MiniPearl .010 free flight

A quick flight on a calm, grey morning.. rain coming. This is a 1/8A Mini Pearl model, as designed by Bob Stalick for Cox .010 power. For the non-modellers, the Cox .010 is the smallest commercially produced internal combustion engine or at least used to hold that title. It has a displacement of 0.01 cubic inches and spins a 3" propellor at 27-28,000 rpm on 35% nitro glow fuel. Long out of production, they are a little treasure for small engine freaks. This model was built by a friend of mine, Joe Eisen, who passed away in 1995. He and I had the bright idea one day to build .010 free flights. His was done in a week, I still have the framed up wing and stab for my 1/8A Starduster downstairs. Joe passed away before we ever flew it, but in a conversation in hospital one day he had asked me to take care of his free flight models, and make sure people got to see them fly. I first flew this last fall, after recovering the wing. It flew beautifully right off the board, and I added a hint of left thrust to open up the circle a bit. Fun little thing, and it has a dethermalizer for the days where you need it. Today is a safe day, it started piddling as I fueled up for the next flight so I packed it in. This was the third flight this morning.