Maricardo (56″) – Additional Wood Pack

The Maricardo is straightforward to build from the new plan, which follows the original very closely. As with all plan-built aircraft, it’s a good idea to make a kit of parts before assembly. Note that the original dihedral is dispensed with, so the dihedral brace is flattened and now becomes a wing joiner. Since she’s a traditional balsa-and-ply model and needs neither cowl, canopy, fibreglass nor commercial items to complete, she is amazingly cheap to build. This traditional building method also produces a model that’s tough and that shrugs off most of the petty knocks and grazes. If you do break a bit off her, it will repair easily, since the construction is so basic. Truth is, if you pay careful attention to fuel proofing and seal all the edges, she’ll probably be flying in twenty years time, barring thumb-trouble, of course!

The Maricardo is quite a large and impressive model for this engine range and she isn’t short of wing area, so has a good speed range with excellent lift, and a superb glide. She is stable at all times; at low throttle settings she’s amazingly docile, giving excellent approach and landing characteristics. Ground handling is first rate, and if you want to get into tail-draggers (after your tricycle trainer) she’s the one.

She’s an excellent low-wing trainer on a .40 and returns superb aerobatic performance on an Irvine .53, which is both quiet and powerful. This model is capable of flying anything in the book, indeed the performance is only limited by the pilot’s skill. Inverted flight is very neutral with just a touch of forward stick required… I’ve seen Gareth Williams spinning his Maricardo down to grass level, flat inverted! Although you might not think it to look at her, she has excellent knife-edging capabilities, too. Couple that with a racer’s good looks and this model is just about the perfect all-round sports aircraft.

What’s in an Additional Wood Pack? – Our Additional Wood Packs contain MOST of the necessary sheet and strip wood needed to complete a model being built from a Sarik Hobbies plan and using the associated laser cut wood pack, if available. We stock a wide range of balsa, ply and spruce in popular sheet and strip sizes but even so we cannot guarantee to be able to supply all the wood necessary to complete each model. So some additional purchases may be required from other modelling wood stockists if not available from Sarik Hobbies. Our Additional Wood Packs only contain balsa, ply and spruce wood in the stock sizes as used by our suppliers and do not include other materials that may be required to complete the model such as hardwoods, metals and GRP sheet.

Please note that all Laser Cut and additional woodpacks are cut to order and as such we are unable to accept returns unless they are found to be faulty.