SFM News Letter

March 2006

by: David P. Andersen

See You at Our Next Meeting!

At Our Last Meeting...

Cal Branton was elected President of the Scale Flyers of Minnesota.

Mark Prokop continues as Treasurer.  The group expressed many thanks to Mark for his service as our President

Jim Greenly, 1989 IMAA Festival Showing off his "New" Scale Bearcat.
Nancy and Wayne Siewert celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary by showing an Aerotech P-47.  (“Well, we had dinner upstairs,” said Nancy.)  Wayne’s Aerotech P-47 was painted in WWII Venezuelan colors for a customer.  Built by Wayne and Dick Steine—400-500 hours labor.  Mini-servos on bomb pylons.  Open canopy covers antenna socket for display.  32 lbs. The P-47 will be delivered in person to the customer at Top Gun.  Wayne explained dealing with discrepancies in documentation.  There was an extended group discussion of NiMH versus NiCAD batteries and problems of certain digital servos on Y-harnesses

Nancy and Wayne Siewert

Mark Dubay’s Piper J3, 65C was built from a 1/4-scale Sig plan.  Saito 130 twin cylinder engine.  Sitka spruce wing spars and redesigned wing rigged per f/s Cub manual.  Cirrus tailwheel, plug-in stab. Rotex polyester fabric.  Rib tape drawn and reduced on a computer to scale. “I just got crazy with it.”  Unusual landing gear was scale Wittaker tandem wheels—a predecessor of tundra tires.  For round ground ops—prevents nose-over and prop strikes.  But doesn’t turn on pavement at all.  Mark gave an interesting history of the Piper company including where the name Cub comes from.
Jeff Quesenberry’s Sea Fury lives again! He missed his old Sea Fury, his “magnificent obsession,” so much that his wife said “Shut up and build another.”  Vaillancourt design enlarged 20%. 111” span.  Some parts from previous Sea Fury that was strained thru a fence.  3W140 engine.  50 lbs.  Sky Raider canopy. “A lot of kinks and curves.”  Planned for Toledo.   Jeff and others discussed Envirotex epoxy—thins with denatured alcohol, wet sands well, cheap and available at Menards.

Dave Szabo’s exquisite Yellow Spitfire was built by Doren Luck as a practice airplane for Top Gun.  G62 engine.  Marvelous detail.

Eric Malkerson showed his 2” tail-wheels with metal hubs and DU-BRO tires.  Available from www.rcmfg.com
Jeff Micko described construction of a scale P-47 paper drop tank.  Lightweight fiberglass.  Paper wrinkles simulated with nylon stocking material.  Color details on line can be found at www.blitzairpowerarchive.com - page 6

Scott Russell is still working on his spectacular P-38.  He showed a wingtip with panels and riveting on FliteMetal.

"If a mother has the slightest suspicion that her infant might grow up to be a pilot, she had better teach him to put things back where he got them."

Good flying this summer!

Cal Branton, President, BRANTONCFB@msn.com - 651 459-5107  Mark Prokop, Treasurer, mjprokop@comcast.net - 651 688-6340  David P. Andersen, Secretary, davidpandersen76@gmail.com - 952 890-9529  Jon Bomers, Webmaster, Jon.Bomers@Comcast.Net