The Mini Whizz Delta – an ideal first plan project.

Mention ‘built from a plan’ to most at the average flying field today and an image of a highly skilled old-timer in front of a large ¼ scale Tiger Moth complete with fabric stitching, wire bracing and braised undercarriage will spring to mind. Not all plans need be so complex or strike so much fear and today’s subject is the Mini Whizz delta. This small and simple design by Brian Cooper was offered as a free pull-out plan with the July 1999 issue of RCM&E and has been popular ever since. Within my local club Mini Whizz’s were for a long time the model of choice for streamer combat. Hopefully you will also see how easy some plans are too follow and be inspired enough to have a go yourself. Even a simple aircraft like this will stand out as unique within a flight line dominated by ARTF clones.

I’ve not been able to find the plan on RCM&E’s plan service but the original magazine can often be found on eBay or magazine exchange. I will see about getting my plan scanned and uploaded (with RCM&E’s permission).

Unlike a kit, the parts will need to be cut out from a pile of freshly delivered raw balsa. The quantity and grade of wood required is up to you to determine and will require measuring the length of spars, ribs and formers on the plan to compile an inventory (I’ve listed this at the end of this post).  For this Mini Whizz I ordered the wood and all accessories online from Slec for just under £50 including postage.

Raw materials – cannot wait to get started!

The wing frame is build up from lengths of 4.76mm x 12.7mm (3/16″ x 1/2″) medium grade balsa strip. Accurate joints are key here and I used white wood glue for strength.

The elevons and fins are constructed as per the wing frame using 4.76mm x 12.7mm (3/16″ x 1/2″) medium grade balsa.

The wing is then sheeted (topside first) in 0.8mm (1/32) medium grade balsa sheet. I used cyanoacrylate to butt join the sheets together on a flat surface (remember to use polythene sheet between the balsa sheet and building board). The frame is then brushed with a coat of white glue, laid onto the sheet and weighed down.

The fuselage is a simple box affair and the only component where you have to translate the parts from the plan to sheet wood. The formers, all rectangles, are easy to do. The fuselage sides were produced by overlaying the plan onto the wood and then marking the outline using a pin to prick into the wood every cm. Remove the plan and it is simply a case of joining up the dots with a pencil. I made use of a small Hitec servo tray, held with self-tapping screws onto lengths of hardwood strip glues onto either fuselage side.

Dry assembly prior to covering

And that’s it – one simple delta that is fast, manoeuvrable and offers seemingly endless vertical climb-outs.  Hopefully I’ve inspired you to have a go at some balsa-bashing for your next project!

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