Pierre's Planes: Drenalyn 420

This was a quick build aerobatic slow flyer, intended for indoor flying. It was built at 70% scale of the plan, instead of doing it full size with a speed 280 or 300 motor.

Building:

It's all pretty much made with foamboard material, with the paper peeled off for weight reduction. The fuse is made of two layers of foamboard, separated by a chunk of pink foam in the nose, and some formers. It's thick and sturdy enough that the stiffening dowels shown on the plans weren't required. I didn't have a transmitter with mixing capabilities at the time, so I installed a simple mechanical mixer, which works quite well. It consists simply of gluing the two servos together, and mounting them on a pivoting base. The finish is a light dusting of Krylon spray paint.

Flying:

I've haven't had a chance to try it out much yet. Flies leisurely with the 9x4.7 prop. Should be more aerobatic with a 9x7. Sure aren't getting much duration out of these small packs, as it needs a lot of RPM's to keep moving.

One of the chaps on eZone sent me a couple of videos which are representative of the flight characteristics of this plane. See them here.

Detailed views:

	Close up of the mixing arrangement viewed from the top.The left servo for ailerons, and the right one for the elevator function.
	Bottom view with the pivoting base. The elevator servo rocks the pair.The fuse sides were reinforced with strapping tape.

Pierre Audette
pfaudet (a) videotron.ca
08/12/2007