Heath parasol metric plans

[Fullmetalwelder]

Sup guys! After a long time school is over and I'm back on my little island with some free time.
As I previously said I wanted to try building a heath parasol, but I can't find "new" plans and with metric measurements, do you know if someone sells them? Or at least if there's a reliable source of new or revisited plans of the parasol

 

[Tiger Tim]

If you want to build the truest to form Heath Parasol I suspect you’re going to be looking for copies of factory drawings (I wouldn’t mess with the one in the Flying and Glider Manuals which has been pirated online too) then converting all of the figures yourself.

There was also a guy or group who I believe built one in Russia or some such a couple years ago and put some flying videos online. There’s a decent chance it was made using metric raw materials.

Lastly, there’s a so-so looking wooden replica with plans available from Ragwing Designs and if you’re milling your own wood then happiness is just a unit conversion app away.

 

[TFF]

I think the best to do is measure it all in English and find materials in metric and pretend they are English. 13mm is going to be 1/2”. That’s what we have to do over here in reverse. Conversion of all the plans to a different system is time consuming and can cause mistakes. If it says 18”x 24”, a ruler in those dimensions is way easier because it’s comparing drawings to the ruler, not converting.

 

[Fullmetalwelder]

If you want to build the truest to form Heath Parasol I suspect you’re going to be looking for copies of factory drawings (I wouldn’t mess with the one in the Flying and Glider Manuals which has been pirated online too) then converting all of the figures yourself.

There was also a guy or group who I believe built one in Russia or some such a couple years ago and put some flying videos online. There’s a decent chance it was made using metric raw materials.

Lastly, there’s a so-so looking wooden replica with plans available from Ragwing Designs and if you’re milling your own wood then happiness is just a unit conversion app away.

Yes actually i think I'm going to mill my own wood, not because I want but because I don't have other chooses, for the plans I was looking at the Texas parasol, which look very familiar to the original heath parasol

 

[Fullmetalwelder]

I think the best to do is measure it all in English and find materials in metric and pretend they are English. 13mm is going to be 1/2”. That’s what we have to do over here in reverse. Conversion of all the plans to a different system is time consuming and can cause mistakes. If it says 18”x 24”, a ruler in those dimensions is way easier because it’s comparing drawings to the ruler, not converting.

Maybe the easiest way is to learn to use the imperial system ahah

 

[Tiger Tim]

mill my own wood… I was looking at the Texas parasol

The Texas Parasol is all metal as designed.

 

[Fullmetalwelder]

The Texas Parasol is all metal as designed.

**** I thought it was all wood like the original, what about the ragwing one, is it all wood? Looks good to me

 

[Aerowerx]

There was more than one version the the Heath Parasol. You might want to research them first. As far as I know they were all metal tube and fabric fuselage with wood wings. Some were welded tube, and at least one was tube and gusset with roofing nails used as rivets.

I have these plans, but I don't remember where I found them. It shows a welded tube fuselage. I was interested because it was made in my home town, which means it is a later version.

 

[Tiger Tim]

**** I thought it was all wood like the original, what about the ragwing one, is it all wood? Looks good to me

The incomplete and probably misunderstood list of planes that have been called Heath Parasols:

1) The FGM plans Heath. Wood wings, steel tube fuselage “riveted” together with hardware store nails, mixed steel and wood tail. This was either an early iteration of the design or it was cheapened way down during the depression for scratchbuilding in hopes the builders would still buy engines, wheels, propellers, and other supplies from Heath. On one hand many techniques in building the fuselage are similar to what’s seen in Heath’s Baby Bullet but on the other hand I think you’d have to be nuts to build anything other than a very specialized airframe using such methods.

2) The welded tube fuselage Heath. I bet the lion’s share of Heath Parasols had a Heath-designed welded steel tube fuselage. My understanding is these were available as just a bare frame or as a complete airframe from Heath. Wood wings and welded steel tube tail. I don’t know if drawings were ever made available originally but I do know several have been built this way in the last ninety(!) years.

3) Aerotique Parasol from the 1980s or 90s. All aluminum frame similar to a Texas Parasol, Airdrome WWI replica, or Graham Lee Nieuport. If memory serves they may have used square section aluminum tube in the fuselage. No idea if they were plans, kit, or just a one-off that never made it to market. There are threads on here asking for plans sources but nothing seems to have turned up.

4) RagWing Heath of the 1990s(?). Roger Man’s RagWing Designs offers plans for a wood Heath Parasol replica. Those plans may even be a part of a four-or-five-in-one plans pack for a bunch of similar designs. Several have been built and I believe they owe their success to the rumour they’re based heavily on methods known to work very well in the construction of a Mini Max.

I may have missed some examples here and if anyone can contribute more, go nuts.

 

[TFF]

There are two main Heath Parasols. 25 ft span Henderson powered, and 31 ft Continental powered. They look essentially the same.

The 25 ft one is about Legal Eagle size. In reality the triangle LE fuselage is one longeron tube less than a Heath and saves that weight. Horsepower about the same as a 1/2 VW.

At 31 ft, that’s in the Piet, AceyDuecy, Baking Duce, PoberXXX planes and some others. I keep thinking of making the Flybaby Parasol come true.

 

[challenger_II]

The Pixie was Paul's modern version of the Heath LNB.