Flying slow is a question of low area loading. Lightweight electronic stuff
became available in the middle of the ninetees and the development of ultralight models begun. Since that days slowflying
has been the fastest growing section of radio-controlled flight. Lithium polymer batteries and brushless motors, both
lightweight and capable to put out high power, pushed the limits far beyond any early expectations.
Early slowflyer, Picture FMT 6/95
The following models are all from the pre-lipo aera
I was always impressed by airliners. This one flew on two GWS50 electric ducted fans. The wing was a little bit to weak to withstand the loads, which leaded to an unstable flight-behaviour. The GWS edfs were really noisy, so i sold them and Jumbo spent his electronics for other projects. Someday, i will build another 747, but then with normal propellers.
Baby was a kit from the czeque company Potensky. This war a really nice looking little plane. On only 6 cells with 110 mAH Baby was able to fly around 10 minutes. When i later sold the model via ebay it went away for more money than i have paid for the kit. Must have been the cute design...
This Ultimate V5.0 was a present by Stefan Hartmann, who made this design very popular in the slowflyer-community. Thanks, Stefan! Sorry to say, that i had bad luck with this model. After only a few minutes of flight another Ultimate ate up bigger parts of the fuselage during a mid-air.
Mr. Cool is a design by Peter Prechtel. Peter is working for years on this beauty and each winter he shows up with another improved version. In my opinion Mr. Cool looks very good. The model has very smooth flight-characteristics. I have built several versions and they all were great performers.
I built Daktari for the Mini-LRK . I didn't have a plan or drawing, just an idea and developed the design during the build. Daktari was a bigger plane, span around 130 centimetre. Due to the very low area-loading it was a real slow flyer and a good plane for carrying a little digital camera. You may check my aerial photography page to see more including onboard video footage of a flight with Daktari over my place.
Rumpelstoss is a model based on a 1954 US-rubber powered free flying indoor model. I got a sketch from a fellow finish modellbuilder. Thanks, Jan! I scaled it up and built Rumpelstoss. During the build the fantastic movie "Those magnificent men in their flying machines" was steady in my mind, do not know why. It was just a little step to the decision to name the model after the german Capitain Rumpelstoss in this movie and to use a design like in the twenties of the last century.The brushless motor is a Dualsky BLX-2812-27T-RtR with an integrated controller. Good thing, if you do not have to change prop direction :-). With a 3S-480 Lipo the flying weight is 186 gramm.
JMP, three magic letters, when its about wonderful slowflyers with highclass technical claim.
Behind these three letters are standing four modellers from France, who complement one another perfectly with their skills.
Gerard, the artist, Jean Marie and Jean Yves, the engineers and Jean Michel, the annalist. On Jean
Michel Quetins homepage you can find from time to time updates of their works.
Team JMP J.M. Quetins page. Jean Marie Piednoir
has a little company and sells fine receivers and lite stuff.
JMP-Solutions. Jean Yves Martin
is a competent man when it comes to computing and technics.
You may check the 3D animation at the end of my brushless
motors subpage, that he made.Gerard Jumelin is an outstanding designer. He uses the word "Voluptures", flying sculptures,
when talking about his pieces of ART. I think, he's right. I was happy enough to spend some time with them at InterEx and
built a few of their designs, so they belong on this page. :-)
My JMP- planes
If you are willing to build one of the marvellous planes from the plans, that they publish, you will find out, that it is not easy to get your hands on such a plan. Each magazine, that publishes such plans, seems to go bankrupt a short time later and disappears from the market. Why is this? I do not know, but it seems to be the way, things are. :-)
Twisteuse is a design by Jean Marie Piednoir. It's a Horten wing with steering via warping the whole wing. No flaps on this design. Not easy to build. The middle section is stiff and acts as an fixed point for the outer wings. They warp in same direction for up and down or contrary for turning. The trick is, that the leading edge of the wing is a carbon tube, that can rotate. The outer rib is glued to that tube, all other ribs are only fixed with little rods sticking loose in holes. All this is hold together only by the transparent cover. Twisteuse is a very smooth flyer with only small need of energy for the flight.
