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Duane Dahnert’s
and Cal Branton’s ¼ scale Grumman
Gulfhawk Project Update ... |
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Duane and Cal brought in the finished ¼
scale Grumman Gulfhawk to help celebrate
Duane’s 96th Birthday this week!
You
may recall that the Gulfhawk was a dream
project for Duane who got copies of the
full size aircraft’s plans
from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.
He had spent a month or so at the
Smithsonian taking photos and detailed
notes on the one-of-a-kind aircraft
displayed there. The landing gear
was scratch built by Duane from his own
drawings and is an exact scale
representation. |
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The
aircraft is covered with SolarTex and
painted with latex paint that Cal had
matched from color samples provided by
Gulf Oil. Gulf Oil had originally
commissioned the full size Grumman F3F
aircraft back in the 1930’s to perform
at airshows and sell Gulf Oil Aviation
Fuel.
Cal
has powered it with a Desert Aircraft
DA-100 twin and he tells us that he
believes this is the only ¼ scale model
of the GulfHawk built. There are many
F3F ¼ scale models but not the GulfHawk.
We’re looking forward to the maiden
flight this summer! |
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Chris Mayer’s e-Flite
F-16 Thunderbird PNP 70 mm EDF |
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Chris brought in his
F-16 from Tower Hobbies. He tells us
that several members of SFM are planning
to fly these together this summer.
The performance with a 6 S
battery is outstanding so we expect to
get many interesting stories this
summer!
Chris has had a
chance to fly it during our short
experience with Spring (before the last
blizzard) the week before the meeting.
Powered with a HRB 6S 4000 mah battery
Chris tells us it is a great flying
aircraft! He’s very impressed with the
handling qualities. The electric
retractable landing gear is of very high
quality with robust construction. “It
flies like it’s on rails!” |
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Assembly was pretty
straightforward. It took only an hour
to assemble and another 30 minutes to
apply the stars. All other marking are
pre-applied at the factory. |
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Roy Maynard's ¼
Scale Hawker Hurricane – Electric! |
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Roy
Maynard (builder) brought in the nearly
finished 1/4 scale Hawker Hurricane
before he and Dave Ande rsen
(designer) take it to compete at the
Toledo R/C Show in the designer class.
The
Hurricane is 1/4 scale Mk2c Hawker
Hurricane designed and framed up by
Dave. Roy spent 3 years doing the
finishing.
Dave’s plans show gas or electric
versions. Roy chose to power it
electrically with a JETI E105/30 motor
(equivalent to 200cc gas engine).
It turns a 32x10 prop around 5000 rpm.
The batteries are qty.(6) 7S 5000 mAH
LiPo battery packs paired into series
(equivalent to 14S or 48V) and then
paralleled to a JETI 300 speed
controller.
The
construction is all balsa and ply with
fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin, then
painted with custom mixed KlassKote
paints. Roy used Model Master paints for
weathering. The paint masks were custom
from Callie’s Graphics. |
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All
3D printed parts are from
scalercparts.com.
The electric landing gear is custom made
by Matrix Machine.
Roy
demonstrated the on-board sound system
(and it was loud!). The Rolls Royce
Merlin sound system is from Model Sound
in Canada with (2) four inch speakers in
the radiator and also makes the cannon
firing noise.
The
lighting system is from ElectroDynamics.
The cockpit kit is mostly from Dynamic
Bal sa
with some I-Fly-Tallies components. The
pilot was from Warbird Pilots.
The
radio is JETI with telemetry for motor
rpm and temps.
Roy
used an A123 redundant battery system
for the receiver thru a JETI CB200 power
distribution center, same as his jets.
The servos are HiTEC 7955 as he has had
good experience with in his jets.
Roy
Tells us that he will test fly the model
this Spring sometime after they get back
from Toledo, where Dave will be entering
the model in Designer Scale. |
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Sherwood Heggen’s ¼ scale Dario
Brisighella Steen Skybolt
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Sherwood has rescued
another project from oblivion! The Steen
Skybolt was originally built by an
unknown builder who did not finish it.
