The Sky Streak as published November, 2011 in Flying Models didn't come out with a very pretty scheme (seemed like a good idea at the time    ).  Well it suffered a number of mishaps, some mischance, some my lousy flying.  Anyway, here it is rebuilt and refinished.   Black Monokote, Black Painters' Choice rattlecan on the fuse and tail.  Trim Monokote for the deco.  It needed tailweight, so substituting Monokote for the Coverlite should not cause much weight penalty.

Larry,

I meant to ask, is that your design or plans?

Charles

The model is my original design, the third in a series.  My avatar is the second, named "Frite Streak".  That one is powered by a Black Widow reed engine, and has one trophy to its credit, a first place at Woodland, CA.  An interesting flight as I got permission to do refulings, and it took two.  The flight had 1 second to spare when I landed.  Brett Buck was the crew chief!  Thanks again Brett!

The curren version is powered by an AP Wasp .061, and was published in Flying Models November 2011.  Plans available from the magazine, and a short kit from rsmdistribution.com.

There have been two models built from this design by other people, both of them electric powered.  Successful flights both. Rumors have it that a humongous .70 powered scale up is in the works back East.

I had in mind to do the scheme in Da-glo green, orange and red, and my wife thinks I should have gone for it!  I do plan to put a couple of Da-glo green "recycle" emblems on the bottom of the wings.

 

The Black Widow model took a first in 1/2A stunt.  The new one has had placings at various levels in 1cc stunt at contests at both Whittier Narrows and Sepulveda Basin (Knights of the Round Circle and Valley Circle Burners contests).  The model has trophied with at least 3 pilots flying it.  The damage that I had to repair was in no way related to the design or flying characteristics.  Bad Karma and bad flying were the causes.   

I have been building forward swept models of various types since I saw Larry Scarinzi's Streak published in Model Airplane News in the mid 50's.  I have probably done a dozen or more C/L sport wings, and two kitted Slope Soaring FSW models under the name Toucan ( Google that for information ).  I even built a couple of rubber band powered indoor models in that configuration ( All of them flew just fine)

The Lightning Streak (Brodak, Not Flite Streak) was a chance source to build something interesting from a kit I won at a raffle. It worked so well, I built the Black Widow version, and after that proved competitive, I built the final (so far) version, the Sky Streak.  A quick search on this forum will yield a lot of information about it, and the ones that have been built by others.

Rumor has it that a huge vesion may surface out east.  My lips are sealed....

Small engines and forward sweep are my "THING"!  

As far as CGis concered, it is easy to calculate the MAC and then spot about 10% chord.  That is a very safe location, and then you can trim from there.  There are a few MAC calc programs readily available on the web and they are easy to use.   As a final check, I just swing the unpowered model around on a tether, and if it tracks true, rather than bucking, it is close to OK.

This isn't even Model Rocket Science.

The corners can be very tight when the CG is in the right place.  The first flights were with it too far forward (SAFE!), and it would hardly turn at all.  Moving it back slowly has resulted in a totally competitive design.  Smooth level flight, hard corners, no bobble on exit.