William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

DB:

Just got the new FM. And I like the plane, it tempts me.

How do you think it will do if I take all the shortcuts you allowed, e.g. conventional wing and fuselage?

Just as a side note, thanks for having Rachel model the plane instead of holding it yourself. Haw.

Bill.

DICKEYBIRD

Thanks Bill, glad you liked it! I flew it last Fri. & Sat. over at the Little Rock S.M.A.L.L. fly-in and had a ball with it. I finished it 4 yrs ago and began the article process soon thereafter. I flew it at the 2000 S.M.A.L.L. where Frank F. saw it and asked me to send him an article. It hasn't been flown much at all since then for fear of crashing and then needing another pic or 2. Now that the article is published, I've been flying it a lot and had forgotten how good it flies. It has my best Tee Dee on it which really responded well to the homebrew 35/25/40 fuel I've been running lately. It'll now knife-edge just about indefinitely with the little extra kick the 35% nitro gives it.

I think it could be built as lightly with a D-tube wing and sheet construction fuse & tail as long as the wood was chosen very carefully....I just have this affliction for sunlight showing through little sticks and transparent covering! I think the 13 oz. final weight is pretty important for best performance though. If it came out a little bit heavy, a 130 NiMH battery and lighter servos could be used to save some weight. After seeing Larry's VA's scream around last weekend, I'm tempted to graft a VA Mk II on the front.

Rachel initially didn't like the modelling job but now she thinks it's pretty cool! I had hoped to get her on the cover with that shot but I should have turned the camera 90 deg. After cropping it to fit, there wasn't enough resolution left to make it. I'm learning.