Carl Goldberg Ranger 30

[TooJung2Die]

When I was a boy, RC was out of reach so I built and flew lots of control line and free-flight. This was late '60's early '70's. My favorite free-flight airplane was a Carl Goldberg Ranger 30. It was an inexpensive kit and the plane was made entirely die-cut sheet balsa with a 30" wingspan (Thus the name Ranger 30). It flew beautifully with a Cox .020 Peewee motor. Very durable, it survived many flights and tree rescues.

Someone took one of the old kits and made plans by tracing the die-cut balsa pieces. They kindly posted them online. http://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3830 Having built (and rebuilt) three Tiny Trainers I thought I would try my hand at a foam board design of my own.

Since the original Ranger 30 was all sheet balsa I thought it would be a natural for foam board. I was right. Lacking the computer skills I made the first Ranger using plans hand drawn with a ruler and pencil. It flew well and had a very good glide. Unfortunately the motor and ESC I have were cooked at one time and the airplane could only fly for a very short time before the motor quit. I didn't get a real feel for the airplane.

I ordered another motor and ESC and while waiting for the slow boat from China to arrive I downloaded Inkscape and proceeded to teach myself how to use it. I used Flite Test building techniques and airfoil. It isn't a swappable but if the nose were square instead of a curved deck it could easily fit a mini power pod. I like the curved nose deck so it has a permanent firewall.

The second build was much easier with real plans to follow. I found some mistakes in my Inkscape drawings during the build and the plans need some tweaking before they are 100% correct. Here is a photo of the new Ranger 30 and the prototype.



I'm wondering if there is any interest in this little old airplane design from 1958.

Jon

Latest version plans: View attachment Goldberg Ranger 30 RC.pdf

 

[TEAJR66]

Looks great. Good job.

Share a flight video and post your plans. I am sure people will want to build and fly.

I have a couple of the old balsa designs (plans from outerzone as well) converted to foam and they are pretty fun. There are tons of options out there in the 1/2A category that translate well to two and three channel foamies with electric power.

Again, Great job.

 

[Tater76]

YES! I love the high wing trainer style! It also looks like the Storch which I love. If you could share the plans and videos, I know I would not be the only ecstatic one

 

[Winglet]

I built one or two of those back in the day. Thanks for posting this. Time to build another!

 

[DH.98]

This plane looks great!
It would be nice if you could post a video and plans of it.

 

[mjmccarron]

Please post the plans. Very nice! I have winter plans to build the Jr. Falcon and JR. Skylark from foam when the weather turns yucky here. I love old Goldberg's. I learned on a Falcon 56 in 1978 and still have that plane. It even flies!

Great job!
Mike

 

[Winglet]

For all you guys who are asking about plans....read carefully his very first post. Link right there.

 

[ClearSkiesCalmWinds]

Looks interesting. Would like to try your version.

 

[Maingear]

Great find, thank you for sharing!

Justin

 

[JUSS10]

If you need help converting the plans to digital let me know! This looks like a fun plane!

 

[TEAJR66]

The plans are already digital. Most of the plans on outerzone are in a PDF format. They are mostly (there are a couple foam planes there now) the older balsa built models. When people ask for the plans, they generally mean they want the cut and fold foam plans.

Then it becomes a matter of making this.

Look like this.

Again, good job with the Ranger. The Goldberg models are some of the best. The Eagle II was one of my favorite. I did an Eaglet 50 that came out pretty good. Flew it at Flite Fest and it only lasted the weekend. But a couple people got their first flights on it there.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Ranger 30 plans

Okay folks, here are the plans. No guarantees, remember I'm a newbie at this but they should be 99% correct. Let me know what problems you run into and I'll try to fix them. They should be self-explanatory if you've built a couple of FT airplanes before. I didn't draw the card stock for the nose and windshield. You'll have to fit those by trial and error as I did. I'm as nervous as a new parent on the first day of Kindergarten.

Good luck,
Jon

Go to post #32 for the constant chord wing version plan of this airplane. It flies great!

