My Zaggy

[bearcat]

Hey guys. This is my Zaggy. It's a 5 1/2 ft wingspan, with a chord at the base of about 15", narrowing to about 6" at the tips. With radio (not including battery), it's around 22 ounces, so light wingloading.

The strange thing is, it was designed with a symmetrical airfoil, so I've always thought it would make a great pylon racer. (That's cool, maybe we should think about making a pylon course somehow). But for now, the plane is unpowered. It's what they call a "bridge glider".

I want to change a couple of things on it though. The beat-up silver nose, I want to replace and have the new nose red like the rest of the plane. But that's minor. What I really want to do is to build a pod on the back of the fuse to attach a motor. Then I want to go with a 3 inch ducted fan, to keep the smooth looks of the Zaggy. However, I want it removable so that I can still fly it as a slope soarer or bridge glider if I want to.

I was going to install a tricycle landing gear, and even bought the stuff for it. However, it's not really necessary on the grass flying field we fly on. There is one thing I'd like to do. I'd like to include some carbon fiber rods through the wings just to make them handle the g's better in pylon racing.

What do you guys think? Cool ideas, or would you do anything different?

[Lt Swiss]

Classic! You should get to it and fly that thing.

I Googled 'Zaggy' and they're all traditional flying wings. Couldn't find a Zaggy like yours. I had a plane like that though, it was the Stryker F27. Very fast 100mph. I will get another one soon I'm sure. Love the speed...

Stryker F27...

[bearcat]

Mine was a classic kit or plan back in the late 60's and early 70's so I've been told. It was meant as a "bridge glider" but it's peculiar to me that it has a symmetrical airfoil. It has potential to be a very fast airplane, and I'd like to see how fast. This thing would be cool if I stuck a small gas turbine jet on the back, wouldn't it? I'm a LONG way from that though.

The way it fell into my hands is because a friend of mine who is into RC bought it in a crashed condition on E-bay but asked me to repair it for him and add a rudder (which Zaggy's don't REALLY need). So I did, but then he didn't have the money to pay me for my efforts, and instead just told me to keep the plane as payment. So now it hangs in my office.

[bearcat]

I think before I add a bunch of weight to this plane, I should just try it as a belly-lander. I want to make a detachable pod behind the fuselage to place a powerful outrunner ducted fan. That way, I can remove the pod for slope-soaring if I want. This would make a nice slope soarer, except that it's probably slightly fragile compared with foamies.

Most places where we fly do not have nice asphalt runways anyway. So why bother with the weight and complexity of landing gear if it isn't needed?

I don't think it needs the rudder on it either, but I added it when I was contracted to repair it after a crash. The guy wanted a rudder, even though on a wing you don't need one. Well it's got one now, so will probably only be used during crosswind landings, I suppose.