This plane is over ten years old. It was given to me already built as consolation for a plane that crashed on its maiden flight. I figure that it has at least 400 flights on it, and it is still going strong. Its characteristics are somewhat like a pattern plane, but a little less responsive then my top performers, but it's a great plane for general sportflying. It has had only one bad crash. This plane is no longer being manufactured.
The latest plane that I built, and my all time favorite. Very quick, lightening response airplane. Definitely not for beginner's, but it sure can make a weekend flyer look good. I have still not worked out all the engine problems with this plane. There have been a number of hard dead stick landings. The landing gear mounting system in this plane is badly designed. On any but the smoothest field the heavy Al gear is easily ripped away from the wing. I don't know anyone who has not landed without leaving the gear lying on the field. After the third time it happened to me, I redesigned the entire gear carriage. This plane is a little underpowered with the Enya 120; I don't get high verticals and I have to watch my loop size closely. Nevertheless, I love this plane. It rolls on point effortlessly, and does some of the best looking snap-rolls I have ever seen.
This is a hand launch sailplane that can also be launched by electric winch or hi-start. It is covered with about 180 separate pieces of Monokote to achieve this color scheme. The letters in the wing are cut from paper and suspended between the ribs with nylon thread. The antenna is a piece of music wire running inside the right wing panel. To save weight it uses two micro servos, a 225 mah battery pack, and a micro receiver. This plane has well over 1000 hand launch flights. It is a challenge to try to find a thermal and gain altitude from a hand launch. Most flights result in one two circles around the field followed by guiding the plane back to yourself to gently stall into your waiting hands. Costs: kit $25, glue-$10, covering - $20.
The kit was substantially modified to make the wing halves detachable for ease of transportation and to accept a large 4-cycle engine. This plane was built to fly and not to be a museum piece. It is not meant to be exact scale, but is intended to look good in the air. For example, the rigging is for scale purposes only and is not needed for strength. It is made up of over 150 feet of elastic cord especially selected to be NOT scale. A heavy, oversize black elastic was chosen so that it is easily visible from a distance when the plane is in flight. 1.25 pounds of lead was bolted to the engine mount below the engine in order to achieve the correct balance point. The Jenny uses a Futaba radio with 5 servos (one for each aileron with noise traps on the long wires going to the aileron servos). It has very realistic flight characteristics. Its flight speed is low because of all the drag. The stall turns are beautiful and are easy because its flight speed is not much above its stall speed. You must dive to do a loop, but the Jenny will do rolls and fly inverted. The prettiest maneuver is a low, slow fly-by, where all of its scale beauty can be seen and the sound of the 4-cycle adds to the realism. Over 260 hours of building time went into this model. Costs: kit-$130; covering-$100; CA glue-$80; Epoxy- $20
Outstanding ground handling and flight characteristics have been maintained for everyday flying because this plane is not scale or even stand-off scale. This kit is based on a Superkwik Fli - Supersport 120 fuselage. The looks have been changed to resemble a P-51. The plane uses a Futaba 7 channel radio with all seven channels being used. There are 9 servos on board, powered by a 1000 mah battery pack. The 9 servos are used for: ailerons - 2; elevators - 2; throttle - 1; rudder - 1; bomb drop - 2; belly scoop hatch - 1. I modified the kit by building a hatch into the belly scoop that is actuated using the retract channel switch. The hatch can drop whatever you can fit into the compartment, usually a parachute. I also added two Vortac bomb drop mechanisms. I can drop the standard Vortac bomb or several custom bombs I made from one and two liter beverage containers. These work very well and won't cause any damage because they are extremely light. The plane has large black and white invasion stripes on the bottom so that I can tell which side is up. The insignias are oversize and appear on both sides of both wings. This was needed for better visibility, because the aluminum Monokote covering is very hard to see in the air. The colorful insignias contrast the aluminum color yet maintain the scale-like appearance of the plane. The flight characteristics are excellent, much like a pattern ship. The bomb and parachute drops are a blast, much to the delight of the spectators. With the 4 in. wheels and large landing gear stance, the ground handling even on a very rough field is superb.
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Gary DyrkaczLast Updated: April 15, 1996