Chris Haertl's 1974 Taylorcraft F-19

Chris is creating a scale model of a 1974 Taylorcraft F-19 Sportsman, registration number N3560T, serial number 019 that was once owned by a good close friend.

It was purchased and brought to Minnesota by his friend in late 2018. 

We flew it until November 3 2021 until my friend Bob contracted COVID and passed.

The model itself was designed by Phil Kent in England in 1997.  The drawings are based off of Taylorcraft G-BREY whose restoration photos can be found online.  It spans 108" and should come in between 12 and 15 lbs.  The covering is Sig Koverall with Randolf dopes on the fabrics and automotive acrylic urethane for the fiber glassed and metal parts.  The colors used are Lockhaven Yellow and Hyundai Thunderbolt Yellow.  Those two colors are a pretty good match for each other for anyone building a later model Piper Cub.

The plans for this project are based off G-BREY Taylorcraft BC-12D model so there were two modifications that had to be made to convert to an F19 model.  The first is the shape of the rear windows.  This was fairly easy by moving a couple pieces around to enlarge them.  The second is lengthening the cowl.  The model has a built up wooden cowl so this just entailed lengthening the longerons by about 1 1/8".

Chris tried locating the plans alone for this model but couldn't find them outside of some sketchy looking web sites.  Hangar One Kits in New Zealand offers both short and full kits for it.  He went with the short kit to save some expense.  He mentioned the kit itself is probably the best he’d seen in his 40+ years of modeling.  Serval of the spruce sticks and spars were re-sawn from the pieces taken out of another full scale Taylorcraft a friend restored and one piece taken from the wreckage that was used for the cross member below the instrument panel.  The kit also included the harder to make metal brackets.

If you're considering building this model Chris said keep in mind it was designed to be a modeled for scale competition.  There's extensive metal working required, especially in fabricating the functioning landing gear and the structural supports between the wing spar and firewall.  The wood working is straight forward and other than one joint that can't be glued until the sides are joined there's nothing unusual.  Chris closed with; having a kit with parts cut really helps!

Next SMF Meeting: April 26th!