Flying Thingz
 

Anyone with experience building a Flying Thingz SkyCutter Flying Lawnmower kit?

http://www.flyingthingz.com/products...ter_green.html

We (the club) bought one and will use it as a plane in a skit at the upcoming Airfest. Should be a crowd pleaser. We are going to start the build soon and just wanted to know if anyone had any build experiences to share with us.

CGr.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

i was looking into getting one of these a few months back, but sadly they dont have any suppliers in the UK :(

from what ive heard you need the covering kit as it gets troublesome cutting out all the different pieces of covering after a while

good luck mate :)

RE: Flying Thingz
 

I'd like to see one fly..

RE: Flying Thingz
 

[link]http://http//www.3d-nut.com/videos/videos/skycutter40.wmv[/link]
[link]http://www.3d-nut.com/videos/skycutter_red.wmv[/link]

Ken

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Hmmm... I was hoping that SOMEONE has some build experience with one of these. Ah well, I will go ahead and start it off. Hey, it's just another plane, right? Well, sort of.. :D

CGr.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Thats pretty neat!:D

Ought to get some interesting comments out of the crowd! If it would only really cut the yard! :( Reminds me of the Superman airplane someone built from down under that looks like his grandson. I think it was a featured airplane here on RCU several months ago.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Hi Steve.

Yeah. It ought to get some attention.

I was at an RC air show in Sarasota, FL a few weeks ago. They opened up the event with a flying American Flag. Very touching for a retired mil type. We will be the featured event at the Air Fest that weekend in September and I thought we should do something very different from our normal routine. We usually just go out and fly, and the crowd loves it. We won awards two years in a row for our demonstration flights.

So, I thought we would do something different this year and thought about the "Skycutter". We are going to put on a skit that should get some laughter out of the crowd. It should be fun. But, I would really love to buy one of the flags and fly it as the opener.. my patriotic side is showing!!!

Dick.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Iv seen one fly,

According to the pilot the best way to land this is with a relatively high AoA and lots of power he also commented that deadsticks could become a major challenge


Steven

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Hi Steven,

Yeah, I sort of figured that. The wingspan is, what.. 24 inches? ha.. and has a chord of another 24 inches.. a square wing. What a concept. Proof positive that with the right amount of power, a door could fly!! (aka SPAD's.. :D )

It will be a challenge, there is no doubt about that. I am up to the challenge of flying it under normal conditions. But, with a crowd watching, I am hoping that one of the club "PRO's" will step up for that day... we will see.

CGr.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Is this totally out of the league of someone on their 2nd plane? I am in love with this... thing...

RE: Flying Thingz
 

haha same with me plugin... It may be weird looking but its like the coolest thingive ever seen and it will be sure to bring my popularityt status up in our club =D

RE: Flying Thingz
 

A guy I knew flew one one day (probably not the "flying Thningz" brand but stil...) and he said it wsa the squirliest flying thing he'd ever flown. It looked really cool in the air none-the-less. I will try to find some pics and video for you all.

-Shane

RE: Flying Thingz
 

In the flying thingz website there are some videos. I still want to know if it's absolutely too demanding for a beginner-intermediate pilot or if its flyable for me.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Here's the pics of the lawn mower at a fun-fly in Okinawa. I beleive he was flying it with a YS .63 if I rememeber correctly.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Great pictures. Thanks.

Regarding it being a 'second plane', well, I am in no position to say because I've not flown it yet. But, from what I see, this is most likely a tad bit more than intermediate level. I could be wrong, but I will find out this summer, that's for sure.

CGr.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Hi CGRetired
I do not have experience with this kit, but I designed, built, and currently fly my own Flying Lawnmower. You can see it at http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_34...tm.htm#3476218

It is a ball to fly and a great crowd pleaser. It is built from CoroPlast, which is similar to the corrugated cardboard boxes are made of, except it is plastic. Very durable. I let club members fly my mower on a trainer cord. All have done well so far, but I do all of the takeoffs and landings.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Hi plugin
Please also read my other post on this day. I have been flying my Lawnmower for about 3 years. It is a little more difficult to fly than a normal plane. You have to keep your eye on it more, because it unstable in roll. I have never had a problem from that. One maneuver I like is to go vertical and then roll it till it stalls. With mine I have to first gain speed with a shallow dive since I use a OS46FX engine. When it stops flying it will drop straight down like a rock and requires a tremendous amount of altitude to recover. It is a heart stopper. Yo pienso que lo puedes acer. In a few days I will be test flying a Flying Lawnmower built by a fellow club member from my plans. Before I take it up I will check the critical incidences with my meter. Because I am now 72 years old I am a little more nervous than I use to be during a test flight. One thing that calms me is that I have a lot of experience crash landing. Y mucha buena suerte!

RE: Flying Thingz
 

The lawnmower while not extremely difficult to fly, is NOT suitable for a second or third plane.

It is VERY reactive in roll as there are no large wing surfaces to dampen roll.

In some ways it flies like a heavily loaded delta wing.

