1.8m Walter Fletcher with working hopper

[scott99]

If one was to produce a 1.8m span r/c Walter Fletcher, electric powered, made up of epoxy glass/carbon fuse and associated parts, foam core glassed wing and fully working hopper, how many would be interested in purchasing something along these lines?
Electric power would offer a scale turbine effect, and is relatively inexpensive - a 4 cell Lipo set up would be the most it would need.
I'm interested to guage interest, as to do it properly will not necessarily be inexpensive due to materials etc.

The Possibilities might be to be able to provide 950/954 and Walter kit sets depending on feedback.
My thoughts at this stage are focussed on good r/c flight characteristics and practical aspects of the model keeping it simple, and keeping the purchase cost as low as practical. The end user could then choose scale detail to suit.

[Fletcher400]

Are these based from the A.Heenan plans?
There was a guy who did this a few years back based in Gisborne, he sold them through Horizon hobbies out of Auckland for awhile but have been long discontinued now. Occasionally one turns up on trademe,
Fibreglass fuse and cowling, vac formed canopy, and tail, elevator and wing were trad constructed or foam glassed over at builders option if I remember correctly. They were std 950's with hopper
I think he did a few others too like the Agwagon and something else.

Ive often thought about doing this too myself, but just become too busy time wise and sticking with the smaller scale display ones.
Ive sort of come to the conclusion from a wee while on here, although the Fletcher is very popular over on the massive Fletcher thread (awesome one as it is too!).... as for modelling - not too much interest barring a few people. Most people I sell to are either in the business or have a direct relation to topdressing work or with the aircraft itself/family wise from a sales perspective.

Definitely a awesome project though, I'm sure you would sell a few and have seen a fair few RC ones, there are 2 in Taupo, I'm not sure how many RC guys are on here though??
Been a long time since I personally flew RC and as no longer live in NZ havnt really gotten back into it. Infact last RC plane I had was a 1/7th Fletcher back in the late 90s, and down in my celler I have a half built one sitting dormant for 3 years (mental note to finish it!)

[scott99]

Yes, you are correct about the Horizon Moldings ones - I had one, with a 954 cowl - although admittedly it was built way too heavy, the bare fuse itself was heavy to begin with, which is why a Fletcher in particular is a challenge to build as a flying model due to the long fuse. Mine flew - but just was not nice to fly or land and needed to fly too fast for my liking,

Now, with the Walters longer nose and light weight lithium polymer batts in r/c world these days, I believe it is possible to build a light weight model Walter that will fly very well and simulate full size flight quite well with a low stall speed and the ability to approach and decend with low power on settings which will allow scale flare landings often difficult as an r/c model.

Not looking at the idea from financial gain perspective, just as a hobby interest- but obviously if there was an interest, the odd sale would help offset some of the material costs involved.

[Parrotfish]

Just wondering if at this early stage you have a price point or range in mind?

[scott99]

Difficult to speculate at this point, but might be able work on coming up with some ideas, really depends what interest becomes evident - as Fletcher 400 posted above it is of relatively narrow interest.

The likely possibility would be to supply the basics and allow the end user to build with own choice of servos motor ESC batts etc, or methanol set up.

It might make sense to make 950, 954 and Walter cowlings allowing
the build of 3 of the 4 variants.

[Toko]

I for one would be interested in a Fletcher model, but would prefer something a little bigger at least 2m span. I think a model this size would have wider appeal as it is the minimum size flown by MANZ (miniature aircraft NZ) , who seem to be where most RC scale activity is these days.

[scott99]

Thanks for your input Toko. One of the views I also had been considering is transportability, with the idea that a one piece wing and fuse would not be overly large to the point where it becomes awkward to get in and out of an average vehicle. 2m or larger span may just mean the need to build it with separate detachable wings, although at 2m the fuse, fin and stabilator become a little larger also.......