SFM member Bob Briesemeister had found
the skeleton in at a swap meet covered
in dust and damaged but knew Sherwood
loves a challenge so he made it
available to him.
The Steen Skybolt
was designed by Dario Brisighella (Mr.
Quadra) from Nov. 1982.
Sherwood rebuilt the
plywood, spruce and balsa structure.
The wings and fuselage
were basically built. The airframe
was in rough conditio n
with an accumulation of apparently years
of dirt settled into the wood. The
stab was broken off on both sides and
there were no plans, landing gear or
cabane struts. It was, however,
built well and straight and the correct
fiberglass cowl was there. |
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Sherwood documented his ‘rescue’ in
RC Groups and was able to get a set
of plans from a modeler from Oregon.
The landing gear was purchased from
TNT Landing Gear and Sherwood
re-built the cabane struts according
to the plans.
Sherwood say’s that no aerobatic
biplane looks good in the air
without smoke so a Sulliva n
smoke pump and 24 ounce DuBro tank
was installed which feeds smoke oil
to the muffler through a Bad Dog
smoke nozzle (a really nice
accessory!).
The structure was covered with white
Ultracote over a well prepared and
sanded structure providing a great
looking finish. Rustoleum
Regal Red and Rustoleum Navy Blue
rattle-can paint provides attractive
trim colors along with vinyl
graphics cut by Steve Meyer.
The color scheme is a near copy of
the late Hale Wallace's full scale
N1HW whic h
he built it in the early 1970's. Hal
was an active modeler from the early
1940's until his passing in 2000.
The engine is a new DLE 55 with
Pitts style muffler turning a Xoar
two blade 22-8 propeller. The
finished weight is about 21# so it
should fly well! Sherwood has a 24
ounce DuBro gasoline tank to ensure
he gets plenty of flying time!
The servos are HiTEC 5645 for
control surfaces and Futaba 3305 for
throttle and choke. The flight
batteries include (1) dual lead A123
2500 mAH for radio and smoke
pump, and (1) LiFe 1300 mAH for the
ignition. |
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Jim Courtney’s ¼ scale Balsa USA
Nieuport 17 |
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Jim
is looking to join in on the ‘Dawn
Patrol’ gaggle flights this summer with
his re cently
completed Balsa USA ¼ scale Nieuport 17.
The plane is traditional Balsa
construction and covered with SolarTex
(no longer available).
He
powering this bird with a DLE 30
swinging an 18
x
8 Zinger prop. It took about
a
year to build and is
guided by a Futaba radio. Jims
looking forward to the maiden flight
once the
snow melts! (June?) |
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Ahmed Elbassal’s Avanti SI Sport Jet |
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Ahmed tells us it a sport jet design and
build by Sebastiano Silvestri.
www.sebart.it/jets.html
He
wanted to lighten the typical structure
to improve the durability and
performance.
Ahmed build it with honeycomb sandwich for fuse and Airex for wings, rudder and
elevator and a lot or carbon fiber the
wood in it (around 2% of it) . The
conversion saved 3 lbs in the kit and
retract landing gear. He
saved half of the weight by making the
gear struts with carbon fiber.
The
retracts are JP's brand:
https://shop.rc-electric-jets.com/JP-Hobby-Electric-Retracts-90-120MM-Jets-JPH-ER-120.htm.
Ahmed tells us that they are a very
reparable design. |
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Larry Sorenson’s Skymaster 1/7.5
scale F-4C Phantom |
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Larry brought in a
beautiful example of the F4 Phantom
the Skymaster, in a
Naval VX-4 scheme and it's turbine
powered.
Larry had pitted next
to the previous owner at an event a few
years ago and has seen it fly. |
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Larry kept in touch and jumped at the
opportunity to add it to his own turbine
powered fleet.
