The Amphibious Park / Pond Flyer

The Amphibious Park / Pond Flyer by Arron Bates www.keyboardmonkey.com/twinkle

BUILDING This building instruction is meant to guide you through a build that is slightly different to most builds. It s not the intention to give a stick-by-stick account of building the plane. That said, I do feel that there is enough information here that if taken nice and easy, a relatively novice balsa builder should be able to get through it. 1 2 (Photo 1) Cut out the fuselage sides and attach the bottom rails to the inside to the fuselage behind the step. You may also want to strengthen the alignment tabs with a piece of scrap balsa. Add the fuselage doublers near the back of the fin, with the more critical alignment point with the fuselage sides being the back of the notch for the trailing edge. (Photo 2) Glue in the step and another strip that will hold the fuselage the right distance apart at the step. Pull the tail posts of the fuselage sides together and glue the rails on the bottom (the fuselage sides themselves don t meet). Assemble all the parts to the bottom of the fuselage behind the step and the step itself. Glue in separators at the front of the wing that will hold the sides apart the correct distance at the leading edge. At this point, this it should sit flat on the bench, resting on the six tabs on the bottom of the fuselage sides. Pin this to the bench over the top elevation of the plan. 3 4 (Photo 3) Cut out the inside pieces of the tip floats, and reinforce the alignment tabs. Pin these to the top elevation at the right location (inner side of the tip floats). Now you can cut out the spars and trailing edge of the wing. (Photo 4) The idea behind the jigging method is that it will help align the wing, and keep it straight for almost the entire building process. On the fuselage sides, there are triangle wedges on the edge of a notch. The spars rest against these triangles. First locate the trailing edge into place. Sit it into the tip float piece, and sit it up against the triangle rest on the fuselage side. Do the same for the other spars. This task is easier if you put a single drop of glue where the spar halves join to help hold in place. When alignment is all settled, glue in place. Note: When cutting out the spars, you need to make a choice between truss ribs, and full sheet ribs. These instructions cover the truss ribs (the sheet ribs make a basic assembly). Read through the instructions and make a choice as to truss or sheet ribs. 5 6 (Photo 5) Glue a small strip of 1mm or 1.5mm balsa to the back of the spar joints (leaving at least 1.5mm top and bottom for the braces), followed by gluing the dihedral braces into the back of the spars. Now add a small strip of balsa (size not important, 1.5mm by 3mm, an inch long will do), running down the front of the spar, onto the inside of the fuselage, tucked into the corner where the spar meets fuselage.

(Photo 6) Now we can start the ribs. If you ve chosen sheet ribs, just slot them into the spars and glue when you re happy it s all lined up properly. There s no shame in the sheet ribs, it makes construction move along quite nicely. For those funky truss rib people! Start by making the outer airfoil shape of the ribs, by slotting the 1.5mm square balsa into the notches on the spars, butting up against the trailing edge, and resting on the leading edge. I recommend doing a rib top and bottom at the same time, and glue the trailing edge first. Then pinch the two pieces against the leading edge and glue in place. Now make sure that the pieces are seated properly in the spars, and finish by gluing to the spars. Do this for all the ribs. 7 8 (Photo 7) With all the rib shapes in place, now all that has to be done is to fill them in. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for each wing half to get this done. Start by doing all the vertical parts halfway from spar to spar. The end rib doesn t need as much as the inner two ribs, so just do what is comfortable. With all the vertical pieces in, you can fill in the diagonals. There s no hard and fast rule, so don t think it s wrong if you have a diagonal running in a different direction to what s on the plan. The plan shows one of many good truss solutions. Take your time it s a fun thing to do when you re in the mood. :) (Photo 8) Welcome back all you sheet rib people (you know who you are) Now add the 1.5mm balsa strips along the sides of the dihedral braces on the top, and fuselage sides on the bottom. They butt join to the trailing edge, and sit on either side of the leading edge. There should be notches top and bottom in the middle three spars to slot into. On the bottom, also glue to the fuselage side. 9 10 (Photo 9) There s a similar construct on