Piper Archer/Arrow 37” (Now with video!)

I bought the Park Zone Archer at the end of its run back in 2014. I got it in clearance for just  $80 and it was a beautiful plane. Too bad it was my first 4 channel and I ended up destroying it. It is long discontinued now, although I did get a new one from Ready Made RC about two years ago (there all sold out now.) Even though I have my new Archer, I thought it would be a fun challenge to try and recreate it out of foam board using the old hardware and electronics from my first one. So, here is how I did it. 

Before I built it, I knew I wanted to make more of an Arrow than an Archer. The main difference between the two is that the Arrow has retractable Landing gear and the Archer does not. I broke the nose gear steering arm on my old Archer, so I decided to ditch the landing gear and make a sleeker Arrow-style plane instead.

The build process was fairly simple. It was all a matter of copying the dimensions of the park zone model to replicate it out of foam board. This plane in particular has a semi-symmetrical airfoil and a curved canopy, so it’s not the easiest thing to do. I actually started this build over two years ago. I made about 3/4 of the parts, including the wing, fuse and tail pieces, but I never assembled it. I went and took those parts and did my best to assemble them. 

The wings were pretty hard to design since they have three bends on the leading edge. The wing ended up being three pieces as a result (the middle section and the two outer wing sections.) The picture below shows the bends. 

I used the original firewall from my old Archer since it already had the proper thrust angle and motor offset.

The plane went together fairly well for something I originally made the parts for over two years ago. That’s also the reason it is made primarily out of white foam. The top is yet to be done in this picture below and it is made of poster board.

Servo Time!! They were mounted in roughly the same place as the Park zone model. And yes, I added flaps. They are both controlled by one servo in the middle in order to save weight.

Once the push rods were installed I added the rear turtle deck. It’s very similar to the ones on many of the older Flite Test planes.

The positioning of the vertical stabilizer was particularly difficult here. 

I couldn’t do much else until I installed the ailerons, so I got some more servos and put them on. It was as simple as cutting a hole at the wing tip and gluing them on. They kind of stick out,but it works.

Now that all the electronics were installed, it was time to clean up some of the wiring. It was a mess and not practical originally...

And so I added a simple piece of (water resistant) foam to completely solve the problem. There’s more than enough room for the 3S 800 mAh battery here. 

Finally, it was time for the canopy. I made it out of 6 pieces poster board and I think 8 formers underneath. It just pressure fits onto the fuselage.

Partially assembled canopy showing some of the formers...

And the finished canopy. I think it turned out quite well.

It looks okay at this state, but it really needs some color...

So I took some blue packing tape to try and recreate the color  scheme of the Park Zone Archer (except in blue of course). That’s much better, isn’t it!

I think it would look really nice with landing gear, but I omitted it for reasons said earlier and the fact that the plane was already heavier than the Park Zone one.

Here it is compared to the Park Zone model.

And at last it is flight-ready! I had no clue if it would fly, but there’s no chance unless you take one.

It Flies! But it was super underpowered with a 2 cell battery. Nevertheless it still flew and most importantly, it didn’t crash!

Video 

This flight was just there other day, (March 2019) and demonstrates the plane’s warbird-esque characteristics. This was also with a smaller battery so it was a bit tail heavy. I think with the right size battery it would fly better, but still not that great. It’s fine though because I’ve moved on to better projects already.  

Here are some specs

Wingspan: 37 inches

Length: 25 inches

CG: 40mm from leading edge

Motor: Park Zone 370 size 1300kv

ESC: Emax 12 amp

Servos: 5x random 9 gram

Prop: 8x6

Battery: 2s 1300 (not optimal, will upgrade to 4s later)

Receiver: Orange RX 6 channel

Conclusion 

I learned a lot more from building this airplane than from actually flying it. Being overweight gives it the characteristics of a very big, heavy plane. Its really underpowered and the foam will warp with exposure to moisture. Nevertheless the model looks very cool and makes a good wall decoration for my bedroom.

I don’t have much use for this plane other than what’s mentioned above. It only flew once, but hat should change when I bring it to a Flite Fest Ohio this year to attempt to fly it again on 4s. Yes, twice the number of cells as before! If I do end up crashing it, oh well, as Joshua Parker said, if you expect to crash, crash at Flite Fest.

Update, March 2019: The flight in the video was post- Flite Fest, where the plane actually flew okay on 3s. The tail broke and I just recently fixed it, and in the video above I tried to fly it again for the first time since FF. I had to use a smaller 3 cell pack which made it a bit too light (and as said above, tail heavy). It didn't crash, but it just doesn't seem to have good flight characteristics. Hey, they can't all be winners. I learned a good deal of stuff from this project and I guarantee any future ones will be better!!