Royal Coachman plans

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Robert Reynolds - 29 Mar 2007 01:32 GMT

A few years ago RC Modeler published an article about one of their
founding editors, Don Dewey. I think he had died just recently. To
commemorate his contributions to RC and to RC Modeler magazine, they
offered the plans to one of his early designs, the Royal Coachman
trainer, free of charge. Then they had a contest and offered a prize
for the best Royal Coachman built by a reader. I had never thought
seriously about ordering this particular plan but I couldn't pass them
up when they were free. I never got around to building the plane until
this week.

It's a pretty simple design. I put the fuselage together in about an
hour, and the rest of it looks like it will go together in a similarly
quick fashion. I'm using it to teach my kids a few things about model
airplane construction.

Did any of you folks get the free plans when they were being offered?
Did you enter the contest? They said in the RCM article that the Royal
Coachman was one of their most popular plans for years. Did any of you
old timers out there build it 40 years ago? It would be fun to build it
true to its 1965 original form, with an unthrottled engine, fixed nose
wheel, and no ailerons. But I decided to go ahead and use an OS 15 FP,
a torque wire main gear, and a tail wheel, and fly it with 4 channels.
Looks like fun.

One other thing, for any of you folks who think you might be interested
in learning to build from plans, this is a great way to get started.
It's such a simple design that you can hardly go wrong, and it's fertile
ground for improvising upgrades such as I mentioned above. The Q-Tee
would be another good starting point.

Reply to this Message

Don Bowey - 29 Mar 2007 15:53 GMT

On 3/28/07 5:32 PM, in article 130m28vo0g5jp7e@corp.supernews.com, "Robert
Reynolds" <robbie@kcnet.com> wrote:

> A few years ago RC Modeler published an article about one of their
> founding editors, Don Dewey. I think he had died just recently. To
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> Coachman was one of their most popular plans for years. Did any of you
> old timers out there build it 40 years ago?

I built mine in about 1967 or thereabouts. It was a fast build.

> It would be fun to build it
> true to its 1965 original form, with an unthrottled engine, fixed nose
> wheel, and no ailerons. But I decided to go ahead and use an OS 15 FP,
> a torque wire main gear, and a tail wheel, and fly it with 4 channels.
> Looks like fun.

Mine was a fixed nose wheel, no ailerons, no tail wheel. Flew it REM, using
3 channels of a Bonner 8 for the radio (a tight fit), and an OS 15. Even
with the weight of that (outstanding) radio, it flew great around the Autzen
Stadium (U of O) dirt parking lot. The Eugene, Or RC Aironots were very
active back then.

> One other thing, for any of you folks who think you might be interested
> in learning to build from plans, this is a great way to get started.
> It's such a simple design that you can hardly go wrong, and it's fertile
> ground for improvising upgrades such as I mentioned above. The Q-Tee
> would be another good starting point.

Don

Reply to this Message

Robert Reynolds - 29 Mar 2007 21:34 GMT

> Mine was a fixed nose wheel, no ailerons, no tail wheel. Flew it REM, using
> 3 channels of a Bonner 8 for the radio (a tight fit), and an OS 15. Even
> with the weight of that (outstanding) radio, it flew great around the Autzen
> Stadium (U of O) dirt parking lot. The Eugene, Or RC Aironots were very
> active back then.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I started in RC around 1990, so I missed the
cantankerous radios and heavy covering materials. Every once in a while
I run across an old plane that was built 30 or more years ago, and I'm
amazed at how much more complicated these things were back then. I
guess that's what made a super simple airplane like the Royal Coachman
so attractive.

Reply to this Message

Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / March 2007

Royal Coachman plans