the inside of the tip floats with 1mm balsa. It s there to help you cover the tip section. It should also have a slot to fit it into, and it butts up to the trailing edge. There is also a single 1.5mm square stringer that needs to be added over the top of the spars at the inside tip float. At this point, you should have a healthy looking wing! (Photo 10) There s a small fuselage doubler piece in front of the fin, if you haven t added it already, add it now, as it aligns one of the formers in the fin. The fin Start with the tail post. Cut out or laminate the tail post, and notch the bottom to sit in the fuselage sides. Set the angle of the tail post with the handy-dandy TPAC angle gauge (see the plan), and glue in place when the right angle is set and the tail post is vertical when viewed from the front or rear. Accuracy on this piece is important. Now assemble T1, T2, T3. Slot T1 through T2 and T3. Now sit it all in the fuselage. Push T3 to the bottom of the fuse, and to the back of the fuselage doubler. Ensure a tidy alignment, and glue T3 in place. T3 is now aligned, and can get to work on T s 1 and 2. T1 fits into the corner of the tail post and the bottom of the fuselage. T2 just has a snug fit in the fuselage. Now cut out the motor stick, and glue it to the tail post. You can be assured that T1 and T2 are fitting properly if they re seated properly in the fuselage, and that they meet the motor stick in the right location. Play with the alignment and ensure the right location before gluing in place. With the motor stick tacked to the tail post, the parts should stand on their own, so there s no need to rush the gluing process. Glue when you re happy with alignment. Laminate the fin s leading edge according to the plan, and glue in place. With all the former parts aligned, glue the motor stick in place. Add the triangle wedge to reinforce the motor stick to the tail post. Add the 1.5mm square balsa reinforcements to the back of T3 if you haven t done so already. 11 12

(Photo 11) The motor wire placement needs some advanced consideration than most models. Consider temporarily mounting the motor, and adding the motor wire. I ran it up the front of T2, and through the hole in the leading edge lamination behind T1. Whatever gets the job done :) (Photo 12) Add the two parts that trap the fin leading edge and secure it to the fuselage V shape that s made with the wide center ribs. Add the sections inboard of the ailerons, including the top and bottom strips that continue the V shape to the very trailing edge. 13 14 (Photo 13) Finish up the fin by running the 1mm strips around the base of the fin, and sheeting from the leading edge to T1 (motor wires will most likely need to be installed if you want to keep them inside the sheeting). When adding the pushrods, add sheeting to the edge of the fin where the pushrods will exit so the covering has some surface area to adhere to. (Photo 14) Add the uprights to the fuselage sides including the reinforcing parts. Follow the lamination instructions on the plans for the tops of the fuselage sides. Basically run the first stringer over the uprights, add a piece on top of that. Pull the nose together making sure the sides are even. Add cross pieces to hold the correct shape, as shown in the photo (these can even be removed later), and finally the last lamination pieces to the inside top of the fuselage sides. The lamination of three pieces makes for a strong shape, even though it s a stringer, it will be quite robust. With 1mm balsa, fill in the area between the fuselage tops and the main ribs back to the second dihedral brace, and a triangle in front of the uprights at the leading edge for the covering to adhere to. 15 16 (Photo 15) Add the top parts to the fuselage (ignore the fact that the photo has the plane almost complete and sitting on the landing gear :) Place the cross parts on the top of the fuselage where you intend to place hatches. There should be a hatch over or just in front of the servos so you can access those, and a hatch over wherever you need to place your batteries for balance. There is a description of batteries and balancing the plane on the plans. You may also want to leave the top of the fuselage uncovered (and the parts that frame the hatch not done) until you have all the gear in the plane and practically ready to fly. This will let you balance the plan properly before you commit to the battery hatch location. With the sides complete, we can finish the wing. (Photo 16) Add the leading edge stock to the leading edge spar. Using an old trick to help shape wings, draw a line down the centerline of the stock where the tip of the airfoil should be. Carve up to this line with a balsa hand plane or scalpel. With this rough shape, it s easier to now sand round with an accurate leading edge. Try to avoid the very front while sanding until the shaping is complete. 17 18

