FLYING FOOL PICTURES

LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-06 AT 11:31 AM (CST)
 
Here are pictures of my fool, as mentioned on another thread. Now, I don't want you men getting jealous. KB28 power. This was one of my favorite of all airplanes. The first picture shows it in its day, complete with speckle paint. The later pictures show it now, with lots of dust!

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Well, since we're on the subject of Flying Fools, here's mine. Built it in 1980. It uses a homemade fuel tank (not uniflow) and a McCoy .35 for power. The muffler is a Fox designed for the Stunt .35 and attached with straps from a small DuBro tongue muffler. (Had to cut the mounting ears off of the muffler to make a place for the straps to attach. Flys pretty nice but it's heavy, owing to the six coats of white and metallic blue Formula-U and a lot of Aerogloss Balsa Fillercoat. I'm told that it looks really nice in the air.

Well, that sure looks good Bob. I'm afraid the weight was the killer on this plane. The kit wood was heavy, but it was a compact, heavy type of plane anyhow.

Nice planes. Always was a fan of the "Flying Fool" maybe because I fly like one. They certainly could have put a little more airfoil on the wings. My profile was have basically the length of the original but it is going to be the "Little Stinker" type. Thought of re-working the wings to get the sweptback effect but why go thru so much trouble when I don't know how long it will last. You see, I tend to take home some re-building projects from the field. My wife questions why I put so much into them at this stage but I enjoy making the model look as good as I can.
Made note of the inboard wing being longer than outboard for future reference.

The pictures bring back memories of the late sixties I built one too.I used Pactra aerogloss and gave it a brush paint job,used scotch tape to do the masking.It flew with a K&B Stallion.35 that I bought thru the mail from Americas Hobby Center. Later on when I was stationed at Macdill AFB I built another one. Really liked their looks.Maybe it could be built lighter using modern techniques and use a smaller modern engine.Another plane that I would like to build again.

Juan

LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-06 AT 02:48 PM (CST)
 
Wow, Juan! You made yours look like the one on the box. That is a really super looking plane. No man can go wrong with white with red and blue over it. That is the proper way to paint a plane. How did yours fly? Mine would only do the basics. That was okay with me, too. I am not into it to make it a bunch of prerecorded "maneuovers." I like to have a good time and that fool was a good time with two wings.

I, too, built and flew a "Flying Fool" back in the late 50's,
powered by a McCoy .29. I made wheel pants for it and fairings
for the struts. First flight the top wing blew off, and she really
got *fast*!
Fast-forward to the 80's, adn I bought a "Fool" kit with the
intention of building another one (and do it right this time!)
The kit was such a *disaster* (wood quality and die-cutting) that
I sent it back to Sterling with a letter of complaint. I couldn't
even use the rib sheets as patterns, they were so bad.
That's when I met the late Joe Perovitch, who at the time was the
"guy in charge" at Sterling in Philadelphia, PA.
(He was a great stunt flyer at the time).
He described a Flying Fool that he'd built, using ribs from the top
wing to build the bottom wing at the same *chord* as the top wing.
Powered by K&B Tornado "green head" .35, he said it would do the
pattern with no shame.
So he sent me all the necessary bits to do the same, and personally
selected all the wood in the kit. Naturally, I never built it, and
sold the kit when I moved to Arizona last year.
I *did* have the pleasure of meeting his son (Joe also) and flying
with him at our Philly Fliers field at Neshaminy State Park. He's an accomplished stunter in his own right, but has been doing other things.
DAT
I hope he gets back to it.

Well Floyd I was and still are learning to fly. In those days I was on my own had nobody to learn from or exchange Ideas and methods. read Flying models and MAN but didn`t know about the 4-2-4 break. I just set the needle to a 2 stroke and flew it fast. All I did was level flight,Inside loops and maybe a wingover. I`m glad that I didn`t remove the black plastic venturi insert in the Stallion .35 it was fast enough for me the way it was. I was using a Top Flite Nylon 10/6. I never dared to fly inverted with it anyway a few months later I losted on a loop. I have wanted to build again the plane wish there was a plan available. I`m posting a head on pic.I have always loved the Red,White & Blue probably paint it again like the box.

Juan

Had a lot of fun with the one I built in the AF. Drilled the mounts for the Fox 35, found out it also accepted the Fox baffle 19 and 25. Flew about the same regardless of which engine I used. So far, the only plane I've had that could do a Sabre Dance without having to set the needle so slow and rich it couldn't loop or do a wingover. Lost it doing touch and goes in the base commissary parking lot. Had to touch between islands, then touch the top of the next island. Engine ran out of fuel while on the asphalt, couldn't clear the island.

I currently have a NIB Sterling white box kit and a rebuildable basket case somebody gave me.

I had two of them, crashed both trying overhead manouvers. McCoy 35. Does anyone know of a source for plans?

Have not been able to find plans for it. Would certainly be interested in obtaining a set for future use. Checked with several plan services but none available. Probably not a large demand as it is not a stunter. Let me know if you find a source for the plans.

I had a McCoy 35 Blue Head in mine in the late 60's. That is the RC version, with 3 line control. Couldn't do much more than fly level with it. Somehow got the plane balanced just right as it would actually hover into a 5 to 10 MPH wind. Mine had an unusual camo paint job of Orange and blue, but at least I could see it against the background of trees.

I traced all the parts of the kit I currently own. Reducing the weight from that of the kit will be no problem. Can use thinner wood, less plywood with modern materials like CF, and 8 to 10 lb wood instead of the 16+ lb wood my kit has. Think I'll put aluminum gear on it for looks and simplicity. The wheels available back then weighed 2 oz or more so easy to save weight there.

