- Type
- Build Plan (PDF, AI, etc.)
A custom design for Flite Test's '2023 Red Bull Flutag Design Challenge'.
Throw the plane with no power, have it glide, then add some throttle and bring it around again and catch it on the glide back to you.
It's like playing fetch with your dog. But, you know, without needing an actual dog...
Playing Catch, With Myself
For anyone curious about the name: In Afrikaans, a tortoise and turtle are both called a skilpad [skill-pudt]
A turtle sometimes is called a seeskilpad [see-a-skill-pudt], direcly translated as 'sea tortoise', but we'll ignore that for now.
The name works because as a glider, it moves with ease (like a turtle in water), and when power is added, it cruises around slowly and serenely (like a tortoise over land).
Flying the EZ Skilpad One-Handed
Disclaimer: This plane will not be the best glider you'll ever throw, nore possibly even the slowest flyer you'll fly (make a Wonder Glider without the paper and throw an EZ pack on that to see what I mean)...
The design has been created specifically for the Flugtag competition, with my design aimed at hanging the pilot/crash-test dummy in a hang-gliding-esque position under the wing (where the fuselage currently is). If the design was blown up to human proportions, then I'd do a design rightly like this (and not a Wonder Glider).
That all being said, the plane does glide nicely, is super slow, has a great turning radius, is manoeuvrable and slow enough that you can very easily fly it indoors.
Throw the plane with no power, have it glide, then add some throttle and bring it around again and catch it on the glide back to you.
It's like playing fetch with your dog. But, you know, without needing an actual dog...
For anyone curious about the name: In Afrikaans, a tortoise and turtle are both called a skilpad [skill-pudt]
A turtle sometimes is called a seeskilpad [see-a-skill-pudt], direcly translated as 'sea tortoise', but we'll ignore that for now.
The name works because as a glider, it moves with ease (like a turtle in water), and when power is added, it cruises around slowly and serenely (like a tortoise over land).
Disclaimer: This plane will not be the best glider you'll ever throw, nore possibly even the slowest flyer you'll fly (make a Wonder Glider without the paper and throw an EZ pack on that to see what I mean)...
The design has been created specifically for the Flugtag competition, with my design aimed at hanging the pilot/crash-test dummy in a hang-gliding-esque position under the wing (where the fuselage currently is). If the design was blown up to human proportions, then I'd do a design rightly like this (and not a Wonder Glider).
That all being said, the plane does glide nicely, is super slow, has a great turning radius, is manoeuvrable and slow enough that you can very easily fly it indoors.
