I can count on Dennis Castleman to show up at Baylands with an oddball plane, usually huge.

His latest project is a very bright, very big yellow wing sporting tricycle landing gear.

It’s based on the Queen Bee, a three-piece wing with a span of 100 inches. Dennis flew the Queen Bee earlier this year, but decided that he wanted to give it a radical makeover.

At heart, Dennis is an inventor. He likes big swiveling ducted fans, gnarly covering materials and oddball airframes.

He’s been working on the tricycle Queen Bee for about a month, fabricating its sturdy landing gear, beefy motor mount and big rudder.

Yesterday he brought it to Baylands, ready for its maiden flight.

When I looked at it, I thought “Crash!” Not because I wish it to crater, but because it seems too heavy, too ungainly. And Dennis does have a tendency to land his planes unexpectedly and hard.

But Dennis assured me that it will fly, and he’s shown admirable tenacity in getting his wild ideas airborne.

Dennis likes big, often quirky planes. One of his earliest was the Pipedream, a massive 1980s-vintage plane framed by metal pipes. He replaced the original gas engine with a big electric motor and, after some tinkering, got it to fly.

The Pipedream motor now powers the Queen Bee.

But he also likes big gliders. He enjoys flying this Blizzard motorized glider, which boasts an 11.5-foot wingspan.

The other day I walked into AeroMicro carrying an IFO, a 3-ounce wing carbon fiber-polyester designed for indoor flying. Dennis, who was shopping there, spotted it and said that he’d been thinking of building something similar using some heavy rip-stop nylon that he had on hand.

If he proceeds, I’m sure his design will end up covered in vulcanized rubber. It will feature a servo-controlled ducted fan powered by a 4S LiPo pack. It will weigh at least 5 pounds.

That’s just the way he is.

At Baylands, Dennis joined the three wing sections of the Queen Bee and charged his batteries as he adjusted the landing gear.

He enlisted Rick Carmichael to pilot the big plane.

Rick tried to take off from the grass, but the front landing gear wasn’t right.

After an adjustment, Dennis hand launched the big bird.

It took off pretty smoothly, but Rick discovered that it stalled during turns. In fact, Rick lost it over the fence on its final go-round. He was flying too slowly, he said, and when he turned the tip stall was permanent.

Fortunately, it landed in the reeds, where its abrupt landing was cushioned. No damage!

Dennis borrowed a hot glue gun and added small red vertical stabilizers to the wing tips.

After a wild takeoff—the wing lurched right and left as Rick fought the controls—the Queen Bee had a smoother second flight with stall-free turns.

In fact, Rick brought it in for a picture-perfect landing, marred only by the last-minute failure of the front landing gear. The plane flipped upside down on the grass.

As I packed up my gear to go home, I heard Dennis, who likes a problem, cheerfully talking about his ideas for modifying that front landing gear.

Tags: Airplanes, Baylands, Flying, Gallery, People, Wings.

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