Precedent Fly Boy - remember it?

[Rich Griff]

Hi Paul,

 

Would that be a fuz of a hi boy MK1 ?

[leccyflyer]

There's a BNIB Hi Boy kit on ebay at the moment.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256292043384?hash=item3bac323a78:g:NDEAAOSw1XplT8t~&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4AEzQTQnYfphgJAm%2FUlcxMEh%2F%2FPc3vB5YXIh%2BUej7A2hMuQBEqRBxHbddgM4%2B5zWdcSusdiGJOIBK%2B%2BhfFDeYS49GHje%2BtPBLilLvxb5SpGeJ5QBtbRXA1M0LYNG4PbTj1py6pQLdUj8qtFIFHqagzPjKEWWIIzMlHbXDBuzHevSwFXTmGzTONRAxp5CwQ99WkLX2zOZkS8dSOcq0FTkRHsYJm8%2BoEXcvgj8ZoRXBzu6CAa3hyo0TqjiHF02azKccmi%2B8eoE3SaNuE6ZN02fvJqIQvV%2BwFraG%2ByRuqp77Zsz|tkp%3ABk9SR5Cyrc34Yg

[kc]

The Hiboy has always been a good model but the Fly Boy was not popular.    There is a Hiboy complete with .40 engine and servos for 75 pounds on Ebay now as 'buy it now', but collection only.  

I would suggest the RCM Trainer 40 plan is likely to be a better substitute these days than an old ply /foam wing HiBoy.  Similar big fat wing section 58 inch span  but balsa construction and the  one piece elevator seems more practical than an elev joiner.

 

A modern plan for an electric trainer seems needed nowadays  as ARTF trainers  have become expensive now and building your own plane from balsa is part of the hobby. 

[Adrian Smith 1]

I started off on the Fly Boy. Two flights in and I crashed it irrevocably. I think it said more about my ability, or lack of it, rather than the plane itself!

[Robert Thompson 10]

My Flyboy after the modification to enlarge the fin area, flies really well. It had an old but good OS Max 20 engine and was adequate but an upgrade to a Magnum 25 made it very lively. Still on Futaba 35meg for flying.

Use low rates on rudder to stop it trying to do a roll on take off. Normal rates in the air.

I kept the rudder area as on the plan and it’s fine. Do not use the light ply supplied for the engine bulkhead even though it has engine bearers.

A heavy arrival or take off mishap, will punch the tank through the soft material. Face inside of the former with ply or make a replacement ply former.

[Nigel R]

15 hours ago, Adrian Smith 1 said:

I started off on the Fly Boy. Two flights in and I crashed it irrevocably. I think it said more about my ability, or lack of it, rather than the plane itself!

 

Snap (well, I made about four flights, I think). It wasn't a bad airframe, I was a bad pilot!

 

 

[Arthur Harris]

20 hours ago, Nigel R said:

 

Snap (well, I made about four flights, I think). It wasn't a bad airframe, I was a bad pilot!

 

The Precedent planes were heavy but flew well. In those days, no one knew that electric powered foam planes would take off (literally and metaphorically!). Now it is hard to find a traditionally built kit, which were once the backbone of the hobby of RC planes.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Arthur Harris

[David Davis]

1 hour ago, Arthur Harris said:

The Precedent planes were heavy but flew well. In those days, no one knew that electric powered foam planes would take off (literally and metaphorically!). Now it is hard to find a traditionally built kit, which were once the backbone of the hobby of RC planes.

 

Chris Foss, Galaxy Models, DB Sport & Scale, Mick Reeves, Ben Buckle, The Vintage Company, SLEC, who now offer both Peter Rake and Belair kits as well as their own kits, Dancing Wings, Super Flying Models, Warbirds Replicas and even Seagull all offer kits which you can build.

 

If you don't like any of these offerings, Sarik, DB Sport & Scale and others offer plan packs or short-kits in which all of the difficult parts are cut out for you. You simply have to provide the strip and sheet.

 

PS. In my opinion neither the Hi Boy nor the Fly Boy is a good trainer. They're both far too heavy and fly too quickly for most beginners. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from people who learned to fly on these models but I say to them that you learned to fly despite the models' qualities not because of them.

 

If you could fly one of these you could fly anything!

Edited November 14, 2023 by David Davis

[Geoff S]

10 hours ago, David Davis said:

 

Chris Foss, Galaxy Models, DB Sport & Scale, Mick Reeves, Ben Buckle, The Vintage Company, SLEC, who now offer both Peter Rake and Belair kits as well as their own kits, Dancing Wings, Super Flying Models, Warbirds Replicas and even Seagull all offer kits which you can build.

