Building A Piece of History

Park Pilot inspires two pilots to build and fly a piece of history. Article and photos Ray Landon and Park Pilot Staff. Digital supplement to the Winter 2013 issue of Park Pilot.

It doesn’t come with bacon and eggs, but the Vought XF5U Flying Flapjack looks great in the air! The experimental full-scale aircraft was designed by Vought during World War II. It got the nickname Flying Flapjack because of its flat, round-shaped body. Because of its design, the aircraft requires low takeoff and landing speeds, but high top speed. Park Pilot reader Ray Landon saw plans for the park flyer version of the unusual aircraft, designed by Andy Reynolds, in the winter 2013 issue of the magazine. He decided that he had to build one. This is what Ray had to say about the aircraft:

I have always been intrigued with the XF5U Flapjack, so when I saw it in the Park Pilot magazine, my friend and RC buddy, Ken Trager, and I both jumped at the chance to build one of our own and fly a piece of history! The build is easy for an intermediate builder. After reading the article and studying the plans, we were ready. We used Depron foam, and building was straightforward. We used Turnigy D2208/17 brushless motors and a pair of Hobby King HK-SS18A ESCs. The ESCs are wired together in a “Y” so they both receive a signal at the same receiver connection. Control mixing is from the transmitter settings. Exponential setting is 30%, and dual rate high is 100% and low is 70%. I tend to kit-bash, so I put Depron covers over the elevon servos for a smooth flow. The rest is stock from the plans. For a lighter airplane, we used a 3S 1,000 mAh Lipo battery. The propellers are GWS 7 x 3.5 x 3—one clockwise and the other counterclockwise. Ken uses a JR transmitter and I use a Spektrum. Both of our aircrafts use an OrangeRx R410 Spektrum DSM2-compatible receiver. The model is covered with latex paint which Home Depot will sell mixed samples of at a reasonable price. Ken’s is painted for the V-173 look and mine is the XF5U paint scheme. Loops and rolls are graceful, and when it’s in the air, the aircraft catches the eye of anyone in the area. They look darn good in the sky flying formation. The plans and article make for an easy build and they are nice fliers. As the article says, you will need power on all the way down to the flare. Land before the battery loses power, and land with power on until just before touchdown with the nose at high attitude.

Thanks for sharing your building experience, Ray. The aircraft look great! Plans for the Flying Flapjack, and several other park flyers, can be downloaded for free from the Park Pilot website by clicking on the Built-It Plans tab or by clicking here.