Radio Control scale model designs from Finland, www.iwaru.fi
Here are pictures of plane which one might confuse of being an model. No it is not. It is real plane which I have had priviledge to turn into model. I have designed small electric version of plane along with Peanut version. Check this out for all articles of this plane.
These pics by Tatu Köykkä & Kari Ojala.
Hi,
just an quick note, I released Peanut version of PIK-18 Sytky into free download. Steer your browser to http://iwaru.fi/sytky-peanut.html
Flight video here, this plane has been built by Mr. Tapio Linkosalo :
New video of PeeKoo’s PIK-18 Sytky flying.
That is really nice build!
It’s time to do some vacuum molding. Theory is simple. Heat plastic using frame, slap it on top of mold with base perforated with holes to allow suction to pull plastic down.
That’s theory. In practice it means several try’s and fails. But eventually I found better settings. I was forced to order new sheets from stockist (5 large sheets in total (1.5×2.5m or something..), that means plenty of plastic). With smaller canopies it seems that 0.5mm stuff is optimal, but anything bigger really needs 0.75mm. I am using PET-G and APET sheets from local ETRA-shop. Which is really professional shop for all kinds of industrial stuff. I am using brands Vivak and NudePetG (funny…).
Anyway – now I have plenty of L-70 Vinka & PIK-16c Vasama canopies. Along with PIK-18 Sytky cowlings. Actually I have 3 vac boxes for different size molds. You might notice that biggest one needs double vacuums to do the trick. Actually that vac box is designed with oven size as an guide. It really is the biggest one which I can make without resorting to more exotic stuff.
Next step is to finetune PIK-15 Hinu (1.5m) canopy and cowling and do at least 4 sets of those. Also I need new batch of my really pro aileron covers.
Then next steps with canopy stuff. Finalized 1/3 PIK-16c Vasama canopy and PIK-18 Sytky cowling. Then did initial work for finalizing Valmet Vinka L-70 Miltrainer canopy. Incidentally, that same canopy is utilized in Redigo L-90 and PIK-23 Suhinu. I guess that Finnish aviation ‘industry’ is so small that we are experienced recyclers of designs. The good news is that I will be able to do several models with one canopy effort. Still needs final sanding etc.
Ps : I added commenting features to this blog. And now with spam filtering etc. functions. It will be interesting to see how much Vuitton bags and UGG-stuff I will see in comments. Last time it was totally horrendous.
(now) finalized canopy of PIK-16c Vasama 1/3
Cowling of PIK-18 Sytky
Almost done L-70 Vinka canopy.
I visited Kiikala Airport with PeeKoo and Wexfly to test out PeeKoo’s PIK-18 Sytky. Weather did not co-operate and blustery winds & snowstorm stopped maiden attempt. But still it looks great.
I got finally PIK-18 Sytky finalized. Last thing took me ages. It was to draw makeshift dummy VW-1500-motor from balsa. It is soooo unscale part, but but but.. I can live with it. This plane is now ready for delivery, but it really should be beta-build before first delivery.
Plans
Initial drawing is almost ready. Things still missing are elevator & rudder structures & cutfiles. But apart from those everything seems to be ok. I tried to make this plane as light as possible and the aim is to make light park flyer. Not so scale, as there are no decent plans available of this plane. Only one ever built, original project started 1958 and first flight was 1976. Talk about long project…. I have to write short history of this plane to webpages to give credit to original designers and builders.
One thing, it is still flying and it seems to continue to do so for long time 🙂
And now something completely different…
PIK-18 ‘Sytky’, one of clumsiest looking planes around. But they say it flies great. What about indoor sized version? Like 1.2m (1:6.667)