Wings over Coll

Robert Sturgeon Jnr

I first became interested in radio controlled aircraft while watching similar planes being flown in Oban while I was a pupil at Oban High School. My first efforts at building a glider with simple controls were OK but not marvellous. I had help learning to fly it in Oban but it was never a great success as it flew only slightly better than a brick. I did however, manage a few half hour flights off Ben Feall with a strong wind to keep it up.

My next model was a powered aeroplane which had an additional control of throttle in addition to the up, down, left or right of the glider. The models are constructed mainly of balsa wood with polystyrene wings, which have a span of approximately 41/2 feet and a total weight of about 41/2lbs. The planes I have built so far have been powered by internal combustion engines of 6.5ccs. As I became a little more experienced at building planes so they improved in looks. The amount of time and patience involved in building planes is in inverse proportion to the speed with which they can be reduced to a heap of matchwood during one unfortunate landing! I learned to fly the plane in Oban along with others who were also learning and inevitably there were occasions when a model would be taken home in a plastic bag after it had an argument with the ground at high speed. One day I even managed to crash my glider into myself!

After learning to fly the plane I experimented dropping things from it such as parachutes and empty beer cans. I then had the idea of taking up a camera and taking aerial photographs.

So, the next plane I built I designed so that a camera could be strapped to the side of the fuselage and triggered remotely from the ground.

I used the cheapest automatic camera that I could find in case the plane crashed with the extra weight and imbalance.

The first trial showed that the plane was rather slow to climb with the extra weight but still flew. The first photographs were all blurred due to engine vibration. Next time out saw the camera firmly wedged in a thick pad of foam rubber to try and reduce the vibration. Unfortunately, the next batch of films were just as bad. After much thought it seemed there were only two solutions to the problem. One was to buy a vastly superior camera costing several hundred pounds, the other was to stop the vibrations at source.

Not surprisingly I opted to stop the vibrations! This meant gaining sufficient height then stopping the engine and taking photographs on the way down. The disadvantage of this method being that I had only one chance of making a good landing as the engine cannot be restarted by remote control in mid air.

After the first go using this method I found the lens cap had been left on . . . but the next attempt was successful and I got some clear photos. The angle and direction of the camera cannot easily be seen from the ground so inevitably a large proportion of the photos taken are pretty uninteresting - even more so on the occasion when the camera took a fit of being triggered off by every bump on the ground as the plane landed! I did however get about 5 good pictures, the best of which is one of Breachacha Bay with the two castles and Breachacha Farm. This has been enlarged and can be seen hanging in the Tigh-na-Mara Guest House. Other good ones are of the two beaches at Feall.

Since being at college in Glasgow I have had little opportunity either to build more planes or to take aerial photographs. Hopefully, this summer I will take some more, maybe of the village. Sometime I would like to take up a video camera but a bigger plane would be needed to carry the extra load. I would also need the use of a video camera - any offers?

A word of warning to finish with. Many people fail to realise just how dangerous these "toys" can be and crowd closer to watch. They can reach speeds of 60mph with the propeller turning at up to 13,OOOrpm so they can do considerable damage to anything which had the misfortune to be in the way.