Yogyakarta man flying high with model aircraft designs

By Ahmad Solikhan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): What Gatot Sugiarto is doing today may come as a surprise to his teachers back at state engineering secondary school STM Negeri I in Malang, East Java.

He dropped out of the school, but the 47 year old now makes his living teaching his self-taught craft -- making model airplanes.

He teaches at four high schools and two universities in Yogyakarta.

In his spare time, Sugiarto, who lives in a modest home in his home village of Jogoyudan on the sloping banks of Kali Code River, keeps himself busy tinkering with model aircraft.

He claims to have made hundreds of airplanes of various shapes and sizes, from simple wooden aircraft to ones using radio control and engines.

The father of four said it was his hobby and dated back to when he was a child, when his favorite activity was to draw planes.

After returning from school in Malang, at the age of 17 he joined a scouting organization focusing on aerospace located at Adi Sucipto Air Base in Yogyakarta.

Two years later he began making model aircraft from balsa and pinewood, which were ideal for the hobby because of their light weight and resistance to the elements.

Although he was initially dissatisfied with his work, he tried his hand at other types of aircraft, reading up on information in books and magazines. He said he "devoured" Airplane News, Handbook on Aeromodeling, REM Illustrated Plane Guide, Aerodata International, Control Line, Scale Model and many other such publications.

"I have no teacher in airplane design. My tutors are the books I have read, which my friends with the same interest have translated for me," said Sugiarto.

He said it took a minimum of two to three months to make the planes, from the free-flight type to the Skala type, which can be used for long flights at heights of 3,000 feet. It takes time to make the fuselage, wings and propeller from wood, which then must be smoothed with sandpaper.

For a genuine touch, the planes are covered with solar plastic film, which is weather-resistant; a square meter costs from Rp 20,000 to Rp 100,000 and is available in Yogyakarta.

However, the engines must be ordered first from Jakarta or imported directly from Japan. A two-stroke 2.50 cc - 18 cc plane engine costs between Rp 500,000 and Rp 5 million, while a four- stroke engine with 3.50 cc - 53 cc power costs between Rp 1 million and Rp 15 million.

To ensure that the takeoff of a model plane is smooth sailing, oil fuel with an octane content rate of 105 may be used, for example methanol.

Complicated

An F-15 Eagle, which is capable of flying high through the clouds at a speed of 250 km/hour, is the most complicated to make because it uses a radio control and also a four-stroke 53 cc engine.

"This type of model plane must not be flown high because it will quickly disappear from your eyes and is therefore hard to enjoy," he said.

Sugiarto also said he once made a replica of a Cureng plane on a one-to-one scale. The body of the plane is 6.5 meters long and its wingspan eight meters. The replica was first exhibited at the Djokdja Returns Monument in Yogyakarta on July 1996 on the occasion of Air Force Dedication Day. This replica of a Cureng, a two-seat plane, took three months to create and was made of balsa wood, seprus wood and plywood covered with solar plastic film. The four-stroke engine in the plane was made of fiberglass and the wheels from bucket hoists. The replica of the plane that the Dutch colonial forces used to bombard Ambarawa in Central Java cost Rp 17 million.

"I made a replica of a Cureng only to display my skill and to use up the remaining equipment that I had purchased," said Sugiarto.

As word got out about his skills, he was asked in 1990 to teach at three government high schools and also SMK PIRI in Yogyakarta. He also teaches aeromodeling at the Institute of Science and Technology, the Industrial College and the Aerospace Technology Institute of Higher Learning in Yogyakarta.

Although he has no formal training as a teacher, Sugiarto has found no hurdles in working with students at Adi Sucipto.

"I also make use of part of my earnings from teaching to help me continue with my airplane-designing hobby," he said with a great measure of pride.

Sugiarto is eager to use more sophisticated instruments to develop the art of making model airplanes. Financial constraints, however, have thwarted his grand designs.

"Who knows if an aircraft-manufacturing company will be interested in my ideas. In that case, I will be very happy and am willing to work anywhere," Sugiarto said.