Whirligig?????

[Paul Bray]

I was chatting to a mate the other day and it occurred to me that I could not remember the name of the first AG which I built (notice, built, now flown).

Did some searching on here and came up with the Whirligig and I think that this was the one. Does anyone out there know when this plan was published???

I built her but made a mistake in the wire gauge used for the rotor shafts, it was far too thin, which led to a tipping from side to side every time that the flight pattern was interrupted. This meant that she took off fine but normally within 20 – 30 yards she would start to oscillate from side to side, looked quite funny but unfortunately anything that I did made it worse until the inevitable contact with Terra Firma which was normally in knife edge flight!!! Can’t remember how many new blades I made for her (they were profiled with a hard wood leading edge) but I got pretty good at it…… Wish that Internet Forums were around then

My disappointment in not getting her flying was curbed by the release of Mr. Boddingtons wonderful kit which I flew for many years and finally gave to a young hard-up student (I had pretty much given up flying at that point).

One thing that did always bother me slightly was the attitude of some of the old and crusty members of the club at that time (Oh my God, thinking about it I am now old and crusty, I just that I am not like them). Several times they commented that the blades did not actually do anything, the small stub wing did all of the lifting and the rotors were just for show!! No matter how slow I flew her the cynics just would not believe .

So, Depron full fuselage (not profile), carbon fibre tube ‘out-riggers’ carrying the rotors (then let someone say that they create the lift), could be an interesting project…..

[Richard Harris]

Paul,

The plan is still available HERE , if you don't have the original article I am sure a quick phone call to Traplet will point you in the right direction.

Let us know how it goes?

Rich