I met with Richard Lyle Barlow yesterday. He’s very active in the model airplane community and I had the opportunity to snag a meeting with him when he was in town.

He’s a bit of a fan of the Squirrel project and we discussed the project a bit. I also showed him the new Dayton design. He had a couple of great suggestions. one was to slant the toothpick. I think that’s a great idea. It will make it easier to assemble too. It will make it easier to install the part that goes right behind the toothpick since it’s orientation will be more clear due to the angle.

Another thing that came up was the small parts. I used some shards of balsa to widen the motorstick to accommodate the wing mounting technique I learned from Lloyd Shales. This produces 4 small shards of balsa. I will look further in to the wing mount system. I really enjoy the stability and ease of the system so I will see if I can simplify it without using too much wood and avoiding the small parts.

I was able to construct an entire Dayton during this meeting. I must admit it goes together faster than a Squirrel.

I returned to the same venue later for another meeting to help somebody with a Web site. During that meeting I flew the Dayton off the bar a couple of times. In one case it took off from the bar, circled the room and landed right back on the bar. I wish I’d taken video. 🙂