• Wing Span: 96 in (244 cm)
• Wing Area: 1628 sq in (10503 cm²)
• Length: 84.5 in (215 cm)
• Weight: 22.5 Lbs. (10.2 kg)
• Engine: 3.7 - 5.0 2 - cycle
  (61 cc - 82 cc 4 cycle)
• 6 Servos required

The original full-scale Staudacher S-300 was built for and made popular by Michael Goulian. He had great success with it, earning second place in the Unlimited category of the Nationals. Several other S-300 models were subsequently built and sold, each with minor changes over the other. For this reason it is very difficult to find two that are exactly the same.

The Lanier S-300 is a 31.5% version based upon scale drawings of the original design. Michael later chose to get a second Staudacher with some changes made based upon his personal ideas for improvement. The result was the 300GS model, with the "GS" designation coming from "Goulian" and "Staudacher". The changes included a 12-inch reduction in wingspan, lengthened ailerons, changes in the rudder outline, and a more reclined seating arrangement. Considering this newer wingspan, the Lanier Staudacher would then be a 33% version of the 300GS. Diane Hakala, another well-known Unlimited category competitor also had a Staudacher built to her requirements, designated as the 300 "D". A two-place S-600 version was later built, and has recently been modeled by Lanier as well.

I first saw Michael Goulian’s 300GS "LapMap" Staudacher at the 1994 EAA Sun-n-Fun event in Lakeland, Florida. He flew this plane as a member of the US Aerobatic team in 1993 and 1994 and at several airshows that year. One of the great things about Sun-n-Fun is that AMA members can purchase a pit-pass that allows entry into the flight line area, which means "you can touch it" access to the planes. I took several pictures of the Mike’s Staudacher that day, thinking that someday I’d be building one. "Lap Map", by the way, was one of the earliest versions of a laptop computer based, moving GPS mapping system.

Amazingly, Lanier fits this 96" foam-core wingspan aircraft kit into a single box that measures 57" x 27" x 10". All parts were adequately wrapped in packing paper with no damaged components found. There are two (2) rolled sheets of plans, one of which is a reduced-size plan of the fuselage, the second a full-size plan for the built-up tail feathers. The instructions are type written with black and white pictures contained within the text to show specific assembly steps. Only the cowl and wheel pants are ABS plastic. Based upon customer feedback, Lanier has abandoned the ABS turtledeck and hatches used on previous designs, now utilizing 1/4" balsa stringers and 3/32" balsa sheeting. It is a little more work to frame and sheet these surfaces but certainly worth the finish, longevity, and reduction in weight.

All shaped wooden components are either laser cut or CNC-routed, including the balsa end-caps for the wings, but the components are not cut entirely free. There is a small amount of uncut area left in place to hold the components in the sheet. This includes the large lightening holes in the fuselage so there are many large pieces of wood left over for future scratch-building project.

A set of scale drawings for the 300GS version of the Staudacher were obtained and compared with the plans. The most noticeable and easiest to change difference was the rudder outline. The 300GS rudder appears to be larger and the trailing edge has more slant to it than the S-300. The 300GS outline was chosen since the Goulian’s "LapMap" color scheme was to be used.

Jerry Smith designs the Lanier planes to handle an extremely rigorous flight test which is performed by Bubba Spivey, the owner of Lanier, to ensure that the customer is getting a plane that is structurally sound. Because of this, there are seldom any structural failures on a stock-built Lanier kit. Jerry also does a great job of placing lightening holes throughout the fuselage to keep the design light. Still, there are ways reduce the weight by a few ounces here and there. The approach to the Staudacher would be to conservatively reduce weight where it makes sense, keeping any removed material to see how much weight was saved. All removed material would be saved into a "weight bag" so that the total weight savings could be determined and what the plane would have weighed if built stock.

The instructions are very clear and the pictures really help. On a couple of occasions, however, the sequence of steps results in going back and forth to different components. There was also never any mention of installing the tail feathers or flying wires, which must be used) or the fuel tank mount. All of this has been relayed to Lanier, who have been great about making changes to kits and instructions based upon customer feedback. The fuselage and all associated parts were built first but will the construction will be reviewed in the order found in the instructions.

