Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / September 2006

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

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

Red S.

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

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.