Unusual Happenings out at the field toda

Bob Reeves brought out his Aldrich Fox .40 Dancing Girl Biplane today.
It had a minature video camera mounted below the outboard top wing which transmitted a signal back to a monitor on the ground. He started the engine and took off. That was the wildest TV show I have ever seen.

The camera and battery added about 10 ounces to the weight of the airplane, so it didn't fly as well as usual. The prop was visible on the left hand side of the video screen. The abrupt changes in attitude are something to see!

Well De, now that you have let the cat out of the bag lets tell the rest of the story. The plan is to make a video of the full stunt pattern from the airplanes perspective and sell copies of the video to enhance the clubs treasury. The technical details will be forth coming whenever I find time to write an article on the whole project.

Today's test flights didn't quite go as well as planed The airborne system adds almost 10 ounces to the airframe and the Dancing Girl was about 5 ounces over her weight limit. Add a 10 MPH wind and it was an exciting two flights. She was flying like a tank and I am not a good enough pilot to compensate. The first flight was just a test flight to see how she handled with all the extra weight and drag, we didn't turn the camera on to conserve the battery pack. I basically flew level, did a couple of loops and a wingover. That flight told me I was in for a challenge if I was going to try to get through the whole pattern.

On the second flight I managed to get through the reverse wingover and round loops. Didn't think I should attempt the triangle so went right to the horizontal eights. Managed to get through the first eight but ran out of elevator on the inside of the second eight and smacked old mother earth. She hit pretty flat so no major structural damage, the wheels bent back and broke the spar and several ribs in the lower wing, a small crack in the sheeting and some torn Monokote on the upper surface of the lower wing. The plane is easily repairable and the camera system wasn't hurt, she will be ready for another try next weekend.

The bad part was due to a glitch with the VCR we didn't get any of the flight or the crash on tape. It would have made a great trailer for the video. So now the story has been told, standby we are going to complete this project and put out the wildest video ever done with a control line airplane.

Any advance orders for the video?

I'm not a bipe man but this plane is looking great! I'd love to see the film when you get the kinks out. Keep up the good work.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-26-03 AT 10:27 PM (CDT)
 
I love the old Fox 40 Stunt. Big heavy motor, but lots of power. I see you mounted it inverted. I discovered on an old Sig Mustang stunter that these motors run really well mounted inverted.

Ya, that old fox is the engine I completed my first stunt pattern with in 74. It's getting a little tired but still runs great.

That's got to be a hoot to watch. Sign me up when you get the video done.

Larry Foster

Is that a Peace Pipe that see hanging out the side? How does it run using that old muffler. I have a couple but have not tried them yet. Is it the 29-40 size or the 45-60 size. I have adapted an old Super Tigre muffler to one of mine. It runs ok, but of course looses a few RPMs.

I have several of these motors and a couple of them are NIB. I have several projects that I want to mount them on.

>Is that a Peace Pipe that see hanging out the side?

Yep it is, 29-40 size but the insides have been hogged out and the exit hole enlarged as much as possible. I normally run Fox 5/29 all castor Super Fuel, runs a great 4-2-4 and has plenty of power for the Dancing Girl.

For the camera flights I switched to Power Master GMA 10/29 and it runs even better. With the camera system onboard it is hauling around a 53 ounce airplane with more drag than would ever be encountered in the real world.

I race go carts and I have tried several times to attach a regular size hand held video camera to a go cart. Your tiny little transmitter camera sounds like what I need. Where did you buy that thing?

Here are 16 pics of the go cart
http://home.earthlink.net/~gary350/go.htm

Gary,

When we start selling the videos I think I might put the plans for the flight pack on eBay

Oh...oh...oh...maybe we can trade them for a BB machine gun!

Better yet... take the car mounted gun he sells and park the car on the side of the flying site and try to shoot the planes out of the air!!

LAST EDITED ON Aug-06-03 AT 11:38 PM (CDT)
 
Here it is in the air. When my software re-sizes photos they often get a bit "muddy" but they still didn't come out too bad.

Elwyn, those are amazing pictures! You could probably make a fair living selling shots like that to magazines and such (also to the owners of the planes, at a contest perhaps). Or publish a book of prints - that would be something. Really, you're one cool photog...

Tim

You should see the full size images.. Fantastic.. We are privileged to have Elwin in our little group.

The bipe isn't working out so well due to the high wing loading but Elwin has a SIG Magnum

The trick is to not let anyone see all of the shots with half an airplane or just blurry airplane shaped blobs in them.