Flying Lawnmower

My son bought me a Flying Lawnmower kit from Flying Thingz for Father's day and it's about 80% finished. I have been out of flying r.c planes for about 25 years and even then I never did learn to fly very well. I know this is not a very good plane to learn on but it's what I have. Have any of you flown one and if so, how did it handle? I've seen some videos and it seems to be easy to fly. It comes in slow and nose high for landings and it seems like it almost floats to a landing. I would appreciate any information, flying tips, etc. Thanks, Clyde

Reply to
Vegasfan
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On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 02:55:10 GMT, Vegasfan wrote in :

An excellent builder and pilot from our club could not get his to fly at all.

Don't be fooled by the video clips. Good pilots make things look easy. I wasn't there the day that Paco tried to fly his, so I don't know what, if anything, he was doing wrong or what he might have done differently.

Get some stick time on a trainer with someone coaching you or on a buddy box. Let someone who is current test-fly your lawnmower. Have them stay with you for your first flights with it, just in case.

Flying planes is more fun than rebuilding them.

Marty

Reply to
Martin X. Moleski, SJ

If you can fly the lawnmower you can fly anything. It is a handful, just like Snoopy's dog house.

Red S.

Reply to
Red Scholefield

Thanks for the helpful information. I have joined a local flying club and it just so happens that one of the members has recently acquired a Flying lawnmower. He is making a few changes before he flys it so I will wait to see how he does and then get him to take mine up for me. I'll see if we can do the buddy box thing for a few flights until I get some confidence. This is a very good newsgroup and I've read many of the posts. People seem to be very helpful. Thanks to all who replied to my post and who sent me e-mails. I will post the results of my first flight probably next month.

Clyde

Red Scholefield wrote:

Reply to
Vegasfan

I have a "Flyin Thingz" .40 size Sky Cutter 'Toro' ( the red one) Tour O , powered with an OS .46 FX which hauls it very well. It's about like any of the other 'novelty' flying things....Snoopy saucer , flying boats , Pizza box flyers etc. I've had all of the above at some point during the last 20 years or so. I'm a sucker for these odd flying things.

They all have one thing in common.....the don't fly worth a s***. , in the conventional aircraft sense. They all fly at a very high angle of attack and basically 'fly like a board'. Thats what most are. The lawn mower does however, have an airfoil . It's a 24" span with a 29" chord...including the 5" elevons.

Not near as easy as it looks , but they aren't real hard to fly after you've learned to fly low wing aerobatic airplanes. Definately....... NOT something to learn to fly with.

What you are seeing is a 'Herrier' landing. You can even bring it to a stop and hover it there , but as I said , it's not easy. You have to fly these types of aircraft all the time they're in the air. You can't just trim them to fly hands off like you can a conventional aircraft. They're subject to dart and dive whenever and wherever they want to.

They are fun for a while but the novelty quickly wears off. Take a look at their 'Flagship' ARF. Thats the same 'wing' thats on the lawnmower. The mower just has side panels and wheels. The engine is basically two large vertical stabs with a horizontal stab on top of that. Picture a T Tail with two vertical stabs. The handle is made from 1/4" x 2" hard balsa and also acts as a stabilizer to some degree. It has a tricycle gear and does handle very easy on the ground. The rear mower wheels are 'spring' loaded with rubber bands and will rotate upwards as the the mower rotates to keep the wheels (also foam) from being damaged.

The Doghouse , Tank and Flying Car also have the same wing as the mower.

Hope this helps

Ken

Reply to
Ken Day

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:06:39 GMT, Vegasfan wrote in :

Looking forward to your report!

"One observation is worth a thousand expert opinions" (engineer's saying?).

Marty

Reply to
Martin X. Moleski, SJ

Clyde, are you going to write "Killer" on the side?

I am just joking. You will have superior radio equipment to that which was in the Flying Lawnmower that killed the guy at Shea Stadium. This was particularly ugly because he had gone there to see a football game not watch model airplanes.

This was by an AMA demonstration team...an idea that many of us had lobbied against. The death occurred just like several of us detailed it could...and by that very sort of model...lawn mower, iron, witch on broom, Snoopy, etc.

It was awkward for his wife to be told he had been killed by a model airplane when she thought he had gone to a football game.

This might have been the first r/c death. I am not sure. Still, it makes interesting reading.

Ken, modeler since 1944.

Reply to
Ken Cashion

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