SHIFTY

[Keith Evans 3]

As you see I'm still getting the hang of things with these photos

This project started to be formed in my mind about four years ago with a chance discussion with another club member about whether or not one could adjust the centre of gravity of a model when in flight .

Over my holiday periods I take a sketch book with me to jot down any odd thoughts that come to mind that I want to capture .It was here that "Shifty "was born . Why "Shifty " well for two reasons ,

1 I wanted to shift things about .

2 I was going to use as my basis a Sky 40 and the outline wing rib spacing of a Super 60 .

The requirements for Shifty were to have all the following possibilities using just one wing .

Moving the CofG in flight

Tail dragger / trike under carriage .

Bolted /Banded on wing.

High /low wing configuration .

Flaps .

Straight /Dihedral wing

Shifty Mk1 had a simple rod actuated weight in a tube arrangement for the balance control directly off a long servo arm ,and only had a banded on wing .

Mk 2 had a push pull balance control system via a winch servo arrangement together with bolted on wings ---- rough landings showed the limitations of the rubber bands and the damage that could result from the inertia of the weight .

I test flew the mk2 version successfully last year in the high wing ,dihedral ,trike configuration .I only had to try out the moving c of g function when due to pilot error it went in !!!! The wing was fine and the fuselage was repairable .

However during other holidays Mk 3 was dreamed up .This will to have all of the above features but with a mid wing position also .I'm a few weeks from completing this .

To get all the controls I wanted I also had to get to grips with a Futaba 14sg Tx and to get to this stage , learn how to insert photos into a thread ,so here goes .

These are some shots of Shifty in its many configurations .