Jetco Dragonfly is Pure Nostalgia!
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Thanks to RUclipsr @gliderflyer for posting his original Dragonfly kit plans to Outerzone.co.uk where folks can browse and download for free, thousands of model airplane plans in PDF form. It's easy to resize them on your computer screen to an appropriate size and use tracing paper to copy outlines. You can make any plane, any size and stuff some capacitors and a motor in and off you go.
Hi guys, great channel, went to Old Warden Biggleswade in England for free flight fly-in, took a Dragonfly supercap and had most awesome time, several near fly aways. Lots of interest still in these models. Fantastic fun. Many thanks😎
Man , that intro was great .
Thanks, glad you liked it! I cracked myself up recording that intro! ...Wasn't sure anybody would get the gag. -Mike
Glad you guys are still out there.
Stay safe.
Yes, we're still keeping our heads down and safe so far! Hope you're doing the same. Snowing like crazy at this moment, no flying today! Thanks for dropping a line!
@@sonex413 beautiful day here but cool.
Working away on the old champ. Cylinders are on and magnetos are timed, waiting for new spark plugs and hopefully I will be making some smoke
@@spurgear4 Glad to hear you're "plugging" away at the Champ! Sounds like fun. Hope you have heat in the shop. Take care!
Hey Mike, Love the channel. Did you ever work in Glenolden Pa. at U,S,A, circa late 70's, is so we crossed paths.
Nope, never had a connection to PA but I'm glad you like the channel!
Thanks guys for a nice video!
Our pleasure! Thanks for watching. Stay safe.
Great to see a new video guys 👍😍
More to come! We thank you!
ok, thanks. found them. There's a place in town where I can get plans copied or percentage of size altered. This is fun
Very cool! I need to explore this a bit more. Thanks
Thanks for the new video! Missed you guys!
Thanks so much! We appreciate your friendship!
Wow Biplane 🥰🙋👋👋👋👋🌈 Always take care Sir ....🙏🙏🥰
Pls visit my ch .Sir 😅😅😅🙇♂️✌💖💖
Yes, thank you. I enjoyed visiting your home page!
@@sonex413 ==🙏🙋🙋🙋🙋🎵🎼🎶🥰
Interesting blast for the past, looked great 👍🏻
Thanks 👍 The new year is off to a good start!
Rediscovered Jetco Dragonfly is a real find, happy new year
Yes, the Dragonfly translates very well from balsa to foam...you almost don't have to change a thing! Best part...no need to fuel proof it!! Happy New Year to you and yours as well, stay safe!
Beautiful plane. Looking forward to the build video.
Thanks 👍 Working on it today. Stay safe!
Looks a little like the Sterling Lil’ Hornet. That had a 5 sided fuselage but this model really looks great and a perfect candidate for the supermarket trays. Great idea for forming the airfoil.
It does! I remember another little free flight called a Dipper that had lines like these. Yep, great old design, Richie built his own after this session with a 720 motor and 10 Farad cap, and I built a second, micro version with 10 inch span and a 6mm motor with 6 Farad cap. We'll get out and fly them after this next blizzard.
The Hornet is one of my old favorites! Not everyone knows that model. I just finished tracing out the parts of the kit and I will draw it up in CAD. Yeah it has a neat diamond-like 5-side fuselage, and the die cutting on the original kits was pretty rough!
@@mjd4174 Richie says those old kits had "die crushed" parts!
Outstanding guys! Love the intro! :)
Glad you liked it! It was the result of cabin fever, I think my mind must be slipping. Maybe I watched too many episodes of "Wings"!
@@sonex413 Wings was the best!! Keep bringing your fun videos, guys!
Glad to see you back. I really love how you built that classic thing out of "new" materials and with capacitor drive. Intro of the video sounds perfectly authentic. 😁
Thanks! I think I've watched too many episodes of "Wings" during the lockdown. Think it's getting to me.....
@@sonex413 😂👍
That was a fun video to watch! Loved it thanks! 👍
Awesome! Thank you!
Great video! One of my earliest memories is flying the Free Flight Dragonfly with my dad and brother at Marymoor Park, east of Seattle. I'm reasonably sure you couldn't get away with that these days! I built my current Dragonfly with light sheet balsa and installed the radio gear out a HobbyZone Champ. Mine isn't as pretty as yours as I never find time for paint when there's flying to be done, but it's a great little flyer indoors or outdoors on a calm day. I still have dads 50ish year old Dragonfly on the shelf. It still flies in my memory but I've never had the guts to put it back in the air. I am kind of thinking about it now after watching you old kids having such fun!
Thanks! Great story and memories! And thanks again for sharing those plans and patterns. Richie was so impressed he built one like mine but with a 720 motor, and he's almost finished with another one, 8520 powered. I also built a micro version, 10 inch span, 615 motor/6 Farad cap. See what you've started!
That was awesome! I love that DragonFly ;-) You guys do such great work on these Nano Planes. See you in the Air!
