Use different colors of tissue

Join different colored strips of together using a glue stick. It will look nicer. It will not be as prone to warp because if the tissue shrinks, the glue joint may slip.

Follow the video while building

Follow along with the video while building. It's a matter of positioning your workspace near a computer.

This is easy since you can watch a step over and over till you complete it.

Write your name on your model

Put your name on your motor stick and your wing. In groups this will prevent confusion. Also if you add your phone number you may get your plane back if it flies away.

Prevent from hitting walls

If your Squirrel turns, then it is easy to fly it indoors. If not, you may want to add one or more ailerons to get control of the turning radius. It's easy make an aileron out of a piece of paper and then glue stick to the top or bottom of the trailing edge of the wing. It's better to put them towards wing tips rather that towards the middle of the wing. It works well to have one aileron that's about 2" wide. I've been making them about an inch in chord and that has been working fairly well. You can bend the aileron up or down to change the turn radius or to make the airplane go straight. You may need to adjust the wing fore and aft position after changing the aileron setting.

Once you have a nice turn radius, launch your plane parallel to the wall in an indoor environment.

Add Wheels to your Squirrel

You can make a set of wheels out of some .020" music wire, 1/8th balsa and some paper. I bent and snipped the wire using needle nose pliers. I made the wheels by cutting them out of 1/8th balsa. I drilled a hole in the middle of each wheel. I made axle tubes by rolling up a piece of paper very tightly with craft glue. I then inserted the axle tubes into the wheel holes using craft glue. Works great! Another method is to make the wheels out of cardboard. I have also heard that you can make the hubs out of the shafts of plastic q-tips.

Printing on Tissue

It's possible to print on the tissue paper using an ink jet printer. You can then make any design you want for your airplanes using a graphics program on a computer.

Glue tissue to an ordinary piece of paper using a glue stick. Print on it, then remove the tissue from the paper. If you only glue the border area, it shoudl be easy to separate.

Squirrel-O-Store!

If you have lots of Squirrels there are many ways of storing them.

One way is to put two nails in the wall. Tie string to one of the nails and also to a think elastic band. Loop the band over the 2nd nail. Its easy to slip the wings under the string so that the winglet is holding it up. Then you can add the motor sticks as shown in the picture.

Another great way to keep Squirrels is to hang them by their elastic bands. Here's a fine example on a mirror.

I often tell children to hang them up near the TV in the living room. Then if they are watching TV they might grab the Squirrel and bring it outside or bounce it around the living room for a while.

Economical improvement to model airplane design

I was talking to my friend Bill Khul and we were agreeing that the cost of balsa really adds up when you're making a lot of airplanes. We discussed some alternate materials but right after the conversation I made this alternate motor stick for the Squirrel that uses less balsa.

You can make a motorstick out of 1/16 x 3/8 inch balsa rather than 1/8 x 3/8 inch. That's pretty thin but if you put a doubler for the first inch and a half or so, then it fits the standard propeller mount. If you then add a wing mount on top of it all the way back to the fin, then it stiffens the motor stick. The idea is to run it back to the rear motor hangar (toothpick). I added a doubler to the motor stick at the rear of the wing mount as well, just ahead of the toothpick. I then glued the toothpick and fin (don't forget to add the tissue to the fin before attaching it to the motor stick). So the rear doubler and fin stick brace the toothpick fairly well. In this case I didn't underhang the toothpick under the motor stick. Instead, it is flush and that is the location to glue to the horizontal stabilizer. After the Stabilizer is in place, you can glue a small block behind the toothpick to help get the elastic motor far enough from the motor stick if necessary.

I think there might be a weak point just behind the front doubler. Also, the toothpick is a bit flexible because it is not secured by sewing thread.

Interestingly, the motor stick is stiffer than a plain one but it's more twisty. I wonder if this twistyness will provide some Stabilizer Tilt that will counteract torque? Food for thought!

(2009-06-10)

Workshop Tip: You can tear tissue to reduce need for sissors!

I did a workshop for the Leadership Ottawa group on Friday night (see Gallery).

At the step where I tell people to cut the Fin and Stabilizer from the tissue for mounting on the Motorstick, I observed a lady tearing the tissue using the motorstick as a guide! Wow! What a cool idea! It worked very well and she didn't have to go looking for a pair of scissors!

This makes me wonder if there's a way I can eliminate scissors all together?

(2009-06-07)

Flying Tip: Do not get hit by your Squirrel

Squirrel FAT version

Here is a variation of the design that flies extremely well. I suppose, it will have a wing loading that is twice as favorable since the wing is about twice as wide. Here are the changes:

-Use 4 inch wing ribs (instead of the three 2 inch ones)
-Use a 6 inch wing mount (instead of the 4 inch one)
-Use a double shim because the wing is wider and needs twice as much shim
-I bottom covered it as per plans, then covered the top. I trimmed the top so that the bottom was used for the winglets as per plans.

The tail looks bigger but that's just because I cut the tissue on the horizontal stabilizer to an semi-circle rather than a triangle.

On this prototype, I did another thing different. I mounted the toothpick at the very back of the motorstick instead of on the leading edge of the rudder.

(2009-05-22)

Simple Model Plane! Squirrel (2009-05-17)

The Squirrel is the easiest-to-build model airplane in its class (as you can see by the parts in the photo). After some more research it has been determined that only one winglet is needed. So that drops the parts list (and steps) down by one. It also makes the airplane look very different. Another big advantage is that it becomes a Squirrel Stacker. In the photo above you can see that I have managed to get 9 Squirrels into a box that is small enough to fit in my motorcycle trunk!

If anybody has any feedback on which side the winglet should be on, please drop us a line. We've flown a few prototypes with the winglet on the left and that seems to be working well.

Squirrel Metric Conversions (2009-05-11)

Thank you very much for all the great feedback. For those of you that don't have a imperial ruler on hand for measuring here are some metric conversions:

12 inches = 30cm
6 inches = 15cm
4 inches = 10cm
2 inches = 5cm
5.5 inches = 14cm
1/16 inch = 0.16cm
1/8 inch = 0.32cm
3/8 inch = 0.95cm

Squirrel Briefcase 2009-05-09

I wanted to carry a Squirrel on my motorcycle but space is limited.

I made a box out of some plastic from the scrap bin at a plastics company. (Canus Plastics on Lisgar in Ottawa). I found two sheets that were 12.5 inches by 4.5 inches. I glued some 1/8 x 3/8 basswood around the frame of one side using epoxy and then used elastics to hold the other side on.

I then made a flat version of the Squirrel. I made the winglets and horizontal stabilizer removable. I cut a slot in the motor stick for the horizontal stabilizer.

I decided to carry the propeller separate.

It turns out that it fits easily in any briefcase. Now I ALWAYS have a Squirrel with me. Even at a pub!

Here are a few details on how to make it and how it works. The winglets are attached by a small elastic band such as the ones women use for their hair (often found in dollar stores). It allows the winglet to spring up and down.

If you can't easily find small elastics here is a way of making them:

Squirrel Stacker 2009-05-08

The Squirrel is the simplest model plane to build in it's class. One thing I've noticed is that only one winglet is required.

I was able to stack the wings into a shoe box with this configuration. Further I was able to use an "L-Tail" to allow for stacking of the motorsticks with vertical and horizontal stabilizers in place.

Welcome to the first "L-Tail"!