Jason McGuire's

Taibi Powerhouse

22" span, 35 grams flying weight

This sport model is a reduced version of Sal Taibi's Famous Powerhouse built from A.A. Lidberg plans. Power is a HiLine Micro-4 with 2 50 ma batteries. Like the full sized original, it is a great flyer. With a full charge, it will do 3 minutes indoors, climbing to over 175 feet before the glide begins. Obviously a DT will be necessary for outdoor flying with this kind of performance, so for now, it is restricted to indoors, or very short charges outside.
This model is quite strong, despite the stick and tissue construction. One of its first flights in Moffett bumped a girder and shed the wing. Despite a drop onto concrete of nearly 40 feet, the model was undamaged, and flew again almost immediately.

A.A. Lidberg offers plans and kits for this model, as well as a number of other Old Timer power models. They make up a series of designs reduced for smaller flying sites, and less investment of building time and materials. After watching Jason's Powerhouse fly so well, I have added a few new designs to my own "must build" list.


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