[dmichael]

It's obvious that the Giants love seeing a new bird being put together. Even more so, I can see that the group likes to see something built from scratch- truly from scratch, meaning you draw it up and build it yourself. Like most of you, I have been following Paul Sandys (paffy) Extra 300 build thread closely and I am just being blown away. The plane that I designed, built and flew during the 2004, 2005 and part of 2006 seasons was not nearly as impressive an engineering feat as what we see taking shape in Paul's shop. Nonetheless, it was for me quite an undertaking and I was very pleased with my efforts. What I hope to show you in this thread is that you don't have to be a smart guy like Paul to design your own- with some building experience under your belt anyone can do it. It is a very pleasing experience to fly something that you have built from the ground up. This plane has been flown competitively in the Unlimited class of IMAC.

Now, having said that, if you don't like building it might not be for you. And, yes, you can save some money- but not as much as you think. I estimate that, based on the retail prices I paid for the materials including the cowling, canopy, wheelpants, landing gear and foam wing cores, it cost me about $700+ to frame this plane up. In the grand scheme of things, the additional cost of a kit- even the most expensive one- is not all that much more - given that we probably have at least $5000 in a 40% plane I saved at the most $500- around 10%. That extra 10% gets you a kit or ARF that requires less work and has been proven to fly well. When designing your own, you are essentially building a prototype and you don't know what you'll get when you fly it!


One other thing- I have no intention of selling plans or kits. To me, this is a hobby and I enjoy it very much- I want to make sure I keep is that way!

I had taken a lot of pictures and wrote up a first draft for an article that was to go on the IMAC site. I never quite finished the article (lazy) and it has just sat partially completed. Along with the article I took about 150+ pictures. So, rather than let the effort go completely to waste I thought I would share the pictures and some thoughts with all of you.

I had designed and built a few planes in the past including, over the years, a 120 sized Sukhoi, a 33% Staudacher, and a 33% Extra 300L. With this experience, I started on my 40% Extra 260. Back in 2001 I drew up plans for what was to be my first 40% plane. At the time, there were not many Extra 260's out there on the market- I think that the Dalton 260 (at the time it was still the Troy Built/Von 260) might have been the only 40% 260 available. In designing my 260, I was influenced heavily by the Carden designs- Dennis's Extra 330 is, to me, the prettiest 40% Extra ever done. In addition, his construction methods are not difficult and allowed me to build a 40% size fuse using standard sized balsa and ply.

Step 1: Draw it!

In coming up with a design for the 260, I drew several different versions on 8.5" X 11" sheets of paper until I settled on one that I liked. Based on a wingspan of 120", I stretched the fuse every bit as much as I could while staying within the 10% max deviation. I don't remember what that measurement ended up being but I rolled out my plan paper, drew a line from left to right and made two marks to indicate the fuse length. Then, I took my small drawing and projected it up onto the plan paper that had been taped to the wall. After copying the fuse shape, I pulled it down and started drawing in how I wanted it to be built. The result is below. Please forgive me if you have difficulty seeing the plans. They are pencil drawn and don't show well in pictures.