, a stall turn would be
performed the same, with or without the
gyro; however, it reduces oscillation on the
up- and down-lines. The gyro will fine-tune
rudder input in turns, smooth the in-flight
oscillations, and respond to crosswind gusts
on takeoff and landing before you can see it
occurring.
Separating the channels for both aileron
servos is essential. This allows for an ailerondifferential
setup, which will decrease
adverse yaw. That occurs because the down
aileron increases the undercamber of the
wing, increasing lift to roll the aircraft, but it
also increases drag, which yaws the aircraft
in opposition to the desired direction of the
turn.
The up aileron acts as a spoiler to reduce
lift on the opposite wing and does not
induce the same drag. Rudder input is
required to compensate and coordinate the
turn. Aileron differential reduces this
effect. I use roughly twice the up aileron
travel as down. I also use aileron/rudder mix.
The Stylus uses a three-position switch to
select from off, low, and high settings. On my
previous Storch it used an 80% aileron/rudder
mix, which proved to work well at slow
speed.
The full-scale Fieseler Storch was
powered by an air-cooled Argus V8 engine,
mounted inverted, which produced 240
horsepower. Ed Newman initially flew his
22-pound design prototype with a Saito 1.50,
which delivered scalelike performance. The
problem with any large single-cylinder
engine is that the cylinder head sticks out of
the cowl.
The engine of choice is the Laser 200v
four-stroke twin, which AGC Sales Ltd.
manufactures in England. It is powerful,
dependable, and smooth running. I have seen
many Laser twins at the Scale Masters
through the years, and they have always
performed flawlessly. They are manufactured
in 160, 200, 240, 300, and 360 sizes.
For electrical power I am using two Li-
Ion battery packs. Each is rated at 7.4 volts
with a 2600 mAh capacity. These packs
combined are still smaller than a single Csize
Ni-Cd pack. Each is connected to a
heavy-duty slide switch with a built-in charge
receptacle, then to a 5.4-volt regulator, then
to the receiver.
The batteries are mounted under the
cowl, on top of the fuel-tank compartment.
I mounted the two switch plates on the
cockpit floor, just behind the pilot’s seat.
They are inconspicuous and easy to access
through the cabin door.
This gives me total redundancy in
electrical power. With any single failure of a
battery, switch, or regulator, the other set will
carry the load. A full charge will be good for
a full weekend of flying without recharging.
Flying: When the day for test-flying finally
arrived, the Laser engine fired up beautifully
and sounded great. The other pilots stood on
the sidelines to watch the event and stay out
of the way. It was time to launch.
The takeoff was straight and true, down
the center of the runway, accompanied by the
spectators’ cheers. I flew a few conservative
circuits around the pattern to get the feel of
the Storch and adjust the trims, and then I
brought the model around for a nice, easy
landing. There were more cheers from the
gallery. The first flight was remarkable in that
it was totally uneventful.
After a postflight inspection and a few
adjustments, it was back in the air for the
second flight. The objective for this attempt
was to test the flaps’ operation and
performance. I set up for a fly-past at
approximately 100 feet altitude, reduced
power to half throttle, and then selected full
down on the flap switch.
Because my initial mix settings were only
an educated guess, I expected a process of
trial and error, making adjustments during the
course of several flights to get it right.
However, I watched in amazement as the
Storch continued to track level, started to
slow, and, finally, required extra power to
maintain altitude—just like it should have.
The reverse process was equally smooth. I
50 MODEL AVIATION
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:46 AM Page 50had gotten it right on the first shot, and after a
few dozen flights I still have not changed
those settings.
The Storch was very stable in slow flight
with full flaps and droop ailerons. As a poweron
stall condition is approached, the nose
attitude is high and the aircraft starts to sink
straight ahead. Adding power and slightly
relaxing elevator pressure regains control. I
think the gyro on the rudder contributes
greatly to this low-speed controllability.
Every once in awhile you get one of those
perfect flying days that make this hobby
special: perfect weather with the wind down
the runway, a great flying site with people you
enjoy being around, and going home at the
end of the day with nothing to fix except an
empty fuel bottle. When that includes the
successful maiden flight of an aircraft you
have invested more than a year in building, it
just doesn’t get any better. MA
Doug Crumley
[email protected]
Ed Newman’s 1/5-scale Storch Kit
Specifications:
Wingspan: 112 inches
Wing area: More than 1,500 square inches
Length: 78 inches
Height: 17.75 inches
Stabilizer span: 37 inches
Weight: 22 pounds
Power: Laser 200 or equivalent
Sources:
Ed Newman Storch kit
www.storchman.com
F&M Enterprises
(817) 279-8045
www.stits.com
Laser Engines
+44 (0) 1525 210596
www.laserengines.com
MA
www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm
(765) 287-1256

February 2008 43
An inside look at the build of a
special Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
b y Doug Crumley
(Editor’s note: The detailed narrative of
the project shown on these pages is only a
fraction of the story. Visit the MA Web site
(www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm) for
the full account, more close-up photography,
additional building tips, and a video about
the model’s special features.)
