??? Need suggestions...

[Bootlegger]

      I am looking at building a "stooge" and want to get suggestions for setting one up on my models, profile and full fuse.
  I don't want to hook to the tail wheel as this set up is removeable on all my models. I am looking at going thru the fuse, but am uneasy about a wire flailing about in the area of the stab & elevator that might get caught in same.
  What say ya'll

[RC Storick]

I cant post a drawing but I have seen a device that used 2 wooden dowels in front of the stab one on each side of the fuse. Pull the string and then it folded to the ground releasing the plane.

[james dean]

After looking over several designs for stooges, heres what I consider the lesser of many evils.  I used a steel plate 3/8 thick with a brodak release and a tube covered cable for the restraint. You do not need a machine shop to build this. If you have a drill press and taps you can make this design in your shop. Remember that stooges are inherintly EVIL and can cause trouble no matter what you choose for a design.  This design has caused the least trouble that research could produce and has given me no trouble for either full body or profile planes and has a reasonable reputation with those who have used it.  Good luck. Hope this helps

[james dean]

More pics

[james dean]

And another.......

[Steve Helmick]

Jim...I used a similar setup for awhile, except that the cable was replaced with a new nylon shoestring. It worked for a few launches, but then jammed in the crack between the end of the elevators and the fillets. As this was at the Arlington site (big, grass), I held onto the handle and walked into the airplane, behind the lines. Scary, but got away with it. Shut the engine down and went home, you betcha!  Steve

[Russell Shaffer]

I used nylon cord and it also caught in the tail end.  I wasn't as smart as Steve, I had 2 hang ups before I quit using this. 

[Russell Shaffer]

The two dowel method was posted by Leonard Neuman on Stuka Stunt.  There were pictures and it works quite well. No trailing wires or strings. 

[Bill Little]

Windy Urtnowski showed his stooge in one of his videos several years ago.  He used two barn door hinges, two pieces of 1" dowel attached to them (the other end of the hinge is attached to a sheet of plywood, size up to you) with the dowels covered with rubber pipe insulation.  It releases clean and I made one which I used several times.  This does hold the plane by the stab.

Mongo