STRENGTH at LIGHT WEIGHT is very desirable in any aircraft; combined with larger area wings and wider wing chords, you end up with an aircraft capable of slowing down nicely for landings, ever in the rarefied air up here. Smaller Fuselage cross-sections help in building strong yet light; my earlier work in building smaller electric powered aircraft was a stepping stone along this design path.
I prefer to MINIMIZE unnecessary drag; on most of my planes, you'll find a fuselage nose section which tapers smoothly into the lines of the propeller spinner.
Tail draggers handle much better on dirt fields and unimproved flying sites, and are almost the only way to go if you plan to do a lot of flying on skis in deeper, soft snow. (You shouldnt need to go to the trouble of packing a runway to fly on snow when a properly set up aircraft can easily fly in over a foot of fresh powder!
Long Tail moments and large tail surfaces contribute to good ground/water handling. When combined with higher, wider landing gear than is typically found on a lot of sport RC aircraft, the result is a plane that's just plain FUN on the ground/snow/water!
This is the Wild Hare; designed early in the winter of 1991-1992, the kits were first made available on a limited basis late in 1992. There may be around 50 Wild Hares flying at this time; several are featured in the photo gallery. At only 4-1/2 pounds, it performs beyond design expectations.
Here is the introduction to the Wild Hare in ascii text format for those interested, listing specifications and a design objective outline:"Introducing the Wild Hare"(5K file size.)
This is the first prototype SKYFOX on floats, and again on skis; another one of my designs. Wingspan=63", Chord=16"; ASP.61
The second Skyfox, above, is similar in dimensions to the first, but was built to fly with the side-mounted ASP 1.08.
Plans and kits for the Skyfox are not yet complete; if there's enough interest, I may work further on this project.
The "Floatmaster", seen elswhere in the photo gallery, is still a work in progress; while it has flown sucessfully at Oliver Twist Lake, it is awaiting completion of a new wing; modified airfoil and increased chord. Until then, it will continue to fly with the modified 78-1/2" Telemaster wing.
Click here for information on my latest project, the NITEOWL. This is a task-specific design; a Giant Scale plane designed for STOL handling, very slow landing speeds, and specificly for Night Flying. It has 1300+ square inches of wing area, with a wing loading of only 14 Oz./square foot on wheels.
Check the Winter Flying page for my article on ski design; there may be some info available there that you haven't come across before.
