mkharv3

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone is still flying the Dynaflite Butterfly. I have had mine for about two years and really enjoy the slow flying. Everone likes to fly slow sometimes right.

Anyways if you are please post pictures. I will post mine a little later because it is getting ready to udergo a facelift.

The one I have was given to me for a SPAD (WHAT A DEAL HUH)! It is very ugly and has a minor damage from our recent move to San Antonio. I am going to repair the small portion of wing and get rid of that old covering job. It really looks like crap and it is named the UGLY FLY. I wil lpost pictures to show you.

I will also post pictures of my progress of the repairs. If you have pictures I would love to see them.

Thanks!
Mark

mkharv3

No pictures yet but here is a short video.

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBsORiO4tuU&feature=related[/link]

mkharv3

Another one not very good but hey!!!!

[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1GTXdAaGv8[/link]

da Rock

One of our regular flyers in the Retired-Flyers-who-show-up-on-Tuesdays bunch has a Butterfly he built from a kit. He flies it every Tuesday. Funny thing is that he very often flies it in winds the other guys sit out.

TFF

I just bought a kit today at the local hobby shop. I think I am going to make it a low wing. I need a plane that non flyers can push around the sky and something I can putt with.

mkharv3

Cool it is always cool to putt around. Great planes to share with non-flyers too. Enjoy it and post pictures when you get it completed.

Mark

mkharv3

Here are a few pictures of this ugly fly. I will start removing and replacing the covering soon. Thanks

Mark

soarhead-RCU

Heres my old Butterfly (1982or83), its not a Dynaflyte but a Craftair kit which was around before Dynaflytes time. Its powered by a OS 15LA now. First powered by a Enya 19 and had a Kraft radio. Then powered by a OS15FP which lasted many years and now the "New 15LA which is about 3 years old.
The CraftAir kit was really a terrible kit. The ribs and some of the wood was as hard as a rock and some of it soft as mush!!! The notches for the Turbulator spars were not even cut into the ribs and they were very soft balsa. I replaced them with spruce I remember. But the build has been worth it, the plane has hundreds of flights and many people have had there thumbs and fingers on the sticks.
People remark about how ugly the plane is on the ground but how beautiful it is as it soars in the sky, kind of like a Vulture!!!! Nothing like getting it up 3-400 feet and cut the engine back to idle, sit in a lawn chair and just work the thermals for as long as you can stand to look up before your neck gets sore.
One of these days I should convert it to electric, but the OS15 is so docile and easy to start and tune, that Im not sure it would be worth it.
Have seen many converted with cheap 550 size RC truck motors geared 3 or 4 to 1 that fly great. This plane would also lend itself to the A123 DeWalt power tool Li-Ion batteries also. and should fit in the nose OK. Saw one in Kansas with twin GWS 400 geared motors, 1 on each wing panel and it also flew great but the climb rate was not real good. He just screwed a nose cone on the motor area.
Anyway in my opinion one of the great kits to come along, others must feel the same way as it has had such a long production run.
Also I have a seperate fuse and use the wing as super floater sailplane as that is what the wing was originally designed as. Called the "Drifter" if my memory is correct.

Happy Flying
Bob

TFF

Have any of you wished you had spoilers on it for landing? Or is it fine as is. Any thing you would have done different? I built a Drifter II when I was in high school; still have it after 20+ years and 50 other planes.

soarhead-RCU

I have seen some with spoilers and some with flaps. They seem to help. that is one of the drawbacks of mine is that the glidepath is so long. I personally just do several fairly tight circles before I turn to final so it is pretty low and then glide it in, kill the motor before touchdown and then flair it in and plop her down with a 3 foot roll out. Its really not a small field plane, esp if the field is tree lined, need the wide open spaces for the Old Girl......


Bob

wingnutinc

A picture of a Butterfly that I built for one of our retired guys flying group members is posted in my gallery. I flew the craft a few times before I turned it over to the owner. It preformed very nicely with the .20 HB engine that was in it. But it was new and tight and didn't idle well at first, so the owner removed it and installed a OS .25LA. This craft has spoilers and had a Sullivan steerable tail wheel, but I heard that the tail wheel has been removed. With the addition of the spoilers and tail wheel it took about 2 oz. in the nose to make CG. I am currently building another Butterfly. This one will have the same tail wheel setup as before with a slight mod to it. The spoilers will be much bigger. I haven't decided if I'll go with flaps or ailerons, or both. I will reduce the center section dihedral to about half and make the polyhedral at 2 inches at the tip. I think this wing will fly very nicely with a flaperon setup as long as some rudder is used along with it. Least I'm planning on finding out in a week or so. The HB engine is running very nicely on the auto gyro shown in my Gallery.

