In model railroading there is a term "kitbashing." This means that while building a kit, you convert it to something slightly different. It doesn't mean that you would normally convert a Fokker D-7 into a F-16. Still it does mean that you can convert a Roadrunner into an "almost" Piper Brave with very few structural changes plus some cosmetic additions.

As with most Giant Scalers, I prefer to build models that at least look something like full scale airplanes. This preference seems to exist throughout the giant size fraternity and I believe has led to a lack of large, easy flying fun-fly planes; those Sunday afternoon knock-about planes with which you can practice your really low inverted passes. To be sure, there are some very good kits of this type, but not many. Therefore, I have been on the lookout for a giant size, easy to fly, rugged, fast building full scale look alike. I found that this was not an easy combination to locate. But I think that I found it - although it took some "kitbashing."

Last summer while attending Fly-Ins across the Midwest, I came across the "Roadrunner." This plane has the classic stick outline and flies like a demon with anything from a 1.20 four cycle to a 40cc gas to a Supertigre 6000. It seemed that the plane was limited only by the skill of the pilot, yet was completely docile in the hands of a novice. I already knew that the Ugly Stick converts nicely into agricultural dusters. So I did a little scratch pad doodling with an inverted fuselage, added wing tips and a rounded body top with a cockpit and suddenly it looked like a Piper Brave. I had to try out this kitbashed Roadrunner.

Fortunately, friend and fellow club member Barry Cashman (IMAA P 4763) was building an unmodified Roadrunner while my Piper Brave was taking shape. It gave me an excellent chance to compare notes on both the construction and flying. There was one somewhat surprising difference between the two planes, but I will get into that later.

I'm not going to go into a glue this to that article here. I am going to discuss what I did to convert the Roadrunner into a "look alike" Piper Brave. The same general steps will then work for your favorite kitbashing project. The first step was to order a Photo Pack of the Brave from Scale Model Research. If you have never used these Photo Packs before, you have a real treat in store. These color photos made both the conversion and the paint scheme easy.

Like most modelers, I promptly dug into the kit when it arrived to see what I had. I found the plans to be well drawn, easy to read and neatly rolled blueprints. All the wood was separately grouped and wrapped by use in the kit. This wood was of good quality although a few of the pieces were somewhat warped. The cutting was excellent with sawed rather than diecut parts. The only problem might be with the booklet that comes with the Roadrunner. It is titled "A few comments - Suggestions - and Information." The manufacturer doesn't call it an instruction book - and it isn't. This booklet is only a guide to building, although it does include many informative pictures. This plane must be built mainly from the plans.

If you have ever put together a plane of built up truss construction, you will have no trouble at all with the Roadrunner. Build the fuselage by turning it over. This relocates the wing from the high wing stick shape to the low wing Brave. The only thing to be careful of here is that the plane has positive incidence and engine downthrust built in. When you lay out the sides of the body, be sure to change the firewall to maintain the downthrust. Also rework the front of the wing saddles for the proper incidence. You will find that you have to raise the leading edge about 1/2".

The only part of the conversion that got at all sticky was mounting the landing gear. The gear location falls across the front of the wing saddle. My solution was to install an additional fuselage bulkhead at the leading edge of the front wing spar. I then notched the center section of the wing back to the spar. This new bulkhead then carries the rear of the landing gear mount and the wing mounting dowel holes.

The top of the fuselage is 3/32" balsa sheet for both the formers and covering. The canopy is flat plastic sheet and balsa with no heat forming. The cowl is built from formers and balsa sheet with a coarse fiberglass lining on the inside. This cowl turned out to be much simpler than I had anticipated.

The built up wing is per the plans with the addition of wingtips and a flat center section. The tips are 6 layers of 1/16" sheet strips that were soaked, white glued and pinned into position until dry. I have found this style of tip to be easy, fast, light and strong. The Roadrunner wing joins in a classic dihedral V. I changed this to a flat center section with a notch to fit the landing gear support bulkhead. The ailerons are the built up version shown on the plans but without the taper. I shortened the flaps to 14" each to allow a larger aileron. A word of warning on the ribs: they look symmetrical but they are not. Be sure to put the higher camber on the top.

The built up tail is close to the plans with the outlinechanged slightly for better agreement with that shown in the Photo Pack. The rear of the horizonta1 stabilizer had to be shimmed up to maintain the correct incidence. A Robart Incidence Meter came in handy here. I also included wire tail bracing to be on the safe side.

