The next meeting of the
winter season of the Scale Flyers of Minnesota
will be held on
Friday, March 30, 2012 at the
American Legion Post-6501 Portland, Richfield.
Come early and dine in the restaurant.
(Directions)
At the last meeting ...
58 SFM
members & guests joined us for this months
meeting ... a new attendance record!
Scott
Anderson introduced Captain Dick
Brown, a B-26
pilot who flew 66 missions in Europe
and later, a pilot for NWA for 36 years. “I
like to fly airplanes - just give me the
wheel and let’s go.”
The B-26 was
troubled at first - rushed into production
with poor control and undertrained flight
instructors - “one a day into Tampa bay” -
until the wing was extended by 6 feet and
engine-out and other procedures were
developed. Then it
was
“a good one.” H3 bombed Utah beach ahead of
the Normandy Invasion, returning with holes
in the wing - the B-26 was one of the first
to have self-sealing fuel tanks. He bombed
transportation infrastructure in France
(“Please don’t hit the cathedral”) just
barely ahead of advancing troops - “I’m sure
we killed a lot of people.” His aircraft’s
nose was blown off, had two crash landings,
and sometimes returned “full of bullet
holes.” But he never lost a crew
member. “Nobody got hurt.” He attributed
much of this to escort by Tuskegee airmen
who always provided cover above and below -
they “really did a job on them (the German
fighters).”
After the war,
Dick Brown flew 12 aircraft types with NWA
from DC-3 to 747, including the Martin 202
which was derived from the B-26, a total of
24,000 hours. He liked the 747 least - “I
didn’t like the automation.”
Larry
Sorenson (his email address is spelled “soarinson”)
brought the
largest wingspan airplane ever to appear at
a SFM meeting - 16 ½ ft (200 inches), a 1937 Reiher sailplane. 1:3.5 scale. The Reiher
was the “pinnacle of German sailplane
design” at the time. Czech LET Models ARF
distributed by
SoaringUSA. Foam and obechi plug-in
wings, plug-in stab. Aerotow with 80 cc
towplane. Up to 40-minute flights. “Real
forgiving.” Gull wing adds stability in
thermal turns. Flown locally at Owatonna
and Elk River sod farm.
Scott Russell has started work
on a 1/4 scale
Airworld FW 190A designed
by Stuart McKay (from England).
Estimated weight is around 45 lbs
and it has a 100” wingspan.
Scott plans to use a Moki 215,
Sierra landing gear all controlled
by the new
Futaba 18-channel transmitter
that he demonstrated for us.
It includes telemetry and even a
camera.
Phil Schwartz
observed that there are not many Nosen Corsairs
around “because it doesn’t fly very well.” His
weighed 49 lbs before paint and ballast, 108”
span, 3W150. Will need 11 lbs nose weight. The
Nosen plans show no flaps or retracts.
Substituting a fiberglass fuselage was “the
biggest mistake I ever made - nothing lined
up.” But it was “fun to build,” even though
“not very scale.” Phil added a Dynamic Balsa
cockpit kit, hatches to the cowl for access to
the spark plugs prior to cowl removal, and a
Biela 4-blade prop ($185). Painted with rattle
cans—“I shake three cans at once.”
Phil
also asked Captain Dick Brown to
sign the diamond marking on his
wing...
Joe Niedermayr
successfully “invented” a retractable and
shock-absorbing landing gear to replace the
easily bent music wire fixed gear of his Hobby
King Mosquito. But other upgrades were “my
frustration for a year.” “Old-fashioned
instructions,” paint peals off with masking
tape, difficult to paint over because “nothing
sticks to it.” At last, he discovered that a
coating of spray adhesive works as a primer for
paint and glass. The first
flight was okay until the first turn—“ I applied
the aileron and it went zzzssshooom. I went
home and I cried.” The problem was traced to
an intermittent servo. After repair (Hobby King
does not sell spare parts!), the plane continued
to tip stall. The foam structure was so flexible
that it survived crashes well but the flex in
the wing and lack of washout degraded
stability. Joe solved this problem by
stiffening the wing with fiberglass while
building in washout. Clever!
Tim
Len unpacked a
Pro Design Grumman Gulfstream G500
ARF right out of the
box. 74” span. Fiberglass
fuselage. Plug-in, built-up wing
and stab, split flaps. Twin
ducted fans.
Tim
will upgrade from fixed gear to
retracts and double bogeys.
Mark Dubay’s
gorgeous Ryan PT-22 (aka STK-3R) was built
from a highly modified 1/5th scale SIG Ryan
STA kit designed by Maxey Hester who won the
’73 NATS with this design. Mark converted
the nose from inline to radial, installing a
YS Supercharged 4-stroke engine. All
wood structure. World Tex polyester fabric
w/ nitrate dope. Rib stitching is K&B
Superpoxy applied with a needle nozzle. SIG
Epoxylite panel lines. Painted with Klass
Kote. Wing walk is textured black paint from
a rattle can. Curved hatch is lithoplate
bent in a roller press. Headrest is also
lithoplate, formed around a Fleet Farm plumb
bob. External longeron is an aluminum tube
cut lengthwise. Mark replaced the kit’s
music wire landing gear with steel tubing
plus oleo. The tailwheel strut is
scratch-built and also includes an oleo.
Upper spat fairing is also rolled lithoplate.
Wing wires are Nelson elliptical steel tubes
silver-soldered to Nelson clevises. Cockpit
coaming is JoAnn Fabrics with very small
eyelets sewn with carpet thread. The cargo
pod between the landing gear struts holds a
battery pack - this location lowers the CG
while being accessible.
The project
took some time. “Products have come and gone
since I started the model … It was a test
bed for everything I know how to do.”
John
Baligrodzki showed us a bunch of parts
for his Yellow P-47 project. An Aerotech
dummy radial. Also from
Fritz Dezings,
John presented Rivets, Dzus fasteners in
rub-on sheets as well as their paint masks.
Lastly a
Perfect Pilots pilot figure and a
Krylon painted cowl. Additionally he
described his experiments to create shades
of aluminum using Rub-N-Buff, Krylon, and
applying thin coats of aluminum paint over
various colors of primer. That’s
innovation!
“I’m
81, been flying since I was five. I
still can’t fly very well.”
...
Corky Wald.
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Scale R/C planes flying everywhere!
