A "Flying Clown" Project

[JoeJust]

In he mid 80's a friend of mine  and I decided to reintroduce the "Flying Clown" to the CL Fraternity.  After building and selling  a couple of hundred of them we moved on to other projects.  Our local CL club introduced "Flying Clown Race" to the Nation and that event still has a place in my heart.
With that said, I have always been a little puzzled about the Super Flying Clown.  I have built many of them and even competed with that plane at Brodaks in Beginner PA and in OTS.  That plane was in my opinion developed by PDQ to have something in the line that could gather part of the Firecat and Ringmaster sales at the time.  It is a fine airplane, but I never liked its looks. So, with that being said, this past Summer I decided that I was going to design two more "Clowns" by using the original plan form and eliminate the flaps in the Super Clown.  I even went so far in my thinking to add a "Super Dooper Clown to the hanger.  Here is a couple of pictures of the bodies I have come up with.  Each is as close to looking like the original "Clown as I can get it.  The smallest is a regular Clown, built form existing parts from our last kit run. The middle plane is my version of the Super Clown, but it will not have flaps, and the largest plane is my .46 size Clown.  All tail feathers and wing shape will be much he same with the exception of sq. inches.
Since my Heart failure in Sept the new journey has been interrupted, but it sure seems wonderful to be able to get back in the shop for an hour or so most days.  Once the wings are finished I will add pictures to this topic.
Thanks for looking and remember, to take it easy on this old man. I mean I also got a severe concussion and lots of cuts in my argument with my heart.
regards,
Joe

[Ara Dedekian]

 

           Hi Joe

               I just recently gave my last J&J Sales, newspaper wrapped Clown kit to Rick Clark. Rick was talking up reviving Clown Racing here in New England. My three J&J Clowns are still intact and in racing trim.

           Ara

[Dane Martin]

I'm glad to see you doing this. My son loves the flying clowns. Maybe he'll move up to a bigger one.

[Dave Hull]

That's not a Super Duper Clown, that's a Fully Justified Clown!

I have a Super Clown that always worked pretty good, and a pair of Flying Clowns that have a lot of laps on them from racing. And a Baby Clown that can fly a much better pattern than I can.  Good times....

Dave

PS--Flew my Joe Just Hellcat in a carrier contest yesterday. Didn't quite have the throttle set up right and couldn't get a slow enough idle. But attempted the deck anyway. Got a line, but broke the arresting gear. Stayed on the boat, but barely. After a new prop was able to put up another flight. Them Grumman Ironworks planes are tough!

[john e. holliday]

Aiden is landing better than I do.   I see the young lady waiting her turn.    I still have my Clowns I bought when we were at the NATS In Tri-Cities.

[JoeJust]

I like the biggest one. How many square inches will it have on the wing. I'm looking for a stunt plane for my LA 15 with about 300 Sq. Making a bigger clown is a cool idea.
Motoman

Right now it may work out to be 480 squares.  Depends on what material I have on hand. (That is what the old PDQ Company dealt with as they produced many different lengths and tail feathers in the FC production. This statement is because in our research when we were well along in production we found at least 4 NIB PDQ Clowns that varried a bunch foromr one another.)

[JoeJust]

Aiden is landing better than I do.   I see the young lady waiting her turn.    I still have my Clowns I bought when we were at the NATS In Tri-Cities.

Doc, right now I'm laughing at what we charged for the FC in 1989, a Whomping $19.00. (And we made a profit at that price!

[john e. holliday]

Back then I didn't make as much money as I did when I retired.  Now it is even worse as everything is increasing except for my retirement.

[Steve Helmick]

I always thought it was a cryin' shame that the Flying Clown series aren't legal for use in the Ringmaster Fly-In, since at least some of them were designed by the same guy. Nowadays, it appears that anybody can design a new "Ringmaster" variant and use it in the Ringmaster Fly-In, so what's the difference?    Steve 


PS: The fin/rudder is pretty much the same, so it would seem that if you took any Flying Clown variant and put "Early Ringmaster Prototype" on the wing, you could? An oval horizontal tail would seal the deal, for sure!

[JoeJust]

HERE IS THE UPDATE ON THE FLYING CLOWN PROJECTS

Pic # 1 is the original size Flying Clown.....Will use a McCoy .19

Pic 3@ is my vesrion of he "Super Clown"...Will use a OS .25

Pic # 3 is the "Super Dooper" Flying clown....At 520 SQ. Inches I will use a LA .46 engine

Moe notes and pics to come after covering with medical exam paper.
Joe

Don't you just admire a clean working table?

[Jim Carter]

I always thought it was a cryin' shame that the Flying Clown series aren't legal for use in the Ringmaster Fly-In, since at least some of them were designed by the same guy. Nowadays, it appears that anybody can design a new "Ringmaster" variant and use it in the Ringmaster Fly-In, so what's the difference?

Hey Steve!  Now don't get upset with this comment because it's not meant to be upsetting but, why not propose and put forth a proposal for a "Flying Clown Fly-A-Thon" ??  I'm sure there's someone who would provide and post a set of pdf. plans for the scratchbuilders like me, plus someone might volunteer to set up a facebook account like the one Dee setup for the Ringmasters and collect the data for the annual event.  Heck, I'd probably build one (I don't have one now) and I bet there would be quite a few others who would as well.  Whad'da'ya' think?