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The Quick Orange Fox

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Dennis pivoted the wings on carbon fiber rods, rotated by servos.

Dennis pivoted the wings on carbon fiber rods, rotated by servos.


Many of us fly cheap airplanes, but few fly anything as cheap as the Multiplex Fox.

Looking a bit like a scaled-down Multiplex Easy Star, it’s sold as a $15 glider: no motor, no control surfaces. Throw it hard and high and wait for it to come down.

But it looks so much like a small version of the planes we fly that inevitably people began tinkering with it.

Matt Abrams had the first one I saw. His was blue, a work in progress on the day I saw it at the PCC airfield.
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Fresh Wings for Sale

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Mike Bowns waits for customers.

Mike Bowns waits for customers.


Mike Bowns has entered mass production with his Wild WIng replacement, the Battle Wing.

The other day I asked him how many Battle Wings he was working on.

“Forty eight,” he said, deadpan, and I believed him.

He shows up at Baylands two or three times during the week, often with a small stack of his basic wing kits. I think he sells them on weekends, too.

His hard work is keeping the combat tradition alive, a much-needed development since Wild Wings disappeared from the market.

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Mike Bowns’ Battle Wings

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Ready to Build. Mike Bowns holds one of his meticulously-crafted Battle Wings.

Mike Bowns holds one of his meticulously-crafted Battle Wings.


After months of trial and error, Mike Bowns has developed a replacement for our beloved-but-no-longer-available Wild Wing: he calls it a Battle Wing.

He built a hot-wire foam cutter, then practiced cutting, turning out lots of variants of the Wild Wing airfoil.

As weeks went by he flew each one, obsessing about performance, tweaking his designs until he had a perfect-flying, balanced aircraft that could outmaneuver our acrobatic Wild Wings.

Last week he brought out his final version. He gave one to Dave North for testing.

Today Dave said that he thinks it’s the best wing he’s flown.

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The Wild Wing Mothership

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Streamer Combat. Dave North and Mike Bowns added streamers to enhance the combat experience.

Dave North and Mike Bowns added streamers to enhance the combat experience. See the movie.


This Saturday (that’s tomorrow!) we’re hoping that the weather forecast (possible rain) is wrong.

Kasra has invited our Dublin/Livermore Wild Wing compatriots to come down and battle at Baylands. That would include Boomer Butch, who started this craziness with his Boomer design and Wild Wing variations, and Kevin Chin, who first introduced Baylands flyers to the Boomer.

We just might top our record of 11 simultaneous combatants.

In preparation, we’re repairing our battered combat craft and considering a few events beyond combat: a pylon race, perhaps, a limbo contest, spot landings, perhaps more.

Mike Bowns has his own ideas. He brought orange crêpe streamers to extend the combat target area. He also designed a Wild Wing Mothership, a jumbo Wild Wing which he hot-wire cut from EPP.

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The Never-Ending Battle

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Burt Rosensweig photographs a lively battle at Baylands.

Burt Rosensweig photographs a lively battle at Baylands. See the video on the Movies page.


Every weekday a cloud of wings zips up from the Baylands flight line right around lunchtime.

On Monday, seven Wild Wings tore after each other, spinning, circling, near-missing and, very occasionally, smacking each other.

Bruce Crawford, who often flies at Foster City, brought his friend Burt Rosensweig to see the mayhem. Burt fired up his little video camera to document the action.

As far as I can remember, Monday’s hooligans were Bruce, Dave North, Rick Carmichael, Frank D, Larry Smith, Mike Nadler, Bill Smith and me.

It’s very difficult to shoot good video of combat. The wings look like gnats veering unpredictably all around a small patch of sky. Collisions—the dramatic moments you want to capture—are nearly as rare as baby pandas.

But Burt’s a lucky guy. He shot a minute’s worth of video and managed to catch one of those rare events.

It might’ve been the blow that folded Rick Carmichael’s wing in half. Or perhaps it was a less dramatic pileup. It’s hard to tell. You can clearly hear the smack, but the combatants still look like gnats.

Thanks for the video, Burt.

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