I STARTED BUILDING flying models as a
teenager in the late 1950s. Even then Scale
aircraft was my only real interest and CL was
my only option for flying them. I was
dormant in the hobby for roughly three
decades in my young-adult years because of
career and family priorities. By the late 1980s
my kids had become adults and I had the time
and means to rekindle the hobby. By that time
RC had become reliable and affordable.
I flew in my first U.S. Scale Masters
Championships in 1991 and have qualified for
and attended that event every year since. My
competition aircraft have been high-wing taildraggers,
and approximately half of them have
been warbirds (such as the L-19 and L-5).
In 2001 I built my first Fieseler Storch. It
was Dennis Bryant’s 94-inch design, with
plans and parts from Bob Holman. The plans
are some of the best I have seen, and it was a
challenging project. While building the Storch
I learned a lot about the subject and what a
unique and outstanding airplane it was for its
time. It has become one of my favorite
aircraft.
02sig2.QXD 12/21/07 8:36 AM Page 4344 MODEL AVIATION
The cockpit insert is jig-welded from
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates
the frame of the full-scale Storch.
The scale baggage hatch was the perfect
place to hide the radio-control equipment.
The elevator horn assembly was fabricated
from silver-soldered round and square
brass tubing and .060-inch brass plate.
Ed Newman’s kits offer laser-cut parts, a fully articulated main landing gear, a
fiberglass cowl, and helpful vacuum-formed ABS parts.
A custom-built stabilizer-incidence
mechanism allows the stabilizers to plug
in. The plywood blade will locate and
support the vertical stabilizer.
The hand-fabricated
tail-wheel assembly
uses a pull-pull setup.
A leather boot will
complete the scale
appearance.
Threaded rods permanently hold the wing
mounts in place. The plywood blade matches
pockets in the wing.
The main landing-gear
mounting points and wingstrut
attachment points are
attached to the underside
of the plywood floor.
Static shots by the author Flight shots by Jim Embree
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:54 AM Page 44February 2008 45
The exhaust system is made from brass
tubing and standard 3/8-inch-copper-pipe
elbows. It exits the cowl at the same angle
and location as on the full-scale aircraft.
The Laser 200’s exhaust ports exit the
rear of the cylinders and are easily
routed to a scale exhaust system.
The fuselage is covered with a single piece of fabric. The keel line along the bottom
of the fuselage is the only seam.
No special tools were required to make the scale details. Most of the work was done
with Dremel tools and jewelers’ files. A small hand drill served double duty as a lathe.
Aluminum lithoplate pieces were fitted
into the windows and taped in place
during the painting process to serve as
patterns for later.
The I.Gruppe Imperial falcon crest was the
hardest insignia to paint. It is 2 inches wide,
has four colors, and required five individual
masks.
The full-scale Storch’s flaps were operated
by a hand crank located by the pilot’s left
knee. Notice the weathering detail.
The MG15 gun was a significant
project of its own. It was made from
scratch using assorted pieces of brass,
aluminum, and wood.
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:43 AM Page 4546 MODEL AVIATION
The Storch tracks straight easily and has plenty of power.
Flap testing proved that the initial radio program was
perfect.
Extending the flaps is not required for takeoff or landing. The
onboard rudder gyro helps the model maintain a heading.
Above: The Storch has a long span and a
high-aspect-ratio wing with fixed slats. A
radio setup to counter adverse yaw is
required.
Left: An objective when finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use
stick-on decals or dry transfers for
insignia and markings.
What’s to like about the Storch? Its sleek,
flowing, aerodynamic lines? Hardly. The
aircraft looks as if it were designed by a
committee of architects and structural
engineers that had never heard the term
“parasite drag.”
However, the Storch has a distinctive
look and always gets attention at the flying
field. Its “unclean” appearance lends itself to
an incredible amount of small surface-detail
work, if you are so inclined.
