Wright Stuff 2019 - Designs

[calgoddard]

Commercial Wright Stuff kits offer the convenience of “one stop shopping” for suitable balsa wood, parts, etc. Kits also help expedite construction. However, they are not necessary to win the Wright Stuff event. The best Wright Stuff teams that I have coached over the past 15 years did not build and fly kit airplanes. They won many gold medals in that event at regional and state competitions.

The commercial 2019 Wright Stuff kits vary in both cost and complexity and each one has it merits. However, some Wright Stuff teams cannot afford to purchase commercial kits or they may have waited too long and cannot obtain a kit soon enough. Other teams may prefer to build something different from the kit airplanes that most students will fly.

Except at the highest levels of adult AMA and FAI competition, the specific design of the air frame will usually not be a significant factor in determining the winner of an indoor duration rubber powered stick airplane flying event. A conventional indoor tractor configuration (prop in front) built with the maximum permissible wing & stab area and near the minimum permissible weight is all that is required to win any Wright Stuff competition in terms of the design of the air frame. Note that the weight of the prop is included in measuring the weight of the air frame. Trim, propeller size & configuration, rubber motor sizing, and winding are each far more important to success in Wright Stuff competition than the particular design of the air frame. Balsa wood selection, i.e. in terms of the appropriate density and stiffness, is important as the model should not be overweight yet at the same time it should not suffer from motor stick bending and/or unintended warping of the wing or warping of the stab. I have purchased excellent balsa wood at very low cost many times from different ACE hardware stores located in various parts of the country. Take a scale and a density chart with you and use them to help you select the best sheets and sticks.

Fortunately, plans for Wright Stuff designs by expert fliers for prior years can be found on the Internet and re-drawn by hand so that the wing and stab have the maximum span and chord allowed under the 2019 Wright Stuff rules. One example is the plan for the LIL LONGSTER for Wright Stuff 2015 that can be downloaded from the Plans Gallery at the Hip Pocket Aeronautics web site. Any Wright Stuff plan by legendary indoor flier Cezar Banks will also suffice. A well-illustrated article written by Chuck Markos about Wright Stuff describes the necessary building techniques and the basics of trimming and winding. Just search his name and “Wright Stuff” via the Google search engine and a link to the article will come up.

Students can build a winning Wright Stuff model from scratch for less than $5 in balsa wood, parts, and covering material. Special molded plastic parts like the Ikara prop hanger and rear hook are not essential. A simple thrust bearing can be made from a 3/8-inch long segment of 1/16-inch OD Aluminum tube. This tube can be secured to the underside of a balsa wood spacer fixed to the lower side of the front end of the motor stick with the entire assembly wrapped with thread and glued in place. Props can be made by cutting blades with conventional outlines from 1/32-inch sheet balsa, wetting and forming them on a cylinder, and then gluing them to flattened outer segments of round toothpick spars. The round inner segments of the toothpick spars can be inserted into a tubular hub with an ID of 3/32-inches made of stiff paper or Aluminum tubing and the blades rotated to produce a propeller with an appropriate pitch-to-diameter (P/D) ratio and glued in place using a simple 45 degree pitching jig constructed from scrap balsa wood. Purchase a 12-inch length of .031-inch music wire to bend the prop shaft and rear motor hook. You will have plenty extra if your first bends don’t turn out well. With such a high weight budget (8 grams) there is no need to use harder-to-find .020-inch music wire, and the .031-inch music wire fits much better (free spinning with no slop) inside the 1/16-inch OD Aluminum thrust bearing. Don’t forget to put a tiny washer between the prop hub and the thrust bearing. You can use grocery store produce bag available for free as the covering material for the wing, stab and fin.

There are no secrets to success in indoor rubber powered free flight. Everything that helps maximize flight times is well documented on the Internet. A well-built and properly adjusted homemade Wright Stuff airplane can beat any commercial kit Wright Stuff airplane.

Most students who participate in the Wright Stuff event would be pleased with flights over 60 seconds. Teams that put in a reasonable amount of practice time, e.g. 20 - 30 hours, can often break 120 seconds. The very top teams in Wright Stuff have typically practiced 40+ hours and have very experienced indoor fliers as mentors. These teams can sometimes break 180 seconds in a standard size high school gym. Regardless of how students fare in an actual Wright Stuff competition, it is very gratifying for them to see a model that they built themselves fly gracefully in circles inside a gym.

