PILOT PROJECTS

Monday, July 20,  2009

Last fall, Patrick Winters was flying his Dynaflite Butterfly with Jack Dubuque, Dave Schmeder, and Richard Wyatt. They started chatting about how cool it would be to have a bigger version of this powered glider. One thing led to another, and before they knew it, they had the plans enlarged 200% and the planning was underway. These four knuckleheads met regularly through the winter to tackle this enormous project. As you can imagine, they had lots of laughs, and Bonita Schmeder kept them supplied with snacks and homemade cookies! Building began on December 28, 2008 and the successful maiden flight was on July 3, 2009. What fun!!! Specifications: Wingspan: 198 inches (16.5 feet) Fuselage length: 98 inches (8 feet) Weight: 28 pounds Labor: 513 man-hours Cost (value of materials): $1,043.79 Power: Saito 1.50 4-stroke Servos: 9 (one standard on throttle, all others high-torque) Hatches: 9