Local news...
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Brian Crossley
reported that Tri-Valley
RC has not found a new
field yet. For a while, a
portion of a golf course east on
Hwy 4 & Hwy 42 looked
promising. The owner was
willing to rent but there are
homes and horses nearby, so the
neighbors objected and the deal
fell thru. The search
continues...
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Tim Johnson
invited all to Owatonna for the
January 1st Freeze
Fly. Start at 10:00. Chili
will be served.
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Tim Johnson
also announced that the Southern
Minnesota Model Airplane Club,
SMMAC, will begin holding
monthly meetings on the 2nd
Saturday of every month at 7:00
p.m. at the
Owatonna Airport.
Meetings will include show &
tell. See his website
SMMAC for more details.
A show of hands revealed that
about a third of those present
were members of SMMAC. Are
unofficial home field?
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Dave
Andersen described a nacelle plug he was
making for a new 1/5th scale Ki-45 design.
He also displayed a proof version of a
fiberglass La7 fuselage made by Vic
Catalasan of
VicRC that is lighter and stronger
than the wood version.
David also
presented an offer for custom embroidered
SFM Shirts, Jackets,
Hats etc. from a friend of Jon
Bomers. Special pricing is
available through the end of the year with
25% discount available to SFM members.
Details are available through the attached
PDF Embroidery Flyer. Shown are embroidery
examples of Dave
Andersen’s Mitsubishi Babs
derived from an in-flight photo taken by
Roy Maynard. The shirt was
complete in a few days and the digitations
came out fantastic considering the distance
of the photo made it a bit grainy.
Also, this a mockup of a Jacket back made
for Joe Grice's new
F-105, and a mockup of the
traditional Scale Flyers logo.
Mockup's are completed on light blue felt
and sent to customer before final production
on the garment he/she selects!
Rick Frane
showed a prototype 1/5th scale
functional gas cap th at
he is developing. Made on a CNC
machine. Inspired by a German fuel
filler on a Comp-ARF. It functions
like a Fuel Dot but is scale and is opened
with a screw driver. It can also be used as
a cap for air lines and smoke tanks. Rick
plans to market the device when complete.
Stay tuned.
Joe
Neidermayr presented a Nitro Planes
(Chinese) Catalina flying boat. “Comes
with everything.” But Joe repainted it to a
more colorful color scheme by applying Fleet
Farm matt paint to reduce the foamy look and
then applied Model master paints in spray
cans. He commissioned custom markings from
Callie Graphics. He modified the
tip floats to be retractable by extending a
groove in the bottom of the wing and adding
servos at the tips. The recesses in
the wing for the tip floats were filled with
light filler and the inside of the floats
were covered with grocery bag paper and
cling plastic wrap. When the floats
retracted into the wing, they squished the
filler around the floats and struts. When
dry, Joe removed the paper and plastic wrap,
producing a snug and scale fit when
retracted. Clever!
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Scott
Anderson showed us a B-17 foam ARF,
right out of the box with no
modifications. It's from Hobby-King's
Skunkwerks Series and has bomb drop
capabilities. Scott discovered that the
73" wingspan model has weak landing
gear, so it is best to land in a
cross-wind on the grass with the gear
up. Scott says his favorite maneuver
with this one is a very low pass. |
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Dan Stahn
came from Isanti, his first visit to a Scale
Flyers meeting ... Welcome Dan! He
displed his partially completed 1/5th scale Top
Flight Mustang. The construction was started
by someone else but Stan is converting the plane
to a Miss America racer scheme. He removed
the plastic covering, clipped the wing and stab
and added Hoerner wingtips. The tips were
carved from balsa and strengthened with two
coats of sanding sealer, ¾ ounce glass cloth
and Minwax resin. It was his f irst
experience with fiberglass. He also
experimented with Envirotex, Squadron
and Bondo putty. He described his introduction
to fiberglass and discussed his findings. Well
done, Stan. We look forward to your progress
reports at future meetings...
Roy Maynard
purchased his Byron Hellcat kit in 1998 and has
been working on it ever since for a total of
about 6 months actual shop time. At 30 lbs and
86” span, this kit is generally claimed to be
the best flying Byron Warbird. F/g
fuse, glassed foam & balsa wing and tail, Robart
gear. Here’s how he modernized this old
design: Byron cockpit kit & Blue Box pilot.
Roy updated the flap linkage using 4
programmable servos, Y-connected to a single
channel, instead of the original Byron plywood
tongues. He changed to pull-pull cables for the
t/w and rudder. Fiberglass pushrod tubes. Twin
elevator servos. Aluminum arms. Rare-earth
magnet hatch hold-downs. Fabric-covered
tail feathers instead of sheeting.
TME Smoke System. Baffling between dummy
engine cylinders. He reinforced the f/g cowl so
that about 2 lbs of nose weight could be
installed. Based upon Bill Hunchis’ experience
with the same kit in which cracks developed in
the fuselage ahead of the tail after many
flights, Roy reinforced the inside of the
fuselage with 6 oz cloth and polyester resin.
During the course of this explanation, he
discussed his experiences wit h
spackling, polyester versus epoxy resins, Hysol
adhesive, Sig polyester, Featherfill 62 primer
and various other adhesives and fillers.
Altogether, he compared about a dozen types.
Roy also modernized
the old G62 engine. He converted it to Ralph
Cunningham electronic ignition. “What a trip!”
Instantaneous throttle response “Like a glow
engine.”
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"As usual, for me, an ARF is like a kit
- but much of the work is undoing the
crappy work they did in the first
place." - Brian Crossley |
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