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A Park Flyer for only £20.00 ?
Why a Park flyer?
The last years I have seen the number of 400 size kits and plans described in modelling magazines increase. After flying only 600 size planes for ten years, I felt it was time to try some of this smaller size type of aircraft. There has to be something good with them since they seem so popular. The new model should be something suitable for a summer Saturday afternoon, so why not a park flyer? It had to be quick to build, but not an all-foam ARF, because I like balsa. A foam wing would be OK, however. My eyes fell on an ad in EFI for the SkyBug, a semi kit from Graham McAllister Designs. The price at around £20.00 was certainly interesting. A few bank notes and a letter were sent to GMD and about a week later a small and light parcel was delivered by mail.
What you get
The parcel contained:
- A CAD produced plan, showing the aircraft in different views, and patterns for the parts to be cut out from balsa and ply. There are also a lot of installation details on the plan, with clear and helpful drawings.
- A six-page instruction set with very comprehensive building instructions. If you follow these, you cannot go wrong, even if you have never before built from a plan.
- Pre-cut foam wing and ‘Depron’ foam tailplane surfaces.
- Control snakes (small size plastic tube and thin wire)
- A set of 2” wheels (plastic, later kits have been updated with foam tyres)
- Reinforcing cloth tape for the wing
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What you need
You have to provide some wood to complete the SkyBug. You need sheet balsa, 1.5 to 3 mm, some 3 mm Lite ply and a few small pieces of 0.8 and 1.5 mm ply. Apart from the Lite ply, I had all that was needed in my scrap box. Instead of Lite ply, I used my preferred method of making formers from a sandwich of thin ply and 4 mm balsa. They will be light, easy to cut out and give a large area for the glue. I used normal ply for the motor plate and nose former.
You need of course some glue and covering material and/or paint. I used aliphatic glue since it is easy to sand, and some epoxy for gluing foam parts. Use CA glue if you want to build fast, do not use it on the foam though. Most CA glues melt the foam, some “odourless” types may be OK, but check first! Oh, yes - you also need three wire paper clips (?).
Anyway, the instructions start with more helpful comments on glue, tools and wood selection. If you have any questions during the building, Graham is just a phone call away all weekdays.
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