In spite of its looks, the Storch was
probably the best aircraft ever designed to
accomplish its intended function, which was
to take off and land in the smallest space and
on the roughest surface possible. Even
today, if you want an aircraft that will get in
and out of tighter spaces than the Storch, you
use a helicopter.
My first Storch went to the Scale Masters
for two successive years. I really liked it, but
it had some shortcomings that left me
wanting to do better. First, even spanning 94
inches the model was only 1/6 scale; that was
small for competition. All my other aircraft
have been 1/4 scale, which is much easier to
detail.
The second problem applies to almost all
model designs of high-wing aircraft. Typical
model-construction methods leave fuselage
bulkheads extending into the cockpit area,
making an accurate cockpit interior nearly
impossible. This is further complicated when
the designer extends the wing-spar structure
across the top of the cockpit.
When a subject, such as the Storch, has a
full greenhouse cockpit, the cockpit interior
is an important part of the presentation. And
there is only so much you can do to
approximate a scale appearance using
conventional model construction methods
and materials.
Ed Newman is a friend and fellow Scale
competitor who has been modeling the
Storch for many years. He has developed his
own design, produced plans, and
commissioned fabrication of critical
structural components, which allows a
modeler to build an exceptional subject.
Knowing about my interest in the Storch,
Ed asked if I would like to build one of his
designs and share my evaluation of his
efforts with you fellow modelers. I accepted
the offer, but this will not be your typical kitreview
article.
For one thing, I have never built an
airplane per the plans. I can’t even put an
ARF together without making a few
modifications. Also, roughly 75% of this
airplane is of typical model construction. I
don’t see any point in telling you how to
frame a wing. I just want to show you the
25% that makes this worthy of a story.
In addition, since this is the second Storch
I have built, I applied lessons learned from
the first one to it. If you like what you see
here, check out the Internet presentation of
this story.
CONSTRUCTION
Ed’s design is 1/5 scale with a 112-inch
wing. The plans are excellent-quality fullsize
CAD drawings. He has produced CAD
drawings for Proctor kits for sometime.
Ed offers laser-cut ribs, formers, and
plywood parts. A fully articulated mainlanding-
gear assembly is a must-have unless
you have a machine shop. There is an
excellent fiberglass cowl and helpful
vacuum-formed ABS parts.
The key component that sets these plans
apart from all others is the cockpit insert.
This is jig-welded from aircraft-quality
chrome-moly steel tubing. It duplicates the
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:57 AM Page 4648 MODEL AVIATION
full-scale Storch’s tube frame within the
cockpit area. It is fully structural and supports
the wings, struts, and main landing gear.
The Storch’s front and side windows are
faceted, planar surfaces, so the frames are
intersecting straight lines. I chose to work
with brass tubing, round and square, and
soldered all the pieces in place.
Along the top edge of the cabin wall,
where it meets the lower down-looking side
windows, I used 1/4 angle brass to form the
structural edge. Then I glued 1/4 square
basswood into the angle. This was necessary
to give a wood surface to which the outer
fabric would attach.
As I worked my way through this project
I called on every skill I have developed
during years of Scale building, used the entire
contents of my toolbox, and may have added
a few more skills and tools in the process. I’ll
share some areas of this project you might
find useful in yours.
For any good solder joint the parts should
be fit as tight as possible and all surfaces
should be sanded clean. Do not let the torch
melt the solder. The material needs to be hot
enough to melt the solder when touched to it.
Be careful with Mapp gas on brass or
copper. As these metals reach the Silver 45
melt temperature, they become cherry red. Be
quick with the silver at that point because the
Mapp gas can easily melt the part.
Ed’s tail-section design is basic model
construction that is similar to that of many
other aircraft of this type. There’s nothing
wrong with that, but having built the Storch
before there were lessons learned that I
wanted to address and incorporate into this
project. I also wanted a higher degree of scale
detail than his design allowed.
This aircraft has large tail feathers. The
horizontal span is approximately 37 inches. I
wanted a plug-in horizontal stabilizer for
transport flexibility. It also improves scale
accuracy since the full-scale aircraft had a
variable-incidence trim, similar to a Piper
Cub.
In addition, the plug-in stabilizer allows
the fuselage and tail surfaces to be covered
and painted separately, as was done with the
full-scale Storch. It also allowed me to build
in a mechanism to ground-adjust the
horizontal stabilizer’s incidence.
The Storch has an exceptionally long,
slender fuselage with a nearly rectangular
cross-section. It will twist effortlessly unless
it’s extensively crossbraced. Ed’s plans show
many traditional 1/4 square crossbraces. Many
World War I aircraft were similar; internal
cables and turnbuckles were often used as
crossbracing. I wondered if I could simplify
that idea.
