2017 Fly Baby Calendar

[rwanttaja]

The 2017 Fly Baby calendar is available for download:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/calendar.html

Ron Wanttaja

[martymayes]

Thanks Ron!!!

[rwanttaja]

And....the 2018 edition is out!

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/calendar.html

Ron Wanttaja

[martymayes]

And....the 2018 edition is out!

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/calendar.html

Ron Wanttaja

Ron, any idea how many bi-plane Fly Baby's have been built? Flown? In existence?

[rwanttaja]

Ron, any idea how many bi-plane Fly Baby's have been built? Flown? In existence?

I have photos of thirteen of them, including the prototype, and know of one other that has been permanently switched back to monoplane. I'm guessing the total was less than two dozen. There are two currently for sale, one in Canada and the other in Latvia. The Canadian one is brand new, with a VW and a reduction drive. I haven't heard how well it works. They're looking for three times what a flyable monoplane is going for.

I did get a kick out this: A California artist wanted to incorporate an "old biplane" into one of her paintings, and she chanced upon a photo of Al Hatz's Fly Baby:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/pix/allen.jpg

Ron Wanttaja

[Frank Giger]

Sadly I got no pictures of the FlyBaby at SERFI this year.

He had made it up to look like a WWI J1, with the fake rear gunner, mesh "radiator," and even little cans with wingnuts on the top of the cowling to simulate the correct engine.

Best of all, he wrapped it in vinyl to fake off the corrugated metal of the original - and it was damned convincing. I don't know if it happened or not, but us judges pressed hard for recognition of his aircraft in some way with the poohbahs in charge.

[rwanttaja]

Sadly I got no pictures of the FlyBaby at SERFI this year.

He had made it up to look like a WWI J1, with the fake rear gunner, mesh "radiator," and even little cans with wingnuts on the top of the cowling to simulate the correct engine.

Best of all, he wrapped it in vinyl to fake off the corrugated metal of the original - and it was damned convincing. I don't know if it happened or not, but us judges pressed hard for recognition of his aircraft in some way with the poohbahs in charge.
The "Boche Baby" modification is getting more and more popular. The one you saw at SERFI is the fourth that I know of, and the second in the US. If you download the calendar picture page, you'll see the other American version as Miss April.

The Fly Baby version has a vague resemblance to the original, but is a lot less "chunkier" (and less ugly, IMHO). The one Frank saw is the first one to attempt to mimic the corrugated skin of the original. The rest just use the late-war German camouflages, including the "lozenge" scheme. The ironic thing is, there's an RC model company who sells an Almost Ready to Fly "Junkers CL1," and it's the Fly Baby version. The model company is German. You'd think they'd want to depict the actual aircraft.

The first example, G-BNPV, was owned by the late John Day, and the airplane had been one of the only Fly Babies that had both sets of wings. Suspect the biplane wings are cobwebbed in storage, even if they still exist.

One prospective builder is interested in doing the "Boche Baby" bit on a Fly Baby BIPLANE. I was intrigued, and redrew an existing drawing to get a feel for what it might look like:

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/german_bipe.jpg
It gave me the chance to try out the late-war German purple camouflage.

Looks pretty darn good, I think. Again, there's nothing more than cosmetic modifications here....

Ron "Looks good enough to shoot" Wanttaja

[Frank Giger]

I saw the one in the calendar, which prompted my post.

The vinyl wrap job was insanely good. The builder had put a second layer on the leading edges and the lines all matched up perfectly. I hate to say it, but if I were to try and line up four inches of tape line to line on the leading edge of a wing for the full length in one piece it would be a zipper.

[bookmaker]

I don't want to mess up your calendar thread, but have you seen this one? It was at the SERFI fly in at Evergreen, AL last October

6792

6793

Pretty cool.

Dale

[rwanttaja]

I don't want to mess up your calendar thread, but have you seen this one? It was at the SERFI fly in at Evergreen, AL last October
Yes, that's the one Frank's referring to in Post #6. I knew about it, but didn't have any high-resolution shots that showed the entire bird (the calendar is designed for printing). No problem missing the calendar this year, I've done a Fly Baby calendar for the past 15 years, and will just put it in the queue for 2019.

Ron Wanttaja

[Frank Giger]

The optical illusion of that vinyl wrap is convincing up to about two feet...it's that good.

[Sam Buchanan]

The optical illusion of that vinyl wrap is convincing up to about two feet...it's that good.

So is the vinyl wrap applied over the fabric??

[rwanttaja]

So is the vinyl wrap applied over the fabric??

I believe so...unless those Oratex guys are getting really, REALLY fancy....

Ron Wanttaja

[Sam Buchanan]

I believe so...unless those Oratex guys are getting really, REALLY fancy....

Ron Wanttaja

Guess I'm just trying to get my mind wrapped (sorry....) around the process involved. What is applied to the fabric prior to application of vinyl? Does the vinyl provide any UV protection? How tolerant is vinyl to buffeting from the slipstream? What about applying the vinyl over trim tapes and rib stitching?

Just curious.

[bookmaker]

It was a vinyl wrap. Really looked good in person. If you have not seen it, there is an Albatross DV completely wrapped with the lozenge pattern. The vinyl wrap is the wave of future detailing.

That is the plane Frank was referring to. I did not see his post.

[rwanttaja]

I talked to the owner a bit ago. The vinyl wrap was applied over fabric. He feels it weighs less than paint would. He had a professional vinyl guy do the design, and the individual sheets were about 3-4 feet square. There's actually vinyl on TOP of vinyl, in that the crosses, etc. were separate pieces.

Ron Wanttaja

[Bill Berson]

There was a vinyl wrapped LSA at Ultralights at Osh 2017. It looked good with silver color and fake panel lines and rivets.
The owner said one base coat of fabric primer was brushed on for the vinyl topcoat to adhere.

[Sam Buchanan]

I talked to the owner a bit ago. The vinyl wrap was applied over fabric. He feels it weighs less than paint would. He had a professional vinyl guy do the design, and the individual sheets were about 3-4 feet square. There's actually vinyl on TOP of vinyl, in that the crosses, etc. were separate pieces.

Ron Wanttaja

Thanks for the update, Ron. I'm still wondering if the builder is depending on the vinyl for UV protection or if a coating was applied to the fabric prior to vinyl. I suspect something was on the fabric because I doubt vinyl would adhere very well to bare fabric. And then there are the countless bumps and ridges caused by stitching and trim tapes. Or did he omit trim tapes under the vinyl???? Wow....this gets interesting....I'd like to see the plane sometime.

If all the issues I've raised have been addressed this might be a game-changer for fabric-covered aircraft.

[Frank Giger]

I reckon the answer ultimately will come down to "why not?"

I got a lot of questions about UV stuff when I gave a presentation on using latex paint on my N11, and after talking through the technical aspects answered the naysayers with a simple observation:

The aircraft is hangared, and the only time it is exposed to UV is when I'm flying it.

I don't know anyone that keeps their aircraft out in the elements.

For purely recreational aircraft such as these, I suspect unpainted, unsealed fabric would last years, as they live in airplane houses 99.9% of the time.