Chris Foss Wot 4 Mark III

Chris Foss Wot 4 Mark III

There can be few British model flyers who haven't heard of the Wot 4. This is probably the most popular sports model in the UK. Chris Foss has progressively developed the design over the years, and the mark III is the latest version, featuring a tapered wing to give more precise aerobatic performance. The classic version with a parallel chord wing is also available, which is more stable, and has better slow flying performance.

Two specifications are available - the standard and deluxe. The deluxe model is supplied with a fibreglass undercarriage and cowl, compared with the wire U/C and ABS cowl in the standard version. Mine is the deluxe, which cost me around Ł15 more. The model stood up well as my "hack" plane which I would fly in just about any weather. Notice the use of the past tense here - it managed to switch itself off at the top of a stall turn and went in vertically in November 2001. The engine was recoverable, but the fuselage was damaged all the way back to the tailplane, and the wing had cracked at the centre joint.

As you can see, I chose a patriotic colour scheme for my model, partly as a result of seeing numerous "Stars and Bars" schemes on sports planes from the USA. A base covering of white Profilm was applied to the wings and tailplane, then the red and white trim was added using metallic Solartrim. The fuselage is covered with normal metallic red Solarfilm and Profilm.

The model will fly with engine sizes from 30 - 60 2 stroke and 50 - 91 4 stroke. I chose an Irvine 53 for mine, and have been extremely pleased with the performance of this engine. Using a 12 x 5 prop gives unlimited vertical.

Initial problems were experienced with the nylon undercarriage bolts shearing off with monotonous regularity. This wasn't funny when landing on a tarmac runway, especially as I had mounted the engine with the silencer in the 6 o'clock position, leading to a scuffed silencer, and on one occasion, the firewall ripped off the front of the plane. Changing to steel bolts cured the problem, and I have never used plastic undercarriage bolts on any of my planes since. Frankly, its easier to reglue the landing gear mount into the fuselage than cope with the damage from losing the gear.

This page was last updated on 21/02/04