Slow flyer
Slowflyer (from English: slow "slow" and flyer "flier") or park flyers are electrically powered remote-controlled model airplanes ( flight model ) with low flight speeds. The borderline is fluid, models that can also be flown in a hall are usually referred to as slow flyers. Park flyers are a bit bigger.
Slow flyer
The English name comes from the low airspeed (from slow walking speed to jogging speed) of the aviator. Slowflyers are remote-controlled, have a wingspan of 60 cm to 100 cm with a mass of around 60 g to 500 g and are usually driven by an electric motor. They can be flown in the hall as well as in parks, gardens, sports fields and even in the apartment.
Park Flyer
The Park Flyer also belongs to the group of RC models (radio controlled).
It has to be lightly constructed, and the mass of a park flyer rarely exceeds 800 g. However, it is often built more stable, so that it is less sensitive to wind than a slowflyer.
Very light materials such as Depron , Gfk, CFK , Selitron, EPP , Elapor and light balsa wood are used to build park flyers.
Drive technology
The drive for slow flyers / park flyers is almost exclusively electric motors, which are powered by battery cells ( NiCd , NiMH or LiPo / approx. 5–10 or 2–3, depending on the model), mostly from a battery pack . Since small motors have a very high speed, they are usually geared down to 1: 5. Recently, brushless motors have become more and more popular. As external rotors, their higher torque means they can do without a gearbox and can turn correspondingly large propellers directly. They have the advantage of a higher degree of efficiency, a lower mass and, in contrast to the brushed motor, are largely wear-free. However, a more expensive three-phase motor controller is required for operation (three-phase motor!). The advantages can only be fully exploited if they are operated on LiPo / LiIon batteries with their currently unbeatable weight-performance ratio. Overall, this results in a further reduction of 20–50% of the take-off mass with mostly greater power output, which means that the models either fly slower, longer or both. Resourceful minds have removed motors from defective CD-ROM / DVD drives and converted them into very powerful aircraft motors with a weight of 8–60 g through minor modifications (see links to 'PowerCroco').
Flight conditions
Due to their low mass, they are very sensitive to wind and can therefore only be flown in calm weather or when there is no wind. Ideally, you have a large hall (gym, exhibition hall, etc.) available for indoor flying . Due to the low airspeed (because of the low wing loading ), these planes have a good-natured flight behavior and are easy to control even by an inexperienced pilot. Beginners therefore often use these slow flyers to learn how to fly radio-controlled aircraft. Park flyers can also be flown in light winds. The maximum possible wind strength depends on the ability of the pilot and the model design. With more motorized models, it is also possible to fly in gusty winds.
Nevertheless, there are also fully aerobatic machines with which all known maneuvers can be flown. Indoor aerobatic championships are held on a regular basis (e.g. German indoor aerobatic championship).
Further development
But there are also much larger slow flyers (wingspan up to 3 m), which are an exception and rather fit into the experimental equipment category.
The trend is more in the direction of “even smaller” and “even lighter”. These aircraft then have wingspans of up to sometimes less than 20 cm and can have a mass of less than 10 g. They also fly very slowly and are therefore also part of the slowflyer genus, but are often referred to as room flyers or nanoplanes, as a larger living room is sufficient to let them fly.