Fiddles green ME-109 flyer?

[ct ertz]

I made my second ME-109 from Fiddles green. My five year old picked the color of the card stock, and the tiger stripes! He wanted one that flew, so I added two pennies to the nose, and reinforced the nose area. I added a wire loop to the wing and lots of extra glue to all of the joints. This model, like my first one from Fiddles Green went together easy, and all of the parts fit well. I did fit the prop with an axle and reinforced washers so that the prop would spin, and gave the blades a twist. The blades also got a good coat of glue as well. On a light cord of about 10 feet, the plane the plane "flew" wonderfully well. The prop spun and made a great noise that really entertained my little on, and the cat as well. My little boy gave it a go with about five feet of cord, and was able to get it to go after a few tries. Then he lowered his arm during a flight and the cord wrapped around his hoodie, giving him a face full of ME. No damaged done to the plane or the face. I am sure that by this time tommarrow the plane will be smashed, but he can not wait to try it in the morning!

[treadhead1952]

Way to go, Dad!

From the big grin, I am sure he is quite pleased with the end result, minor flight errors and all. Of course, the construction practice was completely unintentional on your part. ;) :D

I found a MIG 17 freebie online, I will try and locate it for you. It flies with a rubberband powered take off quite well. I used to live in a second floor apartment and all the little kids used to get noisy and bored, a few dive bombings from the MIG cured boredom and chasing it down and returning it for multiple reruns wore them out after a bit so they would quiet down some.;)

[ct ertz]

That would be cool. Kids love things that fly, roll, or float. I am teaching my little guy the difference between working models, those that actually float or fly, and the scale models that are for looking at only. He gets it for the most part, and has stopped asking to play with my side wheeler every time he takes a bath. Letting him "help" make models has been a big deal for him, and he has even completed a couple mostly on his own. I do most of the cutting, but the coloring and gluing he loves to do. He is learning that a little glue is far better then a puddle of glue! Paper modeling is so much fun! He is working on a simple and multi collored viking ship for his next "build"!

[birder]

That is so cool. Fiddler's green Skyray flies good off a rubber band launch (sometimes) Even the shuttle can fly not too bad that way. The Buffalo is a nice flier on a line, too.:)

[Don Boose]

It's great to see kids with paper models!

Chip Fyn always said that the FG Cutlass was good flyer by accident -- meaning that it wasn't designed to be a paper glider, but it just turned out that the model is aerodynamically sound.

I haven't tried it yet myself.

Don

[ct ertz]

Well, Jordan has wiped out a few times so far and the only major damage has been a displaced nose cone and bent prop blades. The tail also got bent good, but everything was easily fixed! This thing holds up better then expected. It has two pennies in the nose for weight, and that seems a bit much. Two dimes would have been better, but it still flys well!

[treadhead1952]

Hi CT,

Sounds like Jordan is becoming quite the pilot as well as you are becoming his chief mechanic in charge. :D

I am sorry, I lied, it isn't a MIG 17 it is a MIG 15 and here is the link.

http://www.vcbkids.org/airplane/mig-15.pdf

This one flies well with just one penny in the nose so it is less expensive to operate than your ME 109. ;) I still have the one I made up laying about, I used a cut down file folder to print it out on for durability and it worked out well.

Now if I can find a F 86, you two can have some dogfights in the back yard.

[ct ertz]

Thanks Jay,
Jordan will get a big kick out of this, as will his older brothers. I can't thank you enough! The file folder idea is a good one. I will let you know how this turns out!

[treadhead1952]

Hi CT,

You and the small fry are most welcome.

I liked the model so well that I had to print another one out, this time on some real card that I am using for ship construction just to see how well it translates now that my skills are improving somewhat.

Can't wait to see how it comes out.

[ct ertz]

OK Jay,
Jordan is so proud of himself. He did almost all of the cutting on this one, small safety scissors and all. I had to do the little triangle cuts on the connecting edges for him, and he mis-cut part of the canopy, but over all he did well. I did most of the gluing. Jordan's biggest problem was that we started so late in the afternoon it didn't have time to dry completely before bed time, so he did not get to fly it yet. His ME-109 made a bad landing when the tether snapped. The nose cone came off again and one of the prop blades was lost. I am so surprised how well these things hold up. The Mig has no prop or nose cone so I expect it will hold up at least as well. Again, thank you for the down load!

CT

[Don Boose]

Those are very nice models! Congratulations to Jordan. Let's see more of his work. It's always great to see new young model builders joining the ranks.

Don

[treadhead1952]

Hi CT,

Yeppers, it looks like a MIG all right. I can imagine his launching finger was mighty itchy by bedtime having to wait on that glue.;)

He did a pretty good job from what I can see, we will all be waiting for some "in action" shots. Just be sure to pick a fair sized area if you use a stout launcher, that thing does fly pretty well. If you don't have a single large rubber band, you can always take several small ones and link them up to make a good one that will impart enough "jet" power to do the deed.