All posts by Darcy

School

Education

I wanted to introduce Sean who is the person who help with the assembly of the first few thousand Squirrel model airplane kits.

Since he has started working on the project he has completed high school and completed college (Business Administration). He actually got an award from the college because of his diligence and persistence (he had family losses and other issues) but he kept going.

I’m very proud to say that he now has another job and is thriving. Perhaps he will return some day to help with the business side of the Squirrel model airplane project.

Pin It

Rio Grande, Gorge Bridge

Gallery

Here are some awesome flights sent in by Dave of New Mexico.

I figure one of the flights is about a minute. What do you think? I figure it’s a minute and three from 2:12 to 3:15.

Here’s a nice picture of Dave flying a Sig Cub in Ottawa back before the Squirrel project. This reminds me of how fun rubber-power can be! I really must get out and fly some rubber-power planes just for fun! I’m so busy helping others I never get to do it for myself. Thanks for this awesome reminder Dave!

Pin It

Flying session at senior center (Ottawa)

Gallery, Outreach

I spent my afternoon at a senior center today. My helper was Alice (pictured). After the flying session we had a brew at the pub across the street (wohoo). At our pub meet we made a couple of paper planes and got the whole place going crazy throwing them around.

It was a great day at the senior center. Breezy but the senior center has a courtyard that is sheltered as you can see by the sky picture I took.

This was the second flying session at this location. I must say that the seniors (not pictured for legal reasons) started to respond very strongly towards the activity.

I am happy to report that many of them launched the planes which rose to 3-4 stories height and they were laughing, clapping and getting excited. A couple of them started to learn to wind the planes.

This is very valuable since the physical, intellectual and social activity surrounding simple model planes is just right for seniors.

Pin It

Adding an aileron to model plane

Experimental

I was asked to clarify how to add an aileron to a Squirrel (or any stick and tissue model plane for that matter).

I use ordinary copy paper and cut out a rectangle or a tapered rectangle. Come think of it any shape will work as long as there is a long edge to attach to the wing.

20lb Copy paper is about right. I tried with tissue and it’s too light to keep it’s shape.

Scissors are best. In my example I actually used a hobby knife since I was in a cafeteria and I found my hobby knife before I found my scissors. 🙂

For a Squirrel I usually make the aileron about 3 inches long. I suppose 4 inches is good too. An inch wide is about right. In the example to the right I made it a little narrower than that.

If you have a glue stick you can put a thin layer along one of the long edges. I like a glue stick since you can probably easily remove the aileron if decide you don’t like it.

In the event you use white glue or craft glue be sure to use a toothpick or something to smear a thin layer along a long edge.

I used a bit much glue in the picture. But I was in a rush since I was about to do a flying session at a seniors residence.

You can then glue it to the trailing edge (back) of one of the wings. Any wing will work but I usually use the left. Most of my Squirrels turn right so I put it on the left and then bend it up a bit to bring the left wing down during flight.

Many people like having two ailerons. But I like just one. If it doesn’t work well enough I either make a bigger one or I make another one for the other wing.

Once you have an aileron (or two) on your airplane you can experiment bending them in different directions to affect the direction of flight.

If you have one I think it’s the easiest to start with.

But if you have two, there are a lot of options to try.

If you bend one up and one down, it will be twice as effective.

If you bend both down at the same time, then it is actually referred to as flaps or flap.  Flaps can reduce the speed of the airplane and is used for landing and takeoff for many airplanes.

If you bend both up it’s called spoilers. This is used for breaking and can be used just before landing as a way of bleeding of extra speed if the plane is travelling a little too fast.

For a Squirrel or any other simple stick and tissue model a single aileron can help get the airplane to go straight or in the right turn radius to suit your flying venue.

How an aileron works

An aileron on the left wing will raise the wing if it is bend downward (turning the plane right). It will drop the wing if you bend it up.

On the right wing it is the same except raising the wing will turn the plane left.

As a rule if you change the aileron setting of an airplane you need to change the pitch settings too. If you make the plane turn more then you need to make a pitch adjustment to raise the nose. If you make it turn less then the nose will raise so you need to make a pitch adjustment to drop the nose.

On a Squirrel the pitch is controlled by the wing position. To raise the nose move the wing forward. To drop the nose move it back.

Adjust aileron and pitch in small increments.

 

Pin It