The beautiful 59 Ares

I remember the first time I saw this plane. Young Bill had just won the nat's with it beating out all the Old Foggies as a Senior. He and I are about the same age, and I remember the hope I had for myself as a wannabe stunt champ, because someoe my age had shown it could be done.

Well, I've found that Bills skills as a designer, builder, and pilot were, and still, are way beyond mine, but I always wanted to build his signature ship.

Ambroid kitted it a few years later, but that was about the time other interests were taking more of my time. Like most of us, service in the Navy, marriage, kids, etc. etc. and now it's the early 80's, and ambroid kits are long gone.

I did manage to get my hands on a CLC re kit of the Ares, but got talked out of it by a buddy who just had to have it. He built it and flew it at one of the early VSC's. Sigh.....

But I now have hope, I just recieved a set of plans from Brodak. He's going to kit the plane. Laser cut as well. This is one set of plans I'm really motivated to convert to CAD. I don't know how soon it'll be released, but the plans will be a work of art. a tribute to "The Man".

Though you guys would like to know.

John

I'm wondering why everything is spinning around?

That's wonderful news, John, and it saves me the effort of finshing my own set of CAD drawings of the Ares. Several years ago I started a set I was going to give Bob Holman for laser cutting, but they got set to the back of a list of other drawings for free flight and R/C subjects (my Civy Boy 61 drawings alone took me six months to get right), and I never finished them.

I do have a few observations about laser cutting an I-beamer that you have probably already thought about. First, laser cutting allows the tip-rib/jig-plate to be cut precisely to the same height dimension as the fuselage sides and doublers. Since the doublers will be laminated to the sides before wing assembly to the fuselage, it is important that the finished side/doubler edges not be heavily sanded after laminating (to sand away glue squeezeout), or the height dimension will no longer be the same as the tip jig.

The wing spar webs often won't come out straight after cutting them from a sheet, whether you slice or saw them out, so it wouldn't surprise me if many of them deform after laser cutting them too. The great advantage of laser cutting them is that the slots for the bellcrank in the webs, doublers and triplers, and for the front leadout in the inboard web, will all be perfectly cut. Since the webs often warp after separation from the sheet material, I hope John will be willing to only use the straight ones. Some laser cutters can etch a dark line onto the wood surface, and a centerline down each spar web would be a great building asset. Also, marks for the rib locations on the spar would be a great help. Precut holes for the landing gear would also be useful, because if they aren't drilled perfectly the legs will not exit exactly centered between the ribs.

One of the things that I was looking forward to with my own laser cut Ares was to have all of those ribs cut perfectly without having to hand slice them. Slicing by hand is no great bother, but the laser cut ribs will be more consistently accurate. For my Ares I made the CAD ribs all the same length, like the original model, to be cut to final length during assembly as per traditional I-beam technique.

A feature I did on my own drawings was to incorporate small locating notches for the ribs in the stab and elevator. Getting rib alignment straight the traditional way is no great bother either, but the notches make perfect alignment sooo much easier.

I realize that you have probably foreseen all of these issues. I just wanted to let you know that I am glad someone as thorough and competent as you is going to make these drawings. What a wondeful kit this is going to be!

Bill Groman

Bill Groman

Hi Bill. And when are you going to finish that other great beauty, the Cobra? At the rate I'm going I will have mine done before you. Just finished up a 59 Ares from Bill W. and Warren Tiharts plans. I have a Control Line Classic kit and and Ambroid kit. The Ambroid kit is very heavy. The wood is not 4 to 6 lb stock, it is closer to 10-15 lb stock. Makes for easier die cutting I guess. I had to replace over half the Ambroid kit as it was missing when I bought it from a jerk in southern Cal. I got another one on this board and it is comlete and strictly a collectors item. I had heard that Brodaks was dealing with Bill Werwage about his Ares and was going to kit it. I will get three of them. I know they will be the best version out there, ever. Ceptin Billys course!!

Hey Chief,

Yes, I am slow as mollasses in Minnesota about getting the Cobra stuff posted to the site. Partly it is because I have to stop so often to set everything up for photographs, then sometimes I have to go back and redo previous steps because there are many little mistakes on the plans that I want to warn others about. Then, after all of that, I have to do my two-finger typing for all of the captions.

The wing is well along, and most of the prep work for it is posted, if you haven't visited the wing page lately:

http://www.classicaircraftmodels.com/CobraWing.html

Looking ahead, I have been considering painting it with Windy's B-25 aluminum, with candy red trim in the original trim scheme.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Bill Groman

Bill Groman

Bill, I thank you for your kind words. I really want to make this one of the best sets of plans it can be. The plans I'll be using are from Tihart. I've been told that they are the most correctly representative of the 59 Ares that Bill flew. I spoke to Bob Hunt last night re: the plane, and good contact information for "The Man". He informed me that there were a few changes Bill made to the original plans from Warren and are incorporated in the current plans from FM. I'll be getting a new set as soon as possible.

I would very much like to have Bill's input.

Thank you also for your suggestions.I will keep them in mind as I go. John B. and I have already spoken On the subject, and the ribs will be laser cut. Johns' laser will cut 1/4" balsa, so the root ribs will likely be laminations of 1/4" balsa. I'm wondering if they should be cut about .030 oversized to allow some sanding.

I'm also reviewing Bills tape on building I-Beamers, and want to see if hel would use those techniques on the Ares today, and if they should be incorporated into the kit.

Any more good input will be appreciated.

Best wishes, John Miller

I'm wondering why everything is spinning around?

Hello again, John,

Your mentioning making the root ribs a little oversize reminded me of one more strong recommendation I'd make about the rest of the laser cut ribs: make them all several thousandths thicker, at least at the trailing edge. Once the trailing edge is preshaped it is difficult to do much final sanding to it after it's built into the fuselage, so if the ribs sit just a hair too high they can easily be bar-sanded down to match. If they are dead even, the TE itself gets hit a lot during the smoothing operation. Bringing the ribs down to a perfect match only takes a few strokes, but if the ribs are cut to exact size, there are always some that sit a little low, leading to more difficult evening out at the TE.

Bill Groman

Bill Groman

John-

What great news. John Brodak told me at the Cleveland Contest that he was talking to Bill (who was a judge for expert that day), and I was so pleased. As I remarked on another thread, the picture in the 11/59 AM of Bill and "Ares" after his big Nationals win was the eye opener for me too - to think that another kid, only slightly older, could produce such a wonder. It redefined what model airplane building could be for me, and that image has remained with me for all these years away. It was the chief attraction to get me reactivated in the hobby. My 40-some year old "Whipsaw", painted in Werwage "Ares" trim, hangs over the work area here. I may wait to build mine from such a kit, although the temptation remains to start soon from scratch.

I know you'll do a great job. I'm curious what changes Bill made to the 59 Ares plans I got from him; I didn't notice a difference in the plan as printed in MA, although I thought he might have forgotten to label a couple spar components. Also again, thanks for sharing your flapless data/drawings with me.

"Ares" -How exciting!

SK

Hi Serge. I was 19 when the plane was presented in AM. I fell in love with it. Nothing says stunt like an I beamer, Ares, Cobra, Atom, etc. I have gone crazy with collecting Ares kits. I now have three, lost a bid on one the other night, and have made two of my own kits (scratch building). In other words, I can hardly wait for John to produce the Ares. If I can build one, then anyone can. Once you learn how easy it is to assemble an I beam, it's hard not to use this system on other planes. Tom Morris's two wing types are similar. Light, strong, quick.
The only difficult part for me was installing the control horn for the flaps, as the Ares has a swept forward trailing edge. On the next one, I will use two split horns.