Volage is a model, that attracted me from the first time i saw it. It's again a Horten-wing, designed by Gerard Jumelin. The big fuselage leaded to problems with the turning, which was solved by adding another servo, that turns the head and the tail including motor to the inner side of the turn. This means, that Volage has thrust-vector steering additionally to the ailerons. During the build i used a technique to make curved carbon parts by pulling carbon fibre with epoxy through a silicone-hose. This can than be put over templates till the epoxy hardened. The frame has been covered with lightweight 3 millimetre Depron. The wing is made from balsaribs and carbon socks. The motor is one of Dieters CDRom conversions with a selfmade folding propeller.
Another fantastic Horten Design is the Variante series. This series of wings covers span from 50 to 100 centimetre and each one is a good performer. My Variante is a 90 centimetre version, that Dieter gave me as a present, when i stopped at his home during a travel from Austria back home. Variante90 is a dynamic flyer, although the weight is low at 136 gramms. A plan for the 50 centimetre-version is online for download. You better hurry up and save it on your disc, who knows, what will happen to the hosting mag :-).
Please click on the following links to find exclusive plans and
building instructions for Variante75, drawn and written by Gerard Jumelin. A superb little Horten-wing, easy to build from
a single layer of 6mm depron.
Mobil-Air is a design by Gerard Jumelin, which is inspired by the work of the artist Alexander Calder. Gerard presented Mobil-Air at Inter-Ex 2007 to a broader audience. My X-twin version is a present from him. Thanks, Gerard :-)
In the late summer of 2005 a little toy from the chinese company Silverlit hit
the market. The little plane was called X-twin in Europe and later sold in the US under the brand Aeroace/AA.
First reports on the boards were promising. Obviously this toy was a winner. In septembre i saw one of these at
InterEx in Boissy. In the first instance i was not too enthusiastic. But when the first mods showed up, my
interest grew up. M-u-s-t__r-e-s-i-s-t, m-u-s-t__r-e...... The swift was my first x-twin mod and is still my favourite, inspired by the Martinet from Team JMP.
Swift is made from four layers of 6millimetre foam named Depron.In general it is a little Horten-type- wing, which means,
that you do not need any vertical area like winglets. The original Martinets weigh around 30 gramm, my swift weighs
exactly 19,75 gramm, which enabled smooth flying indoor. After many hours of flight the motors were worn out. Meanwhile i
replaced them with 3,3 ohm 6 mm pagers from Didel. They show much more ooommph :-).
It will be interesting to fly in smaller rooms with this arrangement. Please enjoy the following videos. the second one is
huge with 19 MB, but it is my favourite video, flying outdoor in the evening light.
Next after the good success with the swift was a little Horten wing. This one was made from only
one layer of 6mm depron and the final weight was only 15 gramms. The typical Horten profile has been sanded and bent under
a heatgun. I used two 3,3 ohm pagers from the beginning. This little wing was a rocket! But there was a problem, that i
could not solve. Everything was OK till the first turn. Then it was not possible to leave the turn. Eventually the speed
was too much for coming back to straight flight with only differential steering. The wing was scattered before i could
solve this, so i saved the rx for the next project and the X-horten went into the garbage bag.
After having tested one frontier of the possible with the X-Horten i searched for the other extreme.
X-lite is a reminiscence to the big rubber powered duration class planes. The weight is 28 gramms and the span is 110
centimetres. Area is 15 square-dm (10 centimetres x 10 centimetres) which leads to only 1,85 gramm per square-dm. So
X-lite is regarding wingloading the "lightest" model, that i ever have built. Flight characteristics are, hmm, different from anything i have
flown before. Extremely slow, but showing two major problems. First problem was, that it did not want to turn. I reduced
the rudder, till it was completely gone. The turn radius was still around 25 metres, which is too much for an average hall.
Second problem was, that it climbed strong even at the lowest throttle setting. Not a good thing, if you have to cutoff
motors and loose all steering just to stop climbing. Conclusion: With X-Horten and X-lite i found out the limits of the
x-twin technics. It was time to try something more reasonable.
This design has been published by Gordon Johnson.
Thanks, Gordon! Furthermore Gordon Johnson published, how to print such designs on thin tissue and spray-glue this onto foam.
Wonderfull method to get smart looking models with small input. The only backdraw is a slightly higher weight.
Microbombshell weighs 29,60 gramms, span is 53 centimetres and area is 5,5 square-dm. I used tiny plugs in the wires to the
motors to realise a detachable wing. These plugs hold the wing and connect the motors to the rx. A small magnet supports the
wing-holding function. Works good, please check the video.
