Your Squirrel should give you years of enjoyment (as long as it doesn’t fly away or get lost in a tree or tall building).

Use a large area such as a gymnasium or a LARGE field. Outdoors requires a calm day. Ideally wind is less than 5 km/h (2 mph). Just before sun set or early morning, there is often less wind.

Basic Winding and Launch Technique

Here is an older video on how to wind up your Squirrel. Watch it for review if you want. The video above suggests 30 “pre-winds” and the one below suggests 60. It doesn’t matter that much as long as you wind enough to shorten the elastic so it can be hooked on the rear hook.

Adjusting your Squirrel model plane

The first step is to trim the airplane for Pitch. Pitch refers to climbing, diving and such. The Squirrel has an adjustable wing that slides forward and backward so the idea is to find the right spot for the wing. Once you have wound the propeller about 200 times, you are ready for testing.

Launch the plane gently and level. It’s important to release the propeller first then launch the plane.

Observe the airplane while it is powered by the elastic band. If it stabilizes quickly to a gentle climb then the wing is in the right position.

If it dives then you either don’t have enough winding or the wing is too far back.

If it climbs excessively and then falls back then it is stalling and the wing must be moved back.

If it oscillates between climbing and diving then it is probably stalling as well so the wing needs to be moved back.

Move the wing a bit at a time till you get a gentle climb under power.

In this video it seems okay.

Now we’re ready for winding it up more!

Happy Flying and please send pictures and videos!