Weed Wacker

<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2><P ALIGN=Center> <CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" ALIGN="Center"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Left> <IMG SRC="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/wacktitle.GIF" WIDTH="592" HEIGHT="110" BORDER="0"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Center> Table of Contents <CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" WIDTH="175" BGCOLOR="#008000"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Left> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/intro.htm" TARGET="_self">Original intro</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/weedfly.htm" TARGET="_self">See the weedplane flyin</A>'<BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/more/more2.htm" TARGET="_self">More</A> stuff<BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/building.htm" TARGET="_self">Building</A> it<BR> -<A TARGET="_self" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/draw/draw.htm">Drawings</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/engine.htm" TARGET="_self">Engine conversion</A><BR> -<A TARGET="_self" BULLETIN-TEXT="specs" BULLETIN-DATE="Tue, 18-May-99 21:42:50" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/specs3.htm">Wacker specs</A><BR> -<A TARGET="_self" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/specs4.html">Flight review</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/fighter/wackfight.htm" TARGET="_self">Fighting Wacker</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/news/news.htm" TARGET="_self">Wacker News</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/links.htm" TARGET="_self">Links</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/profile/profile.htm" TARGET="_self">Showman profile</A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P ALIGN=Center> </CENTER> </TD> <TD><P ALIGN=Left>                                              <IMG ALT="Weed Wacker" WIDTH="244" HEIGHT="114" BORDER="0" SRC="pict0.jpg"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P> <BR> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2><P ALIGN=Center> Success at last <P ALIGN=Center>        Finally, after two years of on and off work, the Weed Wacker has been completed and flown.  The first few flights were quite hair-raising, due to radio interference; but things went smoothly once Ben and I figured out our problem.  The only other point of fault so far has been a couple of landing gear failures.  With the initial flight testing of the Weed Plane complete, the question is no longer, "will it fly?" but, "what will we use it for?"  There are a multitude of foreseeable applications:   (none are practical, but who cares?) dropping stuff from the bomb bay, flying cross-country from the back of a truck, launching a Shrike off the top of the wing; firing Estes rockets from the wing tips, or taking pictures from above.  The Weed Wacker has already been used for aerial photography; and plans are under way to mount a GPS in front of a camera to gather ground speed and altitude data.  I have received a number of requests for information about plans. The Weed Wacker is an original design, and as of now, there are no plans are available; however, they are on the drawing board.  If you would like to build your own weed wacker plane, then you should probably learn a little about designing R/C airplanes.  The basic design of the weed wacker is very simple, so it would be easy for someone with a little design experience to copy just by looking at the pictures.  If you are wondering why we call it the Weed Wacker plane, when it is actually powered by a chain saw engine, we call it the Weed Wacker plane because it was originally powered by a weed wacker engine and we were too lazy to change the name when we installed the new engine.  Oh yeah, the Weed Wacker plane is our longest-lived R/C plane yet!  Most of our planes, whether kit-built or scratch-built, seem to either crash or sink below the level of mediocrity before their first anniversary.  The Weed Wacker has been in flying status for over a year!  It might be normal for someone else's airplanes to last that long, but we are very hard on our toys.      <P ALIGN=Center> <BR> <IMG ALT="Weed Wacker" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="86" SRC="pict3.GIF" BORDER="0"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P ALIGN=Center> Last update 11/10/99<BR> <A HREF="mailto:bjshowman@weedplane.com">bjshowman@weedplane.com</A><BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000ff"><BIG>A web site by Sam and Ben Showman</BIG></FONT><BR> <HR> <P ALIGN=Center> <A href="http://www.towerhobbies.com/"><IMG src="http://www.towerhobbies.com/images/bipe.gif" border=0 alt="Tower Hobbies Home Page"></A><BR> <CENTER> <TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" ALIGN="Center"> <TR> <TD><A target="_top" href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html"><IMG border=0 alt="R/C WebRing" width=120 height=90 align=center SRC="rcring.gif"></A></TD> <TD><P ALIGN=Center> <B><FONT color=#000000 size=3>This <A href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html" target=_top>Radio Control Modeling Ring</A> site <BR> is owned by <A HREF="mailto:bjshowman@weedplane.com">Weed Wacker Aviation</A>. <BR> Click for <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next" target=_top>Next</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&skip" target=_top>Skip It</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&prev" target=_top>Previous</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next5" target=_top>Next 5</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&random" target=_top>Random</A><BR> Want to join the ring? <BR> Click here for <A href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html" target=_top>info</A>. </FONT></B></TD> <TD><A target="_top" href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next"><IMG border=0 Alt="Next Site" width=120 height=90 SRC="nextrc.gif"></A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> <P