The Swift II Chronicles
So – I admit – I am starting this a bit late in the game. I have been flying my first Swift II (aptly named Honey Badger) for some time now with a varying degree of success. The catalyst behind venturing away from my trusty Easy Star airframe was an inherent desire to enjoy FPV flying without the complexity typically associated. I had to do a fair amount of soul searching to come up with what I thought would work – and while I mainly found a hollow pit devoid of most human emotions – it turns out I’m cheap. That would mean that I needed a plane that was – well – cheap. Since I suck as a LOS pilot and have never flown anything other than an EZStar – I also needed something that was easy to fly. My list of criteria developed into something about like this:
1) CHEAP. It turns out I don’t really care about losing a plane – but I do care about losing the money associated with replacing it. Since my soul searching yielded very little in the way of tangible assurances – it did uncover the simple fact that I don’t have much emotional attachment to….things. Ergo – I don’t place much value on building time. This would need to be a dollars and cents kind of thing.
2) EASY. If this thing was going to be my “throw and go” plane – it meant it had to be easy to fly, easy to transport, and easy to build. Turns out building a plane with the intentions of not caring about it is harder than it seems.
3) GOOD. Simple really – it needs to be good at what it does. I don’t want to have a plane that actively seeks its own death – I already had that… it was called a FunJet. Something that responds to control inputs, goes where I tell it to go – and generally handles most conditions well. It also needs to be able to withstand some “use.”
After looking at several planes and airframes – the decision was made VERY easy after watching Chad and Greg at the Central Florida FPV Event. They had a couple of them there – the little slice of foam Heaven – a little plane called the Swift II. Small and sleek – yet bold. This isn’t really that little guy from Brooklyn, NY that screams in your ear at the top of his lungs to overcompensate for his small penis size…. No. this is a much more subtle kind of attention. If I had to place it – I would say that the plane has the personality of “The Worlds Most Interesting Man” who can tell you a story without ever opening his mouth. But with more “kick assery.”
Enter: Alpine Flyer (aka – the Honey Badger).
And this... is where I will share my gathered wisdom, knowledge, experiences, and subsequent failures with you.
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