(Photo 17) Tip floats. Truss ribs look really nice, and not too hard to make. Start by framing the float part of TF1 with 1.5mm square balsa. Add a couple of cross grain parts for strength. Now the float really starts Start with the very wing tip piece that goes from the front spar to the rear. Add the piece that goes from the end of this piece to the now framed TF1. Now we just need everything under it. For the rear face, cut and add the diagonal piece that goes down to the bottom of the float, and the cross piece that joins it to the frame on TF1. Now add the upright pieces on the outside of the float. The last piece that defines the shape of the float is the bottom outside piece: cut it longer than required, and wet the wood thoroughly (with Windex or water. Windex just evaporates faster) where it s meant to curve up to the leading edge. Start to flex it a little in your fingers. Tease it into shape until you can easily hold the intended shape without breaking. Now you can glue it to the float starting at the rear, then each upright, finally bending it up to the leading edge. Glue the piece to the leading edge, and now you can see a float shape! Add a couple more cross pieces from the bottom outside piece to the TF1 frame, and a diagonal or two for added rigidity. Job done! and it looks so nice. :) (Photo 18) Set up the pushrods, running them through the spars so that they converge as shown on the plan. Where required on the wing, add 1mm sheet where the pushrods exit the wing, so the covering has some surface area to adhere to. You can add the pushrods a little later, but the more you do with the plane on the building board, the better the chances of straight results. Now you can take the plane off the board!!! Feel free to swoosh it around and make airplane noises. :) 19 20 (Photo 19) Make the landing gear blocks from the instructions printed on the plan (products are also available from www.aircraft-world.com that work in the same fashion that can be used instead of hand-made parts). Cut out holes in the sides of the fuselage flush with the bottom of the first dihedral brace, and glue them in place. Make sure you have the right block, glued in the right direction (I have had cut a block out of one of the prototypes after it was well glued in place), especially if the blocks are specifically made for a particular bent piece of wire (as recommended). (Photo 20) Making the hull (a.k.a. fuselage bottom). The fuselage bottom is made from 1mm balsa with the grain running across the fuselage. Also cut some strips to strengthen cross grain, according to the diagram on the plan. The description on the plan mentions gluing the rear of the battens (balsa strips) near the step only. Photo 18 illustrates this. 21 22 (Photo 21) On the inside edge of the fuselage, add 1.5mm square balsa to create a lip. Now glue the bottom piece to the fuselage starting near the step. Because the strips aren t glued near the nose, it should bend easily. With it glued to the fuselage, hold the strips down, and glue them to the bottom. Now add some cross braces as

described and shown in the diagram on the plans. This should make the hull resist the pressure applied to the bottom of the hull. For bonus strength, add some pieces between these cross braces and the two main diagonal braces. (Photo 22) Trim the edges of the bottom sheeting and sand to a nice edge. 23 24 (Photo 23) Install a servo tray, bracing where it meets the fuselage sides with some scrap strips of balsa. Position the tray so that the aileron servo can be placed where the pushrods converge in the fuselage. (Photo 24) Make the tail skid hinge out of a piece of 1mm or 1.5mm ply so it fits the end of the fuselage, and extends out enough to hold the wire. Drill a hole to size and test fit the wire. Glue in place so that the wire sits snug against the end of the fuselage. Soak the plywood in CA, as this will most certainly be beneath the surface of the water when sitting on the water. You may need to re-drill the hole after soaking in CA. 25 (Photo 25) Make everything else, and sand it to shape. :) these parts are built using tried and true modeling techniques, so bring out whatever you re comfortable with. The ailerons in the photo were made with a piece of 1mm balsa sheet, with Leading edge stock to thickness. Strengthened cross grain with scrap balsa, all sanded down shape. Ailerons can be made with solid balsa, entirely built up once again, feel free to use your favorite technique. You should now have all the parts for your Twinkle! You can now go ahead and cover the plane. There is a lengthy description on covering