Thanks so much! I liked mine so much I just built a baby Dragonfly with 10 inch span, 615 motor and 6F cap. Identical color scheme, looks like I put the big one through a shrinking machine! Also coming soon, a half size 1/2A Goldberg Skylane cap free flight! See you in the air, meanwhile stay safe and build something! -Mike
@@sonex413 , I can't wait to see the "Honey I Shrunk the DragonFly" ;-) I'm currently working on getting the PDF Tiled Plans to our GFS F-22 Mini V2.5 complete and I'm building our T-33 Micro Beta Prototype ready for Testing. I'm Building.....I just can't Build as fast as you guys ;-)
Hay guys from New Zealand, I've only recently found your channel and am really enjoying your content. This little dragon fly has inspired me to buy some components and have a go. How is the build video coming ? I look forward to getting started. Thanks again
Welcome aboard! Sorry for the delay in producing that video, I promise I'll get right on it! It seems I need to build another one anyway (and so does Richie), as our Dragonflies have both succumbed to fly-away syndrome! They almost fly too well!
great video. Love that Dragonfly. Where can I get one?
Plans are free download at outerzone.co.uk along with thousands of other designs. The actual Jetco Dragonfly kit has been out of production for more than 50 years but it's an easy build from plans. Sorry it took so long to answer your question!
Great to see you guys again and what a great intro to the video! Classic! Nice tip on forming the foam with heat. I will have to try that. Fly safe and stay well.
Thanks! Richie tried the heat forming without success and gave up. There are a lot of variables and I ruined some scrap pieces before I started zeroing in on the technique. I'll talk about it some during the upcoming narrated slide show build video, but basically I found that you need to sand first for material removal followed by heat and pressure to compress the final 1/16 inch you need to "remove". Also, if you apply heat to the foam and before it cools "burnish" the surface with something smooth like a bic lighter or a deep socket you'll get a smoother finish. PS if you smell plastic, you're way too hot...somewhere around the upper range of what you'd Monokote at is right and heating the foam takes time...it's not a good thermal conductor....
Stay safe, best to you and yours!
I built a Dakota this winter.
Hi Bill! I'm assuming a full size original Dakota, not a little cap job. Richie still has his original balsa Dakota, the one that spent about 6 months out in the woods....The Cox motor ran afterwards and Richie is threatening to fly it again sometime, but I don't know...the fields are so small around here! Take care.
@@sonex413yes full size Dakota powered by an OK Cub .049. The way Richie's climbed on Cox .049 I think the Cub will be plenty of power.
Have the Supercaps, have the motors and props, have the meat trays, downloaded the plans, Ready to build and fly my first Dragonfly. Torch Tata, President N.E. Phila. RC Club
We have had nothing but good results with this design, hope yours flies as well as ours!
I have a soft spot in my heart for Jetco Loved the looks of the jetco Gliders That Bipe flew great High five fellows
Glad you enjoyed it. I built a bunch of Jetco stuff too. Thermic Trooper, Thermic 50 and 50X, and Richie had a Jetco Navigator flying boat with an OS .15 for many, many years. Anybody remember the Jetco Eastwind motor glider? It had a retractable pylon mounted gas motor on top!
I love the classic intro. Had me going for a second till you said Sonex! You guys are having too much fun!
Glad you enjoyed it! As you can tell, cabin fever is setting in!
👍👍👍
Big Thank You!
The boys are back in town!!!
We'll try not to make too much trouble!
Really injoy your videos did you use any thrust angles on the dragonfly?
Thanks!! Yes, the dragonflies all have some down thrust along with some side thrust depending on motor rotation direction. The amount on the original drawings intended for a gas motor are actually a good place to start. If I recall correctly it might be about five degrees of both...
Thanks for the reply. Just got done making a couple of the little build along and got some 30 and 35 sec flights. Keep up the awesome vids.
one more thought on construction. How do you build the body of the Dragonfly? Do you stack a certain number of styrofoam pieces for the body?
Yes, exactly....however many you need for the desired strength...it's all experimental!
Looks awesome! I would love to build one.
You should! I'm working on the build log slide show this afternoon. You'll be able to follow along. The design can be scaled to suit whatever motor you may have on hand.
Don’t launch on concrete when you have a field. 😀😀😀😀😀
I’ve downloaded the jetco biplane plans. I just need to buy some meat. Maybe a lot of meat!
We have learned to love chicken and chops since beginning to build these! Maybe we will begin to share recipes on the channel!
Did you ever finish the build PowerPoint for the Dragon fly FF?
I want to learn to build one!
Marc V
Hi Marc, sorry for the long delay on the building instructions. I took the project off the back burner this week and I've been working on it. Hopefully very soon! Have you seen the older build-along series I did a while back?
ruclips.net/p/PL7SpYfvruCgDklw6PAESD-2g6nVWtKLMz
Check out the series while I finish up the Dragonfly Video! All the building techniques shown are applicable to the Dragonfly build. -Mike