Louis van den Hout's "Spider"

[Ron Varnas]

Hi all, Does anybody know if plans are available of Louis van den Hout's "Spider" from the 70's ?

If so who has them please 

RJV

[Dave Hull]

Wow, not a common choice--but looks good! If nothing shows up soon, perhaps your best bet would be thru Bruno van Hoek. He was posting here on Stunt Hanger as of last year, so hopefully he would see a request. He replied in the thread attached which had the photo you referenced. Looks like other Spiders have been built more recently....so, the plans have to exist still.

http://www.modelbouwforum.nl/threads/de-spider-van-louis-van-den-hout-in-restauratie.202348/page-2

Fun way to start a project, by tracking down the plans!

Best of luck,

Dave

PS--The styling of the plane kind of reminds me of the "Lucky 13" from Poland.

[Ron Varnas]

Thanks Dave appreciated, I'll chase it up.

Ron

[NED-088]

Here I am....

The Spider as we know it is a slightly modified derivative of its predecessor, the Olympus.
There IS a plan of the Olympus, available from my stunt buddy, Henk de Jong.
He has drawn it, then had it checked and approved by Louis himself.
Actually the pinkish/orange Spider in the pictures is the second Spider built when no. 1 met it's premature end,
shedding most of its outer wing after an encounter with a rather solid soccer goal post.
Only weeks before the WCh in Helsinki, Louis took what was still useable plus a bunch of balsa and recreated the plane.
With no time left for a fancy finish, it became only coloured tissue with some silver and black trim, where no 1. was entirely silver/orange/black.
But even with the brand new ship, Louis still managed being one of  Europe's best placing pilots.

About 5 years ago Louis took up Henk's offer to restore the Spider, bringing it back into a flyable state.
The story is in our Dutch forum (http://www.modelbouwforum.nl/threads/de-spider-van-louis-van-den-hout-in-restauratie.202348/),
but as I suspect not many of you mastering this sister language to the English, ask away!
By the time the finish had to go on, it was pretty much a two man affair.
Henk's make shift spraying boot doesn't allow for ingenious contraptions that hold the model in all required angles.
So completely covered and fitted with goggles, breating mask and gloves, I played 'paint stand'.
Holding up a model of that size with stretched arms is not something I'd do every day, only for the good cause....
But it all payed off, just look at Louis' face:

Behind Louis is the entire 1994 (Shanghai) Dutch team, Henk on the right, Erik Janssen (who built two Veco .45 from a shoe box full of parts,
leaf through the Dutch story and you'll find his report under his forum name 'F2B') in the middle and me on the left.

As for the wing, the tip plates on the Spider are more or less the Olympus' ones, but reversed.
The fuse sort of morphed, from the Olympus Mk1. (the plan), through the twin fin Olympus (I first saw when I was still flying my .09 beginner model), into the Spider.
The full size Olympus plan can be ordered from Henk de Jong, just contact me for his e mail address.
I am sure Henk will  fill you in on the details that make it a Spider. He had it on the bench for long enough....

Bruno

The Olympus Mk.1 plan:

[Ron Varnas]

Hi Bruno,

Great info. on Henks resto on the Louis's Spider, so I gather a plan of the Spider
is not available from Henk , one needs to do mods off the Olympus plan?

Ron

[NED-088]

Like said, I can put you in contact with him, he certainly has ideas how to handle this.

[Air Ministry .]

Kaz Minato has this Olympus Plan . Can you tell us where its derived , Bruno .

[Scott Richlen]

Note the difference in canopy and rudder shape, landing gear, and rear bottom of cowl between the two plans.  Different marks?

Nice looking ship!

[Ron Varnas]

Scott & Matt,

Pretty sure plan above is the Gerard Billon of (France)  version he flew at W/Cs years ago,
there are 3 versions of the Olympus plan around, Henks, Gerards & Alan Brickhaus.

Doesn't help me in regard to the "Spider" though 

Ron

[Air Ministry .]

With Bruno's post , should be enough to nail it .



If your stuck , i'll scrible up a mod of the Olympic Drg , pretty darn accurate .
Two Sabre Fury drgs I did , two weeks apart , from Photos and 35 3/4 Zorst ( and Spinner , as per Griffon ) came up identical
bar one .25 line for backplate overlapped . Of Course , after that , We found a works ?  structural Drg of a Sabre Fury ! .

[NED-088]

Indeed, Billon presented his version a few years after Louis. (1968 vs. 1964?), but I don't know for sure.
Here's what I picked up along the way. No idea how I got it.

And this is the drawing Paul Tupker (one of my early days stunt mentors) made for our national modelling magazine in 1964:

The first international exposure must have been at the 1964 WCh in Budapest, as seen on this picture from Paul Tupker's collection:

These were the days that models still carried a local registration, in this case the UKH numbers, telling us that Louis recently had moved to Utrecht and his first Olympus was the first plane registered for that club (UKH-001), the orange one to the right, in the shade.
The newer UKH-002 possibly is the second Olympus ever, I have no info on the colour.
It might have been orange as well, but over exposed and turning grey in the picture...
This is the Mk.1:

Then, I think, Louis made a P-51 lookalike, based on the Olympus lay out.
I have seen that model, but I don't remember seeing it fly.
Where the two earlier Olympus were pretty identical, after the P-51, some rubbed off on the Olympus Mk.2:


I still have pretty vivid memories of seeing this model in the air. 'Impressive' is the operative word....
Team trials 1968, group shot:

In the back my mentor, Paul Tupker, with a Thunderbird, the first 'real' aerobatics model I ever saw.
To the right, with his dark red Olympus, Henk Twerda, who unfortunately died at a young age, about the time Steve Wooley passed.
I've seen him -in training- nailing outside squares with 15" bottoms without ever blinking, just because he could...

Then came the Spider:


For some reason our worst mishaps always happen just before an important contest, don't they?:


Meanwhile he had moved back to 's Hertogenbosch, hence the new registration on Spider 2.:




I'm not going to put Henk's Email on a public forum, but if you'd like more info, PM me and I will connect you. 

[Air Ministry .]

My Theory is someone got a Shark 45 Kit , and made it look like a Olympus .
Somebody else made a Olympic & made it look like a Shark 45 .
Wonder If Thats a Shark 45 Canopy, Ron .

I think its obvious, you need to Build a Olympus , And put bits on that look like  the SPYDER , then sand them back , when youve gone to far you add a bit more on . then itll be Right .

[NED-088]

My Theory is.....

Question is, however, what really happened.
Easy to find out. I gave the solution on the 'how to' already.
Unless you don't want to know, of course......
Olympus and Spider were all scratch built & canopies hand made....

[Air Ministry .]