The meeting was called to order at 7:05 by: Secretary Scott Anderson as President Cal Branton was travelling with family.

There were 32 members and guests in attendance the day after Thanksgiving.  There were no business items to discuss so we stepped into the show & tell section of the meeting.

There was a 2016 Dues reminder...

David Andersen: Minnesota's own Mr. Scale displayed his progress on the IAR 80 Fighter Aircraft project. (1941)

The plans are coming together and Jeff Miko is creating the fiberglass fuselage and parts. Dave displayed a molded cowl and several of the specialized parts that Jeff has produced.

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Jeff Miko & Phil Schwartz are producing the first two prototypes.  The aircraft has a platform similar to a modern RC pattern aircraft so it is expected to fly well!

The retractable landing gear looks very similar to the P-51 gear so nearly any P-51 gear will work for it.

Brandon Archer brought his Freewing Models MIG-21 Electric Ducted Fan.

It is a very detailed aircraft and Brandon is adding styrene gear doors and access panels to improve the look.

It comes with a 12 blade fan so it sounds really nice!  He's also adding afterburner lights and "NERF" whistles to make it look and sound better as it flies by!

Brandon is powering it with (2) 3 cell 5000mAh batteries in series and expects 4 minute flights. No flights yet but well report when it does!

Jeff Edstrom displayed his 1/3rd Scale LeRhone Rotary Engine mock up for his Balsa USA 1/3rd Scale Fokker Dr-1.  It was built from a Mick Reeves kit (from the UK) and only cost $40 delivered.

It looks like it will weigh 2 # so it will replace some of the 6 pounds of weight that Jeff has inside the cowl to balance the model.

Roy Maynard demonstrated the sound system he's putting into his electric proto-type of David Andersen's new 1/4 Scale Hawker Hurricane design.

This unit and speakers are built into the lower radiator scoop and simply bolts to the aircraft and is then connected to the radio  

for control.

It was originally loaded for an Me-109 but Roy found the code to reprogram it to sound like the Merlin engine and Hispano 20mm cannon.

The system was supplied by www.ModelSoundsInc.com and is powered by a 6 cell 1000mAh lipo battery to provide up to 30 minutes of sound.

Roy's Hurricane prototype is almost ready for paint but Roy does not have access to a Paint Booth.  If you have access to a paint booth and can allow Roy to use it, please contact him!

Joe Neidermeyer: brought in his electric JU-87 Stuka project. He was looking for 'something scale' but he did not want to count rivets.  This kit started life as a Sky Shark kit designed for .40 sized nitro engines.

Joe did the conversions and replaced many items including the cowling, inlets, and canopy as they were not accurate for the aircraft.

Joe had done a lot of research and pointed out that the Stuka was a 1935 design that evolved from Ernst Udet's visit to the USA where he witnessed a Curtis Demo of dive bombing and realized the importance for low cost accurate bombing.

The Stuka ultimately arose from that visit.  Joe  glassed the airframe and painted it using hardware store house paint.  It weighs in at 7 1/2# and looks great!  He's powering it with (2) 3 cell 2700mAh batteries in series.  No flights as yet!

John Baligradski displayed his 31% Miles Messenger Plans.  He had fell in love with the unique lines of the aircraft and found a set of 101" span plans from the UK.

He then had them enlarged to 132" span. The tri-tail has (3) vertical fins on the horizontal stabilizer and in this

model the stab will have a 48" span!

He's looking to power it with a DA-50 cc and probably fly it at 1/2 throttle.

A similar build is taking place on RC Scale Builder website and they expect it to weigh about 25# pounds.

John has a machinist friend who will build the unique landing gear for him.