And that took care of the basic construction of my Piper Brave - a Roadrunner with just a few simple mods. I then used Supershrink Coverite on the wings and tail. I have a word of caution on using Supershink Coverite on open structures. The shrink force is high enough to bow in and deform a light structure. This can be particularly true around the tail. I use a Coverite thermometer to set the correct iron temperature for attaching the covering and shrink with the iron (no air) set just below the melting point of the fabric. Dan Parsons' excellent fiberglass material and epoxy technique is on the fuselage, flaps and ailerons. The primer is automotive water based acrylic and the final color is Rust-oleum. If you haven't used a water based acrylic automotive primer, I suggest that you try some at least for experimentation. You will find that this primer sprays great without any thinning, sands dry and very easily, lacks odor and has water clean up. The part I like best about this primer is that it is economical because a little goes a l-o-n-g way.

The engine installed is a Supertigre 3000 with the addition of an OS 1.08 carburetor and CH Electronic Ignition. This carburetor is an exact fit change and gives me a high end increase of about 1,000 RPM with the same prop and same fuel. I left the carburetor venturi insert in as it comes from the factory. If you are using a pump, you might want to consider removing the insert for higher RPM. The smoke system is a B&B Specialities pump working into a Vatone muffler with a homemade preheating coil installed.

Barry's Roadrunner is built per the plans. He did add wire tail bracing and use Goldberg nylon clips for the hatch hold down rather than the screws shown. His plane sports a Monokote finish and has a Supertigre 2500 up front. When both planes were completed, I was surprised at the weight difference. Barry's Roadrunner came in at 12 pounds versus 18 for my Brave. But when I added up the additional items on the Brave, I realized that the additional weight is all in useful additions.

My radio is a 7 Channel Futaba FP-7UAP PCM system. The servos are all S-148 Futaba with one servo for each control surface. This gives a total of nine servos on board. Three times in the past I have lost a servo in flight and the servo on the other control surface got me home with no problems. Without this backup, I would have lost the plane. I located each servo as close to the control as I could. There are then four servos in the wing and three in the tail. This technique does require some long leads from the servos to the receiver that could mean excessive noise pickup.

A few years ago, Don Lowe wrote about long lead noise pickup in one of his articles. He had found that the installation of a .001 ufd disk capacitor from the signal wire to the ground wire in each servo lead always cured noise problems. This capacitor should be located as close to the receiver as possible.

I also add a second capacitor in each servo lead as close to the servo as possible. By using Don's method, I have NEVER had a noise problem with any ignition engine using AM, FM and now PCM radios. Of course, I also locate the radio system as far away as practical from the engine ignition system. All servo leads are 22 GA stranded 3 wire and twisted.

Barry's Roadrunner was completed before my Brave, so I had the opportunity to watch and also fly his stock plane. At 12 pounds, a 2500 up front and high control throws, this plane can make the adrenaline flow. Yet as expected, it becomes very tame when you throttle back. The performance of the stock Roadrunner is largely dependent on the amount of power you put in, the amount of control throws you like and your skill as a pilot.

When construction was complete, I was quite satisfied with the way the conversion had come out. And about 10 seconds into the first flight, I knew that I had a winner. The plane has the appearance of the Piper Brave while retaining all the good flying characteristics of the Roadrunner. I don't think that the fellows flying Ultimates have much to worry about from the Brave. This is a gentle, easy-flying craft that I can recommend highly as a first step into Giant Scale. It is also great for those of us who soloed the big ones back before WW-II. I don't mean that the Brave will not do its share of aerobatics - it will. It does its maneuvers in a very realistic slow motion manner. It is a very real appearing plane in the air and flies just as you would expect the full scale Piper Brave to fly. Whether you build the stock Roadrunner or the "kitbashed" Piper Brave as I did, I am sure that you will be satisfied with the results.

Specifications:

	Name: ROADRUNNER (Brave Mod.) 
	Manufacturer: FunFly Aircraft; Lander, WY 
	List Price: $139.95 Postpaid 
	Span: 90" (104") 
	Cord: 17 1/2" 
	Area: 10,9 Sq. Ft. (12.6) 
	Weight: 12 lbs. (18) 
	Wing Loading: 17.6 Oz.\Sq. Ft. (22.8) 
	Height: 20" 
	Engine: ST 2500 (ST 3000) 
	Propeller: (Dynathrust 20 x 6) 
	Ignition: (CH Electronics) 
	Fuel: (Byron Supertigre Blend) 
	Spinner: (Tru Turn) 
	Smoke System: (HAB Specialities) 
	Covering: Monokote (Coverite Supershrink) 
	Fiberglass: (Dan Parsons) 
	Primer: (R-M Hydrosol Gray; Mfg. by BASF) 
	Color Paint: (Rust-oleum) 
	Pilot Figure: (DGA) 
	Radio: (Futaba FP-7UAP PCM) 
	Flight Photos: Al Priez