Students should always strive to do their best. However, the true value of the Wright Stuff event for students lies not in winning a medal, but in learning the fundamentals of aerodynamics, the importance of recording data, the constructive use of the experimental method, and how to perform under pressure.

[retired1]

Just looked at Laser Cut Planes web site.. John is selling a kit for $19.00 . It looks like a fairly simple build and should be competitive.As usual, the more practice flying, the better you will do. Also, a few tweaks might help it some.

[klastyioer]

Commercial Wright Stuff kits offer the convenience of “one stop shopping” for suitable balsa wood, parts, etc. Kits also help expedite construction. However, they are not necessary to win the Wright Stuff event. The best Wright Stuff teams that I have coached over the past 15 years did not build and fly kit airplanes. They won many gold medals in that event at regional and state competitions.

The commercial 2019 Wright Stuff kits vary in both cost and complexity and each one has it merits. However, some Wright Stuff teams cannot afford to purchase commercial kits or they may have waited too long and cannot obtain a kit soon enough. Other teams may prefer to build something different from the kit airplanes that most students will fly.

Except at the highest levels of adult AMA and FAI competition, the specific design of the air frame will usually not be a significant factor in determining the winner of an indoor duration rubber powered stick airplane flying event. A conventional indoor tractor configuration (prop in front) built with the maximum permissible wing & stab area and near the minimum permissible weight is all that is required to win any Wright Stuff competition in terms of the design of the air frame. Note that the weight of the prop is included in measuring the weight of the air frame. Trim, propeller size & configuration, rubber motor sizing, and winding are each far more important to success in Wright Stuff competition than the particular design of the air frame. Balsa wood selection, i.e. in terms of the appropriate density and stiffness, is important as the model should not be overweight yet at the same time it should not suffer from motor stick bending and/or unintended warping of the wing or warping of the stab. I have purchased excellent balsa wood at very low cost many times from different ACE hardware stores located in various parts of the country. Take a scale and a density chart with you and use them to help you select the best sheets and sticks.

Fortunately, plans for Wright Stuff designs by expert fliers for prior years can be found on the Internet and re-drawn by hand so that the wing and stab have the maximum span and chord allowed under the 2019 Wright Stuff rules. One example is the plan for the LIL LONGSTER for Wright Stuff 2015 that can be downloaded from the Plans Gallery at the Hip Pocket Aeronautics web site. Any Wright Stuff plan by legendary indoor flier Cezar Banks will also suffice. A well-illustrated article written by Chuck Markos about Wright Stuff describes the necessary building techniques and the basics of trimming and winding. Just search his name and “Wright Stuff” via the Google search engine and a link to the article will come up.

Students can build a winning Wright Stuff model from scratch for less than $5 in balsa wood, parts, and covering material. Special molded plastic parts like the Ikara prop hanger and rear hook are not essential. A simple thrust bearing can be made from a 3/8-inch long segment of 1/16-inch OD Aluminum tube. This tube can be secured to the underside of a balsa wood spacer fixed to the lower side of the front end of the motor stick with the entire assembly wrapped with thread and glued in place. Props can be made by cutting blades with conventional outlines from 1/32-inch sheet balsa, wetting and forming them on a cylinder, and then gluing them to flattened outer segments of round toothpick spars. The round inner segments of the toothpick spars can be inserted into a tubular hub with an ID of 3/32-inches made of stiff paper or Aluminum tubing and the blades rotated to produce a propeller with an appropriate pitch-to-diameter (P/D) ratio and glued in place using a simple 45 degree pitching jig constructed from scrap balsa wood. Purchase a 12-inch length of .031-inch music wire to bend the prop shaft and rear motor hook. You will have plenty extra if your first bends don’t turn out well. With such a high weight budget (8 grams) there is no need to use harder-to-find .020-inch music wire, and the .031-inch music wire fits much better (free spinning with no slop) inside the 1/16-inch OD Aluminum thrust bearing. Don’t forget to put a tiny washer between the prop hub and the thrust bearing. You can use grocery store produce bag available for free as the covering material for the wing, stab and fin.

