Scale Rubber Powered Planes
The picture above has faked out more than one reader. It is an actual photo of a 17" Herr Taylorcraft.
Scale planes represent the greatest achievment to me. Most people who get into modeling would like to try their hand at a P-51 or a B-17. Heck, there is a guy across the street from me who is building an 80" wingspan r/c Corsair who has never flown an r/c plane in his life (sadly, that is not unique). The suggestion that you will get from experienced modelers is to leave complex scale subjects on the shelf until you have aquired the skills necessary to build straight, lightweight structures, do at least half way decent job of covering and have trimmed out a few planes. Even then, you are best off modeling a subject where the full scale version was an overgrown free flight plane itself (like a Champ or a J-3).
So far I have built five scale subjects
A Peck Ganagobie. A 13" wingspan (known as peanut scale) plane which flew great on it's first outing in spite of my poor building job. Sadly, the plane was smashed in a baby stroller accident on the way home.
A Herr 35" J-3 Cub. I also did a terrible job of building it, but it flew nicely.
Peck Andreson BA4-B. Another peanut scale plane, this one designed by the famous Walt Mooney. It came out nicely and also flies nicely. I still have it.
The Herr Taylorcraft shown above. The plane looked great when it was done. Unfortunately it proved to be more difficult to trim than my previous attempts and I did considerable damage to it in the process. It obviously did turn in more than one good flight (as indicated by the picture), but it proved to be inconsistant. A modeler in Canada reported to me that he was able to move the rear peg forward allowing use of less nose weight, and reduced the deadly (to the plane) problem of having the rubber motor bunch up in the aft fuselage. He was able to get the weight down below 15 grams and reported some great flights. I intend to repeat his efforts some day.
A Diel's Engineering Globe Swift. Very cool subject. My plane weighs something like 23 grams (0.81 ounces), not bad for around 20" wingspan. Because I like it so much I have been cautious about subjecting it to abuse. It glides well and has flown short flights under power, but I will be seeking the guidance of more skilled flyers than myself before pushing it harder.
My most recent free flight scale subject is an Earl Stahl PT-19 built from plans. Earl never published a turkey, and the PT-19 fits into the catagory of full scale free flight. I don't expect any trouble at all trimming the PT-19 for flight.