Lumberjack model plane takes off

Canterbury aviation regulator Alex Hewson designed and built his own Lumberjack model plane - then got it airborne.

He had it at the Ashburton Model Aero Club’s invitational event at the Harris Scientific Reserve at Tinwald.

The 36-year-old Cantabrian has been flying model airplanes as a hobby for the past 30 years.

Hewson has spent time on the national council and flying club committees.

He is a former world champion title holder. He won at Croatia in 2015.

He said came up with the Lumberjack design five years ago but only built it this year.

Five were cut out, including a larger and smaller version, but only two were flying.

Made of plywood, shaped with a laser cutter, it has a 2.8m wingspan, weighs 9kg, a 50cc engine – two stroke, single cylinder – and runs on 91 fuel mixed with two-stroke oil.

Top speed unknown.

‘‘It’s not about speed and nor do we measure speed,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s a high-wing sport fun plane, flies nicely.

‘‘It’s not a high performance plane, it’s just a, go-out-every-day, have fun, not worry about it too much.’’

Hewson works by day with the Civil Aviation Authority.

It fuels his hobby.

In the past he has worked on full-sized aircraft; overhauling jet engines, test flying, building aircraft or test piloting.

But long 40-60 hour weeks meant little time for his hobby.

Now in a computer-based role as a regulator, his passion for it has returned.

‘‘It’s really brought back my passion for the hobby. I want to finish (work) and go and build something.’’

‘‘I enjoy building and designing things and it’s really cool to see them fly. That third dimension adds another aspect.’’

His hobby has included a trailer to house his plane collection.

There are too many to count; he has a database.

‘‘I think my spreadsheet says, if you include all my gliders, 50-odd,’’ he said.

His favourite – the Lumberjack.

‘‘It ended up being my favourite unexpectedly, it just flew really, really well.

‘‘I’m really really happy with how the design has come out.’’

Hewson, a past member of the Ashburton club, is from Christchurch but now based at Lincoln.

He was one of 26 people from around the South Island who attended day one of the Ashburton event.

‘‘It’s an invitation event; come along spend most of the day talking, occasionally fly,’’ he said.

Also attending the Ashburton Aero Club’s recent invitational event was 15-year-old Lyndon Dellow of Timaru, who was with his uncle, Graeme.

Lyndon took up flying from about age 10 and said he had been at the annual Ashburton event a few times.

He enjoyed the camaraderie and learning.

‘‘It’s real nice having the other guys come up to me and say I (flew) real good, or what I could do better,’’ he said.

Lyndon had a couple of models he was using, among them a Sukhoi and a Rockstar airplane.

The latter was powered by four-cell battery.

‘‘It’s more of a pattern 3D plane,’’ Lyndon said.

Owned by his uncle, Lyndon had been flying it for the past few months.

‘‘It’s a nice plane; it’s real twitchy.’’