There are no secrets to success in indoor rubber powered free flight. Everything that helps maximize flight times is well documented on the Internet. A well-built and properly adjusted homemade Wright Stuff airplane can beat any commercial kit Wright Stuff airplane.

Most students who participate in the Wright Stuff event would be pleased with flights over 60 seconds. Teams that put in a reasonable amount of practice time, e.g. 20 - 30 hours, can often break 120 seconds. The very top teams in Wright Stuff have typically practiced 40+ hours and have very experienced indoor fliers as mentors. These teams can sometimes break 180 seconds in a standard size high school gym. Regardless of how students fare in an actual Wright Stuff competition, it is very gratifying for them to see a model that they built themselves fly gracefully in circles inside a gym.

Students should always strive to do their best. However, the true value of the Wright Stuff event for students lies not in winning a medal, but in learning the fundamentals of aerodynamics, the importance of recording data, the constructive use of the experimental method, and how to perform under pressure.

so this is a really really long post
um well heres what i have to say
i agree
i mean ive done this for two years now and this is my third year
but in division c this time
for the past two years ive built planes by myself, with my partner, and with other members of our team in order to create an excellent plane
our coach from our middle school has helped us design planes and teach us the basics of this event any really any flight event
we have medaled on many occasions and it hasnt been that much of a struggle to do them on our own now that we are at a different school
if you know the basics and you have all the supplies, you are more than capable of designing your own planes
in fact i think that designing your own planes are better than kits because you have more room for flexibility
but of course, if you are just starting out, you should always start with a kit
the creators of them know more than you probably do and its worth a shot
they act as guides for you in flight events, so go for it

[calgoddard]

The Plans Gallery on the Hip Pocket Aeronautics web site also has the plan for the LIL STUBBY II available for download. It was designed to meet the 2015 Wright Stuff rules.

The plan for the LIL STUBBY II can be re-scaled to meet the 2019 Wright Stuff Rules.

This design is a bit unconventional in that the motor stick and tail boom are made from one single piece of balsa wood and the motor hook is mounted on the rear end of the combination motor stick and tail boom. The use of a dorsal fin with a rudder trim tab, along with stab tip plates, is also unconventional. The bend in the heavy paper or card stock trim tab could unintentionally change, Therefore, I would make the rudder trim tab from 1/32-inch sheet balsa wood, and glue it to the TE of the dorsal fin with Duco cement to fix its angular position. If changes in the angle of the rudder trim tab are needed to adjust the size of the turn circle, dissolve the glue joint with acetone, and re-glue the trim tab to the TE of the dorsal fin at the new angle.

I have never built or flown this design, but I can see certain advantages to the same.

In Wright Stuff competition, like any indoor duration stick competition, prop configuration, rubber motor length and weight, matching the prop to the rubber motor, trimming, and winding are more important than the design of the air frame.

[CrayolaCrayon]

In Wright Stuff competition, like any indoor duration stick competition, prop configuration, rubber motor length and weight, matching the prop to the rubber motor, trimming, and winding are more important than the design of the air frame.

That can't be emphasized enough.

[kathryn]

So, I’m relatively new to this event, and I need some help. What’s the lightest way to cover the frame of the plane? I’ve tried using a plastic bag, but was wondering if there’s anything better. Thanks in advance!

[DarthBuilder]

So, I’m relatively new to this event, and I need some help. What’s the lightest way to cover the frame of the plane? I’ve tried using a plastic bag, but was wondering if there’s anything better. Thanks in advance!

Mylar

[kathryn]

So, I’m relatively new to this event, and I need some help. What’s the lightest way to cover the frame of the plane? I’ve tried using a plastic bag, but was wondering if there’s anything better. Thanks in advance!

Mylar

Any idea where I can buy some?

[CrayolaCrayon]

So, I’m relatively new to this event, and I need some help. What’s the lightest way to cover the frame of the plane? I’ve tried using a plastic bag, but was wondering if there’s anything better. Thanks in advance!

Mylar

Any idea where I can buy some?

I know that Zeigler at Freedom Flight Models sells them for 5 dollars a roll.

[kathryn]

Mylar

Any idea where I can buy some?

I know that Zeigler at Freedom Flight Models sells them for 5 dollars a roll.

how does mylar compare to cling wrap or a plastic bag? do the advantages lie in the weight, durability, etc?