Tag: flying

Flight


Escaping is moving forward

Steve Neill’s SNG Studio

My adventure back into Free Flight model aircraft has been a joyesh one to say the least. With all the absolute insanity of human beings world wide going on and breakneck speed it’s great to escape into a cozy quiet shop in the backroom with airplanes hanging from the ceiling to find that Zen while quietly building a little engineering gem that will fly free in the beautiful skies.

The entire time I’m building I’m imagining the flight in the sky and the fun and camaraderie and friendships of the people I fly with. While everything else around you has gone completely mad we have our own little world of sanity. Suddenly the world makes sense again.

Already I have built a few new aircraft. But presently I’m building a Golden Age Reproductions Fokker D-7. With these old kits from the 30’s you have to cut every part out by hand from the printed balsa supplied in the kit. A very enjoyable process indeed.

I also just built for indoor flying a Easy Built Models Freshman Embryo. Old design but an updated to a laser cut kit. It builds well with its laser cut parts and I should fly it this week at the Stonehurst Recreation Center in Sun Valley. These fly super slow and for very long flights landing themselves on the floor.

Keeping to planes I can fly indoors for the winter. I’m building a Volare Products out of production kit of a Jonathan Nunez Yak 3. A beautifully designed kit by George Bredehoft that literally melts together with his fine laser cutting and precise engineering. Your kits will be missed George.

And in the mail from the UK from the Vintage Model company a Fouga glider. This glider was an early design for a jet powered full sized glider.

Originally designed back in the day as a model for a Jetex rocket motor, today we have tiny EDF(electric ducted fan) units that act as jet engines. I ordered one and will use this in the project to propel this 30 inch span glider in free flight. Wonderful project I have always wanted to do since I first set eyes on the Fouga.

Lastly I was looking through my stash and came across this little marvel of an engineering feat. A Gasparin CO2 motor I bought from Kit Kraft before they were closed years ago. This little motor will fly and small free flight model well.

I looked for plans for a model that would suit it well and I arrived on the Demoiselle.

First built and flown in 1909 as a full sized aircraft, I could see that it would feature this little motor well without hiding it inside a more modern airplane’s cowl. Plus it is a historical aircraft that flies slow and easy.

I have more ideas ahead of course. There’s no end to it and that’s the joy of any hobby. When you finish one project there’s always a next.

I truly believe if more people had hobbies of passion we would have a better world. People would stop fighting and band together in the name of fun and joy. Not that other insanity we see everyday in the news. Plus! People who play with and have hobbies live longer. It’a win-win!

I’m 74 now and I fly with people that range from their 30’s to their 90’s. We are all little kids embracing our inner child. The inner child that will keep you young and your eyes on the skies always.

That other thing that occupies my life and brings me joy…a hobby  

Enjoy the saga of my efforts to do something I have never done with my beloved radio controlled aircraft career in 40 years. And that is to fly an 11 foot wingspan scale glider.

Originally I had planned to build and fly a large scale glider some years back. The idea was to have it towed into flight just like the full scale gliders. I set up a large scale Ka-8 glider and it was set up for aerotow.​ The closest place to do this was a 4 hour drive, the other a 5 hour drive which made it impractical and after a couple of years I reluctantly sold the Ka8.


Watching the internet and dreaming of flying a large scale glider I became aware that people were starting to motorise the gliders with electric power. Even full scale pilots were doing this. With slopes being closed and fields lacking pilots that would tow you up it was an obvious choice. The only problem with some gliders like my recently purchased and built. The Bergfalke ground clearance from the prop.

The solution I found was a bit scary but people seemed to have constant success with the method which is to make a dolly the glider sits on and rolls along under power down the runway until it reaches enough speed to achieve lift and it magically floats off the dolly into flight.


I spent a month researching, reading and watching many many videos of people using this method to get airborne. I looked at all the different variations of dollies and soon understood what works best and built one from scratch.

The end result was what I had hoped for but in my first efforts to get airborne I learned there is a bit more to it than just throttling up and rolling down the runway and these videos will take you through that until the final success.

The first flights were made without wing spoilers. I have since ordered them and will be installing them next week. These are brakes that pop up out of the top of the wing to slow you down on approach to landing.


I’m already planning to build another large scale glider this time with a 179 inch span. I’m getting another Ka8.

These videos show you the progression and the final video is all about the maiden flight.
Enjoy