Let's say that you are a relative newcomer to giant and you are considering building a plane from plans. Maybe you have already flown a giant from a kit, and know about radios, controls, and engines, but have never tackled a plane, little or giant, from scratch. If this is the case, you are probably concerned about selecting a good plan from the many available. You aren't sure how to evaluate a set of plans so you can get a feel for whether a plane will be a real bear or not. And that is a bear to build and a bear to fly. Let me give you a few pointers. The very first thing to do is to check past issues of HIGH-FLIGHT it is the only publication that I know of that reviews plans. Everyone does kit reviews, but we are the only plan reviewer. If Chuck reviewed it, then you can get a feel for the quality and completeness of the plans. This can help you decide on whether to buy the plans.

Once you have bought the plans, you can look them over critically with regard to your own building capabilities. Here's how I look at plans.

The first thing I like to do it to check the specs, the weights and measurements, to get a feel for the flyability of the plane. Weight and wing area are first. At a glance, you can tell if you have the engine you'll need for power. Sure, the plans may say that the plane weighs 25 lbs. and a Q-35 works great, but these plans may be dated. A Q-35 was great, compared to a prop drive 60, but 25 Ibs would be heavy for a 35cc size engine today. A 50cc or greater sized engine would be much better. A rule I learned the hard way flying control line in the 50's is: Never under power your planes. You can always pull the throttle stick back if it gets too fast, and the extra power can get you out of trouble when you need it.

From weight and wing area you can also calculate the wing loading. For your first try at plans, It's add a pound to the given weight, since you'll probably build heavy on your first scratch ) project. For small planes, a wing loading over 30 oz per sq ft is getting heavy. Not for experts, but for regular guys. In the giant category, anything over 40 may be considered heavy. The Air Tech kits come in about 32 ozs/sq ft, 35 if built really heavy. They fly very well for the novice.

I mentioned to check wing span. This hardly needs mentioning, but I will say a couple of words on it. Certainly, you want 80 inches for a legal IMAA plane, but, if it is a 110 inch span, one piece wing, make sure your car or van is big enough to carry it. Next, I look at the type of airfoil, the length of the nose, and the tail size. All of these will affect the flyability of the design.

Scan the airfoil. If it is nice and curvy with the thickest point about 1/3rd of the way back, it should be OK. Look out for weird shaped airfoils. (I personally avoid them). It doesn't matter what anyone says about computer designed or whatever. If it looks funny and a dozen experts haven't used it and recommend it for sport RC fliers, I say forget it. A classic example is the true scale airfoil of the CAP 21. It has a circular leading edge with two straight lines back to the trailing edge. Sort of like an ice cream cone. The thickest point is way forward. Computer designed, they say. May be, but virtually every model you see of the CAP 21 has a normal model airfoil. The scale airfoil, with its high point forward, has a very narrow CG range. Most planes can tolerate a CG from 20% back to nearly 40% back without getting really squirrley. A lot of these "funny" looking airfoils have to have the CG right on or "look out!" I remember reading the construction article on a 40 sized scale model of the CAP 21, with the scale airfoil, which was published in a national magazine. As I recall, the designer said that he snapped and bashed on the first take off. He stated later in the article the CG must not be any further back than what he showed on the plans. As I said, if the airfoil looks weird, be wary.

Take a look at the nose length. If it looks really long or really short, there'll be lead somewhere to get the CG right. Most people tend to worry about the plane being tail heavy, this can make the plane sensitive and snappy. I normally think just the opposite, being primarily an aerobatics pilot. I look to see if I put a heavy gas burner in a plane, will it be too nose heavy for good aerobatics. Now then, what's short and what's long. It's all relative and depends on what engine you'll be using. Face it, a Super Tigre 3000 is a bunch lighter, about 2 pounds, than a 35-50cc gas burner, but you can put 'em in the same plane. A Fokker Triplane and a lot of radial engined warbirds have short noses and need light tails. A P-39 Airacobra has a long nose. Remember, the full scale one had the engine behind the pilot and the drive shaft between his legs. How you can build a P-39 with a gas engine and a nose gear retract and get it to balance without a lot of lead is beyond me. I would use a light glo engine and a light retract. If you still aren't sure, call the designer on the phone. After 5 it's cheap. Ask what engine he used and how he balanced it. Some planes will tell you that the plane is suitable for a Quadra or a G-38, when the original used a light ST-3000. It's best to find out before you cut wood.

Finally, I check the tail size. In WWI, just about all the tails were too small. The planes ground looped a lot, and some would not recover from a spin due to a too small vertical fin. A horizontal tail somewhere between 20% to 25% of the wing area for monoplanes, and 16% to 20% for biplanes is a good rule of thumb. The vertical tail should be about a third of this. These values will give you good stability and control response. If the tail is too small and you aren't a scale competitor, I recommend enlarging it some. Remember, we fly for fun, and you'll have more fun with a decent sized tail.

After I decide that the plane will fly OK, I look to see how easy it will be to build. Look the plans over for the general method of construction. If it looks like what you have seen in most small model kits, it will probably be easy to build. If you are new to scratch building, beware of designs that require special jigs, you may have trouble constructing them. Save this one for your next project when you are more experienced.

Look at the wood to see if non-standard sizes are specified. Where are you going to get them? I seem to recall a plane with mahogany stringers. My hobby shop doesn't regularly stock these. Why not spruce like everyone else? l always wonder whether the designer is trying to set it up so you can only buy parts from him, then I begin to wonder about the whole plane. Newcomers would do better to stick to plans that call for standard wood. How about the method of wing attachment? Are any fancy fittings or bolts required for the wing or any other part of the plane or will 1/4 steel or aluminum from the hardware store do? Don't get me wrong. Just about everyone who scratch builds from plans buys some items. In particular, cowls, wheel pants, and landing gear. You can usually get, for some planes, prebent biplane cabanes and some canopies. Either T&D or Fiberglass Master has the cowls and pants for just about any plane at competitive prices. See their ads in HIGH-FLIGHT. The people who have been in the plan business a long time will offer these items or tell you where to get them. Check for this information.

Finally, I look at the gear. Does it appear to be hard to install or of odd material? Could you make a wire one yourself or will you have to order one, and where? Again, check the ads in HIGH- FLIGHT for custom gear makers. Does the design have retracts? If you are not experienced with retracts of any size, you might be better off with a fixed gear plane for your first scratch built plane. For planes that do need retracts, are they still available and are parts easy to get? Check the ads in HIGH-FLIGHT for prices and availability. About the only giant retract that I can recall that does not have an ad in HIGH-FLIGHT is Dave Platt's. It is a good one, and is available from him direct.

There it is. If the plane looks good after that scrutiny, it should be a great one for your first scratch project. Next time you can tackle a more complicated one.