The
F-4C is Skymaster’s 1/7.5 offering. It
is powered by a Jet Central Rhino.
Guidance is by Graupner and servos by
JR. It will fly with airspeed
telemetry and a Demon Cortex gyro.
Navigation lights are run by a Details 4
Scale
controller.
The
drop tanks, iron bombs and AIM-7 Sparrow
missiles are fixed and cosmetic. The
landing gear retracts are Skymaster’s
scale F-4 set. She carries 220 oz. of
fuel which should provide nearly eight
minutes of flight. |
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This Phantom has flown
before so Larry expects it will know its
way around the pattern. |
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Rick Freeman & Bob
Gustafson’s ¼ scale Nieuport 17 |
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Rick shared his joint project
he’s been building with Bob
Gustafson, a Russian Nieuport
17!
At the end of the Great War, the
newly formed USSR needed aircraft
for their new air force so they
acquir ed
surplus fighters from several
sources. This Nieuport 17 is a great
sample of one of those aircraft
modeled after the Red Army’s 20th
Air Group.
Rick tells us that the construction
is typical BUSA balsa, ply & spruce.
The rudder had been beefed up due to
an “experience”. It was
covered with SolarTex (no longer
available) and painted with rattle
can Krylon Silver Colormax paint
(with very good results!). |
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The Nieuport is powered by a Saito
FA-150 4-stroke converted by Rick to
electronic ignition (with a 2400 mAH
NmH 6V pack) and an 18 oun ce
DuBro tank. The propeller is a
Xoar 18x6 with simulated laminations
and a homebuilt multi-bolt prop hub.
Rick is using PowerOne brand metal
gear analog servos with a whopping
230 oz-in. of torque. The
receiver is powered with a 6.6V LiFe
battery of 2400 mAH capacity.
As usual, Rick has added lots of
special details that you have to
look to appreciate including,
landing gear relocated to the ‘scale
location’, Williams Brothers wheels
that had been turned on the lathe to
remove the molded ‘spokes’ and the
drilled access to the fill valve.
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Rick has added pull-pull cable
actuation for the scale elevator and
rudder actuation as well as creating
a riveted aluminum cowl and rib
stitching embossed from aluminum
tape!
The project took 6 months by Rick &
Bob Gustafson and had its maiden
flight in the fall of 2018. Ask Rick
about the story of that flight! |
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Ahmed Elbassal’s Su-57 Stealth Jet
Project |
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Ahmed displayed the
beginning of his plug for a new
composite Jet model, the Su-57.
Dozen's of process photos have been put
to gather in a great YouTube Video for
you to checkout at: |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqATm-ax_zw&feature=youtu.be |
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He
acquired a ‘foam’ model of the plane
from Moscow 2 years ago, It consisted of
hundreds of sliced cross sections that
need to be assembled in the right order
to create the 3D mo del
of the aircraft. Ahmed says it was 396
pieces that were NOT numbered so it took
him 2 weeks to put that puzzle together
so he could then model it in SolidWorks
for the design of the model structure.
His
model will be 2.8 meter (9.2 feet) long
will powered by Behotec JB220N, 55lb
turbine single or 120N twin turbines for
scale flying and 160N twin turbines for
3D flying.
Ahmed expects the Su-57 will be between
13kg
 to
15 kg depending on the setup, for scale
or 3D flight.
Construction: will be carbon fiber, with
honeycomb sandwich for the fuselage and
Airex for wings, rudder and elevator.
The
project is commissioned by Peter Avache
from Altecare,
www.altecare.com and it will be
tested in Mississauga, Canada this
summer! |
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Rusty Freeman’s
3D Hollow Casting Rig |
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Rusty has been working up a method to
create lighter wheels/tires for larger
aircraft models.
It requires a rig
that can rotate in 3 axis to allow a RTV
rubber to evenly cover the inside of a
mold to create hollow tires. Rusty
purchased the components from Servo City
and expects to test it in the near
future. |
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