Category Archives: Gallery

Dayton and Squirrel-0-Rama

Experimental, Gallery, Outreach,

Last night we had a great meetup. We made and flew Squirrels and two Daytons.

People made the Squirrels from memory. Enough people know how to make them so that’s a good sign.

The Dayton went together very well (and fast). Here is my assessment.

  • The wing had better rigidity than I expected!
  • I flies well with flaps down. I think I will split the aileron into flaps and aileron so people can learn to experiment with that. I’ve done some test since the meetup and it is a great slow flyer.
  • We flew it without trimming. It had a phugoid but I will do some more experiments next time.
  • The paper proves to be light enough.
  • Wheels add a lot of charisma.
  • A few of the laser cuts were the wrong dimensions. Still worked well but I will tweak that stuff for the next run.
  • The assembly and flight are working well enough. After some tweeking to the laser files and the printout, I will attempt a double sided print and do a larger batch for the next revision. In the next build I will make five at once so we can study the flight characteristics further.

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Model Plane Meetups!

Gallery,

Two events! Get your tickets right away as ticket sales close Friday at 4pm. If you don’t have a credit card or paypal, send me a note for your RSVP.

This Sunday at 2pm, make the Sparrow catapult glider!

Sparrow  is designed by Lloyd Shales. It’s very easy to make and is an amazing flyer. A catapult glider works like a sling shot so bring your running shoes!

The event will be at Wild Wing which has a large fields next to it. We can make the planes, have a beer or food while the glue is drying and then bring them to the large field.

Eventbrite - Sparrow Model Plane! before Friday at 4pm!

This Sunday at 7pm, lets make Dayton model planes with wheels!

These sorts of simple model airplanes are fun for all ages but we are doing the event in a pub.

This will be at Busters Pub, 2525 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario at 7pm. Come early for a brew or food!

The Dayton model airplane is a new design (September 2012)! It’s based on the Squirrel.

Eventbrite - Make your own rubber band plane before Friday at 4pm!

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Dayton Prototype

Experimental, Gallery

I sat down at the lab last night and made a Dayton from a printed template.

I added a set of wheels from one of my wheel experiments. They’re pretty light and I think I may have it figured out how to make them efficiently.

I used an alternate wing. Built it all flat like a Squirrel and then capped the four joints. This gave a bit more area for the winglets to attach. This worked well. I need to figure out if it’s easier for people to do than the earlier embodiment which rotates the wing tips so they are vertical. The wing joints are very stable this way.

We were able to get it to take off in the hallway.  This is a stressful environment for a model plane as it’s guaranteed to get some wall and ceiling strikes. We managed to bring forward two failures. I’ll report on that shortly.

Having all the wing control surfaces is a real joy. You can tweak the flight path very easy. I can see how this could be a hit with kids as it gives them something to think about.

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Squirrel with Wheels

Experimental, Gallery, Outreach

Last night we had a gathering at the lab. Celina made a Squirrel from a kit that I had previously dropped off at her house.

I made her up some wheels out of some music wire and some wheels that were given to me by Lloyd Shales (airplane designer).

We got it to take off in the hallway. Wheels are pretty fun for indoor. There was constrained space as the larger rooms in the building all had activities in them. So the wheels make for lots of fun with just a hallway.

Some video will come forward as soon as I get through my camera video.

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