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Home Models My adventures with Tiger Moth

My adventures with Tiger Moth

Built: September 2002 
Type: Semi-scale park flyer
Wingspan: 31.5 inch
Weight: 8 oz
Power: Electric

That cute airplane is still adored by pilots as well as modelers.  So it was not a surprise, that new model of Tiger Moth from GWS concurred the market.  There were two versions available: painted in yellow ARF and not painted kit.  The ARF version included brushed motor with GWS gearbox. 

In September 2002 I became a happy owner of GWS Tiger Moth ARF.  I finished the model with no significant modifications.  The only addition was wing webbing and pilot Snoopy.  Two HS-55 servor were connected to elevator and ruder.  There were no ailerons.  Small brushed ESC powered original motor from this GWS kit.  The plane flew very nice: slow with grace like a scale, however very easy to control.  Not much power from brushed motor made any acrobatic maneuvers impossible, but it did not bother me at all - this supposed to be recreational plane.  After one year of playing with this Tiger Moth I gave it to my flying buddy. 

Few years later I started to miss this plane.  LiPo batteries and small brushless motors became available to RC modelers and that made it possible to built this plane much lighter and sustaining longer flights.  So I got another GWS Tiger Moth, this time I bought unpainted kit.  That evening, when I was ready to paint the plane I fount that I had only blue acrylic paint.  So I looked at the Internet if there is some full scale Tiger Moth painted in blue and white.  I found a plane with tail number G-AJHS, from "flying museum" collection in Vliegend Museum Seppe, operated by Flying Wires. 

So I painted my GWS just like G-AJHS.  Also in order to reduce the weight I have modified the model a little.  I replaced heavy plastic cabane struts with Carbon fiber rods.  They made the wing so strong, that I did not need any webbing.  Because the plane is launched from hand and lands on the belly in the grass I did not put a landing gear.  That saved some weight too.  Tiny brushless motor is powered from 2-cell 700mAh LiPo battery .  With throttle management This model can fly over 40 minutes on one charge.  

This model still belongs to me an flies occasionally - long relaxing flights.