Yard Bird Lawnmower (oz14265)

About this Plan

Yard Bird (Flying Lawnmower). Radio control novelty sport model. For .60 power and 3 channels.

Quote: "Ted Teisler's Amazing Flying Lawnmower. The Yard Bird. Text by Robert A Vaughn.

The flying Lawnmower? Now here is an aircraft that gets more attention than most. I was always one to be conventional, choosing to remain anonymous, quietly flying my Goldberg Falcon 56 while all the hot dogs in my club got at the publicity with their 10 foot span sailplanes, supersonic pattern jobs, and scale airplanes with worn-looking instruments and millions of rivet heads. Nobody ever came over and asked, How did you fit in that OS Max .19 so neatly? But I didn't care - I knew that someday I would get even.

It finally happened a few months back, while dreaming in my fantasy world and reading through the little ads in the back pages of RCM, I showed one ad to my wife Bev, valiantly hoping it would arouse more than the usual, Umm that's nice, comment that she keeps on hand for situations of that sort. But she said does it cut grass, too? That should have been my clue - she actually looked at the ad! I took it as a slam, assuming she was implying neglect on my part towards the care of our yard. Figuring that was the end of the evening's discussion, I said no more and drifted back into my dreams of flying doghouses, flat-irons, and outbuildings.

Then at Christmas, a surprise, for what to my wondering eyes did appear, but full-size plans and instructions too, all gotten by my wife, what a dear!

This is no two-week project, but then again, since it took me almost 6 months to put together a Contender (oz3281) - advertised as an 8 hour building job - I guess I'm not as fast as everyone. Its been easy keeping it a secret, nobody ever suspects anything when I'm out of sight all day and I explain I've been working on the lawnmower. Although I did get a couple of funny looks at work when a little over-sprayed red paint remained on my thumb and I told those that asked that I'd been painting my lawnmower and the ailerons were kind of difficult to hold properly! One smart-aleck wondered why I was painting my lawnmower and sarcastically said, what did you do, put racing stripes on it?

General Description: The Yardbird is an entirely unconventional flying machine. It is mainly constructed of foam, with sheet balsa stabilizing and control surfaces. From any range, it appears to be a standard looking push-type rotary lawnmower. As a lawnmower it has four hefty rubber tired wheels, one on each corner, an upper gas tank with cap, a grass exhaust chute (on each side, no less), a rope starter pull handle and a fold down chrome handle.

As a flying machine, it has a .60 size engine turning an 11 inch tractor propeller, tricycle landing gear with steerable nose wheel, pitch (elevator) control, roll (aileron) control and throttle control. It will take-off, do loops and rolls, fly inverted with ease and make spot landings. What it won't do is cut grass!

The package from Ted Teisler (941 Sherwood Drive, LaGrange Park, Illinois 60525) for $10.50 contained, in addition to two full size plan sheets, five pages of detailed instructions that are thorough and clearly written. Included with the instructions are two 8-1/2 x 11 inch copies of the plan sheets which come in very handy when studying the directions.

A separate note, received from Ted Teisler somewhat later advised that foam cores and a set of vacuum formed wheels could be obtained from Arion Enterprises, 111 Elizabeth Drive, Elk Grove Village, Illinois 60005. In my case I had already completed the foam parts, but I did send for and subsequently received, a package of eight, vacuum formed wheel halves which made a set of four very realistic, rubber tired wheels.

Construction Notes: Foam Parts: All foam parts can be cut from two blocks of styrofoam (1 lb/cu ft, light-weight, closed grain) 12 x 4 x 36 in. Since I have access to a copying machine, I made copies of portions of the plan showing templates. These were pasted directly on thin sheet aluminum and cut out for durable, smooth wire cut-ting templates. No tapered cuts were required, although the pylon needed a seat shaped for the top wing.

Using the template shape provided, a no gap fit was obtained on the first try. Balsa sections are epoxied on both leading and trailing edges of each of the wing surfaces, atop wing, the main wing and two outer wings (grass chutes). In addition, tip closing ribs were added at each exposed end to assist in attaching the skins as described later. The plans describe how to make mower wheels from Styrofoam, but I put off this chore until saved by the arrival of the formed plastic sheet wheels from Arion Enterprises.

Plywood Parts: The fuselage, wheel brackets and a couple of handle parts are cut from 1/8 and 1/16 plywood. The fuselage as in a conventional model mounts the engine, its fuel supply, nose wheel, and all radio components. A removable top hatch holds the pylon and top wing, intended to resemble the mower engine and gas tank.

I mounted my engine on an aluminum plate, 1/8 thick which is screwed to the 3/8 x 3/4 hardwood rails. The fuel tank is external, directly behind the engine, secured with rubber bands. A small hatch below the fuel tank is removable for access to the battery area and receiver compartment.

Balsa Parts: The vertical stabilizer (no rudder), horizontal stabilizer (T-tail) and handle are cut from 1/4 in sheet balsa. The plans show an economical way to out all pieces..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Quote: "Hello Steve. I saw that Doug Smith wrote */This wasn't the original Flying Lawnmower, published earlier and a kit was available then/* and I knew I had the plan but not where. Then I found it at Uncle Willy's. There the lawn mower is called Yard Bird. To make Doug happy I upload the plan..."

Note the supplement instructions file includes a copy of a standard latter from Ted Teisler thanking the customer for buying the plan from him.

Supplementary file notes

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