The B.O.T. Tri-Motor's Successful Retirement !!!!!!!!!

Sometimes, you just get a silly idea that won't leave you alone until you at least take a shot at making it happen. My video of the fellow flying his EIGHT-ENGINED .010 powered Hercules at S.M.A.L.L. kept bugging me to become a "Multi Pilot" !!! I didn't want to just hang a bunch of engines on a plane and fly it, though. Like the Hercules Pilot, I wanted the deal to be a little "different".

So, when I acquired two runnable Cox RR-1 engines (boosting my RR-1 inventory to three), I started wondering if a trio of the things would fly my 9 foot Bird of Time. Sailplanes are always deceptive (at least for me) in the power they need to fly. An .049 powerpod looks minuscule when it's strapped to a two-meter glider, and yet it will boost the plane to a pretty good height, even in dead air. I knew that all three engines ran well, but was still a bit intimidated that I'd find myself in the dreaded scenario of piloting a plane that was "flying too slow to fly, and too fast to land" while running out of flying space, altitude, and ideas at the same time. A cartwheel with a long-winged plane is usually fairly traumatic to it's airframe!



My plan was to fly like the Hercules Pilot: go for altitude while all the dogs are pulling, and use the B.O.T.'s gliding time to let the engines run out their fuel. With them mounted as close together as possible on the converted powerpod, and considering the B.O.T.'s large rudder, I wasn't too concerned about asymmetric thrust being a problem...and...turns out, it wasn't.





Getting ALL THREE RR-1's going was (as I'd feared) the REAL challenge!!! Like so many of my whacky endeavors, strange things start happening as if to send a message that I need to drop the deal and go have a Mountain Dew in the shade. Glowheads came loose, backplate screws came loose, and one engine's mounting screws backed out. A lesson in harmonics, I suppose. Add to this building mayhem, the fact that I just HAD to have inflight video, with all the extra attendant fiddling with wiring and ballast, and things weren't looking good for the B.O.T. to have a peaceful retirement on some dusty shelf !





Finally, with everything checked and checked again (need one of you "numbers" guys to do an estimate on just many times I multiplied my chances of crashing this thing), I cranked up the the little monsters and heaved the B.O.T. into the late-morning turbulence (yes, I DID remember to turn on the radio!).



I immediately turned it into the south wind out over the pasture next to my house, and trimmed it for a climb. After a few seconds, I actually started to relax (altitude usually does this for a sailplane pilot!) as the B.O.T. hit some handy lift and started to climb like it still had it's beloved .15 pulling it. I racked it over into the thermal and got an instant fifty feet or so in the first lap. "AWRIGHT !!!"" While this was happening, I was cycling the little Key FOB camera back and forth on it's servo (if the bouncing air wasn't enough to make viewers of the video nauseous THAT ought to do it!).



When the first engine croaked, a little rudder re-trimmed everything, with the B.O.T. still happily climbing in it's thermal. The other two followed quickly, and from there, it was just my old buddy, coming back to land in the front yard. After a couple doses of this, I HAD to have my "Old Guy Nap" and retired 'till later in the day, when I got in one more flight, just ahead of an oncoming storm.





Oh yeah..,the video...I'm still crunching it. The "Curse of the Tri-Motor B.O.T." apparently extended to my computer, which suddenly decided NOT to recognize the little Key FOB camera's files! So...I got ticked off...went to Wal Mart and got me a new laptop !!! Financing my anger is often a very expensive pursuit!

I'll post the video in this thread as soon as I get it boiled down.

Anyway, I'm gonna try a couple more flights before sending Ron his engine, and hopefully get some great footage, and some "Counter Ammunition" for that time when I'm parked in a nursing home, being forced to look at my roommate's photos of drooling grand-kids...