What's a Park Flyer?

When we made our first indoor radio controlled planes, they were scale models between 24" and 34" wingspan. They flew very slowly, but they took up a lot of airspace in the flying hall. Now that we can make much smaller indoor radio planes, the older ones are used outdoors on very calm days to fly in local parks. This means we can nip out in the morning or evening for a half hour flying session. We fly on parks that are very close, within walking distance, so you can take advantage of sudden changes in the weather instead of having to travel miles and finding that the wind is too strong or it's started to rain. By keeping the model small and light it does not use much space to fly in and doesn't annoy people. In fact, whenever I fly in the park people are fascinated and I spend more time talking about the planes than flying them.

Now we have started making planes especially for park flying. There are lots of foam kits available such as the Flying Styro series or older Union and Bentom models which can still be found occasionally, and they all make excellent park flyers. Generally, we use a lightweight indoor type receiver (Ceto, Potensky, Proflight, Multiplex etc) weighing about 6g to 8g and two 6g or 9g servos. The motor is usually a Potensky POT2A or similar on seven 120mAh NiCd cells or 150mAh NiMh cells.

Use the examples on this page to work out what equipment you should use in your desired model. Find something of a similar size and configuration. We will be adding to this page as time goes on and we build more park flyers.

Model	Equipment Details - see remote control and electric info pages for details	Weights and Measures
F4U-1 Corsair Flying Styro foam kit	Potensky 4ch receiver 6g, 2 x HS50 6g servos on rudder and elevator, Proflight 3A speed controller 1g, POT2A motor set, 7 x 120mA/h NiCd cells	Flying Weight: 150g Wingspan: 26" Wing Loading: c. 6.5 oz/sq.ft
Bentom Motorglider foam kit (picture above)	Ceto 4ch receiver 6g, 2 x Ceto 6g servos on rudder and elevator, Proflight 3A speed controller 1g, POT2A motor set, 7 x 120mA/h NiCd cells Tip for this model: add 1/2" to the rudder chord to help with turning.	Flying Weight: 190g Wingspan: 36" Wing Loading: c. 6.5 oz/sq.ft
Keil Kraft Caprice balsa and tissue glider kit converted to electric power r/c trainer	Potensky 4ch receiver 6g, 1 x HS50 6g servo on rudder (no elevator control), Proflight 3A speed controller 1g, POT2A motor set, 7 x 150mA/h NiMh cells	Flying Weight: Wingspan: Wing Loading:
Flying Styro foam glider kit	Potensky 4ch receiver 6g, 2 x Potensky 6g servos on rudder and elevator, 4 x 50mA/h NiCd cells in the nose.	Flying Weight: 2 oz Wingspan: 20" Wing Loading: 5 oz/sq.ft
more to come!!!