Model Airplane Across the Atlantic

This may well be old news to a lot of you, since it occurred in August, but
it was new to me, and a pretty cool accomplishment. On page 34 of this
month's Flying Mag there is a blurb about a model airplane named "Spirit of
Butts Farm" built by Maynard Hill that flew from Cape Spear to Ireland. The
balsa wood plane weighed 11 lbs and had a 6.5 foot wingspan. It flew 1888
miles in 38 hours, 23 minutes so if I can calculate it maintained a
groundspeed of about 49 MPH at a cruising altitude of 500 ft. It had an
onboard GPS and microprocessors for navigation. It burned 5.5 pounds of fuel
for the entire flight.

What an amazing feat for a hobbyist (albeit an unusually accomplished one).

"Michael 182"
This may well be old news to a lot of you, since it occurred in August,
but
it was new to me, and a pretty cool accomplishment. On page 34 of this
month's Flying Mag there is a blurb about a model airplane named "Spirit
of
Butts Farm" built by Maynard Hill that flew from Cape Spear to Ireland.
The
balsa wood plane weighed 11 lbs and had a 6.5 foot wingspan. It flew 1888
miles in 38 hours, 23 minutes so if I can calculate it maintained a
groundspeed of about 49 MPH at a cruising altitude of 500 ft. It had an
onboard GPS and microprocessors for navigation. It burned 5.5 pounds of
fuel
for the entire flight.

What an amazing feat for a hobbyist (albeit an unusually accomplished
one).

Thanks. I had heard that Mr. Hill was attempting it but didn't know he made
it. I've been reading about his exploits since the 60s. Pretty amazing
guy - wish I had a chance to meet him.

The feat is perhaps more astounding than some of the other events planned
for the Centennial of flight.

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 16:52:59 GMT, "Michael 182"
wrote:

This may well be old news to a lot of you, since it occurred in August, but
it was new to me, and a pretty cool accomplishment. On page 34 of this
month's Flying Mag there is a blurb about a model airplane named "Spirit of
Butts Farm" built by Maynard Hill that flew from Cape Spear to Ireland. The
balsa wood plane weighed 11 lbs and had a 6.5 foot wingspan. It flew 1888
miles in 38 hours, 23 minutes so if I can calculate it maintained a
groundspeed of about 49 MPH at a cruising altitude of 500 ft. It had an
onboard GPS and microprocessors for navigation. It burned 5.5 pounds of fuel
for the entire flight.

What an amazing feat for a hobbyist (albeit an unusually accomplished one).

Maynard has set 23 FAI records. He still holds the altitude
record for an RC model airplane (29000 feet or so) and
for duration flight on a closed course (33+ hours).

He mixed his own fuel, using Coleman fuel as a base.

The engine was an OS 0.61 ci (10cc) four-stroke turning
approximately 3700 RPM (it surged and sagged all through
the flight, from 3500 to 4100, I believe).

Maynard, who is legally blind, tuned the engine's needle
valve before takeoff. I don't know whether he did it by
ear or by the use of a tachometer, or both. Once the
needle was set, it stayed set for the whole trip. There
may have been a throttle servo that could

The airplane weighed 5.5 pounds dry, so it carried
about 5 pounds of fuel. The model had to weigh less
than 11 pounds (5 kg) wet. Only Maynard and his team
know all the numbers for sure.

Maynard threw the airplane into the air for takeoff, guided
by an RC pilot. The autopilot was then switched on.
In Ireland, Dave Brown reactivated the radio controls,
turned off the engine, and landed within 35' of the target.

FAI officials verified that takeoff and landing were done
according to rules for model airplane records.

On landing, the model had about 2 oz. of fuel left,
so it burned a little over 2 oz. (by weight) per hour.

This was the team's fifth attempt to fly a model across
the route. The first three disappeared last year and
the first flight this year failed, too, I believe.

The engine drove an onboard generator that powered
the GPS navigation system, autopilot, and telemetry,
which was broadcast to a satellite relay (time,
position, speed, heading, altitutde, engine RPM
& engine temp). Telemetry showed that the airplane
was porpoising for a while (climbing, stalling,
descending repeatedly), but that seemed to smooth
out after a while.

Maynard originally had hoped to fly the plane all the
way, but couldn't make the logistics work. He either
would have needed a very fast boat to keep up with
the model or else would have had to get a huge
increase in duration in order to all the plane to
circle the boat en route.

Maynard is in his late 70s, I believe. He says he's
been planning for this flight for 20 years, the last
5 in earnest. What a man!

More details at:
http://tam.plannet21.com/

Marty