[^] Had this brilliant idea![:-idea]
What about a Footy size landyacht.[:-?help]
How about this, Maximum dimensions would be
length = 12 inches, beam = 8 inches, height = 18 inches. [:-party]
Thats it no more rules. Appeal to anyone?
Do it NOW before it`s too late.
Sounds cool to me. Might be hard to get it light enough to overcome friction in the wheels, though you’ll be dealing with a lot more wind in proportion to size., though down to the ground maybe there’s less wind. I say give it a try. Maybe magnetic actuators for steering? nix the sail control to save wight??Hmmm maybe you don’t need to save wight. Interesting.
Ian,
I would have to agree with John’s concerns, although it is an interesting concept. Someone tried manufacturing a similar sized unit in southern California back in the '70s, but it never really caught on.
One issue is the lack of “clean” wind that low to the ground. There’s greater liklihood of turbulance & shifts. Unlike softwater boats which will move even with a very light wind, wheeled vehicles seem to have what I call “static inertia”, which needs reasonably steady air to get them going. Also, as in anything else, they will suffer from “scaling effects” when they get that small. That’s not to say they won’t work, but for the same amount of work you can build something a bit larger & get much more consistent performance.
Regards,
Bill K
Ircssa US 66
ODOM #217
http://www.ircssa.org
ps; Thanks much to Chad, Wis, Dick & Ian for setting up this new category!!!
pps; FYI, there’s also a long standing yahoo forum at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IRCSSA/
Here is a picture of “Plume”, the winner of class 1 at the Euro championship in France, last october
and look here
http://www.carriavela-rc.com/berck2004/gallery/100_1214.html
as you can see, it can be held in on hand.
It’s a “toy” land yacht converted by the owner into an RC lany yacht.
Simone Chiaretta
www.piyosailing.com/S
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
“Life is short, play hard”
Hi Simone -
welcome to this forum, and congratulations on the first r/c landyacht competition there in France.
If at all possible, some close up photos of the front wheel steering details would be appreciated - along with any other close up photos showing construction details. Like most of us over here in the U.S. - we like to experiment - but also don’t want to wase time on anything that simply does not work - so getting ideas that are being used over there (or around the world) would be most helpful to increase the interest in this part of the hobby.
Thanks again for sharing.
Dick Lemke
I built a small RC landyacht many years ago, it actually sailed very well, it was really sensitive and did capsize easily if you were too slow easing the sheet.
It was also prone to spinning out on gybes as most surfaces I ran it on were not smooth enough. Basketball courts were fornd to be the best surfaces.
I built a very small driveway racer/landyacht a couple years ago. The wheelbase was about 6 inches and the mast about 8 inches. It would only go if you would blow on the sail. There was probably a very large amount of friction from the wheels, even though I use the ones that go on the Pinewood derby cars, and a smooth track.
take a look.