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Speed,Combat,Scale,Racing => Rat Racing and Team Racing => Topic started by: Lyle Spiegel on February 28, 2022, 06:07:08 PM
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Browsing ebay and saw a kit for Harter Royal Rodent. I'm not looking to buy, but curious to know for nostalgia only, was did many fly the Rodent? Was it competitive? What was the winning engine?
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the Rodent was the first good pan kit, it took over from the mid west rat which had a wooden bottom and changed rat for ever almost all the uprite pan rats were built off the Rodent and then changed for personal pref.mostly bigger wings
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Interesting to know history of Rodent. Where is the SCAT RAT in the timeline? I have unfinished SCAT from CG kit. There was no one near by to me that had any interest or experience flying a rat so I abandoned it. Had thought it might be a good base for a monoline trainer but was advised that was not a good idea due to tendancy to torque roll on takeoff.
I believe Pat King has plans for a larger SCAT RAT, has anyone built it?
Lyle
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If memory serves correct, the Carl Goldberg Skat Rat kit came out in 1964. I built one in 1965, which was my very first CL build and did use it to fly rat race. Built at least a couple more of them later on. (and they do work just fine for a monoline trainer).
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what Mike says it was one of the last profiles and a very good one. Q rat came about later.it is a good size plane and will work well as a mono trainer ,be sure to have plenty of tip weight
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Royal Rodent was my first Rat Racer, circa 1961. 8-bolt Fox 35 Combat Special power. Easy to build. Good, stable flyer. Lots of fun.
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In the early 1960's Harters offered the Royal Rodent, Regal Raider, Student Price, and Count Clipper, plus the pan alone.
I think the pan was $2.95. the Rodent $6.95, and the Raider $7.95. I never saw anybody buy or build the Student or the Clipper. But lots of people bought the Rodents and pans.
I bought one Rodent, then used the pan for a bigger rat when the original top wore out. A club member tried to use the Raider proto but it didn't go well. He sold it to me cheap and I used it for a rat until I crashed it in 1973. The 125 square inch proto wing was just as fast as the 80 square inch rat wing. It was hard to get high enough to pass with the Rodent wing.
Later on 40's got bigger and they burned too much fuel. The Harters pan didn't fit anymore and the price of rat went up.
The Goldberg Skat Rat was not worth anything against pan rats.
I still have my 1970 Harters pan rat in flyable condition.
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Do your remember the Outlaw Rat. It was kitted by (maybe) Flite Line Products.
It had a vertical engine mount with the sheet metal gear attached under the engine with long bolts and extra nuts. The engine mount and fuselage were a pair of 1/2" x 3/8" hardwood engine mounts.
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we flew the regal raider in rat race with the super tiger
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Good times, eh? $7 airplane, $25 for a G21/40. Maybe another $10 for Don's wheels and a bongo drum. Yellow Tornado 8/8 (no cost if taken from a combat plane).
$42 for as good a rat as anybody.