½-A flying afforded my friends and myself a convenient way to go flying without the need for parents. I used to grab one of my friends, a bottle full of fuel and a battery, one of my planes and walk across the street to the church baseball field and fly until the fuel bottle was empty. That was a good 2-3 hours!
I only had 1-2 designs that I thought were FUN to fly, as compared to a .35 size plane. I mean that would do anything you wanted to do, in any conditions. One was the Little Satan; it was all right, and would do pretty good figures with a Black Widow .049.
My favorite was the Big Otto. Man, I loved that design. I did, however, modify the nose from the plans and had the firewall against the leading edge of the wing, therein shortening the nose about 2”. Perfect for a Black Widow.
The thing about the Big Otto was that the wing was HUGE. It was really more in the range of a .15 size wing. Very thin airfoil, no taper to the wing. Covered with Silray and two coats of dope, was also virtually indestructible over grass. Monokote would be even better. A very good stunt trainer.
Most (if not all) of the common ½ A designs miss the boat because the wing is too small, and will stall too easily to do any real maneuvers. The Big Otto would FLY!
I will make a commitment to start a Big Otto 2001 project this year for one of the new ½-A engine designs. Anyone got one of those old kits that I could get a look at? I do not think the plans were full size.