on the plans. Using typical techniques and these tips, it shouldn t be very hard to cover the plane. Hatches: There should be some places in the top of the fuselage that now need a hatch. Experienced water plane builders may want to go it alone and devise a formal hatch system. They re welcome to it. But the challenge is to make a hatch that is generally usable, yet waterproof. Waterproofing a hatch can be hard. Many seasoned water flyers recommend covering the edges of hatches and wing saddles with tape after the plane is put together. Taking this idea, I devised my recommended hatching system. It starts with the hatch hole. Cut out the covering where you intend to place the hatch, leaving about 5mm or a 1/5th of an inch. Lift up this little edge, and apply a little CA under the covering before ironing down into the fuselage. This should give the covering excellent grip on the balsa. Now the hatch covers themselves I make out of ABS plastic, or the plastic off a cheap disposable plastic dinner plate. You can also use the blank stencil sheets available in most craft stores that people make craft stencils out of. I fix this to the plane with plain old clear (or frosted) gift-wrapping tape along all four sides of the hatch. That s it. Flying off water, the tape naturally makes the hatch waterproof. It s cheap enough that I just take the roll along, and replace as necessary. With very little practice at all, you can put the tape on so you don t need to replace it every flight. Just lift the edge, and it will pull open. Replace the battery pack, and just run my finger around the edge again. The hatch over the servos won t need to be opened very often, so the tape around that hatch can be quite secure. I replace the tape on the battery hatch every flying session and as necessary (if the tape tears or becomes compromised from use). For land flying, I just have tape on the front and back of the hatch. It s a trivial action to lift up to change the battery pack. Just make sure the tape is strong enough to hold the batteries in the plane if it s required (my pack has on one occasion hung out of the plane during inverted flight. This was only because I had been using the same tape pieces for well over a week, and it had lost some of its willingness to stick under load :) Worst-case scenario for the taped plastic hatch method is that covering that isn t well attached may lift after a little while with all the sticking an un-sticking of the tape in the same area. Iron it back down every now and then, and in the very worst-case scenarios, you may want to recover the top of the fuselage. It s cheap, easy, and is an excellent solution to the water problem. Some other formal hatch systems never seem to become truly watertight when in use. Tail Skid / Water Rudder: The tailskid wire is filled in to double use as the water rudder. It can be filled in a rather informal fashion by simply covering both sides with the same heat shrink covering the rest of the plane is covered in. This will however be prone to wear. It s a very light, and very usable solution, but if you fly the Twinkle off a sealed surface it will wear very quickly, and need to be replaced sometime in the future. It can also be filled in with a thin piece of wood or plastic, that is sewn on to the edges of the

wire that down touch the ground with cotton or Kevlar thread. There could be many solutions, but just keep in mind that the water rudder is always submerged when on water. Also note, if flying off water in finer conditions, you can get away without filling in the water rudder. This is because the very bottom of the air rudder also sits in the water. Within reason, this is enough. If any water handling problems turn up, then they will most likely be solved with the addition of a full water rudder, as well as the general improvement of slow speed handling. Bilge Water: There s no need to freak out at the sight of bilge water. While excessive bilge water is a very big issue, there s typically no reason to be concerned with a little bilge water. The level will depend greatly on your paranoia! :) With clear covering, you can see into the plane for on the spot bilge water checks. Small amounts really don t worry me. A little more than this, and I ll attempt to empty it out each flight. Large amounts are a reason to pack up and go home. You ll feel out your own level of paranoia soon enough. The servos are centrally mounted, and so should the rest of the gear be. Either suspends components in air, or in some sponge rubber. My ESC is suspended in air in front of the fin, and my Rx in sponge rubber in the front of the nose. The sponge will keep the electronics away from quite a large amount of water. Just be diligent to wring out wet