Tyro (oz6832)

 

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Hi Mary & Steve, what a pleasure it was to see Great Boddo’s *Tyro* in your database! The Tyro was my first successful RC aircraft (after my wonderful Orange Box [oz7292] *glider*) and I built two of them, the first one being lost after *a vrille *(gone)* too far*, the second one being a flyaway when its receiver battery failed in flight – you could say it was *a flight too many*! – the model flying on and on… till the only thing I could see was the Sun's reflection on its chrome windscreen as it circled away… its engine working like clockwork.
My models were three channel ones, the first one being built almost entirely according to the plan, while the second one had a few changes, the most important ones being a (then) trendy nylon engine mount bolted to a 5mm plywood firewall rather than the somewhat intricate original and, instead of the plan's piano wire tail skid, a tailwheel controlled by the rudder servo, allowing me to taxi it. Both models had pine wing main spars, not balsa ones, as pine spars have a better chance of surviving a crash, helping a prospective repair - if one is lucky! On the first Tyro's crash I was indeed lucky, all flying surfaces surviving unscatched, later being used in my second Tyro. If you look closely [pic 010] you'll notice there are a few bits of the original Solarfilm coloured backing still there that I was unable to remove.
Tyro having less inertia than *Orange Box*, it was naturally more responsive and, the engine being throttled, one could do several landings during a flight. However, my favourite ‘party trick’ was to take it as high as possible on the last flight of the day, let it run out of fuel and then leisurely glide it to cool the engine down, followed by a nice landing, ready for the dreaded end of flight session clean-up!
Oh the chap in the photos? Well, it's me - some 40 years and almost four stones [weight] ago... All in all, Tyro was a nice, reliable model, later being used by me to teach others to fly. I have such fond memories of it I hope to, one day, build one more Tyro. One day perhaps… That elusive ‘one day’. Thank you Mr D. Boddington. And Thank You Mary & Steve for allowing us to revive our (well-spent, surely?) youth. Thank you. Best regards,
Arnaldo Correia - 16/05/2023
As mentioned above, Tyro was one of my favourite model aircraft. So much so that a few years ago I drew a half-size 'scale model of a model', that I called Micro-Tyro. Mr David B had already enlarged and reduced the original model into Tyro Major (oz10859) and Mini-Tyro (oz558), so 'Micro-' was the only option still available, bar calling it 'The Littlest Tyro of them all'. My version was aimed at Indoor flying, so I made it mainly from 3mm Depron, with just a few balsa and thin ply parts for strength at critical points [pic 011]. To take advantage of some nice weather-wise days, I also made a traditional balsa wing [pic 012], as moulded Depron wings are not that good at handling wind gusts. To cut a long story short, it flew as beautifully - both Indoors and Outdoors - as its lineage hinted it would. Note the Depron wing has inset slats, a very useful feature adapted by my friend Paulo 'Sparks' Faustino from Handley-Page’s work in the early 20th century, to allow Indoor models to fly slower.
Arnaldo Correia - 15/06/2023
You could do a Peanut Tyro next. Fowler flaps, maybe?
Miguel - 15/06/2023
Only needs a few clicks of a button or ask the printer to do a scale reduction at the print shop now. The luxury of electronic program(me)s.
Circlip - 15/06/2023
Or just throw it in the dryer to shrink.
Jan Novick - 15/06/2023
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