This is a very good flying X-twin modification. This Zagi-like wing is inspired by an idea from
Torsten Hill. Not much to say, easy and very good flight characteristics. Span is 44 centimetre and weight is 17 gramm.
The following two examples show, what a real expert and artist can do with such a simple model.
Lutz Naekel, one of the german masterminds of building foamies saw my X-wing on the Lampertheim-event 2006.
It was a honour for me to let him pilot my model. Obviously he had fun, because he surprised me with two superb
conversions. The first one is the Skycaptain. The name is inspired by a movie named "Skycaptain and the world of tomorrow".
A real cutie with a weight of 20,5 gramm and able to rog from a separate undercarriage. Cool! One more example, the Horten H-IX. Real ART with a weight of 20 gramms. If you take a close look,
you may realize the small transparent fins under the wing, which were needed to ensure proper flight. This is a little falcon with a span of 55 centimetres and a weight of 22,45 gramms. The waterdrop-design
is easy to make. Just sprinkle drops of water on the surface and spray two different colors over. In this case i used grey and black.
After drying the drop-design remains. Material is 3mm depron foam, electronics are from X-twin/ Aeroace. After publishing
the x-falcon at rcgroups i have been contacted by Scott Neeman, who sent me two nice files with a high-class plan and decal.
I replaced my rough pencil and paper drawing. Thanks, Scott! My friend Dieter Gerblinger crossed on 06-16-2006 with his X-falcon the river Isar and reached extreme
height in front of the wonderful alpine panorama of the Karwendel. This superb place is located in the very southern part of
Germany at the frontier to Austria. (not Australia, no 'roo's :-) I wouldn't have thought, that the el-cheapo
tx/rx would allow such adventures. The shape of this modell has been inspired by a few posts at rcgroups, especially hepdogs sketch.
I was interested in the general flying characteristics of such an object. It flies fast and smooth, very nice.
The flying weight is 16,5 gramm.
During 2004 i could buy a JMP-receiver-combo for servos by
JMP-Solutions
and two falcon servos from Falcon Models, UK
for a very reasonable price. I had to find an adequate home for this high-quality stuff and developed C-28 and C-30.
C is short for Carbonfibre and the figures are the completed weight in gramms. C-30 was a present for my friend Dieter
who owns same receiver, but for actuators. Both models are driven by a small geared Mabuchi M20 on a single 145 mAH lipo
cell. Prop for C-28 is a carbon-copy from a Gunther 5x3, C-30 has a little GWS-prop.They are both good flying easy models
with a nice look.
Graupner sells a small rtf freeflight modell named Microtaxi. I converted this modell to RC.
The propulsion unit is a 7mm pagermotor from Didel
on a 7:1 gear 7R7 from Didel. After a few attempts i found, that a GWS 4x4 prop with a 145 mAH Kokam Lipocell works well
with this modell. Weight is 30,05 gramm. The rx is a french JMP and the servos are from UK based company Falcon (link above).
Span is 46 cm.
I built my Bump during autumn 2006 for my 5,4 gramm brushless juwel
(check my e-motor-page/ micro). Bump is a very good flying model. Weight is 35,35 gramm including a Falcon Breezeblock, a
single 300 mAH lipocell and a Heino Jung YGE4BL esc. Full throttle means vertical climbing. Bump is a design by the
danish Michael Hendriksen. The name means "Butt Ugly Micro Plane", but i disagree. :-). PalmZ is a tiny livingroomflyer from Silverlit. Palm Z flies surprisingly well even in very limited
spaces. It is made from EPP and therefore relatively difficult to destroy. Weight is 6 gramm. Control is via infrared.
When going to meetings i always have one with me, because there are many opportunities for a little bit of indoor flying,
here's an example at the hotel bar at Inter-Ex 2007.
The embedded youtube-video has been made in my livingroom in feb. 2008.
