Fin Crazy
Rick’s Wild Wing looks almost prehistoric.
Most of our combat Wild Wings sport two fins of varying sizes and shapes, flanking the motor. They provide a steadying vane above and below the wing.
Mike Nadler added a tiny pair of fins — horns, really — to the front of his Boomer, completing the effect by drawing eyes and a smile with a marker. Purely decorative.
Otherwise, we’ve found that two fins are plenty.
Rick’s latest wing has eight fins. It flies fine.
The motor makes a strange noise — like a prolonged cow’s “moo” — but I don’t think that’s related to the wing’s high fin count. It might be a prop issue, or a stray vibration.
Oddly, his other wing also makes a bovine sound.
He’s christened one Conan the Cow. The other is Bessie the Barbarian.
Everywhere you look you see more fins.
Most days I set up the limbo poles for warmup, though the combatants occasionally scoot through the goalposts.
We’ve enjoyed wonderful weather: generally light winds and warm days. The best flying weather of the year.
At night, of course, we glue our wings back together, repairing the day’s shredding.
I predict that Rick’s extensive finnage will add a tangible maintenance burden to his evening’s work.
Good, more targets.
Somehow they just don’t spend too much time to decorate demolition vehicle… I think the logic is the more time you spend on fixing it, the less time it will last in the battle!
I watched today as several of Rick’s fins were detached during combat–sure was pretty, watching colored bits of foam fluttering to the ground. He does have a good idea though–the green ones around the servos are there to protect them and they seem to have done the trick. They do give it a unique look, to be sure.
The only semi-reliable equation I’ve derived so far is: The lighter the plane, the less time it spends in dry dock. This might be ruined by the conundrum that the more you have to fix a plane, the heavier it gets.
Why is nothing about model aviation simple except the minds?
Maybe Rick is using the idea of the lizards, dropping body parts during combat to confuse the enemy and give him time to escape.