Marginally woodworking related

Brent Dowell

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Reno NV
It is actually made out of balsa wood...

I find I enjoy slow flying airplanes anymore. Just something to mess around with.

This is supposed to be a very slow and stable park flyer. It's based off of an old free flight model.

Too windy to give it a shot right now, but hopefully it will calm down later.

Maybe tomorrow.

I wish I was better at doing the covering, but it should be flight worthy.

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It's a special type of material used for models. It's a plastic with an adhesive backing on it. At about 100c, the glue activates. At about 120c, the plastic will shrink quite a bit enabling you to get the covering drum tight. You use a little iron to iron it onto the model.

Motors and batteries are actually pretty advanced anymore. It uses a brushless 'outrunner' motor and lithium ion battery. The brushless motors require the use of a little computerized controller. Instead of just a + and -, you have 3 wires coming off the motor with three seperate windings. The controller allows you to have variable speed. They are also much more efficient and powerful and lighter than the old fashioned electric motors.

Just a fun little toy. I'm hoping this one will be easy enough to fly so I can let Sharon use it. We are planning on going up to the black rock desert for a few days and I'll take my entire fleet up there and we'll fly them till they can't fly no more... :rofl:
 
It's from a kit. I probably have about 10 hours in, maybe?

The company that put's these kits together really do a great job. It's all laser cut, extremely accurate, extremely well engineered. A pretty full complement of parts and accessories so there is very little 'extra', except the electronics that you have to purchase. This is the second one of their kits I've put together and I've been extremely impressed.

They go together so fast because you basically put the pieces together, then hit it with a little thin CA glue. You don't have to pin things to a board and wait for things to dry like the old days.

What the heck, Here's a plug for the company. http://www.stevensaero.com

Sharon's out of town, so I'm not allowed to be climbing around on ladders and stuff on the Shed this weekend, so I thought I would finish this...
 
Looks nice, Brent, but if you wanted a slow plane, why'd you make this one red? Doesn't everyone know that red is faster? :p

If your covering job has flaws, they sure don't show up in the photos to me. :thumb:
 
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