Both Aerofly Deluxe and G4/G3.5 have lawnmower models, that I'd suggest anyone who is interested in this "plane", fly first to get a feel of how the real thing will behave.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

How does one get it on g4[&:]

Steven

RE: Flying Thingz
 

I took my Flying Lawnmower up yesterday. I had not flown it in about 3 months so I knew the first few flight would be "rough". Sure enough, it looked like I was chasing it most of the time, rather than leading it. By the third flight I was smooth once again. Since the Mower usually rolls left/right/left/right about 5 degrees all of the time, I occasionally wondered if I am commanding corrections from my transmitter. I did my best to determine this while flying it and I am nearly 100% convinced that I am not making these quick corrections. I am convinced, however, that the Mower cannot fly level without a roll input correction, but these are fairly slow. I cannot remember now if I ever put in some exponential. I'll have to check my transmitter. I use the new Futaba 2.4Mhz 6 channel. I do hate to post this because on rereading this it appears that the Mower is difficult to fly. It is different, a challenge, and not for a beginner. My landings are very hot (fast), since the Mower has the glide path of a smooth brick. When about 2 feet off the ground, it accepts about a 15 degree angle of flare and practically stops, then greases in for a smooooth touch down. This is very exciting. Of course, I can also make a conventional high speed landing and roll out. After a lot of experimenting, my landing gear is extremely tough and supports very hard landings. In the beginning the Mower would roll over about every second landing. It is best to have your most reliable engine on the Mower. I don't thing I have ever had the engine stop in the air. I did have one elevon servo fail while in the air. I had to land in a circle since that was the only pattern I could fly. I now use stronger elevon servos. I think the cord on the elevons is 5 inches so there is a lot of area to move. Remember this all applies to my own Mower which is a different design. If others had posted their experience with the Mower in question I would not have posted this.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Thanks for that thorough description Villa

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Expansion Pack One.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

I was reluctant to post here first since I have not flown the lawnmower in question "Although I do own one new in box with no immediate plans to go ahead with it for now. No issues just many other projects in the way. Think I picked it up for seventy five bucks from someone at the field.


I have however flown the old RCM plans Porsche Race Car that I built, extensively for a few years back around 1999 to about 2003 and I beleve there will be many genaric handling chacteristics to share if I may.

Basically these kind of airplanes are a very low aspect ratio flying wing actually closer to a delta than a flying wing. Two traits of a delta are the need to rotate to a very high angle of attack for take off and landing. This means only tricycle gear will be effective and the gear legs must also be long enough to allow for this high angle of attack and it needs to be sufficiently close to the CG to allow the relatively low elevator authority to be able to rotate the airplane for take off. Elevator throws must be kept high to enable the takeoff. I found pitch control in flight relatively benign and not pitch sensitive at all There fore I kept Expo at a minimum on elevator. Takeoffs were easy but speed must be there and you must rotate to a steep angle or you will never leave the ground on breaking ground you must reduce elevator or you will stall. Actually the lawnmower may be better in this regard since the old RCM was quite a bit heavier with about the same wing area. Landing at any rate are fast but easy.

The other common trait of a delta wing aircroft (or a very low aspect ratio flying wing) is to display a tendency to exhibit the excessive dutch roll everyone is talking about. It really is because the pilot is behind the airplane causing PIO - pilot induced ossilation. The good news is its easily controlled with expo. The rate of roll is quite slow so large aileron throws must be used and this is what causes the PIO. Just as 3D enthusiast do use high throws and high expo I used around 60% negative in my case (hitec). This worked out well.

As far as using these types of airplanes for someone just coming off a trainer is well, downright silly (it ain,t gonna happen) and rather than regaining respect of your club mates you will just be losing what respect you already may have had.

I neglected to say I did finally crash the airplane and it was my fault as usual pushing it beyond its capabilitys doing something stupid.

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Well I'm the guy who has to fly thing for the Airfest. The first flight was well............quite demanding. The cg is close but it still flew very tail heavy. Not a good plane for less experienced fliers. To me, it requires concentration not unlike flying a heli. I'm moving the motor as far forward as possible in hopes of not having to add any weight. Roll stability is not the greatest by any means. Our club builders have done an excellent job on this thing and it really looks cool. If you're in the south jersey area on Sat. 09/20, please stop by the Ocean City, NJ municipal airport at 26th Street and Bay Ave. We have a hanger for our static display. I'll probably be the only guy wearing a grey RCUniverse T shirt.

Brian Tindall
Atlantic County Skyblazers

RE: Flying Thingz
 

Is it just me, or does anyone else find flying the g3 lawnmower extreemly difficult. I am a well experienced flyer but I just cant seem to get the lawn mower to do anything. For one thing, It doesnt want to leave the ground when you want to take off. once its in the air, it is extreemly to sensitive and will roll left and right back and forth with no input at all. When I do triy and turn it, it usually does a death spiral into the ground. I went in and changed the expo up and it seemed to help a little but still, the sim does not fly well at all on real flight.