I would like to know if someone uilt or flies the little bird from " ragwing" planes, designed after the church midwing ? ( or similar name) I just saw a picture of it, and I am interested in making a replica. any hints? I am mainly interested in the flight caracteristics of it. The ragwing comment was : " very sporty"... regards. HG
About the " church midwing" racer of the 30'
- Thread starter redwitch
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TFF
Well-Known Member
Start with Heath Parasols and follow the history.
Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
It’s probably worth it to buy the Ragwing plans and compare them to a Minimax (wing area, tail moment, airfoil choice, etc.) as I bet they stack up about the same... assuming it’s Roger Mann’s wooden replica you’re interested in. If you’re after a Church Midwing built as the originals were then the Flying and Glider Manual reprints from the EAA should contain enough to get you started.
Note: for visibility reasons Church left a little gap between the bottom of the wing and the top of the fuselage. It’s my belief that the plane would fly worlds better if that were filled in with something, even Lexan if you want to mostly retain the original look.
Note: for visibility reasons Church left a little gap between the bottom of the wing and the top of the fuselage. It’s my belief that the plane would fly worlds better if that were filled in with something, even Lexan if you want to mostly retain the original look.
I was talking of the ragwing version. i didn't know about replicas of the original bird. Could be fine for me. I look for a project with a good classic look,( not for racing, obviously.) The genuine one was great. Actuallly, I live in france, so I'm not familiar with EAA publications. where can I get these reprints from? About the gap in the wing, I think the same. interactions with fuselage are certainly really bad. H.
Chilton
Well-Known Member
The original drawings were published in the flying and glider magazine and are also on the internet as a PDF here: Plans for Everything - Aircraft Plans I dont think they are copyrighted anymore.
Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
I don’t believe those drawings are complete. I’ve had in my hands original prints of the articles reproduced in the Flying and Glider Manuals and can confidently say that the EAA definitely cut a bunch of information in their so-called reprints. Maybe it’s a liability thing. No matter, the FGM Heath plans are for the scratch built version that is built using a sort of 1930s version of what we’d recognize as tube and gusset construction today, except with plenty of wire bracing and joints riveted together with roofing nails or some such. We can do better. Instead, if someone is interested in building a Heath Parasol (or Church Midwing) it would be well worth their while to seek out the drawings for Heath’s alternative factory built components which are a much more familiar and reliable welded steel truss. They do exist and anyone truly serious will be able to find them.
Chilton
Well-Known Member
Usually around here everyone wants tube and gusset! 
I thought the drawings were all there, but they were not brilliant to start with, the plans of the era left a lot to the builder I believe.
I thought the drawings were all there, but they were not brilliant to start with, the plans of the era left a lot to the builder I believe.
Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
A bit of that, too. A couple solid examples of what I’m talking about are the Long Harlequin engine article has about twice as many drawings in the original printing, and there’s an article in the reprints about a prop or a prop driven boat (I forget which) that ends abruptly mid-sentence after a half page while the original was about a seven page article.
On the other hand, as far as I can tell the Pietenpol drawings are darn close to complete if not 100% and I suspect the same of the Gere Sport. I think one of the primary gliders presented has also been built a couple times out of the FGM. The Lincoln Sport looks complete until you decide you want to start building a fuselage when it starts coming up short in a hurry. The Heath is the same way, I was going to build a rudder or something (again, I forget exactly which surface) just to hang up and there wasn’t enough detail to really even start. Given the period popularity, success, and general conformity of the Heath Parasol including scratch built ones that leads me to believe that there once was much more detail available.
Mr Chilton, you know much more than me about it! I was just trying to find basic drawings of the Church midwing, only to decide if I use the "Ragwing" version, or if I can find some data about the genuine midwing, enough to start a replica. mostly the dimensions and general drawing. As you said, the construction of that era was not the most simple, and I will decide how to do it. any idea of a " views blueprint with dimensions? thanks. H
Bill-Higdon
Well-Known Member
Tiger Tim
Well-Known Member
That blue and silver Heath Center Wing racer is an awesome little thing. I wanna build one some day.
Eek! It's supposed to be "Roger Don Rae", a well-known race pilot of the 1930's. He did test flights in a number of raceplanes including all four Folkerts racers and the Pearson-Williams "Mr Smoothie" and thereafter had a long career as a top airline pilot. I met him at Sun 'n Fun back in the late 1970's
