SOME NOTES APPERTAINING TO MY NORTH AMERICAN HARVARD
by BOB NASH
(written 25 January 2001)First, a bit of nostalgia
I have heard it said, and very much agree, that if you have the chance to fly in a Tiger Moth it is the one flight that you will never forget. I had my one and only unforgettable flight in a Tiger Moth whilst at a Cadet Camp at RAF Hullavington on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire during the glorious summer of 1951. The main thing I remember about the flight, which took place in perfect, blue sky, flying weather, was how the small windscreen deflected the airflow over your head so there was no wind in the face effect - until, that is, the pilot deliberately yawed the aeroplane to the left by using opposite rudder and ailerons, when the full wind effect could be felt on the right side of the face!
In the beginning....
Some time after this, having started to fly radio controlled slope soarers, with the Sheffield Society of Aeromodellers (SSA) I became determined to build a radio controlled model of the Tiger Moth. Consequently, sometime around 1973, I bought the Complete-A-Pac CAP2 plan for a 57” span Tiger Moth and started to build. I think it took me about six years to build, mainly because I was in no real hurry to finish it, especially as I had to buy an engine, which was a relatively expensive item in those days. The accompanying photograph shows the fully built, but as yet uncovered, model on display on the SSA stand at the former Rowlinson School, Sheffield Summer Fete in June 1974. I finally installed a Merco 61 (inverted within the scale Gipsy engine cowling) which drove a 12 x 6 propeller. It was finished in bright Trainer Yellow with the Serial No. T4714.
Joining the Club
Although having always wanted to, I had never flown a radio controlled powered model. But now I had one. However, I decided to persuade my wife to buy me a trainer kit for my Christmas present in 1978
and chose the Kamco Kadet which I completed early in 1979. However, just as I completed it I had to work away from home, in Gloucester, for about two month so it wasn’t until May of 1979 that I mentioned to Shirley Outram, wife of Keith Outram who had the Sheffield Hobbies Centre model shop on London Road, Sheffield that I wanted to join a powered model club. She said she would mention it to Ashley Hoyland, the secretary of the North Anston club who normally called into the shop on a Saturday during his lunchbreak from Cole Brothers.; consequently I was invited to the flying field, where I turned up with my new model. Subsequently, having spent the next few months learning to fly, and land, a powered model I was invited to join the Club; and I have remained a fully paid up member ever since. The model, unfortunately has not. Various prangs during this learning period resulted in a number of repairs using glasscloth and epoxy; hence the weight just about doubled. The final repair was a modification to the empennage and resulted in a new shape in the NASA sky - a relatively large T-tail!!“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright”
So, what has all this got to do with a Tiger Moth?. And, what is more, what has it got to do with a Harvard? Well, read on. Having mastered the art of radio controlled flying (do we ever?) I decided it was time to bring out the Tiger Moth. I was greatly encouraged by Ashley who had the same model, but his, G-AIIZ, was finished in the red and silver livery of the London Flying Club. Flying proceeded during the fine summer days of 1979, fortunately without too many incidents, and continued throughout the summer months of 1980, when the club organised a Scale Day for members with invited modellers from neighbouring clubs - the pictures of this event, which show both mine and Ashley’s Tiger Moths can be seen on the NASA web site.
Getting there....
Having now one scale model, and having succumbed to the scale bug, and in particular to scale trainer aircraft (which might have had something to do with that bright yellow colour scheme that looks great on a brilliant sunny day against a blue sky and also to the fact that they are fully aerobatic) I decided it was time to decide on my next model. After much searching of my wartime aircraft recognition books, various magazines and determining the availability of plans, I decided to purchase the Brian Taylor two sheet plan of the North American AT-6 Harvard, this being it’s British name as it was known as the Texan in the USAF and as the SNJ in the US Navy. I received the plan in June 1980, as the postmark shows and as I noted on the envelope. At that time I think that, apart from possibly the plans service of one of the modelling magazines, the Brian Taylor plan was the only one available. This contrasts to the position today where there are any number of Harvard kits on the market, the industry having discovered the type in the intervening years. However, towards the end of that year, just as I was about to start building, I had to go to Russia where I remained for the rest of 1980, all 1981, and for various periods ranging from one week to six months until the end of 1986.
Nearly there....