Except for nostalgia purposes an engine like an LA25, FP20 or 25, or even a 30 4 stroke would be plenty of power most likely.

Really a cute little plane, looks like it could be a semi scale model of a 1920's plane. Guess that is why I like the way it looks.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-06 AT 02:15 AM (CST)
 
Juan,
Great looking "Fool"

Dennis,
I used to see Joe Jr at GSCB contest.. It's funny what you don't (me in this case).. I never new the connection to Sterling.

Way back before Shea Stadium was built, we flew occassionally at the Willets Point parking lot. One day, one of the guys had a "Fool". We all flew it. It wouldn't do much, but we had a ball. Touch & goes etc! That was a great day!

heh...daddy built a flying fool way back. what a dog, it probably weighed 7 pounds when he got finished with it. landed like all of the cox plastic half-a's.....engine quit, it stalled and flipped to the ground!

"i ain't got it! really, i ain't got it!!!"

I wish a friend of mine still had the old magazine plans for the original pre-Sterling Flying Fool. Looked almost like the kit, but the rear deck was formed from three flat pieces instead of the rounded style of the kit. He flew it for many years with a Fox .25. He taught a neighbor kid to fly with it, and gave it to him. Nice thing is, this kid was able to repeat the action a few years later.

He thinks the plans came out of MAN.

I dont have a current photo but we built one of those, in 1979 and I thought up till now, we were the only ones who did !

LOL

Got the face decal also! hehe Mine is white and dust.

Hey! It's been TARTED UP!!!!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-06 AT 09:58 AM (CST)
 
I got those decals fair and square. The kit came with some which were only printed in blue and white. The ones on the box were in full color, so I sent a nasty letter to Sterling and told them I wanted those decals in full color. After all, it was not too far to drive to collect them in person. I was very pleased when they sent me two sheets of full color decals. From then on, any time I had the slightest problem with one of their kits I sent the parts back and they sent replacements. I must have built at least 30 of their planes and I sure liked them a lot.

I've built many Sterling kits, never had any serious or insurmountable problems with their parts or fits, except for maybe super hard, heavy balsa. Even had one of their rubber powered Piper Cubs which was a very good flyer. Of course, for the Cub, I used their parts as patterns to make new parts from contest grade balsa. I still have at least 23 of their kits, including a Flying Fool, and 4 of their boats, including the American Scout C-2 Freighter. I also have 5 of their other CL models built and flyable.

I still want to find the time to rebuid the basket case FF or build the kit. I had a lot of fun with mine.

I still would love to find a kit for their SE-5 CL kit. That was another fun one, and was very close to scale, as well.

Guess I may as well add mine to the thread, from about a hunnert years ago...

That looks like the Sterling Howard "Pete" that the person next to you is holding.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-06 AT 11:56 PM (CST)
 
>That looks like the Sterling Howard "Pete" that the person
>next to you is holding.
>
>Bob

Could be--I've been unable to recall that one; too many years, I guess.

Someone sent me these to post but I've lost the email with his name. I apoligize. This is a very nice Flying Fool.

Dang, That makes me want to build one!
Chris...

Rick that`s a beauty.Wish there were plans available I don`t want to go to ebay and pay a lot for a kit.I would like to recreate mine and I can scratch build. The decals might be a problem but it wouldn`t stop me from building another one in the future. I think I will end up building all the planes I had again,had good memories of the old days.

Juan

These planes look too good to fly!

Glad to see some interest again in the Flyin' Fool. I mentioned it on this site a coupla years ago and was all but tarred-n-feathered!
I did another one anyway, and have still another in the mix! My 1972 Fool was bought at a flea market from a nice chap who was selling all his deceased brother's stuff. His brother drowned while swimming out to his swamped R/C boat at the Campbell, Calif. perk ponds. This sad story prompted me to buy everything, (he didn't want to see any of it again) Six planes were there, the Fool; Sterling Mustang & Ringmaster; C.G. Buster, Cosmic Wind, & Shoestring. All were painted Navy Grey, his colors. The 'Fool' had a Fox .35, and was silk-covered. I removed the Fox, and sanded-and-sealed, then gave it a coat of insignia white, with red sunburst. Kept the Fox .35, it flew too-fast-for-scale, but loops and wingovers were the order. Dragged tail inverted, but looked soooo cool! Reliable airplane, taxiied with some 'down' elevator. Up on the mains for 3/4 lap, then right up into a wingover...
My present one has Fox .25, and the belly has been fitted with 5 longerons to 'fatten-up' the fuse profile. Looks much more scale.
One more thing: I set the upper wing with 2 degrees negative incidence. (leading edge lower on top wing) After flying the same plane (AND OTHERS) with neutral (zero-deg.) then cranking in one-to-two deg. neg., a lot of 'hunting' just disappeared. I urge Bipers to do this.

I expected somebody to chime in with what a dog the Fool was, too. Last time it came up I just about got run out of here. Sheeshh... it was just a fun plane.

Received fax today with formers,etc. for the "Flying Fool". Unfortunately they are coming out dark and I am unable to use them. They may be on yellow or some colored paper that causes the fax to come out really dark. Appreciate it if could be sent again. Tried responding to number on fax but advised not a working number. Bennets indicated on fax. Thanks!

If you could find someone who has a kit, they might be willing to scan the decal sheet and send you the scan file. You could then imbed the file into Microsoft Word or Power Point and print the decals onto a sheet of decal paper. Kind of tricky but definitely possible.