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Design => Stunt design => Topic started by: Eric Viglione on December 07, 2009, 10:39:54 PM
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From another thread, I had promised some more pic's of Wayne & Jim Smiths Tracer designs. I hope they will chime in here. I believe they are based on a Stiletto 660 wing? The rest is of their own design.
Wayne let me fly his, and it flies as good as anything I have had a handle on. Jim's is the same, except he went with the split cowl inlet, and a different paint scheme. Both have PA61 on pipe. Previous Tracers I seem to remember having Discovery Retro 60's, and 4-Strokes as well. Jim has an older one with a Saito 72 even. I don't know if they ever drew up full size plans...
Here's a few pic's of the different Tracers from over the past few years I've seen them build, Starting with the new one's, going back to the 2005 Rebel Rally.
EricV
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Eric,
Thanks for the pics. I like the design although I'm not to fond of the flat sides around the canopy area.
As fate would have it, yesterday afternoon I came across some prints of the Scarinzi Grey Ghost plans and realized why I liked the Tracer so much. I always thought the Grey Ghost was cool and unique and after some comparisons the Tracers look like they could be modernized versions. The canopy and rudder shapes are a bit different but the fuse profiles and wing tips are similar.
Its too bad plans for the Tracers are not available.
Mike
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Hello everyone,
The original Tracer I, as most models are, was the blending of ideas from Jim, myself, and aircraft that we were familiar with since we were just returning to the control line world. Bob Gialdini's Stingray was scaled up to a .60 size version and this wing was utilized with the addition of elliptical wingtips. The fuselage moments were retained/adjusted to follow the current standards. The fuselage profile came from an r/c airplane design called the Flying Machine that had a distinctive style and because of the side area flew knife edge extremely well. Jim & I felt this side area would serve us well in the stunt circle. This plane cornered extremely well and was very stable with good pull everywhere once we found the powerplant that performed well - in this instance a Saito .56. Tracer I was covered with monocote and weighed 59 ounces with the Saito .56. Tracer II 's remained the same regarding the fuselage but the wings were changed. Jim used a foam Impact wing and I used a Tempest foam wing and elliptical tips were added. Jim's Tracer II weighed 78 oz and used the Saito .72. The plane flew extremely well at this weight with the .72 pulling through everything. My Tracer II weighed 64 oz and used a Saito .56 and also flew extremely well. The biggest reason for the weight difference was the foam wings. Jim & I had cut the foam wings for Tracer I and my Tracer II but Jim purchased the Impact foam wing from a commercial source and it was twice as heavy as our cut foam wings.
Wayne
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More:
The pix attached in my previous post was of the Tracer II's at the 2004 Nats.
The Tracer III that Eric has provided pix of still use the basic fuselage profile as Tracer I but construction is different. We agreed on a wing that is a cross between the Impact and the Tempest and the wings were fully sheeted Millenium wings with landing gear in the wings. We switched to piped engines so the fuselage depth beneath the wings was increased to accommodate the pipe. The Tracer III's both weigh 65 oz with a Brodak dope finish. Jim is in the process of modifying his 2nd Tracer III (we built 4 of these at one time) to use electric power and it appears it will weigh 73 oz with the batteries installed. This is only 2 oz more than with the plane fully fueled using the piped setup. We should be flying it shortly. We have full size drawings of the fuselage, stab, elevator and only an outline of the wing. I guess one day Jim or I will have to learn to use Autocad to finish these drawings. Hope this sheds some light on these (in our humble opinion) fine flying airplanes.
Wayne
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Thanks for the info Wayne,
If you ever make plans available for the latest versions with the deepened fuses I would like to get a set. I'm not ready for a piped plane but I like the looks. What is the wing area of this version?
And please don't be shy about posting pics and info of the electric Tracer. That should be very interesting.
Thanks,
Mike
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let me enhance this shot...(beautiful model!)