13″ wingspan
Class: Scale flyer
History of this kit design: “It is based on a favorite model of mine that I routinely competed with against the likes of famous Canadian flier Ken Groves in the 1980’s. He was as strong a teacher of model building as he was a competitor. I used pictures I took of his model Fike and his comments about mine from 25 years ago to come up with this new design. My original contest planes have all been lost in out of sight flights leaving me only my notes and pictures of Ken’s plane to work with. The 13″ wingspan is easy to transport and a classic Peanut size model for competing indoors and out. Contest balsa selected for all components allows for very light finished weight by most builders.” – Dave Niedzielski
The Fike Model E was designed in 1954 with the actual first flight in 1970. Its purpose was to evaluate low aspect ratio, low powered, thin wing flight characteristics. The wing tips could be swapped out to allow for additional research. It was a low cost, easy to build, 2-seater. The wing could be rotated or removed for towing on public roads and storage in a garage. The plane’s designer had a pair of skis all set for his plane to operate in Alaska during its initial flight tests. (Ref. Sport Aviation, 3/71, pp 48-51 W.J.Fike)
This free flight rubber powered kit includes a full-size rolled CAD drawn plan, laser cut balsa parts, hand-picked balsa strip wood, FAI rubber motor, E-B propeller, EBM thrust bearing, wire, LaserCal™ laser cut registration markings, and MT. FUJI yellow and deep sky blue Japanese tissue. To build this model you will need a building board set, hobby knife, fine sandpaper, and glue.
Fike BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS
Free Download 46-pages of full-color photographs and instructions for building your own Fike. Includes optional building modifications and detailing.
Or
You may order a printed copy of the instruction booklet with Full-color photos and step-by-step instructions. Item B351 Fike Building Instruction Booklet ($7.95) See Below.
Shown here is the first model built from the 1st production kit. Built by Wally Farrell. Weight 15.3 grams (without motor) “This is a straight kit build.” Wally reports his Fike required “a little bit of ‘up’ in the stabilizer.” Preliminary flight: with 1800 turns of the motor, his flight lasted 4 minutes 10 seconds and landed on the field. Video footage by Wally’s granddaughter Emily, age 11
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