The wings are made from foam cores reinforced with 1/4" spruce spars and 3/32" sheeting applied to the leading and trailing edges. The 3/8" wide cap strips are glued between the leading and trailing edges. The wings are held in place with a 1 1/2" diameter aluminum wing tube that inserts into phenolic tubes located in the fuselage and each wing. As a matter of preference, the wings were fully sheeted with 1/16" balsa rather than using the 3/32" balsa on the leading and trailing edges. The primary reason for doing this was for a more scale appearance. Considering the differences in material thickness, the amount of area covered, and the amount of epoxy required, the total weight of the wings is roughly the same either way. Others that have done the same on other designs have said that it actually reduces the overall weight. Doing this required 18 sheets of 1/16"x4"x48" balsa.

The foam cores were excellent having no ridges or dents anywhere. The phenolic wing tubes and 1/4" spruce spares were glued in place with Elmer’s carpenter glue. A 1/8" lite-ply former is used to attach the end of the tube to the outer-most edge of the square hole through the wing. The cores were then placed in the beds and weighed down with a large piece of particle board and concrete blocks so they would cure straight. The 4" sheets were trued with a 4’ aluminum straightedge and then edge glued with thin CA to make the wing sheeting. They were then sanded with 150, then 220, then vacuumed and cleaned with tack cloth. Pacer finishing resin was used to attach the sheets, spread very thin with a scrap piece of balsa.

The ailerons were cut out using a band saw. Since the ailerons are not tapered, a rip-gauge can be used to ensure a really straight cut and less sanding later. Hinge holes were drilled in the aileron leading edge material and 45° bevels were cut on it using the band saw. This was then glued to the aileron, as was the wing trailing edge material to the wing using white glue and masking tape to hold it in place.

Servo wells are cut into the bottom side of the wing and are strengthened with 1/4" hardwood. To cut the holes for the aileron wires, a really neat tool built by Gerry Roseberry was used. It is essentially 1/4" music wire mounted horizontally on a stand, held in place with two vertical pieces of wood, each having a 1/4" hole drilled in it. The music wire slides freely, exactly horizontal, in the stand. The wing is laid flat on a table, with the tool positioned at the correct height at the root so that the rod is pointing exactly at the servo well. The rod is heated with a torch for just a few seconds and then pushed right into the foam wing until the servo well is reached. This results in a perfectly straight and clean-edged hole right to the servo.

The plywood wing root and alignment dowels do not get installed until the fuselage is built and the wings are set. The method used attached to the fuselage is to install screws through the top of the wings into the aluminum tube. Instead, 10-32 T-nuts were mounted into plywood blocks at the wing roots so that 10-32 socket-head screws and fender washers pass through the fuselage side into the wing and T-nuts. This provides a very solid mount that will not wear with vibration.

The tail feathers are built over the plans of balsa sticks. The great thing about this type of construction is that it is very easy to change. As mentioned earlier, the same materials were used to simply change the trailing edge of the rudder to match my drawings for the 300GS. This meant increasing the rake about 5°. Also, four (4) Robart hinge-point hinges were used per elevator side rather than three (3) as indicated on the plans.

The fuselage is made from CNC-routed sides and top made of 1/8" lite-ply, laser-cut formers of 1/8" and 1/4" lite ply, 1/4" stringers sheeted with 3/32" balsa for the turtledeck and area forward of the cockpit. The bottom has three (3) 1/4" balsa stringers and is sheeted the full length of the fuselage. The fuselage sides, top, and formers connect together using tabs and slots, making it virtually impossible to build a crooked structure. The 1/4" lite-ply engine box sides extend back into the fuselage and provide support for the 1 1/2" aluminum wing tube. Basically, everything is fitted together, tacked with thick CA, and then white glue is used on all the mating surfaces. Some 1" long pieces of 1/2" triangle stock was added to provide more support where the formers met the fuselage sides and top. A baby syringe was used to dispense the white glue into the corners which was then smoothed with a fingertip. The fuel tank mount fits right on top of the wing tube as shown on the plans. This step was not mentioned in the instructions.

The landing gear mount is a very large piece of 1/4" plywood that extends several inches back to the second former. Previous Lanier planes use a much smaller mount so this one was cut to 3" width. The area that would have been filled by the rest of the plate was built up with 1/4" balsa sticks along the formers. The removed portion of the mount was placed in the "weight bag".

