1/9 RWD-8 Trainer

[Karl West]

Dear fellow modellers,

I recently purchased this model as a lucky bid from the usual internet auction site. It is a model of a RWD-8 Polish Trainer, it is remarkably well made and I understand that it was scratch built. The guy I bought it from was not the original builder, that would be the old gentleman he bought it from a year or so prior.

(Please excuse the mess on the table, it serves several purposes!) As I said it is very well made with a lot of attention to detail and much faithfulness to the original. It has a wingspan of about 49” meaning that it is to about 1/9 scale and is powered by a Weber 20. I have not yet flown it as it needs a bit of titivating to get it into flying condition but I fully intend to get it airborne in the future. It is probably best suited to a calm windless or very light breeze evening, so that will hopefully be summer time! Also I’m not sure the 20 is up to the job but I havent weighed it for dry weight although it feels reasonably light.

Does anyone know if this came from plans or a kit? I say kit as the cowling looks to be professionally made (GRP) but the internals I can see don’t seem to indicate a kit origin (lack of die-crushing etc) Unfortunately I didn’t get any plans with the model so I am going to set a safe CofG at 25% chord although with swept wings I need to know whether that is taken as average chord or is better placed more forward of that. I will also have to take a best guess approach to control throws.

Any light that can be shed on the history or origin of this model will be very gratefully received.

Karl