With the cables and longerons held in
place only by friction, they would maintain a
set position but could be twisted into a new
arrangement. Once I achieved a set position
with the front square with the rear, I applied
thin cyanoacrylate to all the joints and cable
holes. That permanently locked the position.
Once all the joints and holes were glued
securely, I added tension to the cables by
drawing the Xs together with Kevlar string.
This worked well. It was quick, lightweight,
and an easy way to square up the tail.
While documenting the subject of a
project approximately 15 years ago, I learned
that it had been finished with Stits Poly-Tone
paints. To get a match I went to the local
aircraft supplier and got the same paints he
had used. My color documentation for that
project was perfect.
Shortly thereafter, Chip Mull came to our
club meeting to demonstrate the product line
for a business he was starting: F&M
Enterprises. The material was Stits Lite fabric
for modelers. Chip was just in time for my
next project, and the subject had also been
covered and painted with the Stits system.
Once again my color documentation was
dead-on, and I have used Chip’s products on
every model since then.
Covering the Stits system’s advantages
would require a complete article, and many
have been written about it. One of the
benefits for a project such as this is that Chip
sells Stits Lite by the yard, and he cuts it from
a 60-inch-wide roll to any length requested. I
ordered 4 yards for the Storch.
Because of this, and because I had built
the tail surfaces to plug in separately, I was
able to cover the fuselage with a single piece
of fabric. The keel line along the bottom of
the fuselage is the only seam.
Finish: An excellent documentation source is
the plastic modeling industry. Most of those
manufacturers thoroughly research their
subjects for accuracy and offer a selection of
finishing options that are well documented
for color-and-markings.
A 1/32-scale Hasegawa kit supplied all the
information I needed for an interesting
subject. The German RLM (Reich Aviation
Ministry) colors and decal placement are
clearly defined in all views. I scanned the
decal sheet and scaled it up to the correct size
to use as patterns. The decal sheet is part of
my documentation package for judging.
The Stits paints dry to a semigloss finish.
Gloss is achieved by using clear Stits with a
retarding thinner. You can add a flattening
agent to the last color coat for a matte finish.
The same effect can be obtained with a spray
technique.
When I am satisfied with the coverage of
the main colors, I apply a coat with an
airbrush. I hold the airbrush farther than usual
from the surface so the paint begins to dry as
it contacts the surface. I keep the airbrush
moving so the droplets cannot break surface
tension with each other and gloss over.
One of my objectives in finishing an
aircraft of this significance is to not use stickons,
decals, or dry transfers for insignia and
markings. I masked and painted all of them. I
scanned the Hasegawa decal sheet into
Photoshop, enlarged the images from 1/32 to
1/5 scale, cleaned up any imperfections, and
created individual JPEG files.
Walt Farrell, a friend and fellow modeler,
frequently judges at the Kansas City Regional
Qualifier I attend each summer. He has his
own computer laser and offered to cut all my
masks from Frisket paper. What a great
friend to have!
Power: Making the Storch perform well
requires special considerations when setting
up the flight controls. It does not fly like a
Cub. Incorporating all the full-scale aircraft’s
control features requires a high-end computer
radio. I am using an Airtronics Stylus PCM
transmitter with the Aero Card.
The Storch has a long-span, high-aspectratio
wing with full-span fixed slats. This
makes adverse yaw a significant factor, and
the aircraft will tend to oscillate in yaw while
in level flight through smooth air. I installed a
gyro on the rudder to compensate for this
attribute. My setup has the gyro on anytime
the receiver is on.
Modern gyros are electronic with no
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:45 AM Page 48mechanical parts and use little battery power.
However, the rudder servo will operate
continuously, so a strong, double-ball-bearing
servo should be used. An open channel is
used to switch between high and low gain
settings. The low setting is adjusted to zero,
or off.
A gyro does not prevent the aircraft from
turning. Oriented on the vertical axis and
coupled to the rudder servo, it can only detect
and respond to yaw. There is no yaw in a
properly coordinated turn. You can still
override the gyro and turn the aircraft with
rudder input.
For instance, a stall turn would be
performed the same, with or without the
gyro; however, it reduces oscillation on the
up- and down-lines. The gyro will fine-tune
rudder input in turns, smooth the in-flight
oscillations, and respond to crosswind gusts
on takeoff and landing before you can see it
occurring.
