Hobby page

Model airplane projects

Slope and electric models, build notes, and early wireless video flights from Seattle and Vancouver.

Last Down XL

I purchased my Last Down XL, with a 110 inch wing span, at Dymond Modelsports while on a visit to San Diego. If you are in the area, I highly recommend a visit to their store. They have a good selection of ARF gliders of all varieties and stock a lot of hard to find glider and electric specific items.

The Last Down XL is Czech made, and I have subsequently discovered that Dymond is about the only US supplier of this kit. The plane comes almost completely assembled, and it was not too hard to get into flying condition, although the instructions are in German, so you pretty much have to go by the pictures.

For my purposes this is an ideal model. It has a thin wing section, giving it good penetration in wind, and yet the plane flies with a surprising docility and stability. The construction is strong and rugged, with the wing sheeted in balsa over built up wood, and the cockpit in the fiberglass fuselage is unusually roomy, with plenty of space for extra avionics.

For power, I installed a Hacker B 40 gear drive pulling an 18X10 prop, with 4 or 8AH 11V LiPoly battery packs. With the 8AH pack, I estimate that the glider could stay aloft for 2 to 3 hours.

Last Down XL glider resting on grass at the flying field — The Last Down XL on the field.

HiFlight Mirage

Short kit from Isthmus Models

The stock Mirage is a 112 inch floater designed in the 1970s. It has a super lightweight all wood construction and is very stable. The boxy wooden fuselage is very roomy, especially with today RC hardware.

I modified the design a bit: added spoilers on the main wing panel and 6 inches to each tip to bring the wingspan up to 124 inches, converted to a composite reinforced V tail, and added a Hacker B 40 power system to the nose, running off high discharge LiPolys. Despite all the modifications, the plane still flies very much like the stock version I built when I was a kid. The higher wing loading brings up the speed a bit and it is not quite so forgiving in tight turns, but it is very stable and glides a long time.

HiFlight Mirage sailplane on the ground before a flight — Mirage on the ground.

HiFlight Mirage sailplane in flight against the sky — Mirage in the air.

Tiny X

Kit from Todd's Models

A Todd's Models kit. The Tiny X is a lightweight, highly aerobatic plane that can be flown indoors, and outside in very constricted spaces. I am using a GWS twin motor EPU.

Tiny X indoor aerobatic model on a table — The Tiny X, built for indoor and tight outdoor spaces.

SOBOX Elf

Kit from SOBOX planes

A 1.5 m Polish kit I purchased from SOBOX planes at the NEAT fair in the fall of 2002. This little model is very tough, fast, and maneuverable. It is not exactly a thermal ship, but if you can find a slope with decent lift, watch out.

The kit comes with two nose cones: one for gliding, the other for an electric motor mount. I direct drive a Mega motor with a Graupner CAM 7 x 4 folding prop in the motor nose. There is not much room in the fuselage, though. Even without the case, my Hitec 555 RX barely fits in there.

Build note

The glider nose is shown in the original page photographs, but those image files did not survive. The airframe notes above preserve the original build description.

GWS Zero

Foam model, assembled in 2002

Bought and assembled in the summer of 2002. I have had a lot of fun with this little foamy plane. Now, after some hard flying, it is a little banged up, but still flying strong.

Field note

The GWS Zero later carried a small wireless camera for the first aerial video flights. The camera was mounted in the cockpit.

Aerial video

Early wireless video from a model airplane

In the fall of 2002 I purchased a 2.4GHz wireless video system from Black Widow AV. It was a nice system with a range of at least 500 feet.

15 October 2002

The first video flight was not much more than buzzing around a big field at low altitude. There are some good scenes of Bob Chiang and me standing by my car. The original file was large and was not recommended for modem connections.

18 October 2002

The second flight took place in a smaller field. It was windy and bumpy that day, and the landing was not one of my best, though no harm was done. The file was encoded at higher compression but was still large.

About the files

The original video files were large Windows Media and Indeo files served from this site. They are no longer available, so the flight notes above are kept as a record of the experiments.

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