sponges. Reason for this is that if water gets in, it s not an immediate threat to the radio equipment. In theory, as long as the gear is out of the water, you can taxi back to shore with a plane half full of water every flight, empty it, and go again. Because the Twinkle is also a land flyer, be diligent in looking for water proofing issues every time you plan a water flying session. Either add covering patches over large holes, dabs of CA where a pinhole of balsa is showing, or in the worst-case scenario, recover a part of the plane. If the plane starts out 100% waterproof, and through wear starts taking on water, typically if you decide to recover, you just need to recover the bottoms of the tip floats, and the bottom of the fuselage in front of the step. Not a horrible chore. The roll of used for the hatches is also an emergency water proofing kit. When applying, just make sure that the tape extends forward enough that there is no edge sitting in the water, otherwise it will take the opportunity to rip it off. Wearing off the covering: The covering is the Twinkle s only means of staying waterproof. Flying off a sealed surface, many landings will touch the rear of the tip floats, making them nonwaterproof. Rough landings can also damage the nose with the landing gear being as flexible as it is. To avoid this damage, I ve tended to use the sticky tape used by the hatches. Simply doubling up a couple of pieces on the end of the tip floats, one along the side edge of the tip float. I leave the edge of the tape just overhanging the sides of the float, so it s easier to remove when I choose to go water flying (it also means that the tape is less inclined to lift the covering edge, which can also be helped by using a low tack tape for this purpose). Using tape for protection, I ve changed from sealed surface, to water flying many times without the need to patch the covering. If you re lucky enough to fly off a softer surface like very short grass, this protection shouldn t be needed. Flying the Twinkle A person starts with a bag full of luck, and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before the bag of luck is empty - some person smarter than I am Note: The Twinkle is designed to be a spirited sport flyer, and should only be attempted by pilots with experience at flying low wing aileron planes. It s not a trainer, and wasn t designed to fly like one. In no way can it fulfill the role of a trainer. Maiden flights are always exciting, regardless of what plane is taking to the sky. For the Twinkle, there are three options for surfaces, and hand launching. If there s snow available, fly off snow; it s soft and at the same time you can walk on it. Otherwise choose between water and sealed surface. Go with whatever you re most comfortable flying off. Hand launching is a breeze with this plane, and also an option. Other than this, the plane shouldn t do anything nasty to in the air. Test fly with all the typical practices that come with an average sport aileron model. The short list: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) A good first tip would be to find a flying strip that will allow you to take off and climb out without the need to turn Open the throttle, and allow the plane ample time to gain flying speed Gentle rotation to become airborne because stalling characteristics are unknown with a new plane Gain plenty of height before taking your thumbs off the sticks to make trim changes Gain plenty of height before testing out the flight envelope and capability Test high speed and low speed characteristics, especially stalls and low speed turns Until you know the slow speed turning and stall characteristics, have a wide circuit approach on your first landing. A strip where you can undershoot/overshoot your intended landing mark is also handy the above list is a little strict, and a general policy for pylon racers and turbine planes as well as park flyers. If you re a seasoned veteran pilot, feel free to change at will :) The ground handling sections below contain handy information to know before you fly. Aerobatics It s not designed to be a Fun Fly or Pattern machine. But it should be able to do all the standard set of aerobatics the right way up or inverted. Only difference to a normal sports plan is that because of the high mounted motor, it does strange things near the stall. For example, if you pull a loop where the top of the loop is nearing a stall, the motor will take over, and push the plan back over to the right way up. It can be even helped to do it with the elevator. So you can pull a large loop and flop back over almost on the spot. If flying inverted and you slow to a near stall, quickly open the throttle and push down elevator, and it will flip the right way up.

