Category Archives: Sighting

John Cooper takes a look at the Squirrel

Outreach, Sighting

John is a model airplane expert from the Ottawa Community.

We had a chance to do a few flights and consider the various design choices. Its great to get review of the design from such an experienced modeller.

John has experience with kids so I value his opinions very highly! He does volunteer work for Cubs.

John’s Web site is on scale modeling and is at scaleflight.net. He has quite an array of amazing models!

Here’s one of several flights I did. It hit the ceiling and then went into the stands. John climbed up the wall to get to the rafters. Thanks John!

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How to make a prop from a Coke bottle

Experimental, Sighting

If you don’t have access to a propeller (propellor), this is a great way to make one out of common materials. It is at the ScienceToyMaker Web site run by Slater Harrison.

I noticed the plane he was using with his DIY propeller is a Squirrel. 🙂

I noticed also he is showing another mechanism designed by Prabhuraj.C.U of india is using a foam Squirrel plane as well.

 

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Small Squirrel Bi-Plane

Experimental, Sighting

Another way to increase the wing area is to add more wings! Here’s George’s Squirrel Biplane experiments.

Darcy:

Here’s a couple biplanes. Differing in design, they are both very good fliers. The first has a 9 in. span and a 2 in. chord. It weighs 8 grams including rubber. The second has a 6 3/4 in. span and a 2 3/4 in. chord. It weighs 9 grams including rubber. Both are powered by shaved-down 5 in. props. Each plane took about 3 hrs. to build. The fun continues.

Cheers

George

 

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Smaller Squirrels

Experimental, Sighting

More from George Clark out in BC.

Now we’re going for the other extreme.

He is now experimenting with small Squirrels.

Darcy:
Here’s my latest, the Little Squirrel, and it’s a beauty. Wingspan – 10 in. Chord – 3.5 in. Total weight – 8.5 grams. The prop is 5 in., shaved down to save weight. Excellent wing loading of .24 g/ sq. in. Anything below .5 g/sq. in. will fly, but the lighter the better. I cut the wing from a single sheet of 3/32 contest balsa in order to save the added weight of glued joints, and gave it an airfoil shape. Test flights with a single short loop of 1/8 rubber prove that this little plane will disappear in a hurry unless care is taken to give it a large enough field to fly in.
Cheers
George

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