The fuselage bottom was sheeted with 3/32" balsa and then the turtledeck was built on the top using the formers, 1/4" balsa stringers and 3/32" balsa sheeting.

The forward hatch is constructed of three 1/4" lite-ply formers, 1/4" stringers, and 3/32" sheeting, and went together very easily. Many holes were drilled into the 1/4" formers to lighten them, with the resulting sawdust being placed in the "weight bag."

The cockpit and canopy are built directly on top of the fuselage using 1/4" spruce for the sides and supporting spars, and 1/8" lite-ply for the front and back. The floor is made of 3/32" sheeting on top of the spars. An instrument panel was made using a JTec 1/3 - scale instrument kit and black construction paper, attached to a 1/8" thick piece of balsa. An Aresti diagram was downloaded from the IMAC web site and shrunk on the Xerox machine to be the right size. These little effects really make a big difference in the overall appearance of a plane. The cockpit floor was covered with Monocote and a 1/3 - scale Officer and Gentleman pilot painted with acrylic paints was added.

The canopy, like nearly all canopies, was an exercise in patience. It must fit flush on every side. This is called craftsmanship. Step 10 of the instructions says "Mark around the periphery of the base with a felt tip pen. remove and trim off the excess. Remount the canopy. Of course, it don't fit. Keep trimming until it does." This is exactly what must be done, many times. RC56 adhesive was used to attach the canopy to the frame. A trick used to hold the long horizontal bottom area against the frame was to use 1/4" spruce pieces on top of the canopy material along the bottom, and then used masking tape from the top of the canopy, over these spruce pieces, and attached to the fuselage below. The tape presses the outside spruce piece against the canopy, which gets pressed against the frame until it dries.

The landing gear is formed from 3/16" aluminum that gets bolted to the 1/4" plywood gear plate. The gear spans the full width of the wide fuselage, making it fairly heavy. A trapezoid-shaped portion of this mounting area was cut away from the back edge of the mount area with a band saw, and 1/4" was removed from the back of the gear legs. All removed material was placed in the "weight bag".

The wheel pants are formed ABS, with a left and right side that must be glued together to make each pant. Lanier also offers fiberglass versions. The sides are glued together with CA and then reinforced with 2 ounce fiberglass cloth and finishing resin on the seams and also on each side where the lite-ply mounting plates are attached. Very little resin is needed.

The kit comes with a two piece ABS cowl, and Lanier also offers a fiberglass version for those interested. The ABS cowls work fine. The key is in properly reinforcing the ABS cowl in all stress areas without overdoing it and adding too much weight. The top and bottom pieces are trimmed up and attached to a 1/4" lite-ply cowl ring in the back. The seam is reinforced with a 1/8" lite-ply piece designated as CW4. This piece was cut in half and one of the halves was used for each side. The remaining CW4 was put in the weight bag. A plywood nose ring is also used to reinforce the front hole. The inside of the joints and stress areas were lightly sanded and reinforced with 2 ounce fiberglass cloth and finishing resin. The instructions call for using all-purpose PVC cement but finishing resin provides more strength. The PVC cement can also melt the ABS if too much is used. The joints were then filled on the outside with Bondo and sanded flush. After the engine was mounted, a removable hatch was made on the bottom to preserve the looks of the bottom of the cowl. Scrap pieces of 1/8" lite-ply were epoxied into the cowl to provide mount areas for the hatch. Without the hatch, a very large opening would be needed in the bottom in order to install and remove the cowl over the mufflers.

Balsa blocks are used to fill the area between the fuselage and the sides of the vertical stab. They are carved to shape using a 3/8" wide scrap piece between them to appropriately space them apart while carving. The instructions then call for hinging the tail surfaces.

The wings were mounted on the aluminum tube and pressed against the fuselage sides. To get a perfect fit, one wing is move away from the fuselage until the largest gap anywhere is 1/8". Then a 1/8" thick piece of plywood is placed flat against the fuselage as a spacer to determine how much material must be removed around the perimeter of the wing to make a good fit. The flat portion of the spacer is placed against the fuselage side, and then the 1/8" edge of the spacer against the wing. A pencil marks how much material must be removed at that spot. When the wing is marked all the way around, the line defines what must be removed to have the perfect fit. The material was removed and then the plywood wing root pieces were attached, followed by the dowel anti-rotation pins. A Robart incidence gauge was used to set the wings at 0°.

