A Gaggle of Geese, a Flight of Fogeys?

A Gaggle of Geese, a Flight of Fogeys?

There's a lot of folks out there who don't know how amazing the Old Fogey wingset is. It really is a simple, robust and very efficient design – at one point I was comfortably flying an Old Fogey that weighed 860 grams / 30.4 ozs - almost twice the weight of the stock Old Fogey! And my version of the Smash Drone (which also uses the Old Fogey wingset) topped out at a gut-busting 35 ozs, just short of a kilogramme.

But don't worry, both of these alternate fuselage designs are lightweights by comparison, and have the added advantage of a much wider flight envelope than the Old Fogey - which means zero wing-waggle at higher speeds. Interested? Download the plans and get building!

First I’d like to introduce; “The Bush Fogey” a lovely flier, with lots of style.

(Music is “Lazy Cowboy” by Paul Ressel.)

Here’s the link to the scratch-build fuselage plan. “The Bush Fogey”

Construction is fairly simple; the last piece of the basic fuselage build is the INSERT. Glue it in one ‘side’ at a time, making sure it’s square to the fuselage side and flush with the last section of tail (it’ll be obvious when you see the plan). But if you need a little more guidance, mention it in the comments, and I’ll work-up a pictorial build sequence.

UPDATE: 15/08/2016 - I was flying my 'heavy' UK foam board 'Bush Fogey' today in 8-10 mph winds with an A2212 1000Kv 12A motor and 9 x 3.8 prop. I did a lot of head-to-wind stationary hovering, some loops and 'ugly' rolls, etc. and it sounded like the motor was working harder than the 9A Blue Wonder motor it replaced, but flight time on a 1000mah LiPo was (for me) an amazing 12 minutes of flying! I had to come home with unused batteries! This appears to be a very efficient setup. You lucky folks that can get hold of the lighter foam will manage even longer flight times, and slower flying.

Next I’d like to introduce the “Lazy fogey” - which is a scratch-build version of the final chop-and-change fuselage in my last article; 'Grouchy' Old Fogey getting you down?

Here’s the link to the scratch build fuselage plan. “The Lazy Fogey” 

Same build technique as before. Both these plans take the standard Old Fogey wing and tailset with no modifications. If you want to see how to convert an Old Fogey to a "Lazy Fogey", have a look at the 'Grouchy' Old Fogey article.

To set-up for the maiden, keep the throws the same as the Old Fogey (fairly conservative). Use the correct CG, which is just behind the wing fold - both planes fly very nicely on this CG, and shifting it forward will just rob you of the plane's slow-flying performance. I always put-in a little 'right rudder' to counteract prop torque, but found I needed a little bit more than normal to keep the plane flying straight (about the thickness of the foam from the centreline). I sent the planes off on just over half throttle, and they both floated-out very nicely.

Maybe not obvious from the videos, but the Lazy Fogey is a little more 'self righting', due to the deeper fuselage. Though both planes are suited to a novice flyer, the Lazy Fogey is just a bit more stable in the air.

If you want to see how these planes were developed from the original Old Fogey, have a look at the "Grouchy Old Fogey getting you down?" article. (Link below.)

Enjoy, alibopo.