Peck Nesmith Cougar

[Crabby]

Hi Comrades!
One of my kids came here to Palm Bay to recover from a badly fractured femur from snowboarding Christmas Day. He lives in Boulder CO, and he crashed and burned. He was lucky enough to be employed by a company who is being very generous in giving him all the time he needs to recuperate. He has never even once shown any interest in building model airplanes, but its like really boring here for a 30 year old kid who is used to being a rock and roll star. He asked me to help him get set up with all the stuff to build something simple so I gave him the Cougar and all the other odds and ends...when I tried to help, he tuned me out, UNLESS he asked a straightforward question, so I turned into the casual uninterested observer, unless asked for an observation, which was rare. He is and older kid, and has done a fair bit of living hard knock style, but his problem solving skills have always been keen and insightful. I think this effort passes, his weight 14 grams, but he stole one of Thee Olde Man's (his granddad) propellers and it is a heavy one. I casually observed him checking the balance and it is a tiny bit nose heavy. I am waiting for a prop request. This was a used kit and the prop was missing. He even noticed the 3 degrees down thrust in the plan and went out to the drill press.... I am mystified at his apparent beginner's luck we will see if it holds up come fly-day! HMMMM!

[TheLurker]

...I am mystified at his apparent beginner's luck ...

Not luck.  You know what they say, breeding will out.   

It looks good.
Cheers,
Lurk.

[flydean1]

The Peck Cougar was my first flyable Peanut. 

The original was an effort by Nesmith to "design" his own airplane.

 He had plans for a Wittman Tailwind and kept pestering Steve Wittman for his opinion on changes.  Heard this from Wittman himself.  Every change either slowed it down or negatively affected the handling.  Very few were built.  Anyway, the prototype had some sort of yellow trim but the Peck kit had only red tissue with some black for a fuselage side flash. 

Well, in the course of time, the prototype wound up hung in the rafters of the Sun & Fun Museum generally in pieces.  A friend of mine "traded" his restored Travel Air 2000 for the Cougar and after completely rebuilding, painted it---you guessed it---bright red.  I haven't seen it in years, but you can credit Peck with prophesying the eventual colors.  I think the registration was in black but can't recall if he had the side flash.

[Indoorflyer]

Here's a couple of shots of the original Nesmith.

[flydean1]

The yellow and black were what I saw hanging in the Museum.  The red is as rebuilt by Dean Tilton.

[lincoln]

Crabby:

My guess is that, when he was little,  your son watched you build models, probably when you were not looking,  and learned a few things.

[THB]

Nice story Crabby. Enjoy the moment!

[ChrisH]

A few months ago George Kandylakis posted a link to the French Cervia website   http://www.peanut-scale.fr/a-les-cahiers-du-cervia.html   its really good!

There is a header with 'Documentation' that will lead you to the Nesmith Cougar...

And in the 'Plans' pulldown you will find a very detailed peanut version by Ulises Alvarez


More good stuff here: http://wienerdogaero.com/CougarFuselage.php

[Indoorflyer]

A few months ago George Kandylakis posted a link to the French Cervia website   http://www.peanut-scale.fr/a-les-cahiers-du-cervia.html   its really good!

There is a header with 'Documentation' that will lead you to the Nesmith Cougar...

And in the 'Plans' pulldown you will find a very detailed peanut version by Ulises Alvarez

That is a very nice Cougar plan--     Too bad the left edge got "clipped off" in the scan.  Would not be a problem building the model, but it would be nice to have a complete image, just for collectors' sake...

The wienerdog link has an interesting image:  The new, combined landing gear and engine mount assembly of that Cougar is similar to a Tailwind's.  The original Cougar landing gear mounting (attached directly to the lower fuselage structure) was a very poor design, and most built to plan failed.  The torsional loads twisted/broke the fuselage tubing where the legs attached.