Scratch Built de Havilland Beaver (Free Plans!)

March 13, 2015|Captain T

One day I was flying my HK Bush Master and a tree popped out of nowhere and destroyed the plane. The electronics were fine so I decided to make a new plane from the electronics. I decided to try and recreate the de Havilland Beaver. I chose the Beaver because it looked like a relatively simple design and I have always loved this type of STOL aircraft.

I started the build by studying some diagrams I found on the interwebs.

After I got some of the general design aspects from the diagrams, I started cutting out the wing. The wing is 60 inches long and has a 22cm chord. It has 11 inch ailerons and has 15 inch flaps. I wanted big flaps so it could slow way down and take off in a few feet. I am using four 9 gram servos on the wing (2 for ailerons and 2 for flaps. One reversed)

Then I took some pictures off the internet of the Flyzone Beaver to try to copy the color scheme the best I could. I used colored packing tape to do all the colored parts.

I also used a very dense plastic material for the wing spar so I don't fold the wings. I have lots of experience with folding wings on big planes, so I didn't want to take a chance on this one.

After I got the wing looking the way I wanted it to, I started on the fuselage. The fuselage was pretty easy other than the windows. I don't have any artistic skills whatsoever, so I asked my Mom to do the windows. I think they turned out quite good! I also had some old 5.5" tires from a 200% spitfire that I decided to use on this. They look so cool!

The landing gear is from the Bush Master too. I cut a hole in the bottom of the fuselage and glued the mount inside the plane rather than outside to give it a cleaner look. I also ran 2 carbon spars where the landing gear mounts to strengthen the foam

After my Mom sketched out the shape of the windows, I went over it with black packing tape.

Then it was time to mount the motor. The motor mount I had was kinda strange so I had to use BBQ skewers to hold it in place, I also cut out a small sheet of 1/8'' plywood to help hold it in place.

The battery is mounted just behind the CG on a balsa battery tray from the Bush Master.

I decided to mount the wing with simple rubber bands because it was easy and it worked. I used some of that dense plastic spar material to hook the bands onto.

After I finished the fuselage and wing, I started on the tail section. I used the 25 gram servos that came with the Bush Master, but I think 9 gram servos would have been fine. I think I kinda messed up the vertical stab shape, but it works so... ya. I also added the little winglet type things to the horizontal stab to match the Flyzone Beaver.