wonwinglo

Crosses LC.6 Model of a Flying Flea flown successfully
The French owner of this Croses LC.6 (modern Flying Flea) challenged me to build a working flying model of his aeroplane,he said it could not be done,now that was too much of a challenge and I set to work and in a fortnight built this little model on the left,the longitudinal control is by moving the wing fore and aft with very small movements,on the first flight I had the same dilemma as the full size ones that were sensitive to this control it flipped inverted and continued to fly happily along! despite my efforts it would not right itself and I had no option but to land it inverted,the real ones did exactly the same due to too much movement and usually decapitated the pilot,once sorted out the model continued to fly very well until only last year when it developed wing flutter in windy conditions and was damaged beyond repair.
The real aeroplane on the right was built in the owners bedroom and the engine was a Christmas present from his wife,this amazing aviator used to fly the aircraft across the channel every year to the annual Popular Flying Association Rally at Cranfield with no navigational aids other than a compass,a truly colourful character.
Regarding the spinning,having tried hard to get my model to spin she would merely do a spiral dive and recover the moment the rudder was centralised,the biggest problem with this early design was the slotted wing effect which could and did cause unpredictable behaviour,remember also that most of these aircraft were built by complete amateurs who had no idea where the centre of gravity should lie ? or for that matter anything about weight and balance of airframes,given the small latitude of the c of g a tail heavy aeroplane could spell disaster.
Regarding the machines that have just dived into the ground after a few hundred hours of flying,this is more than likely the slot effect coming into force again,at certain speed parameters and angles of attack my model would dive violently,the best thing to get out of the dive was to throttle right back and she would recover,with too much wing movement the aircraft just tucks its nose under and goes inverted to the killer position,the wing angle needs to be small.
Flown very carefully in calm conditions there should not e any problems,take risks and a Flea will bite hard.
I did try elevators experimentally but they did not work very well,probably due to the short moment arm.
I will probably build another Flea this time for electric power and very light,they have to be the most fun machine around,but you have to know and respect their limitations.

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'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
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