John Paris' new Electric Sky Writer-pix and video link

[frank carlisle]

 H^^Howdy Folks,
Today was a big day. John, Jimmy and Mike came down to my house for a visit and so we could get some video of John's Electric Skywriter. The project has been in the tubes for about a month and today we got to fly it.
The Sky Writer is a model that was designed and kitted by Ray Stone AKA the "Minnesota Modeler".
Here are some pix and a link to the you-tube video of the plane flying.

[Leester]

Great video Frank, looked like lots of fun. Whats the specs on the plane and the power unit.

[afml]

Great job Guys!
Thanks for the video!

Oh John.....
Like....
What's that GRAY stuff on your chin???

"Tight Lines!"

Wes

[John Paris]

Leester,
The airplane has 207 square inches on it if I remember right and weighs in at 10ozs with the 2-cell 800 mAh battery and 11.4 ozs with the 3 cell 1000mAh.  The airplane is set up with the 1/2a turnkey electric set up from Brodak's.  As the video showed, the airplane was a little light on power for this size of airplane with the included 2-cell battery, so I asked around and found out that I could use a 3-cell.  It does make quite a difference.  I would imagine that the 2-cell would be better on something probably in the 150 square inch range.

Wes,
I ate like a whole box of powdered sugar donuts before that picture.  I guess that the beard caught all of the powdered sugar as you can see that none fell on my black jacket.....


John

[Andrew Borgogna]

Powered sugar, ya that's the ticket.  Great ooking plane John, you look good too.  It's been a long time since I have seen you I still remember you coming to my room at the hotel in Soul around Christmas a few years back.  How is the family? How are things with you?
Take Care John
Andy Borgogna

[jim gilmore]

I think thats a nice clean way to mount the battery.

[john e. holliday]

I liked the video and have considered the Brodak 1/2A electric set up for starters.  Does he have the three cell battery also?  Most of all did Mike and Jim get to fly it?   

[minnesotamodeler]

Now that was just plumb fun...looks really good, guys.  It does sound a little strange...11 1/2 oz. is an ounce or so over design weight, , but looks like it handles it fine. Your electric setup looks kinda weak with the 2c battery, 3c looks about equivalent to a sport .049, lap times a little slower than I generally run it but plainly power is sufficient.  What line length were you using?

 Thanks for posting the video!

--Ray

[frank carlisle]

Hey Ray----long time no see...............I wanted to post something about the Sky Writer weeks ago but John wanted to wait till everything was finished. It was fun to fly and I really was happy to finally get some new video.
I don't know much about how long the lines are or any of the technical stuff. John did all that.
I'm glad you liked the video.

[John Paris]

Doc,
On that particular outing, Frank got the last flight before the rain started to fall.  Mike did get a chance later in the day after we got home to fly it.  I had charged 6 batteries for the day and we only used 3 making the film.  Jim has flown it before though.  The Brodak set up is nice, but I think that it only comes with the 2 cell battery.  This will probably be okay for something in the 120-150 square inch range.  The Skywriter is about 207.  He may have a 800-1000 mAh 3S in stock though. 

The timer is set to run for 3 minutes with a wind up to max speed after about 10-15 seconds from pushing the start button.  It runs a reduced power blip about 5 seconds before a braking power down.  The 12 amp speed controller seems to be fine for this application.  It draws roughly 6 amps with the 2-cell and 8 amps with the 3 cell.

Ray,
The electric set up with the 3-cell battery is considerably heavier than the 2-cell.  As you saw though, it seems to handle it just fine.  For your information we are flying on 41' x 0.008" stranded lines.  I have not timed the laps yet, but everyhting seems to feel fine.  Pretty coold little project.

Andy,
That meeting in Seoul was pretty cool.  Probably the farthest I have travelled to meet a CL guy.  Although there were trips to France and Brazil in which I did the same thing.  Meeting again at VSC in 2007 was pretty cools as well.  So far things are going good.  Not too bad for an engineer in the automotive industry.  Keeping my fingers crossed though.

John


PS:  I should probably put in a plug for Frank.  He gave me the airplane and Brodak electric set up to play with.  It may have been a plan to divert my attention away from serious stunt so he could build a stunter without me noticing.  In any case I owe him a big thanks for the fun project that he provided for me.

[wwwarbird]

 Neat video guys-the little planes always seem to put a smile on our faces. Where were you flying at? Is this the Paris' backyard field I've heard about?

[John Paris]

Wayne,
This is a park down the road from where Frank lives.  My field is trimmed to putting green perfection.....
John

[frank carlisle]

Hey!!! Don't be dissin my patch of park!

[wwwarbird]

Wayne,
This is a park down the road from where Frank lives.  My field is trimmed to putting green perfection.....
John

 I kind of figured. It would be cool to see some footage from the "Paris Aero Greens" sometime. Thanks again for the video!