This is Little Juan as he is setup with radio equipment. Due to a few bad openings and age I've had to replace his head, gloves and boots. I used the 1/4 scale head from the DGA Pilot Bust. The gloves and boots are Santa Claus doll parts I bought at a Ben Franklin store. The arms and legs are from the original parachutist that I purchased from AH Designs in England. Unfortunately they no longer manufacture this parachutist.

Front view starting at the top: The Santa Claus gloves are held on with electricians tape as the arms are on the skinny side. The head is the DGA pilot bust head. I didn't try to paint the face except to give him some eyes, have to be able to see where you are going, right? I "painted" his helmet with a black magic marker. Directly below his head the 250 mah battery pack is being held on with a plastic strap. Just below the battery pack are the two regular size servos. All of the loose wires are stuffed between the two servos and then I tape over the open space. The receiver is wrapped in protective foam just below the servos.

Back view starting at the left: The switch harness is attached to a small "bulkhead". To the right of that is the bulkhead for the pack locking and opening pins. I made one small modification to the bulkhead; the two small blocks on the left of the bulkhead help give a more positive opening. This bulkhead and the one below the neck are the attachment points for the parachute pack tray. There are two regular size servos and the linkages for the arms. This linkage setup is identical to that used for ailerons on an aircraft. The two wires under the white arm hold downs are the attachment points for the parachute risers. The "spine", if you will, was another modification I made. It keeps the pack tray from bowing and pressing against the servo arms.

A side view showing all of the component parts. Little Juan's black BVD's are made from electricians tape. Actually I wound up adding about 2 ounce of weight to make him fly better.

This is a shot of the RAM Plane Finder Mark II. The plane finder sends out a 65 DB signal to 50 feet. It comes with its own battery which will last for 4 hours. It can also be used with a 9 volt battery which will last for 4 days.I made a holder with strap to fit around Little Juan's lower body. (See the picture Below). Up here in Washington state we have this nasty stuff called "Scotch Broom" grows all over the place. It grows quite thick. I have already made use of the Plane Finder to locate Little Juan in Scotch Broom. It was well worth the money spent.

The pack tray showing the pack locking wires to the left. In the center of the pack tray is a 1/16" thick plastic stiffener. The one I'm using is made from the plastic liner used inside notebooks.

The two control sticks on the radio are held in the centered position with a rubber band. Also the aileron trim tab is pushed over to the extreme left position and the rudder trim tab is pushed over to the extreme right position. This set up gives you the maximum servo travel possible, somewhere close to 90 degrees.

All of the pictures on this page were taken with an Epson Digital camera.

Sources for some of the parts used in Little Juan and Small Juan.

The head is the DGA Designs 1/4 Scale Model Pilot Kit. Part No. #104 1/4 Scale.

DGA Designs,
16 Main Street,
Phelps, NY 14532

The Boots and gloves are Santa Claus body parts which were purchased at a local Ben Franklin Store. They are Fibre Craft parts No. 7316 for the boots and part No. 7317 for the gloves. They can probably be found at any good arts and crafts store.

Fibre Craft Materials Corp.,
Niles, Illinois 60714-4636

The original Head, gloves and boots are still available from A&H Designs.

A&H Designs,
Mountain Ash, Rhyd-y-foel Road
Llandulas, Clwyd LL22 8EG,
United Kingdom 

Radio Control Modeler (RCM) magazine offers a set of plans for a Radio Control Parachutist. The plan includes the layout for a 15" tall parachutist a "Foil" type parachute and a "Round" parachute. It is plan #631 R/C Parachutist. Price $6.50. In the USA only postage and handling $4.00 for folded plans. $7.00 for plans rolled in a mail tube. For foreign plans postage and handling: Surface - 25% of order, for Foreign Airmail - 50% of order.

RCM
P.O. Box 487
Sierra Madre, CA 91025

The RAm Lost Plane Founder part #RAM17, can be purchased through any good hobby shop.

RAm,
229E E. Rollins RD,
Round Lake Beach, IL 60073 

** Please note I am not receiving any compensation from any of the companies mentioned, for placing information about their products on this website.