Pigs!

[Michael Brooks]

Paul Taylor's comment about his Twist-Stang "watching the pig nose in", reminds me of the worst pig I ever built. It was a Custom Models "StuntMaster" that was so overweight and flew so badly that I always called it the "UnStuntMaster". As I recall it weighed 48 oz or so and had a 400 sq ft wing. It was so tail heavy that I had to use an old pair of Perfect 3 Inch wheels that had to weight 3-4 oz (plus a heavy spinner). Zuriel Armstrong flew it one day and actually managed to get it through the pattern. It was the first time I ever really saw a plane mush through a pattern that wasn't the result of a bad motor run. Zuriel never asked to fly it again after that.  Somehow, it survived several seasons and numerous crashes but met it's end one Sunday afternoon when an elevator hinge failed while I was doing an outside loop.

Anybody else have a plane they remember as "the PIG"?

Mike

[Tom Perry]

All of mine fly great right off the board.   

And some fly right into the ground 

[James Mills]

You mean limit it to just one, that could be tough (I'm trying to remember if I've ever really built a lite one, hmm).

James

[Randy Powell]

Hmmm, how about a 620 square inch plane that came in at 88oz? Not even the RO-Jett 65 on a pipe helped that. Subsequently dismantled for parts. The next version (that I'm flying now) is 53oz. Much better.

[Keith Spriggs]

More like a big boar than a pig;
I built a scale model J3 Cup from a Sterling kit with a 54 inch wing span. It was so tail heavy that I had to put lead in every available space around the engine. In addition I made the fake cylinder heads out of steel. It had a throttle that was a slide valve in the exhaust port. I took it to a contest and placed high enough that I had to make an attempt to fly it. When it was released it slooooooooooooooowly built up speed. After about a full lap with the Fox Rocket .35 screaming it lumbered in to the air. I babied it up to about 5 foot altitude. I think you could have walked faster than it flew. No need to worry about the throttle.

Incidentally when the top wing blows off a Flying Fool it immediately  becomes a pig to end all pigs.

[Garf]

I remember several flying bricks. I still have one. I seldom fly it.

[Shultzie]

Paul Taylor's comment about his Twist-Stang "watching the pig nose in", reminds me of the worst pig I ever built. It was a Custom Models "StuntMaster" that was so overweight and flew so badly that I always called it the "UnStuntMaster". As I recall it weighed 48 oz or so and had a 400 sq ft wing. It was so tail heavy that I had to use an old pair of Perfect 3 Inch wheels that had to weight 3-4 oz (plus a heavy spinner). Zuriel Armstrong flew it one day and actually managed to get it through the pattern. It was the first time I ever really saw a plane mush through a pattern that wasn't the result of a bad motor run. Zuriel never asked to fly it again after that.  Somehow, it survived several seasons and numerous crashes but met it's end one Sunday afternoon when an elevator hinge failed while I was doing an outside loop.Anybody else have a plane they remember as "the PIG"?Mike

Ah yes....An old Skylark....that I experimented with HOBBYPOXY PRIMER AND HOBBYPOXY PAINT!I weighed it on a Johnny's food market scale just down the street from my old apartment on DesMoines Way S. in Seattle. at around 62 ounces..That Lark was so purty painted in basic white...with Candy Apple starflake Red &  black pin stripes.After Joe Dill and I toyed and tweaked with that scarey old lead sled...I gave it to the son of one of our old flying buddies but as I remember, I would see that old Skylark around the Aerospace Center from time to time...and once waaaaay up north at a park in Everett Wa. When I asked the young kid that was flying that model where he got that model from...he looked up and smiled and said...Uhhhh...."ME AND MY DAD  BUILT THIS MODEL LAST SUMMER IN OUR BASEMENT." I didn't have the heart to point out where I had put my "DLS" onto the plastic pilots helmet and sagging HobbyPoxy finish around those overly large fillets made with car body putty & mirco ballons and my first experimental metal flake finish that "wasn't quite what I had expected." Best of all....I was soooooooo surprised to see that old LEAD-LARK had gone through so many flyers and was still flying over 4 or 5 years. Talk about a charmed life!
 

[Mark Scarborough]

Shultzie, seems the good ones die young and the corrupt ones stay on forever huh?
my lead slead was my P-40 last year, Brodak P-40 profile, painted so very cool, the martian butterfly as it was dubbed. It came in at 59 oz because of an experiment gone wrong with the covering finish process. Documented elsewhere on this site. 570 inchs of wing, 59 oz of weight, and LA 46 for power, it flew better than anything I had up to that date until its final (fourth ) flight when  a dandelion jumped up and grabbed my lines on takeoff. Says something about the power in those la46s and the lifting capability of Pats wing design.

[Leo Mehl]

Ted Gritzmacher had a painter friend of his paint his Nobler and when he was done it weighed 70 ounces. Suprisingly it flew quit well with a Johnson 35 on it. The Nobler is really an amazing airplane.

[Paul Taylor]

Well Mike is from Razor Back country.

Go - Hawgs !!!

[afml]

More like a big boar than a pig;

Incidentally when the top wing blows off a Flying Fool it immediately  becomes a pig to end all pigs.

I can relate to that fer sure! Gets interesting while the top wing is slowly departing the fuse! Mine was painted like the box top 'cause I was born with "painters block". Mine was powered with a K&B Stallion 35. Soooo then I removed the bottom wing and replaced it with an old Voodoo wing. Well...It seamed lik a good idea at the time, LOL!!!   
Tight lines!
Wes

[Keith Spriggs]

. Soooo then I removed the bottom wing and replaced it with an old Voodoo wing.
Wes

I like original thinking. Anyone can do something that they know is going to work.

Thanks for sharing. I can conjure up a very vivid mental image of that plane.