Some of my model club friends have said that all my models are unorthodox, so if I say a model is unorthodox it must be really weird.
The first two machines are definitely in the really weird category. They have no wings in the conventional sense, or fuselage, tailplane, fin, rudder, and don't really fly at all. They go round in circles rather than flying forwards as a conventional plane would, and one of them does not glide back to earth when the power stops - it gently plummets!
The next model, which is not mine, actually has wings, but they are very short and are arranged in an unusual fashion.
At the foot of the page the principles of flight are simply thrown out of the window, and anything goes?!
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A very strange machine is the Chip Chopper Too, as you can see from the photos below, and as such has been variously described by members of my flying clubs. The most endearing of these descriptions is, " a sort of flying golf stick". This particular version of the original Charybdis was published in Model Flyer (that Great Duo of Boddington and Swales again) in December, 2001.
The designer was an American, Charles (now Doctor) McCutcheon, who in the autumn of 1952 came to study nuclear physics at Cambridge University, and seemed to spend all of his spare time building and flying these fascinating machines. He even flew a jetex powered version inside one of the labs, which "filled the corridor with evil smelling smoke".
If you are interested there is a delightful letter written by Doctor McCutcheon
here, which tells the whole story in some depth, and covers some of the variants that other people have designed and built over the years.
The Charybdis is one of the most original and unusual flying machines in existence. It is simple to build, and great fun to fly, so ring Model Flyer, buy the back copy of the mag and get building.
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The Chip Chopper at the moment of release - Chris risking his arms!
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Now get ready to duck!
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Flying away (I can call it flying can't I?)
My most embarassing moment with the Chip Chopper can be attributed to over-enthusiasm. I was flying in December 2001 at Middle Wallop, on a cold but almost windless day. So windless, in fact, that my first flight rose to a majestic height and then landed within 20 feet of the launch point.
This was too much for me to resist. I said to my club-mate Steve, "Right, now for the big one", or something equally stupid. I then proceeded to fill the tank to the top, start the engine and launch - oh dear, oh dear. The windless day developed a light breeze, and the chip chopper flew off, almost, but not quite, disappearing into the gloom of that December day.
To cut a long story short, it flew into a tree at least a mile from the aerodrome, and although we found it, we could not retrive it on the day. It spent three days dangling from the branches until Peter and "Farmer" Fred came armed with ladders, rope, drain-rods, knives and parachutes and rescued it, along with Fred's own model which was residing in a tree nearby.
It was unscathed, despite being rained on, and flew again soon afterwards, but this time with only a dribble of fuel in the tank. Of course, the damage is done and almost everytime I talk to Steve about free flight models he gleefully reminds me of those fateful words, "Right, now for.............."
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A home design inspired by the saucer model built by Alan Jupp (of Jupp's Fizz). In this case the power of the diesel counter-rotating the frame is replaced by L3 Rapier rocket motors.
I think it was the idea of Dr McCutcheon's Charybdis powered by a Jetex motor that made me use Rapiers. I like the smoke they produce, the fact that it takes two people to light them, and that they have to be lite at the same time. Easy in theory, but nearly impossible in practise - there is always enough breeze to upset one of the matches.
So far I have been unable get the machine to produce enough lift to take-off, but I will contine to make adjustments. In the meantime it makes lots of smoke.
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| The Saucer under construction | More spokes than a bicycle wheel |
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| Waiting for ignition | It smokes, but it does not fly (where's Steve gone?) |
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Meanwhile at a home in Basingstoke, Hamphire, England, my flying pal Peter is building the first flying machine to be officially classed, not as unorthodox or weird, but as "Good grief Peter, what's that?"
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| Test gliding a lourve door! | Where's the river, I want to do some washing? |
I can't say much about the plane (it is a plane I suppose!), but perhaps that's just as well. It climbs steeply under the power of the Cox 049, but although it is hardly a brilliant glider I was suprised how well it did glide with the power off. Powered flight is inclined to be somewhat erratic, with lots of oscillations and dutch rolling, but the glide is far more calm and collected.
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I think that this design was first published in the Aeromodeller Annual, 1954. This fact I discovered after the plan was sent to me by Gray, (thanks for the excellent plans).
I was excited by its unusual design, and showed it to my Dad, and it was he who unearthed the dusty volume from 1954. There was a description on the plan that said all that there was to be said about such a bizarre design - "Anything will fly with power".
Well, that was too much for me, I just had to build it. I first constructed a jig to cut the many angles needed to build the two octagonal shapes, and the rest was relatively easy.
First flight produced a near verticle climb, followed by engine failure. With a bit of downthrust on the engine (a dead plant stem obliged), the machine climbed at about 30 degrees in a tight right-hand circle. This was very encouraging. However, this was followed by an equally dramatic minus 30 degree earthward glide!
So there is some work to do on the Flying Octagons before a satisfactory climb and glide is achieved, but I can hardly wait.
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Bizarre or just ridiculous? |
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The first launch - away she goes (thanks Dave) |
Amazing angle of attack (thanks for the pic Roger) |
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Hexy is another one of the many free plans published in Aeromodeller, this time in the mid 1960's. As you can see it has a honeycomb wing structure, and although small in span (15 1/2") the wing area is actually quite large. Inevitably Eric Clutton was the designer.
I have put the prop on backwards to take the edge off the power of the Cox 020, and even with the engine set rich it pulls Hexy about the sky at a very remarkable rate - certainly too fast to photograph in flight.
I had two goes to get the trimming sorted: first it spun-in to the right, so I adjusted the trim-tab a little to the left, and it promptly spun-in to the left - trim-tab obviously far too sensitive. Third launch, however, proved successful, and the full tank took it up to about 250 feet. It was just as well the wind was very light that day.
The glide is nothing to write home about, but I still have some trimming to do to discover Hexy's full potential.
One characteristic of the wing configuration is that Hexy will fly and climb even when the wings assume an angle of almost 90 degrees to the ground.
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| Hexy at rest (note the grass cuttings) | Hexy - just part of the clan |
Alan Jupp (well known for his unorthodox models) spoke to me at Middle Wallop, to say that he had built a double-sized version of Hexy - I'd love to see that fly. Incidentally, I believe he has also built a double-sized version of the Windbag, which, according to my friend Peter, makes the most amazing sound when it lands, and almost blots out the sun when it flies.
Hexy goes r/c
In the July issue of RCMW an enlarged Hexy was featured. Called the Silly B, it was a r/c version of the Hexy, built by non-other than Alasdair Sutherland. I just had to write to him about the model, and he sent me loads of info and the photos below. Thanks Alasdair.
At 32 inches span it was a little over twice the original size, powered by a PAW 80, with two channel control on rudders and elevator. The two booms you can see in the photos were increased to four, additional ones on the top and bottom, to give greater strength. Elevator control was by closed loop, and rudders by a pushrod with the rudders linked by a wire.
The unorthodox layout gave the model unusual flying characteristics. Whilst it would loop well, it would not roll, and would "...just yaw round turns with very little bank", says Alasdair.
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| Silly B looks great - surely you are tempted to build one! | Rudders and elevators just visible |
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