Flying Lawn Mower at Warracknabeal
The annual Warracknabeal vintage machinery easter weekend show is on again and while there's tractors as far as the eye can see, every hour on the hour a high pitched buzz can be heard from over the back of the display grounds. Look up and you might be surprised to see what looks like a Victa lawn mower getting about the sky. The contraption is aptly named the 'Cloud Clipper' and was built by Peter, a member of the Warracknabeal Model Aircraft Club.
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Peter says the plans came originally from a magazine out of the US. It's a full foam core wing and he had to build a hotwire foam cutter and learn how to use it just for this plane. It has elevons and no rudder. Peter's advice is to keep the nose up and into the wind on landing otherwise it won't be a pretty return to earth. The foam construction has held up well to a few hard landings and the model looks in great shape. Unfortunately the wind picked up today and the model tipped over on the ground, breaking one of the wheels. I hate damaging a model with a hard landing or an outright crash but wind tipping them on the ground! Don't ya hate it.
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