Yard Ace Electric Model Airplanes Plan
Construct the Yard Ace electric model airplanes from RC airplane plans
An easy to build RC model airplane for larger venues - great for first time builders
Rory's Yard Ace front view
Check our Rory's build of a Yard Ace in Capetown, South Africa.
More pictures of Rory's Yard Ace here!
These model airplane plans, when enlarged to full size, provide all building information needed to construct the Yard Ace. All plans on this website drawn with TurboCAD - more on TurboCAD drafting software here.
The Yard Ace plan was published in the Sept 2008 Quiet and Electric Flight International magazine
The Yard Ace original RC airplane design is an RC airplane plan built flyer I designed for larger indoor flying venues or as a park flyer outdoors, under calm wind conditions. Plans are available from Quiet and Electric Flight International magazine. The Yard Ace radio control electric model airplanes is a very easy to build RC model airplane, and would be ideal as a first RC airplane plans built project.
Yard Ace fuselage sides built over the plan, with landing gear in front
The Yard Ace electric model airplanes uses common building materials (balsa and plywood), and no specialized building techniques of major design challenges. Construction is simplified with a constant chord wing and no curved surfaces.
Designing the Yard Ace radio control electric model airplanes was a lot of fun. There are a number of Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs available for RC airplane plans. I have used several, and I highly recommend TurboCAD. There is only one way to figure out how to use these CAD programs, and that is to study the instruction manual and begin working with the various features. See the evolution of the Yard Ace to the Snapper, a free RC model airplane plan available here.
Yard Ace balsa fuselage and tail components
A good start with learning CAD is to design a notional radio control electric model airplanes, just to get used to how the program works. After a short while, things will start to fall into place (be patient!), and you will have an incredible tool for use on a variety of projects besides aircraft design.
The key thing is to just keep working with the CAD program. The computer CAD programs are well designed, and you just have to understand how they approach and accomplish the various drafting tasks.
I have a collection of electric model airplanes plans that I refer to as guides to layout and design features for any plan that I am working on. After reviewing several plans, you will have an idea of what is needed. As a minimum, aircraft and tail side view, wing layout, fuselage formers and wing ribs. Just imagine the person who will be building the airplane, and include any information needed to complete construction.
Yard Ace electric model airplanes in flight
Quiet and Electric Flight International included a reduced size RC airplane plan of the Yard Ace in the magazine, which you will need to enlarge at your local graphics shop. See the plan at the top of this page.
All the information needed to build the Yard Ace radio control electric model airplanes is contained on this plan, from wood types and sizes to full size patterns. The full size plan is also available via mail from Traplett Publications. You really cannot go wrong trying to built the Yard Ace as your first RC plane plans built model.
Yard Ace prototype with shorter wingspan
Prototype of the Yard Ace radio control electric model airplanes was built with a shorter wing span. This version flew fine, just a little bit too fast for the golf dome indoor flying site, thus the longer wingspan (allowing for slower flight speeds) in final published version.
Rear view of Yard Ace electric model airplanes prototype - note clear yellow covering
Rear quarter view of Yard Ace radio control model airplane prototype, showing see-thru yellow iron on film covering. The diagonal wing braces are deleted from final version for weight savings, and were used to ensure a warp-free wing.
See more indoor electric models like the Yard Ace, ParkZone Sukhoi and of course the wildly popular ParkZone Cessna 210 at the E-Fest indoor airplane show.
Electric Model Airplanes Yard Ace