A History of the beginning of RC Soaring

Articles Scrap Book

Articles

Wood Crafters First Annual Soar-In (RCM)
2002 Model Aviation article on Ray's first Wood Crafters Soaring Reunion
Man on Man Contest Format by Dan Pruss
2005 Postal Fun Fly
Sagitta 900 Story - Ray's 1979 F3B Warm Up Contest
LOFT by Frank Wren and Ray Hayes
Soaring History by Chuck Anderson
My Favorite Model Builder Articles by Dave Thornburg
Harris Hill Lift over Drag Club
SOAR by Ray Hayes
Memorial's to Dan Pruss by Tom Kellevang and Ray Hayes
Whirlwinds by Ray Hayes
Willoughby Enterprises

 

Original Lil Bird kit

The first Sky Bench Kit, Lil'Bird, 1993. I designed the Lil Bird with a 54 inch wing span for slope soaring, the airfoil was close to RG 15, the wings were fully sheeted. I found a small slope site near my Michigan home and the Lil'Bird did well.

The word got out and I ended up hiring two people to produce Lil'Bird arf's and kits. But, the Lil'Bird was being used for hand launching by some customers and I knew it was not going to perform very well as a HL.

I redesigned it to the hand launch wing span, changed the name to Lil'Bird 2, changed the airfoil, root dimension, made other changes to reduce weight and make it stronger and this is how the Sky Bench kits got their start. Hand Launch competition was getting under way and the Lil'Bird 2 design proved to be a very good performer and very popular. The entire Bird Series evolved from the success of the Lil'Bird 2.

 

Great Model Aviation Magazine Covers and Seventies Soar Nats coverage and photos.

 


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Sky Bench Aerotech 
skybench.aerotech@GTE.net 

Ft. Wayne, Indiana 46804
Phone/Fax 1-(260) 434-1322