The Flying Weedwacker

When I was 13 I briefly attempted to get into RC airplanes. It proved to be too expensive for a 13 year old with no job and ultimately the whole experience ended in splinters. I have always been interested in having another crack at the hobby and was happy to find it now much more accessible. Now all you need is a little imagination, some surprisingly cheap electronic components from China, the ability to read Chinglish instructions, a few sheets of foam from the dollar tree, and you are in the air.
  Over the last several months I have built a few different planes but wanted to first share the flying weedwacker. This project started when I found a weedwacker on the side of the road and then embarrassed Maria by pulling it out of some stranger's garbage can. One man's trash is another man's new desire to see if he can make a weedwacker fly. With a little work I got it running again and then proceeded to cut/ break/ hammer/ saw off every component that didn't look too important.

This is about what I was left with. The body of the plane was made primarily out of a material called coroplast which is typically used for large election signs.

 

 It can be an emotional hobby because you put time into building these planes but there are no guarantees that it will work or that you wont pile drive it into the ground. I did the math the best I could but the whole time I was building it I wasn't sure it would actually get off the ground.

 getting ready for maiden flight

My mechanic checks to make sure everything looks snug

In the video of the first flight you can here audible surprise in the backround as the thing actually gets off the ground. The first flight went perfect until I finally decided to bring it back down. Here are some highlights from the video of it landing:
0.18- mother fearing for her child's life
0.22-me somehow managing to hit the only branch on the entire lake bed
0.23-firewall partially fracturing and severing the throttle control leaving the engine stuck at full throttle
0.28-taking off again like i am doing a cool touch-and-go but actually having no choice but to wait until the thing runs out of gas

you can watch the video here