The stick has been built out of a Kit from Jiri Kalina, former world champ. The build lasted about 25
hours and my plane weighs 1,10 gramm after a few repairs. On the box is mentioned 0,48 gramm! Wheew! Flight times
were up to three minutes in my living room, now, with the higher weight still around two minutes thirty seconds. Being lazy
is sometimes a good thing. I built a little winder from a little Mabuchi, four cells and a small switch. Very comfortable. :-)
In the year 2005 Roland Oehmann, one of the german indoor-pioneers,presented at the yearly Mannheim
indoor-meeting for the first time his Microsoarers . These little gliders are flying on the lift produced by a plate, that
the pilot is holding in the hand while walking. The airflow over the plate will lift the glider. In 2006 Roland showed, that
real experts can do this without the plate, just using the airflow from their head/body. There's more on the internet by searching
the keywords walkalong, z-surfer, x-surfer, airsurfer oder windrider. Roland Oehmann draw a plan including building-instructions
and flightinstructions, which you may download here. It's in german, you may run the instruction docs through google translation.
The micro-swallow was inspired by Gerard Jumelins Martinet. Find a link to the plan under the name Swift in the x-twin section
on this page. "Kinetic" Roland Oehmann did some finetuning at the 2007 Mannheim indoor event and made a few flights. Check the video.
Piloting helis is a difficult thing. This is not true for the coaxial helicopters and even more for
the Blade- Runner with its unique rotor-head, which is extremely easy to fly. The only backdraw is, that Blade-Runner
will not fly fast. First thing to get rid off was the tailrotor, which makes no sense under the stabilizing principle.
Forward flight is achieved by a more forward center of gravity.
The stabilizing principle has been invented by the norwegian Petter Murren
and is manufactered in China. Where else. Out of the box the heli is too heavy, but after reducing the weight its nice
to fly inside the house. Doing a little hop from one table to another is big fun. My Blade- Runner is meanwhile heavily
modified; lighter, other lipo and other rotors from a clone. Flight-time is now around twelve minutes with three or four
breaks for cooling the motors.
PiccoZ is a tiny microheli with a weight of only 9,8 gramm. PiccoZ is able to fly around up to 8 minutes.
The stabilizing principle does not work via counter-rotating rotors like the Bladerunner. PiccoZ uses two rotors, which are turning
in the same direction. Both are connected via small linkages. The upper rotor can rotate in a way, that tips of blades go up and down,
the lower rotor can rotate around the length of the blade. This one is not so easy to command like the Bladerunner, but still very
easy. The inventing mind behind PiccoZ is Alexander van Rostyne, who
worked for years on his "Pixelito"- microhelicopters and did an amazing job, like Petter Murren. The video is a tribute to Alexander,
check his page, and you will know, why...:-)
Two weeks later our Woolworth store announced them available for a short time. Next day i was accidentially :-)
at Woolworth and 20 Euros changed their owner. Back at home i clipped six AA batteries into the TX, charged the plane
and flew twelve minutes in my frontyard. I was hooked and my little sons requested their own x-twins.
Well, back to Woolworth. It all ended later septembre with an I-net- order for more than ten X-twins for buddies,
neighbour kids and so on. :-)
X-twin has a span around 35 centimetre and is driven by two little 6mm pagers. One prop swings clockwise, the other
counterclockwise. The pagers have a resistance of 5,3 ohm and are running on a single lipo-cell with a capacity of
160 mAH. The props turn with around 16000 turns per minute in straight flight. Climbing and sinking can be done by
more or less throttle, which has 8 steps from off to full throttle. Turning left or right can be done by differential
thrust, but it is all or nothing, not proportional. There are several easy and complex mods to the TX known.
For easier mods you may check the following (german) page:
X-Twin Eagle-Wing
For complex modifications including pic- programming you may have a look here:
X-Twin
These mods do several things, like for example steering with throttle-stick off, which is very usefull. Another mod
shows how to get more steering power by having 500 more turns difference between left and right motor. The second link
is only for advanced modelers, proportional turning and so on...
X-Twin out of the box
Video: x-falcon in the evening light
Plan: Build yr.own x-falcon/ drawn by Scott Neeman/ acrobat reader required
Printed tissue/Scotts colourfull X-falcon/ acrobat reader required
Printed tissue/Ryan Mondays realistic X-falcon/ acrobat reader required
Video: X-Falke in front of Karwendel
Microplanes
Plans for download are here:
The stick
Slowfly as a workout
Have fun with the videos!
Plan, Acrobat reader required
building-instructions, word-document
flight-instructions, word-Document
Online translation /copy and paste/ choose german to yr. language
The Blade-Runner modification
The PiccoZ
