By Ben Showman

         The Weed Wacker was test flown off the local grass airstrip at Homer's Happy Hog Farm.  The Wacker was filled with a 1/4 tank of gas (8 ounces), and final control checks were made.  The engine was started and throttled up.  Sam offered some final words of encouragement, "Don't crash it, if you do I'll ...," and with that in mind, the Weed Plane was given full throttle.  The large mass of 2x4's and Econokote made its way down the runway and leaped into the air.  The takeoff run took up about half of the 400' runway.  Right away, two flight characteristics were discovered, first, the Weed Wacker tracks straight down the runway and second, rudder is required for coordinated turns.  Landing was a little shaky, the high glide ratio was unexpected and a couple of go-arounds were necessary.  The first flight lasted about five minutes.
        Since that first flight, lots of others have been made, altogether about 15 hours of flight time.  Most of that flight time was spent on test stuff:  flutter, stalls, slow speed, high speed, best angle of climb, improving bombing accuracy, rocket launches, and inverted flat spins, coupled with knife edge looping somersaults (yeh right).  The Weed Wacker has had one forced landing due to bad fuel, one due to radio problems, and one due to ignition difficulties; all three times, the landings were made in tall grass, but little harm was done.  It's easier to fly than an Uproar but more difficult then a trainer.  Over all, the plane controls like a Cessna.

The Weedplane at lift-off


A slow fly-by


Flying into the sunset

A view from above

A note about the test flights:
 The first ten hours of flight were flown with the original control system and power-plant.  The original engine was a weed wacker engine with approximatily 30cc of displacement, while the current engine is a much larger chain saw engine with a displacement of about 40cc.  

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