echostud

I flew mine this morning...I'm normally a "fly low, fly fast, turn left" guy, but going out thermal hunting is pretty fun too. I've had mine for about 5 years now; it's powered by an old OS 15FP, which does fine even at our altitude here (I fly at 5,000'). My original build of the plane came out terribly tail heavy, requiring, if I remember correctly, about 8 ounces of additional nose weight. I moved the servos as far forward as I could, and used a 1/4" plywood spacer behind the motor mount and was able to cut the nose weight in half. If I was doing another build I would add an inch or so onto the fuselage sides in an effort to remove all additional nose weight. We have virtually unlimited airspace where I fly, so the long approaches aren't a problem for me, but if flying in tight spaces, the flap/spoiler idea would probably be a neat option.

wingnutinc

Hey echostud,
Thanks for the idea. I hadn't thought about increasing the length of the forward fuselage to deal with the tail heaviness from the addition of tail wheel and flight controls. That's a pretty easy solution, as I haven't built the fuselage yet.
It's also nice to hear that your's flies good at 5000' on a .15 engine Depending on my final all up weight I was thinking about using a .12 that I have laying around. I'm at 3200' here, so it might just work.

mkharv3

Hey everyone thanks for the replies. I have almost removed all the covering and getting ready to recover it. I got yellow so far but I am pretty sure two rolls will not be enough. I have not decided on another color yet. I will post pictures as I start finishing it up.

What do think would go good with the yellow? help

Mark

TFF

I always like yellow, orange, and red, but black or green or purple would be good too. It really is up to your eye.

spadeng

purple and yellow is a good combo. I like that yellow-orage-red combo too

where are the pictures of the bones of this thing

mkharv3

Hello I finally got all of the Monokote removed. That was a pain in the rear, I stripped most off with a heat gun then the rest I scrapped off with a razor bland and sanding block. The Acetone idea sucked because the color from the monokote sunk into the wood. Anyways I was able to get the tail rebuilt and ready to hinge. I still need to do a small repair to the leading edge, holes in the fuse sides need to be patched up. Last but not least there was a missing rib. i will build it tommorrow and then I will start covering this thing up. Cant wait to fly it again. Enjoy the pictures.

Mark

spadeng

ooooh, naked airplane, not too bad be sure to post pictures of the covering job

mkharv3

I will be sure to post pictures of this thing when I get it done. I got the get the rest of the repairs taken care of first though. Oh by the way I think I am going to go with the Purple. Oh yeah it will finally have a nice little yellow spinner on it.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

I flew my new Butterfly 4 times this spring before a POS discount battery killed it. I guess I should of known better than flying off brand @&$# for batteries on a nice new birds. So is builder error even worse than pilot error?[:@] I savlaged the two light systems, LED and glow wire, never has a chance to fly it at night.

mkharv3

HEY I KNOW THAT THERE ARE PLENTY OF THE BUTTERFLY OUT THERE. LETS SEE SOME PHOTOS.

IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT 3D NOW IS IT!

MARK

Shpoa

I flew my butterfly last weekend...about 15 buzzards were circling so I flew in with them and within a couple minutes I was almost out of sight! I love it!

mkharv3

GOT ANY PHOTOS?

wingnutinc

This is a picture of a Butterfly this spring for an older gent in our club. I did the maiden on it before I turned it over to him. It flies great. I built the wings with spoilers in them. The other mods are, a tail wheel and bolt on wings. I have another Butterfly on the board right now and should have finished in a week or so.

jimjxsn

Hey does this qualify? Near as I can tell this is a Drifter II. When I got it it had tricycle landing gear and an enya .09 engine. I first put a geared speed 600 motor on it with a huge 8 cell NiCd pack. It flew well but was heavy. I just put the brushless motor on it but have only tried it on a really windy day and could almost NOT get the plane down. This is the original covering job from the '80s. A guy was retiring from RC and gave me all his planes to help out a Boy Scout troop. He said either give them to kids that want to learn to fly or sell them and give the money to the scouts. My kids went with me to pick up the planes and they got first choice. My daughter chose this big blue bird. It hung on her wall until she got into high school. The whole family ended up learning to fly RC because of this kind hearted gentleman.

I thought I would get this model up and running because I had some cub scouts show an interest in flying.