Brian Crossley Moves to the Carolinas ... One of our founding fathers who has served the club in many areas over the years has had to give up his position as treasurer due to his relocation to a warmer climate.

We don’t know if the move is temporary (snow-bird) or permanent as yet but we want to thank Brian for all his dedication for collecting dues and handling the membership roster for so long! Thank you Brian!

David Andersen (Andersen Designs) & Roy Maynard gave a presentation on the status of the New 1/4 Scale Hurricane Project.  Dave introduced the design to us last year and presented the challenges in creating plans and a supply chain of hardware to support the dedicated throngs of DAD builders around the world.

Currently there are (6) prototypes being built.  Three by members Roy Maynard, Chris O’Conor and Jeff Quesenbury here in Minnesota, one by master builder Chuck Hamilton in Indiana and two more by scale advocates in New Zealand!

Roy displayed the prototype built by Dave and discussed how he plans to fit the 150 size electric motor and battery system.  The other prototypes will be powered by various 150 cc inline multi-cylinder engines such as DA and others.

The electric version is expected to have a 6-8 minute flying time and has an on-board sound system simulating the Merlin 12 cylinder engine.

Other neat details:

o   Retracts: Custom Retracts by John Mesolella (Rochester, NY)

o   Molded Parts: (Canopy, Exhaust stacks, etc) Available through Jeff Micko

o   3D Printed parts (Canons, inlets, scoops) by a contact of Roy Maynard.

Dave Andersen will be entering Roy’s finished model in the Designer Scale Class at Toledo's R/C Model Expo, April 1-2 & 3, 2016!

Plans & parts will be available thru this website after all test flights are completed.  Approx June 2016

Joe Neidermayr’s (Above) "Lear-Jet Scale Fowler Flaps"; Joe brought in his latest engineering masterpiece, a new wing for his EDF Lear Jet that includes scale landing gear doors and functional Fowler flaps on a small wing!

The mechanism was very interesting but the question is how much weight does it add to the model.  Good luck on the maiden flight Joe!  Great video thanks to Scott Anderson.  The detail is easy to see if you view it in "Full Screen"

Brandon Archer: brought in his latest acquisition from E-flite, the UMX P-47 BL bind and fly micro fighter!  With a wingspan of only 19 inches (482 mm), or approximately 1/25th scale, it is one of the smallest warbirds to attend a SFM meeting.

Brandon has a great eye for detail and has not been known for leaving an ARF aircraft in its original condition.  He has his eye on repainting the Jug as “Miss Mary Lou” .

He'll be adding scale details such as a scale cockpit from the Kinetic 1/24th scale P-47 plastic kit as well as detailed decals to bring the miniature fighter to life!

Jeff Quesenberry: brought his 120" span P-38 Lightning.  Originally built from an early 1990’s CBA Models P-38-J Lightning kit it is built up with foam wings and foam aft-booms.  The forward booms are built-up and the center pod is molded fiberglass with many ABS formed scoops, radiators, canopy frame drop tanks and more.

This airframe was originally built by Stinger Wallace (Texas) and had exchanged hands several times before becoming one of Jeff’s projects.

Jeff stripped it down, cleaned it up and repainted it with Krylon Camo Olive Drab (rattle can paint), white & black with Rustoleum Gray primer for the sky gray belly paint.  He tells us it weighs in near 50 lbs (46 lbs w/o gas).  It has (2) Zenoah G62’s running on magnetos turning Mezjlik 22x10 3-blade props.

Jeff say’s he over-propped it to help slow it down.  The props clear the ground, just barely. He’s thinking of updating to (2) 20x12’s if it survives another season! The P-38 had its first flight at Fond Du Lac this summer where it lost a tire on take-off.   As of this meeting it has had 6 flights total since the rebuild. Good luck Jeff!