1/3-Scale Cessna 185 ~ by Gunny Bumburs at Aviation Concepts

[JimD]

Having scale tow plans to go with our scale sailplanes has been a challenge, but we are starting to see this void filled with some excellent planes. Gunny is well on the way with his contribution to this market.

After much thought and collaboration with a group of tow pilots, Gunny decided that the Cessna 185 would be his subject. This plane has appeal well beyond the tow plane niche, so many are anxious to have this plane come to the market.

Gunny is planning this as a complete kit, all wood included (not a short kit).

Here is a picture of a full-scale cessna 185 and some "spy" photos to tease you with!

[BryanB]

Very cool and yes definitely appeal! I did my primary flight training in a 185.

[Sinkhappens86]

This is going to be a spectacular kit. Gunny has a lot of cool stuff planned that should be included in the kit. Really looking forward to building/flying one!

[BryanB]

As much as I like the C185 we really need a 30% one of these that is structurally capable of towing.

[gunny11]

L-19 Bird Dog, one of my favorites... Vailly Aviation (now sold through Ziroli Plans) has it in 1/5 scale all the way up to 1/3 scale. Roy Vaillencourt And Nick Ziroli Jr are very good friends of mine and we are in the same flying club. So I didn't want to step on their toes by designing something that they already have out there.

Thats how this 185 project got started initially 3 years ago when Jim D. started building one of the Bird Dogs and it got shelved because it wasn't a "Gunny Kit" lol.

[RickS]

Rosenthal USA for the Bird Dog.

[gunny11]

So, I started with the tail wheel assembly first.

[edfmaniac]

Nice welds!

[gunny11]

Thanks, the girls do all my welding for me.

[lenb]

very nice Gunny

[ARUP]

Agreed! Plus... this bird is big enough to kick some RC parachute guys out the door!

[gunny11]

That will be easy to do. Just like the full scale the doors can be removed.

[Soaranator]

Beautiful! Are we going to see it in action this Spring?

[gunny11]

No, Summer it should be flying

[gunny11]

So this was a consortium design/build. It started out with just JimD and I. Then Sinkhappens jumped on board followed by LenB. These guys are just some of our NorthEast tow pilots. So group texting and pictures back and forth is how it's coming all together. Again, thinking outside the box, I'm getting great input from these guys as far as what they really want in a tug. And this was a lot of fun to do.

So the first thing that was requested was a heavy duty tow release mechanism using instead of a soft 4-40 pushrod wire but 1/8" dia. music wire release pin.
And here is the result.

[nichda]

Looking forward to this one, should be a great addition to the Tow plane list and as a scale replacement to my Pegasus.
What engine size are you targetting, 120-150cc with or without canisters?

I have very fond memories of the C185 and landing on a glacier at Mt. Cook in New Zealand many years ago as a kid !

[gunny11]

DA 150 with stock mufflers. I would love to visit New Zealand. My father did and it's gorgeous there.

[gunny11]

Starting with the fuselage build the first thing to do is to join some of the formers together.

[gunny11]

Former F2 is 1/4" birch ply and has 1/4 lb of lightening holes, These holes will come in very handy later on in the build. When the model will be finished they will be capped off with 1/16" ply laser cut covers to prevent oil dirt etc, from entering the model.

[gunny11]

The "Tow Plane Package" will have the tow release and cross servo mounting rail.