For a long time I held the opinion that if your Peter Lynn Twinskin ARC did no pre-inflate by the time you finished setting up your lines, you did not have enough wind to fly anyway.

Then I got my big Phat 18m Phantom, which would fly in 5 mph - winds that make pre-inflation a real pain in the butt. There is always the trick of inflating the down-wind half, zipping shut the scoop, squishing the air into the upwind half, then opening the zip to re-inflate the down wind. It works, but is still a pain and it look like you are sumo-wrestling an air mattress on the beach.

There are the threads about the cordless leaf blowers for $70 but that seemed a lot to spend for the convenience and was more heavy crap to carry around.

Then I am walking through Home Depot and about puke on my shoes when I see the Christmas decorations set up in early October. But then I saw the giant inflatable Frosty Snowmen and Santas and had my epiphany. It looked like it took just an impossibly small muffin fan - the kind you see in your computer - stuffed up Santa's a$$ to keep him full and roly poly.

After a trip to Radio Shack and spending $36.00, I'm on my front lawn with the 18 Phantom and the following parts...

120mm 6/7 Volt DC Fan, Radio Shack part # 280-1108, $9.99
7.2 Volt RC (Car) NiCad Battery/ Charger Combo pack, #23-322, $19.99
7.2 V Connector repair kit for RC cars, #23-444, $4.99

Cut the PC-style connector off the end of the muffin fan wires. The connector kit has the same connectors as the battery and charger and comes with wire crimp connectors attached. Strip the fan wires and crimp on the appropriate connector to mate with the battery pack. Charge the Ni-Cads with the AC charger and you are good to go.

You can save some money and simply buy a 6 volt lantern battery but I thought the rechargeable battery was elegant and simple and would save in the long run. Easy to carry, too. Entire travel weight with fan and battery pack = 1 lb./ 0.45 kg

I thought I would have to make some kind of sleeve or duct for the fan, but I just closed the zipper around the square fan case as snug as I could. The small gap remaining proved no trouble. Watch your fingers in the fan- it won't cut but still smarts.

Within about 4 minutes the Phanny was plump and eager to fly off my lawn. It was inflated as much as if I had just flown it.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE MUFFIN PHAN???

Here the Phantom is inflated in 4 minutes and much more plump and full than any normal pre-inflation....

Watch your fingers on the fan though!!!

That's pretty cool!

What would be really cool if you could incorporate super lite lipoly battery packs and have the inflator be self contained! ;-)

My pocketable WD-40 Turbo air blower can fill an arc really quick too - $10.99 shipped! (but only handheld style - it needs a little rubber-band and stick kludging to self-stand and to keep the ON button pressed).

very cool Angus, I haul out a leaf blower for the scorpion. If she isn't full she don't fly but when she is full game on...lol

You absolutely hafta tighten up those Phannys if you don't want twisting in uneven winds during launch.

excellant invention. i might have to make something myself.

Good work!
Gonna be free for me - I got the RC bits already and there's PC fans all over the house ... why were you puking though and what is muffin about the fan?

Here's something silly I made when I was between jobs and had a friend who worked at a PC building firm who had nothing better to do with his time off but egg me on and supply me with 80mm fans ..
[img]http://www.post#@%$#!.biz/albums/userpics/11553/Fan%20Array.JPG[/img]
Not much use for the kites but ...

Hey Angus,

I'd heard several years back Pete Lynn ('the younger') was experimenting with ducted fans in Arcs activated via RC to keep them inflated in lulls. Apparently worked OK, except for the unrelaibaility of electronics around water and the bit of added weight. I think he was using those little RC ducted fan units - very light, with small battery packs.

krumly

Angus you had me literally laughing out loud imagining you in home depot checking out Santa. Excellent concoction too. That big girl WILL fly when there isn't quite enough wind to fluff her.

Once again, Angus is my hero. I'm going to build one. I found a busted lithium-ion battery pack in the street a few months back and now I know what to do with the cells.

Quote:

I thought I would have to make some kind of sleeve or duct for the fan, but I just closed the zipper around the square fan case as snug as I could. The small gap remaining proved no trouble. Watch your fingers in the fan- it won't cut but still smarts.

If you really want to close the gaps try rotating the fan 45 degrees. OTOH, you might be getting a jet pump effect that exploits the gap to increase the fill rate. Hold a feather over the gap while it's filling to find out.

Philip

You can buy ducts and grills to add to the fan at PC hardware stores dude this is getting out of control!

eg. http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=172

This is my ARC Inflato-matic...

http://www.stihl.ca/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=25&Print=...

Inflates the 15 Syn in under 30 sec.
It does take up a bit more room and is a tad bit louder than yours though.

I work at sears and picked up a cordless drill 19.2v, only to find that they sell a blower/vac that uses the same battery too!...
guess i just found my scorpion an inflat-o-matic!

@redtailin: did you already tried launching your scorpion 16sqm pre-inflated with your tool? does it make launching the scorpion much better?
what was/is your lowwind experience with the scorpion? can one have fun with it in winds around 5-8 knots? can one launch the scorp16 in such low winds using powerzone-launch? does it stay at the zenit? or does it stay above ground only by actively flying sinus-kurves?

by the way, i bought the coleman quickpump:

http://www.coleman.eu/DE/setlocale.aspx?returnURL=p-23625-re...




i hope it will fill my scorp 7sqm fast and i also hope that now the scorp7sqm launches much better in low wind.