Sky Beetle

[t-turley]

Flying Styro Sky Beetle. Completely stock except straight dihedral instead of gull wing dihedral. Stock 280 w/gearbox (5:1?), 2 x CS21BBs, HiTec 3-ch Rx, Pixie 25 ESC, and 2 x Kokam 1020s. 9 3/8 oz. Graphics: some from kit, some left over from a Chubby Lady 2, and the rest from the dark recesses of my mind. Just completed a short while ago - hope to fly it Saturday if weather holds.

Tony Turley

[Dave Robelen]

Hi Tony,
Neat plane! Those must be some really dark recesses;) It looks like you know how to have fun!
Good luck, Dave

[t-turley]

To my surprise, the wind was virtually nil this afternoon, so I took the Sky Beetle out for its shakedown cruise, and it was a hoot! Most of the time was low and slow, figure 8s and such, but I climbed it up higher a couple of times to make sure it would go high enough to give the kids some stick time. That bird is SLOW! **Maybe** 15mph top speed. It is a good thing there was little to no wind; what little bit of breeze did stir was definitely noticed by the plane. Flight time was 21 minutes, with a good bit of reserve left over on landing. And that was on a cold day with a Li-poly that was charged about 3 weeks ago! The photos don't show as much detail as I'd like because it was gray and overcast, but they'll do. This close-up was taken from about 10' away. :D The prop was turning so slowly that the camera froze it.

Tony Turley

[t-turley]

Here's an "altitude" shot I took. I quickly became so comfortable with the SB that I was flying close in and taking pictures at the same time. This should be a nice warm weather, evening flyer.

[Sr71fan]

Tony,

WAY COOL!

Can I have it? That looks like my kind of flying. I'm ready for some warmer weather.

Gary

[t-turley]

Originally posted by Sr71fan
I'm ready for some warmer weather.

Gary Gary,

Tell me about it!! I went flying today after work, and got chilled to the bone!

Thanks for the comments, BTW. I'm looking forward to some warm weather so I can take my kids out to the field.

Tony