VSC 2K3 The Firecat Toss Glider

Here's my vote for the coolest concept.

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Big Brother. (Steve Holt Photo)

So here's a Firecat done by Robert Demkey from Salt Lake City according to Steve Holt. It was not flown at VSC, but the display was worth the trip. Covering is clear Monokote as is most of the blue trim. Lettering was hand done under the final covering of clear. All of the design was trimmed to match one of those wonderful old hand toss balsa gliders, one of which was on display just in case we didn't get the artistic reference.

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Angled view

This goes beyond modeling into art. So do a lot of great finishes, but the concept is great fun.

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Thin skin

Just having the nerve to display the construction through transparent skin is impressive. Here's the side view, you can see the bellcrank and every internal detail. I wouldn't dare try this until I get a LOT better at fabricating parts that fit tight.

Man! Every time I think I've seen the rarest thing, something like this comes along!

On fabricating parts that fit tight, I'm starting to believe that's mainly a matter of fabricating each part individually and fitting it carefully - it can't be done (at least in my shop) with more than one piece at a time.

Tim

Many fond memories of the 74 Fighter.

The steamed in dihedral. The lead slug that would pop out of the nose when it hit something hard.

Nothing beat the nickel North Pacific glider with the clip on wing, though.

Great ukie model here, by the way! Very original! Who would have thunk to be inspired by a dime glider.

I remember seeing a picture of someone flying an up-scaled "74" glider for slope soaring, once. Incidentally, CL stunt planes make good slope soarers, according to an article I read in AAM many years ago. The moments and wing loading is about right. They took a CL profile Ki-61 Tony, put servos in it, and flew it off a cliff.