Fahrvergnugen

Vanquishing volks vie for volksplane victory at St Vincents

We finally held our peanut Volksplane contest!
Amid a swirl of media attention and hounded by hordes of paparazzi, five contestants faced off before a small but fanatical group of spectators on Sunday July 25, 2010. When the props stopped and the dust settled one man emerged to bask in the glow of victory.

Mike L, with his exquisite model - decorated to perfectly mimic a real Volkspane - emerged head and shoulders above the rest, and not just because he is a lot taller.

Mike won all 4 categories as follows

BEST THREE TIMES OUT OF FIVE

Mike L 169.5 secs
Ed S 112.6
Tom W 80
George B 72.1

LONGEST SINGLE FLIGHT

MIKE 1 minute 02 secs
Ed 40.4 secs
Tom 28 secs
George 24.1 secs

CONCOURS (a totally subjective scoring method by myself)

Mike 85 points
George 84
Jim 77
Ed 76
Tom 65

MASS LAUNCH (IF YOU CAN CALL FIVE MODELS A MASS)

Mike (still going after the rest of us had gone home)

So first prize of a Gizmo Geezer went to Mike, and Ed as the runner up received a packet of rubber bands - both provided by George.

Jim broke his prop during a final trimming session and was unable to compete in the main section)

Models from top right clockwise - Ed, Mike, George, Tom and Jim.



Thanks to everyone for a great session and lots of laughs. We invite anyone to email us with times and photos of their peanut Volkspanes.

Summer Time

Part of a mural painted by students outside the St. Vincent's gym


One of several models competing in the Volksplane contest on Sunday. I will leave the reporting of that event to others who took better notes and more pictures. Hope to see a report here.


An example of the Easy Built Models variation of the Little Richard design. Distinguishing features include polyhedral breaks near the wing tips and tail feathers extending aft of the fuselage.


Ed shows his finely crafted mini-square.


At his first St. Vincent's session, Haoyang flew a Phantom Flash and then this GM Aero-Bat.


Thanks to those who brought cookies.


Dave K just built this immaculate dime scale D.VII from the Skylake Models kit. This one flies really well both indoors and out, and of course it looks fantastic.

6-27-2010 Indoor flying

Sunday's session saw many versions of the peanut scale Volksplane being readied for the upcoming event.



Jerry concentrates on trimming his VP, in Luftwaffe livery.



George's VP is a real lightweight.

Much attention is paid to keeping the weight to a minimum.
Tom knows the importance of this, and he shows us how its done.

Part of Jim's air force.

Mike's Sparrow & VP.



Dave K's Fokker returned to base with battle damage.

Jim pauses to answer questions, in midst of winding.

George's Bostonian-sized VP suffered major damage after encountering an immovable object.

More of Mike's handiwork, an Aeronca L.

Additionally, heres some pics from the previous indoor session that didn't get posted...( better late than never!).

Volksplane Cookup

Here it comes! Marin Aero Club's 2010 Volksplane cookup is about to begin.

George and Tom suggested the Evans VP-1 Volksplane because the model is simple to build, a well-documented scale subject, and... what's the other reason? It's always good to have three reasons. Oh, I know! George already built one, so he can proceed directly to the next project. But seriously, I'm sure there are many other good reasons to build this model.

The VP-1 model pictured here belongs to Jerry Long. He flies it both indoors and outdoors. The WW1 German markings accurately represent a specific full scale Volksplane whimsically decorated in this way.

Some of us are building Volksplane models from plans prepared by Tom, based on David Aronstein's excellent peanut scale design. Tom has cleaned it up, added templates for all the 'print wood', and provided an option to build the fuselage with a saddle allowing a one-piece wing.

There are at least two other peanut scale plans for the Volksplane: an all-sheet design by Walt Mooney and a box-frame fuselage design by Stephen Hales.

This cookup is open to anyone who wants to join in. You don't have to fly with MAC, but if you build a Volksplane we'd like to see a picture and post it here. If you need plans, send us an email.

No gym? No worries.

Mehmet from Istanbul built this Pemby's Kid for the current Bill Brown Memorial Cookup at Small Flying Arts.