The vertical fin has a tab that mounts into a slot in the top of fuselage. The tab and slot did not match up on this kit, but it was an easy fix to just increase the length of the slot. The plans show the usage of Sullivan Tail Wire kits to support the tail feathers on both the top and bottom. The kit for the top connecting the vertical stabilizer to the horizontal stabilizer was used but 4-40 rods were used to connect the underside of the stabilizer to the fuselage. If one of the wires should break, there is still a solid connection between the stabilizer and the fuselage. The Sullivan kit is very nice with all cable and connectors to do either the top or bottom of a stabilizer.

A BME 100 was chosen to power the Staudacher based upon its incredible power to weight ratio and excellent reputation that it has been building in the IMAC and IMAA community. This is one beautiful engine, with a blue anodized crankcase and prop shaft, and very detailed machining. It only weighs 4.5 pounds yet it is capable of delivering 40 to 50 pounds of thrust! This is the same or less weight of every 70 to 75cc engine on the market and a full pound less than almost any other 100cc engine. With a total weight around 21 - 23 pounds, any 70 to 75cc engine would be fantastic for the Staudacher, and a G62 or Brison 3.2 would probably be perfect to fly it scale. The BME should be phenomenal. This would allow flying at a lower and much quieter throttle setting most of the time with ballistic vertical available when desired.

The fuselage engine box sides were one inch too short for the BME engine. Lanier plans to make future runs of the kit longer in this area. Stand-offs were made from 1" square 1/4" plywood pieces to move the engine outward. The engine was mounted with 3° of right thrust.

A beautiful Ultimate style Tru-Turn spinner was cut for a 26x10 Menz "Standard" prop. Tru-Turn now stocks spinners with this cut at no additional charge. They also offer spinners with the a lighter backplate. There are other spinners on the market but may be heavier and not of the same quality. The full-scale spinner is painted white but this one is left with the shiny aluminum finish.

A Cermark 1500mah ignition pack was installed in the engine box using foam and tie-wraps and the ignition module was mounted to the right side of the engine box.

A TME heavy-duty smoke system was installed with a 16-ounce smoke-oil tank on top of the fuel tank and the pump mounted on the floor. The output from the pump was split with a "T", one side of each going to each of the mufflers.

All wood components were sanded smooth with 200-grit sandpaper on a 12" sanding bar then sanded again with 400 grit paper. A Shop-Vac was used to blow off and then vacuum all the pieces, and a tack cloth was used to remove any other loose material. Another tack cloth was wiped over the pieces again right before the covering was applied.

Monocote was used to cover the Staudaucher primarily because matching Lustercote paint is available for the white, black, and True Red colors of the LapMap scheme. The cowl, wheel pants, and canopy were primed and painted with Lustercote, which gives a "less than perfectly smooth" surface. After the colors were applied, wet sanding was done to smooth out the surface and a clear-coat of thinned automotive polyurethane was applied. This resulted in a professional glossy look.

The graphics were made by Die-Hard Graphics in Illinois. They did not have a LapMap scheme in the scale needed, but worked to figure out how to scale the graphics to fit this plane. Measurements and calculations were made from the Sun-n-Fun pictures and the dimensions were Emailed to them. The custom-made graphics were received in just a few days.

A Futaba receiver was used with Futaba 7UAFS transmitter. All surfaces are controlled by JR 4721 servos, one for each elevator and two for the rudder in a push-pull configuration. Rocket City hardware was used as indicated on the plans. Two (2) Cermark 5-cell 1500mah battery packs connected to separate switches were used. One switch connects to the battery connection on the receiver, the other one connected to an unused receiver channel slot. The two receiver packs were located beneath the center of the canopy. The lightweight BME engine contributes to being able to locate the components near the center.

