Hi all and welcome to my world or the world of model flying as I see it!

What have I for you this month? Well Sandown for a start we get in a flap and we fly backwards, so I hope you find something of interest for you, but we start with Sandown.

In previous years I have never had the chance to look at everything so I made the effort this year to put that right.

Sandown for me this year was a little extra special; this was because I had arranged to meet Gray who writes the spots channel in RCMW and also to meet Urs Szymansky my man in Switzerland, it was an honour and a pleasure to meet these two men both very knowledgeable and both very pleasant to talk to.

Here I am with Urs Szymansky	and again with Gray

As you would expect you could get it all from this show and so you should because Sandown is after all the first big trade show for use, the only down side for me was and this is only my personal view I don’t think it was as big as last year, there did look to be a down turn in the number of stands.

Al's hobbies had there usual large stand full of everything, Slough models also had a big stand with it all on but it was nice to see people like South Coast Sailplanes I think this was there first year at the show.

As I have already said I had a good look round this year that meant going over to the static boat display and the boating pool.

Some of the detail on there craft is just amazing it’s a credit to the builders. I also liked the variety of craft on show from straight runners and R/C sail to scale warships it was all very good.

I also had a look at the car racing this was both on and off road, the off road I had seen before at other shows but it was nice to see some oval racing both stock car and hot rods.

One funny thing that I was witness to was two gents that had bought the Capiche 50 kits from Carbon Copy, they had been told to go to the Nexus stand to get a copy of the plan, nothing wrong with that you may think but they had gone to the Traplet stand to ask for a copy! Needles to say they walked away somewhat disappointed!

Did I buy anything I hear you ask, well funny you ask but not a lot I got myself a 64K campac for my Futaba FF8 I now have 41 model memories to go at, I got some Hitec HS 81 MG servos I ordered a plan from Traplet Yes they do the one I wanted! And I got some carbon tube for a plane I plan to build but other than glue and some receiver battery’s that was all.

Now I know we all have our own interests be it power, gliders, scale or any other form of flight. As you will no doubt of gathered from what you have seen in my articles I like to be different! Flying models that stand out or taking a perfectly good electric model and flying it as a glider and so on. But a fellow club member has gone one better by flying a model that flaps its wings just like a bird or to give it its proper title it’s an Ornithopter.

I received some information about this from Pete who by the way is the famous or is it infamous! Pete from Pete’s Pilots I’ll let him tell you about it, over to you Pete.

The designer of the Park Hawk ornithopter is a guy called Sean Kinkade. The Kestrel that seems to be more readily available is virtually a copy of this and is made by a former college of Sean's. Sean originally made an eight-foot version called Sky Bird powered by an I.C. model car engine. This is a fabulous machine but very few have found their way to Europe. I wanted one of these also but the price was prohibitive. Robert Korobelnik from Paris owns one and it won a special prize in 2001 at the experimental meet in France. The Park Hawk is an attempt to make an affordable, smaller electric version. It works very well once you get used to the delay in control response. It comes virtually built but requires careful setting up. The instructions are very good and I've had no real trouble flying it. It is hypnotic to watch the flapping action and you can maintain height on about half throttle (half flap) if there is no wind. Some really good high flights of up to nine minutes can be made. Almost the whole structure is of carbon fibre, and it is very tough for such a light machine. Turns require hard over rudder and full up elevator. If you don't do this it will wander away. The massive tail has to be used fully to initiate a turn.

The details of mine are all up weight is 14oz. 48" Wingspan. Battery: 720mah NiMh. Servos: HS-81MG Micro servo for rudder and HS-55 feather for elevator. The HS-81 Metal Geared is essential as the tail is attached directly to it. Receiver is Jeti REX 4 and ECU is 20Amp with BEC. Motor as supplied is Speed 300. The short ariel on REX receiver is helpful because the Park Hawk is only short. No special computer radio is required because it’s all very simple to set up.

Thanks for that Pete he also told me to have a look at Flapping Flight web site at www.ornithopter.org this site has a lot of information and some videos.

Staying with strange flight the photos below show my new canard called Patchwork. I have to thank “Gray” for this plan this I think Gray got from France. I also have to thank my dad who built this model, I was going to build this myself but once my dad had a look at the plan he said “I’ll build that”. It is nice that I am in a position to have somebody that likes building like my dad does because as you can imagine I get more models to fly in a shorter time than most people.

The details are all built up construction with a wing span of 32” and a length of 19” an all up weight of 7.5 oz radio is Hitec HS 55 servos, one on elevator and one on ailerons with a Jeti Rex 4 receiver and a 110 mAh battery pack.

As to the flying well this is one for light winds anything over 10 mph and it is too windy for it to penetrate, but it will loop and roll very well and the inverted flight is very good only needing a slight forwards pressure on the stick and it will fly like that all day. As to the stall well I have always been told that a canard will not stall and this is very true of Patchwork, to try this out I got some height and with the nose into wind I slowly pulled in the up until I was holding in full up with Patchwork just sitting there as if to be stuck in the air with full control of the ailerons, all in all a very nice small model to go with the Plouf and the Headbutt.

Well that’s it again for this month as to next month well I have a rebuild to tell you about and a new flying wing I have just test flown, and I hope to have some photos and information of an electric powered Plouf plus if any of you out there in Bumpygreen land have anything you think will be of interest for others please tell me and I’ll do the rest for you.

So until next time may your god go with you, your batteries never go flat and you never get the last flight in with your model (Think about that one!)

Wot4 Wayne

Email me on waynesworld@bumpygreen.co.uk

 

Article by Wayne Haycock for Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
June 2003

Comment by Bumpy Green on 00000000000000. Rating 5

Great Wayne!! Your best one yet.

Comment by urs szymanski on 00000000000000. Rating 5

Nice one Wayne it was nice reading about Petes Ornithopter as i have been flying one for over a year now. They are great fun and can be flown indoors in a large Gym. i have even done a ground take of on the well polished wooden floor . Looks great. Urs the flapper

Comment by Paul on 00000000000000. Rating none

Where can I buy the park hawk?

Comment by Adrian Bishop on 00000000000000. Rating none

Please can you send details of the Park Hawk Ornithopter or similar

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