ALIGN=Center> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2><P ALIGN=Center> <CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" ALIGN="Center"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Left> <IMG SRC="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/wacktitle.GIF" WIDTH="592" HEIGHT="110" BORDER="0"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Center> Table of Contents <CENTER> <TABLE CELLPADDING="2" WIDTH="175" BGCOLOR="#008000"> <TR> <TD><P ALIGN=Left> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/intro.htm" TARGET="_self">Original intro</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/weedfly.htm" TARGET="_self">See the weedplane flyin</A>'<BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/more/more2.htm" TARGET="_self">More</A> stuff<BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/building.htm" TARGET="_self">Building</A> it<BR> -<A TARGET="_self" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/draw/draw.htm">Drawings</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/engine.htm" TARGET="_self">Engine conversion</A><BR> -<A TARGET="_self" BULLETIN-TEXT="specs" BULLETIN-DATE="Tue, 18-May-99 21:42:50" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/specs3.htm">Wacker specs</A><BR> -<A TARGET="_self" HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/specs4.html">Flight review</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/fighter/wackfight.htm" TARGET="_self">Fighting Wacker</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/news/news.htm" TARGET="_self">Wacker News</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/links.htm" TARGET="_self">Links</A><BR> -<A HREF="http://www.weedplane.com/wackyplane_old/profile/profile.htm" TARGET="_self">Showman profile</A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P ALIGN=Center> </CENTER> </TD> <TD><P ALIGN=Left>                                              <IMG ALT="Weed Wacker" WIDTH="244" HEIGHT="114" BORDER="0" SRC="pict0.jpg"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P> <BR> </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD COLSPAN=2><P ALIGN=Center> Success at last <P ALIGN=Center>        Finally, after two years of on and off work, the Weed Wacker has been completed and flown.  The first few flights were quite hair-raising, due to radio interference; but things went smoothly once Ben and I figured out our problem.  The only other point of fault so far has been a couple of landing gear failures.  With the initial flight testing of the Weed Plane complete, the question is no longer, "will it fly?" but, "what will we use it for?"  There are a multitude of foreseeable applications:   (none are practical, but who cares?) dropping stuff from the bomb bay, flying cross-country from the back of a truck, launching a Shrike off the top of the wing; firing Estes rockets from the wing tips, or taking pictures from above.  The Weed Wacker has already been used for aerial photography; and plans are under way to mount a GPS in front of a camera to gather ground speed and altitude data.  I have received a number of requests for information about plans. The Weed Wacker is an original design, and as of now, there are no plans are available; however, they are on the drawing board.  If you would like to build your own weed wacker plane, then you should probably learn a little about designing R/C airplanes.  The basic design of the weed wacker is very simple, so it would be easy for someone with a little design experience to copy just by looking at the pictures.  If you are wondering why we call it the Weed Wacker plane, when it is actually powered by a chain saw engine, we call it the Weed Wacker plane because it was originally powered by a weed wacker engine and we were too lazy to change the name when we installed the new engine.  Oh yeah, the Weed Wacker plane is our longest-lived R/C plane yet!  Most of our planes, whether kit-built or scratch-built, seem to either crash or sink below the level of mediocrity before their first anniversary.  The Weed Wacker has been in flying status for over a year!  It might be normal for someone else's airplanes to last that long, but we are very hard on our toys.      <P ALIGN=Center> <BR> <IMG ALT="Weed Wacker" WIDTH="360" HEIGHT="86" SRC="pict3.GIF" BORDER="0"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <P ALIGN=Center> Last update 11/10/99<BR> <A HREF="mailto:bjshowman@weedplane.com">bjshowman@weedplane.com</A><BR> <FONT COLOR="#0000ff"><BIG>A web site by Sam and Ben Showman</BIG></FONT><BR> <HR> <P ALIGN=Center> <A href="http://www.towerhobbies.com/"><IMG src="http://www.towerhobbies.com/images/bipe.gif" border=0 alt="Tower Hobbies Home Page"></A><BR> <CENTER> <TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" ALIGN="Center"> <TR> <TD><A target="_top" href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html"><IMG border=0 alt="R/C WebRing" width=120 height=90 align=center SRC="rcring.gif"></A></TD> <TD><P ALIGN=Center> <B><FONT color=#000000 size=3>This <A href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html" target=_top>Radio Control Modeling Ring</A> site <BR> is owned by <A HREF="mailto:bjshowman@weedplane.com">Weed Wacker Aviation</A>. <BR> Click for <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next" target=_top>Next</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&skip" target=_top>Skip It</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&prev" target=_top>Previous</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next5" target=_top>Next 5</A> <A href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&random" target=_top>Random</A><BR> Want to join the ring? <BR> Click here for <A href="http://www.modelflight.com/rcring.html" target=_top>info</A>. </FONT></B></TD> <TD><A target="_top" href="http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=radiocontrol&id=252&next"><IMG border=0 Alt="Next Site" width=120 height=90 SRC="nextrc.gif"></A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> </CENTER> <P ALIGN=Center> </BODY>