Digital bathroom scales were used to weigh the completed Staudacher. The weight came out at about 22 1/2 lbs. This includes the extra 5-cell 1500mah redundant battery pack for the receiver, TME smoke pump, 16 ounce smoke oil tank, and 800mah battery pack for the TME pump. With my measured wing area of 1628 square inches, the calculated wing loading is 31.8 ounces per square foot. With these numbers, the Staudacher would be a real floater. The total weight also indicates that a 4.2-4.4 sized engine would be excellent for this plane, and that the BME 100 was going to be at mid-throttle most of the time.

The "weight bag" of plywood, balsa, and aluminum that had been removed in the building process weighed 13 ounces. This is not a huge number but the approach to removing material was conservative and no money was spent to save the weight. The easiest way to reduce weight is to remove material from the landing gear plate and the aluminum landing gear. Another 8-10 ounces could be removed if the wings were cored and strengthened with carbon fiber but they might not survive the same high-G maneuvers as a stock wing. Additional weight savings could be gained by going with the optional fiberglass cowl and wheel pants. Removing the smoke system and the redundant receiver battery pack would easily remove another pound.

Flying day was overcast with about a 10-15 MPH wind right down the runway. After some pictures and a thorough pre-flight inspection, the Staudaucher ready for the maiden flight. The BME started right up and was tested throughout the RPM range. The throttle trim was reset on the transmitter to ensure that it would kill the engine. Then a full-throttle range check was performed. There was no doubt that "unlimited vertical" would be the phrase of the day.

The Staudacher taxis very easily with no sign of tipping forward. The throttle was advanced slowly and the Staudaucher left the ground in about 60-70 feet and 30% throttle. It was incredibly stable and only required one click of right aileron to get perfectly straight flight! The recommended surface throws felt pretty good although some may want a little more elevator travel for low rates. Inverted flight took a little more elevator than expected with the CG set right in the middle of the range. A few quick pulls of elevator at a safe altitude indicated no tendency towards snapping, and stalls were very subtle and straight-ahead. The slow-speed flight is incredible; it would stand still in the air with the 10-15 mph winds. Rolls on the vertical showed no corkscrew or attitude changes. There was absolutely no roll coupling with rudder! There was also only the very slightest pitch coupling, hardly enough to try mixing it out. This was the best lack of coupling ever experienced which meant knife-edge flight was just way too easy. Vertical upline tests indicated that there was too much right thrust but it was not excessive. There was no indication of a need for any up or down thrust changes. The landing was uneventful. The Staudacher has a good drag profile. It slows down really well when the throttle is pulled back. The throttle was cut to idle on the base leg of the approach and kept there until the turn to final and the desired altitude was reached. Then a touch of throttle was added to bring it in. There is certainly no need for a long, drawn-out approach.

On the second flight, snaps, spins, tumbles, etc. were done. It easily climbed in knife-edge, even on low rate rudder and knife-edge loops will be possible on higher rates. It could hover at about 35-40% throttle, with just a bump of throttle required to lift right out of it. Full throttle had it accelerating straight up. Large elevator deflections at high rates indicated no tendency to snap, and waterfalls were easy but there was not enough elevator throw to get really tight loops. Most of the flying was done with the BME at 50% throttle and less, making a really nice tone and less noise. Only on the verticals with snaps and rolls was more throttle applied. The Staudacher and BME 100 are a fantastic combination.

The Staudacher was a pleasure to build and there were no major difficulties anywhere in the process but the few minor changes that have been recommended for the instructions would help. It was extremely easy to modify the tail to match my drawings of the GS version. The weight reduction actions were well worth the effort providing a significant reduction without an immense effort or any cost and are recommended to anyone who builds the kit.

The Lanier Staudacher is easy to build and so stable that it could recommended as a first giant scale plane. A lightly built version with a 60-75cc single cylinder engine and 70-80 ounce servos all around would be great for anyone that can fly and "Ultrasport" type of aircraft and they would be amazed at how easy it is to fly and land. It may also be capable of any TOC maneuver with the right throws and the BME 100 on the nose, and without a doubt could be a winner at any level on the IMAC circuit. The Michael Goulian LapMap scheme looks great and sets it apart from the more common designs seen today. With a street price of around $319, Lanier has an exceptional winner in the Price/Performance category for competitive giant scale aerobatic planes.