Precedent Hi Boy

[Bath and Wells]

I have a Precedent Hi Boy 3 channel and a part built aileron wing. Are there any instructions on the aileron wing?

[Don Fry]

Throws were about 6 mm up and down.

[Robert Thompson 10]

I have completed an old Precedent Hi Boy II.  It’s a 3 channel kit I picked up and I’m surprised at how heavy it feels now fully built.

The dihedral ply braces were missing from the kit. So, I’ve guessed the brace angle for ailerons and built up the ailerons from sheet balsa as solid balsa was too expensive an option for this build. Everything looks okay with the wings now completed. For those interested, I made the brace angle the same as a Thunder Tiger Classic Trainer.

it will need a 40 motor as a minimum as it’s so heavy. I’m going to cover it in blue solarfilm that I have in stock to match its little brother, a Precedent Fly Boy. I’ll use a “new” old  Enya 40 I picked up to power it.

As a matter of interest, anyone know the dihedral on the aileron wing? Also how heavy did a typical build turn out?

 

[Rich Griff]

I hope you made templates of/for all the parts !

 

Mine was a MK1 3 channel solar tex and painted, heavy but flew well on new Magnum gp40 10 X 6, straight castor....

 

Flew the socks off it. Would like an unstarted mk 1 kit...

[Nigel R]

how about this one?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285141267219

[Eric Robson]

What no plan!

[Nigel R]

Or maybe a bit more seriously,

 

Hi Boy and an LA 40

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363797997487

 

or a Lo Boy 5:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166474722401

[Rich Griff]

Once lads car done ( brrrrr it's cold ) I will route out a period advert for the MK1 kit, slightly different to a mark 2.

 

No plan but from memory an instruction sheet....mine was 3 channel.....

 

They did a hi boy turbo as well...aileron with flaps but different fuz.....

[Adrian Smith 1]

The silencer on that "unused" LA 40 looks distinctly not new!

[Nigel R]

stored in a damp place?

[Robert Thompson 10]

Hi Rich, I didn’t make any templates as it’s quite a straightforward build and design. It is the mark two version and I’ve got the leftover sheet panels in the box which could be drawn around.

 

I’ve also recently got hold of a sorry looking Mark 1 which is fairly sound and just needs a fuselage strip of the solarfilm and re-covered.

The bottom panel on the front of the fuselage needs replacing where a battery or something heavy has punched itself free.

Looking inside at the construction and also the tail/fin design, there is a visible difference.

The wings are also sorry looking at the tips but removal and replacement of some balsa facing sheet should put that right along with a re-cover.

No noseleg and no main undercarriage. So new ones required.

A bit of time and materials hopefully will restore it to service. Just need to get round to doing it.

Having read a number of threads on the forum regarding the Hi Boy, it seems to have been a good but heavy trainer in its day.

[Robin Colbourne]

I bought a HiBoy Mk2 which had been part-built without any attempt to trim the tabs or holes which locate the fuselage parts.  As a result there were 3mm gaps along all the join lines.  Fortunately it had been built with PVA glue, so by leaving it in the bath overnight, the glue softened and I was able to dismantle the whole thing to component parts and scrape the remains of the glue off.
The engine bearers, which, as I recall, incorporate side thrust and downthrust as well as being stepped from the front to the back, were badly drilled, but a call to Precedent got a new set on their way to me at a very reasonable price.
Once all the tabs and holes were trimmed and the edges sanded flat, the whole fuselage went back together without any gaps at all.

[Robin Colbourne]

If you're looking for a Mk1 HiBoy, there is one in Wisbech:  Precedent Hiboy Mk1 in Wisbech

[Rich Griff]

Thanks for the heads up robin.

 

If Wisbech was local to me I may purchase that but I'm in Wales and after an untouched kit ideally.

 

You say you contacted precedent and they sent you some new parts ?

 

That must have been back in the day rather than last week ?

 

Am I correct in saying slec hold info for hi boys ??

 

In my time, early 80's, hi boy was the trainer for me but some could not fly them, so had wot4's to crash instead.

[Robin Colbourne]

Hi Rich, Yes, this would have been about 1993/4.  As I recall it was £2.60 for two bearers posted!

I don't understand the relationship between Precedent and SLEC.  I assumed Precedent was a trading name for the kit manufacturing part of SLEC, so when people talk of Precedent going bust or closing down, yet SLEC continued to produce some of their designs, I'm baffled.

Roughly where are you based geographically?  There is also this MK2 HiBoy in Clevedon:  Mk2 HiBoy in Clevedon

If I see any Hiboy kits that aren't just a box of offcuts, I'll post them here.

[Nigel R]

Slec make laser kits for just one or two of the old precedent designs. T180, stampe, fun fly. Maybe one more? Can't remember. 

 

Not sure there is much 'relationship' per se?

 

An updated version of the best - hi boy, lo boy and bi fly - would be quite nice to see in their range, but, c'est la vie. 

[Robert Thompson 10]

I dug out my Balsacraft catalogue from many moons ago and have hopefully scanned a page showing the Fly Boy and the Hi Boy (mark 1).

Here's hoping I can upload them for everyone to view.

They look as though they are attached, but need rotating. Something to learn for next time.

The Balsa craft catalogue is still a good read even though many items long gone.

 

Please let me know how I can rotate the scanned pictures in the future. Thanks.

[kc]

The origins of SLEC are explained on this page of their current website.    One of the most useful firms in UK aeromodelling in my view.

[Nigel R]

I stand very corrected! 

[EarlyBird]

[Tom Flynn 1]

The guy in Clevedon has 2 on eBay. The second one is £75.

I have asked him for more pictures as the ailerons don’t look right, but he doesn’t want to play ball.

[David Davis 2]

You could sort out a pair of ailerons surely?

[Tom Flynn 1]

No problem at all, I just wanted a view of what was in situ at the moment.

not the best of builds by the look of it, but I have bought a few turkeys in the past.

I bought an early DB Sports Jodel, which looked OK, until I started stripping it down.

the wings had melted with the wrong glue, the fuselage fell apart as I pulled the 

profilm off, again wrong glue. My winter project turned into a full rebuild of wings etc.

SO I fancied an old Hi Boy for the winter project, well we all learnt to fly on one, but I wanted an idea of the true condition.

Which I haven’t got.

[kc]

If you look to see how many items that seller has sold- 1700-  it looks like quite a fair size business!    Maybe he does not reply for that reason.    Could it be that is where the person who advertises in RCME to buy models sells them?

[Nigel R]

1 hour ago, Tom Flynn 1 said:

I fancied an old Hi Boy for the winter project, well we all learnt to fly on one, but I wanted an idea of the true condition.

 

Buy it, draw around it in on paper, cut a set of new parts and go from scratch. Balsa, liteply, foamboard, world's your oyster. It's all straight lines and square edges - by design it's meant to be simple. Treat anything you can recover from the 'donor' as a bonus.