The first attempt to fly any aerobatic on a new plane should be done at height in case something happens you don t expect. Don t expect that outside loops are easy without first trying to fly inverted straight and level. The first outside shouldn t be just a push into the loop from level height, roll inverted first, and push the loop upwards. If you intend to fly inverted, approach it slowly. The control surfaces are trimmed for normal level flight, and the thrust angle has a large effect on the inverted flight capability. If one of more of these things is slightly out or alignment, it can infringe or destroy the model s ability to fly inverted maneuvers. The first prototype had several noses made for it (varying the height of the very tip of the fuselage), one of the noses was fantastic for inverted flight (was even more happy on its back than the right way up), and on the next one I expected the same thing or similar, and pushed into an outside loop not to recover it lost its ability entirely for inverted flight. This design of the Twinkle should be happy to fly inverted and everything that is described above. Because hand building isn t building by robot, approach with some caution each new aspect of flying the plane with plenty of height to recover. This will ensure that there is a model at the end of every flight that you can trim if it requires some trimming. Some people say that a bad flying model is actually a good flying model trimmed badly. Water Flying When moving around on water at slow speeds and the throttle is quickly opened, the Twinkle may tend to dip the nose a little until it picks up speed. This is removed all together if up elevator is held in when you open the throttle. With full up elevator, she will rise to the step nose high, you can then release the elevator to run on step and gain speed. Other than this possibility of the attitude being slightly nose down (horrible, huh?:), the general water handling is simply superb. High Speed Taxi On Step : This is one of the most fun aspects of the twinkle that not many other model seaplanes can replicate. Bring on enough speed so that the plane is running on step. Then, simply apply rudder and steer it around like a boat! This is essentially flying the plane but not letting it leave the water. You may want to hold in a little down elevator to make sure it doesn t take off then you can horse around at will. Simply skim around for a while take off and fly a little land and skim around again. On a calm day, this is an absolute blast of fun! Another fun trick is just after you touch down for a landing, quickly apply full rudder, and it will skip sideways until it stops. As well as using the rudder, you and can also use ailerons to bank harder into a turn while skimming around. This makes the turn more positive, helps if there s a little bit of wind, as well as makes a larger rooster tail of water off the inside tip float! :) The only warnings with this is that you are in or very near flying speed, so it s possible that the plane could hit a larger than average wave (if conditions are kicking up the water), hop up into the air, stall, be caught by the wind and then tumble into the water. Speed is also known for getting people into all kinds of problems quickly. Messing around with the Twinkle on step is a genuinely fun thing to do, but pick your conditions to learn all the tricks until you know what to expect and when you can expect it. Water Handling With Wind Wind loves to catch hold of the Twinkle s ample fin area and make the plane weathervane (point into the wind). This can make taxiing water a little more of a chore than it usually is. The best thing in this situation is to hold in full up elevator and take it slowly. Up elevator so that any air moving over the tail from the prop will push the tail down and give more authority to the water rudder. And moving slowly means that the plane is more ready to sit. When you re on water and things aren t going exactly the way you want, first off don t panic. I know your precious hand built plane could be floating away, but a rash decision will not help. A really low throttle setting that is just enough to get her moving in the water will help overcome wind problems. It s typically enough to give the water rudder all the authority it needs and not quick enough to lift the fuselage and have the wind take over. The more of the plane that s in the water, the more the water has authority over the plane instead of the wind. If the wind tries to get under a wing as if to flip the plane over (this is probably a little too windy to be flying anyways but these things happen), then steer with the wind: this situation happens when you re fighting the wind into a turn. If the plane starts to flip, let the wind win the fight and turn with it. This will save the plane from a flip over. Let the wind win the battle, but not the war. :) You can also do the high speed taxi on step, to overcome the wind. The plane is essentially flying, so the control