 

If you don't like any of these offerings, Sarik, DB Sport & Scale and others offer plan packs or short-kits in which all of the difficult parts are cut out for you. You simply have to provide the strip and sheet.

 

PS. In my opinion neither the Hi Boy nor the Fly Boy is a good trainer. They're both far too heavy and fly too quickly for most beginners. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from people who learned to fly on these models but I say to them that you learned to fly despite the models' qualities not because of them.

 

If you could fly one of these you could fly anything!

 

You won't get any flak from me and a large part of my training was with my instructor's very tatty but serviceable Hi Boy at Goosedale.  I'd built a trainer of my own (IIRC a Global SST - Super Sport Trainer, which I gifted to my instructor the day I passed my 'A'!) but, if I chose to cycle to my lessons, I used his model.  I built a Precedent Funfly when I gained a little confidence and used that for the test - it's from the same stable as the Hi Boy etc but a vastly superior model that's still available from SLEC.

[David Davis 2]

8 hours ago, Geoff S said:

 

You won't get any flak from me and a large part of my training was with my instructor's very tatty but serviceable Hi Boy at Goosedale.  I'd built a trainer of my own (IIRC a Global SST - Super Sport Trainer, which I gifted to my instructor the day I passed my 'A'!) but, if I chose to cycle to my lessons, I used his model.  I built a Precedent Funfly when I gained a little confidence and used that for the test - it's from the same stable as the Hi Boy etc but a vastly superior model that's still available from SLEC.

 

I agree.

 

 

[Nigel R]

21 hours ago, David Davis said:

In my opinion neither the Hi Boy nor the Fly Boy is a good trainer. They're both far too heavy and fly too quickly for most beginners.

 

Seagull Boomerang is, what, 6lb, time its fitted out?

 

I'd be surprised if a Hi Boy was much different.

 

Here's an unstarted kit on ebay

 

One of the big plus points for this kit - in its day - the interlocking fuselage parts meant you had a good chance (as a beginner) of ending up with a warp free model. Foam wings also meant things were (in general) straight. All fairly quick to put together, too.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Nigel R

[David Davis]

1 hour ago, Nigel R said:

 

Seagull Boomerang is, what, 6lb, time its fitted out?

 

I'd be surprised if a Hi Boy was much different.

 

Here's an unstarted kit on ebay

 

One of the big plus points for this kit - in its day - the interlocking fuselage parts meant you had a good chance (as a beginner) of ending up with a warp free model. Foam wings also meant things were (in general) straight. All fairly quick to put together, too.

 

Ah but the Hi-Boy had a tapered wing and less wing area, therefore a higher wing loading.

[Nigel R]

4 hours ago, David Davis said:

 

Ah but the Hi-Boy had a tapered wing and less wing area, therefore a higher wing loading.

 

I'll put a fiver on it being constant chord and therefore the same wing loading...

[Alan Gorham_]

My Hiboy is certainly constant chord. Why would you complicate manufacture of a very simple model aeroplane by using a tapered wing which has no advantages on a trainer model. I also don't believe the Hiboy flies faster than any other trainers on the market. I believe that there was a trend for people to fit them with modern Schnuerle ported 46 glows when the original instructions said that an Enya 35 was ample. Certainly mine flies nice and gently at just below half throttle in level flight. It was last used this summer to give 3 of my old Uni mates some trial flights and they certainly got the hang soon enough. 

[leccyflyer]

45 minutes ago, Nigel R said:

 

I'll put a fiver on it being constant chord and therefore the same wing loading...

Expensive covering -how many fivers would it take to cover a Hi-Boy wing?

[David Davis]

1 hour ago, Nigel R said:

 

I'll put a fiver on it being constant chord and therefore the same wing loading...

 

I stand corrected.

 

[Nigel R]

3 hours ago, leccyflyer said:

Expensive covering -how many fivers would it take to cover a Hi-Boy wing?

Less than solarfilm would cost. 

[Robert Thompson 10]

Found a photo of my Fly Boy. Hopefully it can be seen to have a wider width fin profile by 1 inch. Height remains the same so as not to mod the rudder. Increasing the width made a difference for taking off. I had spare solarfilm left over from building it, so the mod looks original. Hopefully the photo uploads. Last flown in 2021 with a Magnum 25. This model still on 35Meg.