as someone obsessed with sailplanes, balsa building, and micro rc planes, this just fits the bill. very beautiful. cant wait for this to come out as im 100% ordering!
Hey Josh! Great to see Ross went to visit you in GA, in addition to drafting the Micro Drifter and Micro Bird of Time. That’s a fabulously productive way to expand your Covid pod! 😉🤙
@@rossclements8874 no doubt worth the wait. I am just impatient. I'll just have to fly my sla yellowjacket some more. Next up? Maybe a little warm liner based on that racerstar motor. New wing should fit the body just fine.
Nice BoT. I've just finished a micro BoT, which weighs 49g, and has a 36" span, that makes the body teeeeeny! Actually, I had to lengthen it slightly to fit the r/c gear. It flies beautifully, but finding the right conditions is hard. It's too light to slope soar, and my farm is too hilly for a bungee launch. I'm going to try drone launch, next, on a baking hot, windless day... I think yours is probably a better size. I've also got the plans for a 144" BoT, but haven't yet plucked up the courage to build it!
Don't get me wrong: this are without any doubt brilliant lookung and cute RC- sailplanes that makes obviously a lot of fun to fly. But "micro" I'd expect them to be much smaller. Wingspan of 10" or so is what I call micro. Anyway thanks for sharing and respect for the built of this planes, they look and fly great!
@@WriterDude67 I didn't knew the wingspan of the original, thank You. 118" (pretty much 3m) in original, I'd estimate the wingspan of that to slightly above 40" or 1 meter. For me that does qualify to "mini", but not to "micro". I'd expected a "micro RC sailplane to have less than 20" wingspan. (but don't get me wrong: what I see qualifies without any doubt for a beautiful made and fun to fly "mini" plane.)
@@joshuawfinn Absolutely. I always enjoyed building, far more than I enjoy the new foamies, but cutting ribs was a chore. Kits with die cut ribs often had crushed edges from old and blunt dies, so you ended up having to cut your own anyway. Laser cutting makes it so simple, not only to build, with nice clean edges and accurate fit.
@@joshuawfinn The RO-8 was my first RC glider build back around 1984-5. Had a ball with it, but it didn't survive college. With the step on the fuselage you could do a pretty respectable hand launch for a 2-meter glider, should be great at half size. I have an original kit in the garage, will fly one again someday...
Let's see... I have an Aleda cat launch glider, 2 rocket gliders, and a fire feather to complete from J&H plus a Mini-Sinbad from Red Jensen that is 85% built. Perfect time to start building a Mini-BoT! LOL!
Hmmm I have a J Lupperger "Bird of Daylight Savings Time" Bought as a short kit from John.. Decades ago .. of 1.5 m ..60 " span. Seems virtually identical to yours.. except for being a bit bigger. Mine weighs ~150 gms. However the avionics are 25 yr old 'small'. Which is to say neither small nor overly light by moderne standards ..even has a 4 round cell flight pack . There is a ~50 gm weight penalty due to this . Mine is NOT a floater tho... its' a speedy rascal. Which is curious given it's Clark Y airfoil. So is Yours ! Suspect a Drela airfoil would dramatically improve things. I also have an original Full size Wanderer and it IS a floater.. despite having ~8 ounces of Avionics to carry around. Dunno If due to it's size or if it's a better design. Ooohh ! I've only ever flown a Wonder Woman "invisible" Model (doculam) Once..... a lesson well learned
The full size BOT is not a floater by any means. It wasn't designed to be. The little one, however, is much floatier than you're thinking. It is in fact probably the best floater I've ever flown, able to stay up in lift that wouldn't keep my CX5 in the air. It doesn't have a lot of range though, probably a function of being tiny. The Drifter is decently floaty as well. Its main strength, though, is that it's so nimble.
@@joshuawfinn Thank you.. So.. in your view, if / when I upgrade the avionics in My 60" hand launch 'Bird of Daylight Savings Time'.... reducing it to a 100gm weight, it too will become a floater ? Skeptical at this point ...but certainly worth the try
@@barenekid9695 it definitely has the potential. 100g is a ton of weight to a 60" plane. Bear in mind that 100g is almost 50% of the flying weight of a current top of the line 60" DLG.
@@johnhubbard3399 use 1/16" square rubber from fai model supply. You can get 16ft lengths from peck polymers, or 1/4lb-10lb boxes from fai model supply. Buy some extra rubber, it does degrade in the sun and will eventually break. We used about 15 feet of rubber and 75 feet of line.