 

[TooJung2Die]

Again, good job with the Ranger. The Goldberg models are some of the best. The Eagle II was one of my favorite. I did an Eaglet 50 that came out pretty good. Flew it at Flite Fest and it only lasted the weekend. But a couple people got their first flights on it there.

Wow your plans look much better than mine. How did you insert the scale?

The Ranger 30 fits on one sheet of foam board but I wouldn't cut both wings from the same sheet. The plans show the wings at right angles and the grain of the foam board would not match. Use two sheets. Cut the wings out so the grain is in the same direction for each wing half. It'll look better.

Still waiting for the 10A ESC so I can fly it again. It was really frustrating to get it up only to have the motor sputter and die. At least I got to test the glide a lot.

Jon

 

[TEAJR66]

The plans were done in SketchUp then printed to PDF. The scale, along with a color coded legend for the cuts, "A" & "B" Fold Indicator and a power pod are available in the 3D Warehouse. Search for Tommy A or FT Power Pod, and those items will come up.

I saw that you used InkScape. I sucked at using that program. Nerdnic made it look so easy. The first how to videos that I saw were SketchUp, so I tried it and got the hang of it. I had a hard time getting anything done in InkScape, although there are a lot of features in it that I like. In the end, I model it in 3D then disassemble and flatten it out. The scale and other notes are just part of it. Sometimes I add notes and instructions once it is in PDF.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Tommy,
I'm going to have to get Sketchup and check it out. I like easy, easy is better. Are you using Sketchup Make or the commercial version? When I first started using Inkscape it was painfully slow going. After several hours over a couple of days it got easier. Having a good dose of OCD helps.
Jon

 

[planebreaker2000]

Thanks for posting this, i like these old design planes and free plans helps too.

I am going to try this one

 

[TEAJR66]

TooJung2Die, I am using the free version of SketchUp. I started a few versions ago and download new ones as they are available. Rite now it is SketchUp 2015.

I also use CutePDF to make the PDF plans. Another free piece of software. When it is installed on your computer it shows up as a printer to select when you want to print. If you select it, it takes what would normally get printed and writes it as a PDF file to be saved. Then you open the PDF like any other and select your printer to print it.

If you have questions about SketchUp for balsa to foam conversions, let me know. I have found a few tips and tricks that make it pretty easy.

 

[SP0NZ]

Okay folks, here are the plans. No guarantees, remember I'm a newbie at this but they should be 99% correct. Let me know what problems you run into and I'll try to fix them. They should be self-explanatory if you've built a couple of FT airplanes before. I didn't draw the card stock for the nose and windshield. You'll have to fit those by trial and error as I did. I'm as nervous as a new parent on the first day of Kindergarten.

Good luck,
Jon

View attachment 53420

Nice work so far Jon. It's really exciting to see more and more people getting into designing new planes for the community.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Thanks, SPONZ. I'm not the first to convert the Ranger 30 to RC but may be the first to do it in DT Foam Board. There was a lot written about this popular airplane (in it's day).

Something that probably should be modified in the plans is the vertical stabilizer. It may be too small. Another balsa builder wrote that he increased the size of the vertical stabilizer by 40% for RC flight. I added a tail skid that effectively acts as part of the vertical stabilizer so we will see. Gawd I hate waiting for parts to arrive from China. At least I have my two Tiny Trainers to fly.

Jon

 

[TooJung2Die]

I Crashed

I crashed the Ranger 30 on it's maiden flight. I gave it a toss and it climbed straight away from me. As soon as I touched the rudder stick it made a hard left turn dive into the grass like a lawn dart. The motor is hanging by a shred.



Here's the beauty of airplanes made of foam board. Less than an hour later it is ready to fly.



I made a noobie mistake. I had the rudder and elevator set at 100% of rate and expo. Not good. Too much. I wasn't expecting such a drastic response to the rudder command. I'll set it up so it will respond more gently. It's a prototype and there will be changes needed I'm sure. I don't even know where the best center of gravity will be yet. Right now it's at the front of the wing spar. The wind picked up and it's really blowing outside so I'll have to wait.

Onward and upward!

Jon