Developing the Rhino

The SF1 (Suitcase Flyer) Rhino

Test Flying The prototype with the smaller motor. It flew well but the Turnigy D3542/5 1250KV gives this aircraft some real grunt.

The concept of a 'Suitcase Flyer' came about prior to a planned vacation to see my brother, Athol and family in Darwin. He and I had been involved in RC flyingin the Eighties but due to work and family commitments... well, you know the story. About 15 years ago he went back to it and a couple of years ago he conspired with my wife to buy me a RC helicopter for Xmas. Well, I was hooked again. As an RC pilot I am both rusty and inexperienced however I have been around aircraft all my life, flight is my passion and I've always been an avid aviation scholar. I'm not really interested in prebuilt aircraft, so I decided to design and build a trainer.

Twin Comanche Scratch Build The Twin Comanche has a 2 meter + wing span with 3 aluminium spars.

I wanted an aircraft that was easy to fly and tough as nails because I knew I would, more than likely, drive it into the ground. Balsa and ply just wasn’t an option. I had already used aluminium spars on a scratch build twin Comanche (see www.twincomanche.info) and I had been formulating ideas for an all-aluminium aircraft. So I laid out the parameters for my design.

I decided to use aluminium where I could in the build (the fuselage, leading and trailing edges are all aluminium). Aluminium is easily to work with, replace if necessary and available at any decent hardware.  I knew that the trade-off for this strength was going to be weight, a higher wing loading, but I am happy with the results. The Rhino meets all of the criteria.

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