The Brian Taylor plan is for a 68½” model powered by a 0.45 to 0.61 cu in engine. It had a fixed torsion bar undercarriage - and that was the first thing that I decided to change. Local redesign round the main spar area where the tapered outer wing joins the parallel centre section enabled me to install a pneumatically operated ROM-AIR main wheels retractable undercarriage, which I bought at Sandown about 1983. It was in September 1984 that I bought the engine, a brand new OS120 FS, a new model at the time from OS, from Tony Woodhouse, a former member of this club, who used to buy new engines without necessarily having a particular use, or model, in mind for it. It was Tony who first called me Russian Bob, due to my frequent visits to that country and also because I always wore my Russian fur hat when I came to the flying field in winter. He even called me Russian Bob when I saw him last year (2000) at the LMA event at Catton Hall, near Burton-on-Trent where he was flying his Sigma Skybolt!
Almost there....
For various reasons, although retaining my club membership and turning up like a bad penny at AGMs, I was for a number of years inactive in the modelling world. The Harvard, almost finished and requiring only a fuel tank and radio gear lay on the bench unattended. Then, on retiring, I decided to resume my aeromodelling activities. The first thing was to get something to fly; and learn to fly again. That is when I finished the Warrior. The Warrior 40 was a Barrie Lever kit which I bought at Sandown in 1984, built the wing, which I covered in epoxy and glasscloth, and then put to one side, probably because of my Russian excursions. This was the blue and white, low wing, trike u/c model I flew when I started flying again in 1998 and on which I regained my flying confidence - this is usually recognised when an intended manoeuvre suddenly becomes an unintened potential disaster but is corrected almost involuntarily by instinctively doing the right thing with the sticks. I then decided to replace my twenty year old Futaba gear and so bought the latest JR X-3810 computerised equipment. Due to the tight fit of the servos in the Warrior and the difference in mounting hole centres, I decided to leave them in place, having been persuaded by various “experts” that the JR gear would operate the Futaba servos - no problem!! The first flight of the model in this configuration was its last! Take-off and climb-out to left turn seemed normal, but as it came round to over fly the “Big Tree” field it developed a series of intermittent, uncontrollable, high rate rolls. Consequently it flew into the ground - a complete write-off.
Made it!!
The five JR servos (elevator, rudder and throttle in the fuselage; ailerons and undercarriage in the wing) had already been installed in the Harvard. Now that the JR receiver and battery pack had become available it was a fairly easy job to install them and finish off the throttle linkage to the engine. All was now set for the preparations for first flight The sixteen year old engine started first time! Swinging a 16 x 8 prop the power output was quite phenomenal (just as well as the model weighed about 12 lb, or 5,5 kg); the problem was getting the engine to run slowly enough such that the model would remain stationary on the ground. (This problem, and that of slow running without cutting out during throttled back manoeuvres such as the ‘over-the-top’ stage of loops and stall turns, and during the landing approach, was only solved when an on-board ignition system was installed). The full size aircraft was prone to ground looping - and the model was too, if not held by slipstream flow past the rudder (rather than the steerable tailwheel). This became very apparent when trying to turn the model through 180° at the top of the strip and taxying back down to the bottom end with a stiff breeze blowing down the slope.
Up in the air..................and down again
Having gained the confidence to handle the model on the ground it was time to put it into the air and this took place on 22 August 1999, a fine, bright, sunny, blue sky day with a light wind blowing directly down the strip.. Take-off was straight forward, the tail was allowed to rise after about ten metres and, with full power on and a little right rudder, lift-off occurred after about a further 40 metres. Climb-out was straight and a left turn initiated at about 120 ft to bring the model downwind on the cornfield side to the normal cross-wind flying area. The model looked good in the air, especially when “gear up” was selected and the undercarriage retracted. The model was very stable and the trims were left untouched. After overflying the field a number of times some simple aerobatics in the form of a loop followed by a roll were performed; and then a low pass along the strip after which the model was set up for the landing. With “gear down” selected on the downwind leg the model was brought round on to long finals, the throttle being blipped to maintain height on the approach whilst maintaining the right attitude to keep the speed above the stalling speed. Touchdown was a bit heavy causing some minor damage to the starboard u/c leg mounting. However, a 6 min 45 sec first flight had been successfully achieved some 19 years after the project started!!