Separating the channels for both aileron
servos is essential. This allows for an ailerondifferential
setup, which will decrease
adverse yaw. That occurs because the down
aileron increases the undercamber of the
wing, increasing lift to roll the aircraft, but it
also increases drag, which yaws the aircraft
in opposition to the desired direction of the
turn.
The up aileron acts as a spoiler to reduce
lift on the opposite wing and does not
induce the same drag. Rudder input is
required to compensate and coordinate the
turn. Aileron differential reduces this
effect. I use roughly twice the up aileron
travel as down. I also use aileron/rudder mix.
The Stylus uses a three-position switch to
select from off, low, and high settings. On my
previous Storch it used an 80% aileron/rudder
mix, which proved to work well at slow
speed.
The full-scale Fieseler Storch was
powered by an air-cooled Argus V8 engine,
mounted inverted, which produced 240
horsepower. Ed Newman initially flew his
22-pound design prototype with a Saito 1.50,
which delivered scalelike performance. The
problem with any large single-cylinder
engine is that the cylinder head sticks out of
the cowl.
The engine of choice is the Laser 200v
four-stroke twin, which AGC Sales Ltd.
manufactures in England. It is powerful,
dependable, and smooth running. I have seen
many Laser twins at the Scale Masters
through the years, and they have always
performed flawlessly. They are manufactured
in 160, 200, 240, 300, and 360 sizes.
For electrical power I am using two Li-
Ion battery packs. Each is rated at 7.4 volts
with a 2600 mAh capacity. These packs
combined are still smaller than a single Csize
Ni-Cd pack. Each is connected to a
heavy-duty slide switch with a built-in charge
receptacle, then to a 5.4-volt regulator, then
to the receiver.
The batteries are mounted under the
cowl, on top of the fuel-tank compartment.
I mounted the two switch plates on the
cockpit floor, just behind the pilot’s seat.
They are inconspicuous and easy to access
through the cabin door.
This gives me total redundancy in
electrical power. With any single failure of a
battery, switch, or regulator, the other set will
carry the load. A full charge will be good for
a full weekend of flying without recharging.
Flying: When the day for test-flying finally
arrived, the Laser engine fired up beautifully
and sounded great. The other pilots stood on
the sidelines to watch the event and stay out
of the way. It was time to launch.
The takeoff was straight and true, down
the center of the runway, accompanied by the
spectators’ cheers. I flew a few conservative
circuits around the pattern to get the feel of
the Storch and adjust the trims, and then I
brought the model around for a nice, easy
landing. There were more cheers from the
gallery. The first flight was remarkable in that
it was totally uneventful.
After a postflight inspection and a few
adjustments, it was back in the air for the
second flight. The objective for this attempt
was to test the flaps’ operation and
performance. I set up for a fly-past at
approximately 100 feet altitude, reduced
power to half throttle, and then selected full
down on the flap switch.
Because my initial mix settings were only
an educated guess, I expected a process of
trial and error, making adjustments during the
course of several flights to get it right.
However, I watched in amazement as the
Storch continued to track level, started to
slow, and, finally, required extra power to
maintain altitude—just like it should have.
The reverse process was equally smooth. I
50 MODEL AVIATION
02sig2.QXD 12/20/07 9:46 AM Page 50had gotten it right on the first shot, and after a
few dozen flights I still have not changed
those settings.
The Storch was very stable in slow flight
with full flaps and droop ailerons. As a poweron
stall condition is approached, the nose
attitude is high and the aircraft starts to sink
straight ahead. Adding power and slightly
relaxing elevator pressure regains control. I
think the gyro on the rudder contributes
greatly to this low-speed controllability.
Every once in awhile you get one of those
perfect flying days that make this hobby
special: perfect weather with the wind down
the runway, a great flying site with people you
enjoy being around, and going home at the
end of the day with nothing to fix except an
empty fuel bottle. When that includes the
successful maiden flight of an aircraft you
have invested more than a year in building, it
just doesn’t get any better. MA
Doug Crumley
[email protected]
Ed Newman’s 1/5-scale Storch Kit
Specifications:
Wingspan: 112 inches
Wing area: More than 1,500 square inches
Length: 78 inches
Height: 17.75 inches
Stabilizer span: 37 inches
Weight: 22 pounds
Power: Laser 200 or equivalent
Sources:
Ed Newman Storch kit
www.storchman.com
F&M Enterprises
(817) 279-8045
www.stits.com
Laser Engines
+44 (0) 1525 210596
www.laserengines.com
MA
www.modelaircraft.org/mag/index.htm
(765) 287-1256