Tom Nallen tried a Payen and took it to the FAC Nationals at Geneseo. After saying some nice things about this web site (Thank you Tom) he writes this letter full of information.

The 3 view from the '39 Flying Aces was done by Len Wieczorek, an old FAC friend, who I room with each year at Geneseo.  He lived in Bridgeport and was was a regular at Durham meets before he moved to Apalachin, NY after retiring about 20 years ago.  (Tom is referring to the 3vu in flying aces that started me on the Payen quest. d/s)

I chose the PA-100 because I had the 3 vu you have and used Lenny's 3 vu to document a "typical" color scheme.  Not knowing the color of the original I figured Len's drawing would probably be as good support as I could find anywhere for scale judging purposes.

I started the model about three weeks before the Geneseo Flying Aces Club Nationals 2000.  I wanted a Peanut to enter and figured that with bonus points the Payen could be a contender if I could get her to fly. The model's maiden flight (and all others) were made on one day at Geneseo.  Flying was terminated by a broken forward wing during a spontaneous roll into the ground.  I haven't yet repaired the wing.

The fuselage is keel and former with minimum stringers.  Fin and rudder are integral with the fuselage. Rudder is fixed.  Both flying surfaces are 1/16 stick flat plate structures, no cambered airfoil. The forward  wing was slide-thru while the delta wing is fixed within the fuselage

The angular difference between the fore and aft flying surfaces is zero...with provisions to add some positive incidence to the forward surface if necessary.  Built-up elevons, sized per the PA-100 3 vu, were hinged to the trailing edge of the delta wing. The elevons were set slightly positive to begin flight tests.  The model doesn't really seem to care where the elevons are set and is relatively insensitive to variations in deflection.

I began with about 5 degrees downthrust and 3 degrees right which was way off...the model really cried for down and right...bigtime.  I also wasn't sure just where she should balance.  I used a 5 inch No. Pacific prop and a loop of 1/8 rubber of prop to peg length.  As I recall, the balance point is at the front of the delta wing.  Some clay nose ballast was added as the motor was lengthened.

Thrust line changes were made from flight to flight and motor length was roughly doubled over maybe the first twenty flights.  The Payen, more than any other model I've built, was extremely tantalizing and frustrating to fly.  Flying well off the launch, the Payen, sometimes, well into a flight, would suddenly and unexpectedly perform an axial roll or stall and plunge straight into the grass.

She always showed promise but never really delivered.  Several times I   felt that proper trim had finally been reached and that she was ready to uncork a 60 second flight.  But, alas, she never did.  A number of "good" flights were achieved where the Payen flew steadily, in large circles, 'til power was exhausted and then descended to a smooth landing..

At Geneseo three timed flights, oddly, each of 34 seconds, were recorded.  On her "official" flights the model was rock stable throughout. I don't think the model ever attained an altitude of more than 50-60 feet. I remember thinking during several of her flights that in the air the Payen resembled nothing so much as a submarine.

(My experience with the P321 NoCal  was  similar , except it would go straight to the crash without the prelude of anything resembling  flight. I could make it fly straight out for 10-20 feet and then it would do one of the oddest stalls I'd ever seen and tumble out of the sky. The other possible mode was a 20 foot slow dive into the ground.  d/s)

Curiously, in the Nats results published in the FAC News the Payen was listed last of ten entries in Peanut and for some reason was awarded no bonus points.

There were over 190 entrants at Geneseo.  I'll bet 10 of them came by while I was trying to get the Payen going to tell me how they, "always wanted to build one of those."

The only photo I have of the model is this one with Len Wieczorek (on whom we can blame the  Flying Aces Plan that started the whole thing) holding..
Tom "

Fred writes me ..
"I checked the scores for the 1992 USIC on the CD of past issues of IndoorNews and Views (INAV, available from Tim Goldstein).  Don Lindley did not record an official flight in No-Cal the year that he brought the Payen."

Don is sadly no longer with us and is no doubt  flying in the happy fields of the empyrean..

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