Anthony Mott Breaks Australian Record AGAIN at GMAC
Tedium in flight
After many years of thought, planning, design and construction Anthony Mott, in December of 2008, made his first attempt on the long standing Australian Duration Record set by John McGrane in1993 at 11hrs 47 min.
Flying to the current FAI rules the model, powered by a modified PAW 0.49c.in. diesel motor driving a 16x10 propeller at approximately 3700 rpm and carried approximately 1.5 litres of fuel. This attempt was terminated just 20mins short of the record when the flight batteries started to fail. Fortunately the model was landed safely and another attempt was planned.
Anthony Mott prep
The second attempt in January 2009 was successful and Anthony set the record at 12hrs 6min. This time everything went according to plan and the model landed with a considerable amount of fuel and battery power in hand.
Buoyed by this success Anthony then set his sights on extending the record to 24 hrs as a lead up to a final assault on the World Record of 33hrs 39min held by Maynard Hill of the USA.
After further experiment, design and trials a set of lights were fitted to a new version of the endurance model. The new version uses the existing wing but has a redesigned fuselage and tail assembly and is fitted with a smaller PAW 0.40c.in. diesel which still drives the same 16x10 propeller at approximately 3400rpm. Fuel capacity was increased to 2.4 litres and trials confirmed that the motor was able to achieve a take off at the maximum model weight of 5kg.
Anthony Mott preflight
After missing the first projected date when lighting and fuel problems arose on the morning of the flight the second attempt one week later in December of 2009 started smoothly and the model was airborne as planned at 10.00am on Monday, December 21st. Anthony cruised around the sky picking up thermals and down draughts until dusk when the real test of flying through the night arrived. The lights were switched on and we watched as the white taillight blinked rapidly and the red and green wing tip lights flashed more slowly. The model was still visible in the afterglow of the setting sun but as time went on and the sunlight finally left us we were confronted with a clear night and the Southern Cross shining brightly. Among the myriad stars of the Milky Way we followed the one that was constantly moving, reassured every few seconds by the flash of the red and green wing lights that the model was still heading in the direction planned.
PAW 0.49 c.in deisel
The little diesel droned away through the night. Some slept in caravans, some slept in their car and some slept in their chair and Anthony flew on. As dawn broke we were relieved that we could see the model once again but we still had 5hrs to fly. The motor droned on, the model went round and round, and finally at 10.00am on Tuesday December 22nd we started to plan the landing which meant that the plane had to touch down within 500m of the point of release. After a miss on his first approach Anthony landed 15m from the point of release — a remarkable effort considering that he had just completed 23 hrs of flying (as back up pilot I flew the model for less than I hr).
The total flight time was an incredible 24 hours, 10 minutes and 24 seconds.
Support Crew
Subsequent checks showed that we still had 700+ml of fuel and 60% of the battery power available, so with a little tweaking to the lighting system and a maximum fuel load Maynard’s record is well within reach.
Watch for further developments!
By John Lamont.
