Willy Nillie's Shoestring micro racer powered by COX TeeDee010

This is my recently built Shoestring Micro Racer plane (built from a kit sold by Willy Nillies) powered by a COX TeeDee010 engine, videod with a headcam during its maiden flight on a windy June day, shot at a small private airport near Lake Balaton, Hungary.





Despite the strong gusty winds, the plane flew amazingly stable, with excellent maneuverability. The 15 ccm blend of 50%methanol, 30% nitromethane and 20% castor fueled a 10 minutes flight. The all-up dry weight of the plane is 128 grams, just a tad more than the limit 125 grams of the UAS that drone laws in Hungary commit to be registered and flown on permitted location.

The engine is brand new with less than 1 hour on its clock..a bit on the tight side of piston-to-cylinder fit, it will take some more time before it revs above 27k, not that its break-in power was not more than enough to make this lil bird scurry in the sky.

My apologies for the quality of the video and audio -I tried to add some English commentary while flying the plane - but both turned out to be sub-optimum, to say the least...I will now surely swap my headcam with a better one.

It was really scooting across the sky , I didn't see it for the first few seconds (pretty far away ) looked like a speck in the sky .. Good job on the stability of flight .

Thank you Eric...my next investment should be for a better camera!

Congratulations Andras!!!….. Building the plane…. Engineering the electronics…. Weight management… Well done!!….. Piloting the plane, Excellent!!!….. Flying these small angry gnats is challenging but you did a good job…. Video is tuff for small flyers….. I need to work on a better camera too….. Please keep us updated as you become more acquainted with Micro Shoestring

Thank you Robert, I appreciate your kind words..it is just too bad that the quality of the video is poor, this little plane really flies exceptionally well even in strong gusts, does sommersaults, spirals etc so matter-of -factly, I can only recommend it to small RC lovers..it is out of stock at Willy Nillies for the time being,  though.

Prior the maiden I had an attempt only when I noticed a small warpage in its built up wing that led to the plane tilting/flying excessively to the right. After the warpage was ironed out from the unevenly shrunk bottom Oracover film, it did not even need any trimming, it flies like an arrow.

András, your video proves that the W.N. 1/4-A Shoestring is a fast, stable flyer bringing out the best in the Pee Wee. Proof doesn't have to be production quality imaging here in CEF.

Besides, much of what we see in magazine photos of so-called glamour these days are very much a deceptive facade (from architecture - French façade - fə-ˈsäd, a decorative non-structural "false" front on buildings).

Just a little sense of my weird humor.


El pie de foto: Así es como las chicas famosas de instagram toman sus fotos. (Desde es.quora.com)
Photo caption: Here's how famous Instagram girls take their photos. (From es.quora.com)

With a little imagination, one can have that winning photo on next month's Cox Engine of the Month Contest!

Thank you George, your example of deceptive photos is really funny!

I am not much of a camera geek, my Sony headcam was bought in 2015, it has 11.9 megapixel definition, and there must be much more advanced headcams with much finer definition out there in 2024, the question is what camera parameter like megapixel value or similar would serve my purposes best for a good flight video visibility? Maybe Kim, Mauricio or Brad with flight videos frequently published could chime in and advise the make and type of a good one?

Andras, A couple of years ago I was looking into buying a hat cam just for flying…. I started trying to learn the language concerning quality and compared that to what was on my phone (iPhone)….The phone was just as good or better in most cases plus I already had it….. Redneck me made a phone holder to fit a ball cap and that’s what I use…. A screenshot below of my camera page shows the different possible settings….. On the videos I have posted I always used the default although I may try some of the higher resolutions one of these days …. Hopefully this is helpful for assessing cameras for video

Thank you, Robert, a good idea, having vids shot with my phone would also help quicker uploading to youtube and similar. I will check my phone capabilities.

András, dear friend, I congratulate you, the model flies really beautifully, very stable and you handle it wonderfully from the radio!...I'm glad it turned out so good!
Regarding the video camera, he left you here the details of mine:
It is not the best camera but it meets conditions that make the video look pretty good, there is a big topic here, I will try to get my translator to say what I really want to say:
With my camera you must fly very close to you, even when you feel that this fence should bring you closer.....what I mean by this, the model airplanes that we use here are really very small and even though the video camera has a few possibilities, what you as a pilot should do is fly very close to you, that way the video can show some details of maneuvers.
As Jorge says, so much definition is not necessary here in this group of friends, that is, we are all pilots and we manage to interpret the flight of a model airplane in many flight positions in these videos that are not so precise in definition and scope.
Be that as it may, the secret is to fly as close as you can...if at any time the model scratches your head, it is a sign that it is already too close hahaha

Thank you very much, Mauricio, for the kind words and advice on the camera. Yes, with these sports cameras with no telescopic lens the small objects are seen blurred, if seen at all. I will follow your advice and pass with the plane as close to myself as possible. This time I was already trying to do that, but the super small plane dimensions necessitate an even closer flight path.

But first and foremost I need to swap my camera or make a holder for my phone that mounts with a rubber strap on my forehead.

András, since you mentioned making some kind of support, I'd like to share a "crazy headband," which is what a friend of mine called this support. I manufactured it in 2008, it is a headband made of EVA rubber, which supports a SONY Cyber ​​Shot camera, in that year I did not have a cell phone with a camera that exists today, so I used that camera SONY.
The headband is formed as follows:
1) you make the support for the camera.
2) the belt is made of the same material
3) everything is joined with cyanoacrylate
4) you place a caltrop on the back so you can join the halves once you install it on your head.
5) You HAVE to keep in mind that you must place a supplement so that the camera remains in focus, depending on the angle of your head, you must place foam supplements to correct the filming angle, otherwise it may be placed pointing upwards.
Keep in mind that the photos are from 2008, so I looked a little younger haha...
Don't be scared, it's me playing with this thing!








Supplements made on the headband itself with eva rubber, (photos 4 and 5 from top to bottom)

This is great, Mauricio, thank you! I will take notes of all these tips.

And you are ageless, look as young today as back in 2008!