surfaces should have authority in the air they re moving through. But as mentioned earlier, pick the finer conditions to learn how to do this so you re comfortable when it gets a little rough (you consider a kite if you want to get a flying fix when it s too windy though). Pound for pound, this little plane has probably the best water handling of any model aircraft but keep in mind that this is a little water plane, with a little hull, and the wind doesn t have to come up too much before the seas get too rough for her. Land Handling When moving around at slow speeds and the throttle is quickly opened, the Twinkle may tend to dip the nose a little until it picks up speed. This is because of the drag of the wheels on the ground. This tendency is removed all together if up elevator is held in when you open the throttle. It s an old tradition for tail dragger planes to hold up elevator while taxiing around. If this practice is observed, you ll never notice the nose pitch down effect. In fact you can use the old procedure to take of rougher/tougher take off conditions: 8) Hold in up elevator to keep the tail down 9) Open the throttle and the plane picks up speed 10) When there s enough speed to get the tail flying, release the elevator and the tail will rise off the ground 11) When there s airspeed, up elevator to rotate airborne! the Twinkle much prefers a bowling green to take off of, with short grass this technique may allow it to haul the wheels through the grass and take off. With small wheels you can t expect the impossible, so larger diameter wheels would also help. Land Handling With Wind Just as flying on water, the make the plane weathervane on land also. The best thing in this situation is to hold in full up elevator and take it slowly. Up elevator so that any air moving over the tail from the prop will push the tail down and give more authority to the tail skid. Moving slowly means that the plane is more ready to sit. Quick blips of the throttle to get air over the rudder and elevator can be the way to go if you re flying off land. You can also use momentum to turn around by turning with the wind and then quickly back in the direction you want to go, using the momentum to help the turn.

Snow Handling For the Twinkle snow is closer to water flying than to land flying, being that it s like always being on step, and yet the wind can t roll the plane over. So it s all the fun aspects with none of the bad (they call this a win-win). The only thing that changes is the type of snow itself. Fresh/soft powder is glorious and so too is melted slush. However, if the top layer of snow has melted and refrozen, you get a rough kind of texture which acts almost like sand paper. The SoLite covering does not hold up very long to this type of surface. After a session of flying, the covering will look literally sanded, and bare wood can be showing. Because water itself won t leak in, it s flyable, but you fly knowing that repairs to the covering will be needed for your next water-flying sortie (see the covering repair tips to ensure this goes well). For quick repairs while flying in these icy snow conditions, clear household tape (clear wrapping tape) will do just fine. Snow Handling With Wind This is probably the easiest flying medium to handle the wind when it s making it tough to taxi. Stop the plane, then holding in rudder in the direction you want to turn while slowly opening the throttle. There will be a point where the airflow from the prop will push the rudder, but it s not enough to move the plane forward. With this technique, especially on firmer snow, you will literally be slowly turning around on the spot, like a car being shown off at a car show! :) Hand Launching If the grass is a little long, the seas are a little rough, or there s no soft powder snow for a 1000 miles the easiest option is a hand launch. Put two fingers behind the step, and give it an overhead throw! Properly trimmed, it doesn t need a hard throw at all to get her flying. With the step being on the very bottom will mean that there s a slight kick up when you throw it, but that will just help in this case. There s no mad dash or panic to get your hand back to the transmitter either (however you should be pretty snappy until you re used to it). It should be very uneventful to hand launch even without a helper, not the tumbling frantic mess that some small models go through in a hand launch. That said the caution should be used the first time you try anything with a new model. Updates & the Future As feedback from builders and pilots come in, this document will be updated. You can look for updates to this document, and all other Twinkle related happenings on the website http://www.keyboardmonkey.com/twinkle The website will also have room for you to show off your creation in an owner s gallery if you d care to share a photo or two. I look forward to hearing about your progress, and the results/experiences of building and flying of the Twinkle! All the best! Arron B.