One-off Failures

Some Planes Just Don't Fly

I've done a lot of experimentation, with very mixed results. In the main section you'll see the more or less successful stabs. Here are the dogs.
	Clancy Baby Bee Got this hoping for a simple, easily-built trainer ... but as shipped and with the recommended battery, it simply would not fly. Ak did get it to barely take off, but it was too underpowered to control. So after six months in the garage I stuck a 17-turn CDROM motor on it and it flew fine. I actually enjoyed learning to roll it, but it's just too sedate and I sold it. I like the goofiness, though.
	Wattage Mini Blue Max Never flew this plane. It was so crappy that Ak crashed it while trying to trim it out on its maiden flight. The ailerons did nothing at all. So flimsy it couldn't be repaired. But it did give me ideas and some parts for later successes. Nevertheless, my advice is: don't buy one.
	ReadyToFlyFun.com E-Gull After my great experience with the T-Hawk, I wanted to try converting their small 2-channel E-Gull into a 3-channel flyer. It worked okay (this is only a partial failure) and was great fun to fly, but required an enormous battery to balance (tail heavy). I also had too many problems with the servo mount breaking.
	Wing Warrior Mini XE First flying wing attempt. I really built this for Ak, who was very frustrated with constant crashes and repairs from all her models. I wanted to build it light, but it couldn't be done. In the end it was flabby, underpowered, overweight and clumsy. But it did fly, and survived nasty crashes with no problem. Though it failed, it opened our eyes to the durability and fun -- leading to the PCW.
	GWS Funny Park I wanted to try a low-wing plane, and the one person I could find who built one of these said it was a great low-wing trainer. But like all GWS planes, it's designed for some monster nicad battery and will not balance (note the 'tongue' on the front to hold the lipo cell). It is sedate when balanced, easy to fly when there's no wind, and does inverted well. But basically it's just stupid (looks neat though).
	LPS Pizza The LPS motor with its 1-amp draw is just too cool. Of course I had to try to build something to work with it. My first effort was a copy of the GWS Flying Pizza scaled down to maybe work. It was light enough, and did fly, but it's horribly unstable no matter what I do and likes to crash. Here I am fishing it out of a neighbor's yard using my antenna. It's retired and hanging on the wall -- a very pretty plane, but not much use.
	Depron Mini A sad attempt to build a 24" span depron plane with virtually no carbon support. The idea was to keep it light and fly it with the remarkably efficient 7x3.5 GWS HD prop. Motor and prop were fine, but the plane was a floppy mess. I tore it up and threw it away.
	RC Lazy Moth In the end, this plane flew great. But it took too much work to get to the end. As designed, the wing falls off, the elevator and rudder spin all the way around, the motor sucks, etc. After tons of work I got it in good trim, but had also built an IFO, which is much more fun. Back to the drawing board, designers!

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