Wot 4 - My 52nd Model

This model came-about after I had sold my original Wot 4 complete with its almost un-used original foam veneered wing. I offered my home-made built-up wing to a club-mate, but he surprise me by saying that he already had too many models, "but I'll make you a new fuz for the wing, if you like!"

This was an offer I couldn't refuse, so the new fuz was duly made and presented to me a few weeks later (and the maker wouldn't accept any payment for his work - nor for the materials used either)

The scratch-built wing has inboard flaps, which are used as crow brakes mixed with flaperons

I made the rudder an inch and a quarter longer than normal, to see how this may affect the knife-edge performance

This model was the sole survivor of my garage fire in April 2006. It escaped undamaged because I had only just fixed it up with radio gear, engine, etc, and it was sitting on the garage floor waiting for me to find it a suitable storage area for it in the roof. All my other models were burned and dropped to the floor in flames - miraculously missing this model in the process!

This model has now been flown and has turned-out to be a pretty good flier. The flaps are used for both take-off and landings and are very effective in making take-off runs very short and landing approaches very slow and predictable. The approaches can be made really steep without building-up too much speed and the model can then be flown very slowly onto the strip. Knife-edge is ok but not as "great" as I'd hoped for. Thinking that the rudder's control snake was getting compressed by the slipstream, I changed the plastic inner for a piano wire replacement to see if this improved matters - and it did. I had to move u/c forward from the position shown in the pix to avoid "tip-ups!" It's now a very reliable and nicely-flying "hack"