Honcho
BEFORE I begin with a brief introduction and history of the Honcho design, I want to make one important point. If many of you are like me, you have already looked at the plans and the pictures and you've probably noticed a few things somewhat unusual for a 1/2A FF-pressure and flood-off fuel system, sidewinder engine mount and auto surfaces. You may have immediately come to the conclusion, "I don't need that stuff to make a model fly" or "that's just something else to go wrong" or "it's interesting, but I don't understand it." Let me try to convince you otherwise. The auto surface mechanism on the Honcho is extremely simple. It requires no special materials or machine shop, and while I don't think any good contest model could be declared foolproof, I worry a lot more about my own goofing up than I do about the plane letting me down. With this set-up you can get the consistent climb pattern and transition to glide that is so important, especially if you fly where the short seven- and five-second motor runs are used. While this design has placed in national competition, it is not an "experts only" model. Anyone who has built and flown a few kit models should be ready to try it.
