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WHAT DO YOU GET?
When I opened the box, I found a nicely
fabric-covered, sport-scale Fokker Dr.l.
When I looked through the contents of
the box, I found that it included the
plane, a dummy engine kit, machine
guns, a painted fiberglass cowl, vinyl
decals and a very complete-looking set of
hardware. I could no longer control my
enthusiasm, so I got busy at once! Within
40 minutes of opening the box, I had an
assembled triplane sitting on its wheels.
ASSEMBLY
To make sure I got it right, I began by
reading the included instructions. As 1
stated before, there really is not a tremendous
amount of work involved in getting
this plane ready to fly. I began by hinging
and installing the ailerons and elevators.
The hinges were among the few parts not
included in the package. I chose to use
medium Robart hinge points.
The kit includes all of the necessary linkages to
assemble the control system. I devised my own
method of hooking up the elevator-control surfaces.
The Fokker comes with some cable for a pull/pull
control system on the rudder, but I elected to use
Nyrod instead.
5O MDDEL AIRPLANE NEWS
a^ssjy
The triplane's wings
all come in one piece
and can be easily
attached with the supplied
metal bolts. The
cabane struts and interplane
struts are also
formed and ready to bolt
into place with small
L-brackets and screws.
The landing-gear wire is
already bent to shape; all
you have to do is insert
the wires into the
mounting slots in the
bottom of the fuselage
and into the sub-wing fairing between the
wheels and then secure them with the
supplied straps and screws.
The instruction sheet was a bit unclear
about how to install the tailskid; it simply
said to install the tailskid and spring with
the supplied bungee. A quick call to the
folks at Arizona Model Aircrafters
cleared everything up. The tailskid
should be installed with the supplied
angle brackets and screws. Next, attach
the hooks to either side of the fuselage
and then attach the spring to the skid
by running the bungee through it and
looping it around the hooks. Arizona
Model Aircrafters did inform me that I
had received an early version of the
model and that the directions have
since been modified.
ENGINE INSTALLATION
This is the only part of the assembly
that might be difficult for a beginner. I
elected to use an O.S. .52 4-stroke
engine in my plane. Because this is a
The Fokker
was designed
for both electric
and glow
power;
I chose to
install this O.S.
.52 4-stroke.
The size of the
plane and the
number of
wings may
tempt you to
install a larger
engine. Resist
the urge!
good-size plane with a lot of wings, it took
a great deal of willpower to resist the urge
to install something larger. I suggest that
you also resist this urge.
The plane is designed for either electric
or glow power, but glow fliers will need to
slightly modify the model. You must
enlarge the hole in the firewall so that the
4-stroke carburetor can extend back
through the firewall—a requirement if the
engine is to fit inside the cowl. Laminate
the two '/4-inch plywood engine mounts
together. While they set, enlarge the center
hole of the cowl to fit your engine and
mount the cowl on the plane.
Next, set the fuselage upside-down,
tape the engine mount into place and
mark the exact location of the engine on
the mount. Drill your mount holes, attach
the engine to the mount and then epoxy
the mount/engine assembly into place,
making sure to center the engine's crankshaft
in the cowl hole. It actually sounds
more complicated than it is.
At this time, I modified the plane to