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Tim
Johnson handed out copies of
HighFlight Magazine. This is the
quarterly journal of the IMAA. This is
the only magazine devoted exclusively to
giant scale RC. Thanks, Tim.
Speaking
about the Johnson's ... SFM Members just
wanted to say congratulations & Thank
You! I don’t know if all of you have
seen it but in thesummer “Special
Issue” of Model Airplane News
is all about the growth of
electric powered R/C, with many
highlights, how to’s and various product
reviews. |
The magazines
editor, Debra Cleghorn in the “Editors
Note” section of the magazine highlights the
Top 4 Electric Events for
2011. Of those highlighted
Watts over Owatonna was featured! Tim
we all know how hard everyone works to put both
of your annual events on each year … it’s great
that your hard work on those events has draw
National Attention and Status! Thanks again for
reminding the R/C community that some of the
best flyers and events are in Minnesota … right
in our backyard.
Look for event
flyers in various magazines and elsewhere on
this web site. Former Scale Flyer Jim
Sandquist, now living in Champaign and
working for Hobbico, is pushing hard to make
"Watts over Owatonna" a big annual USA event!
The event will have ... lots of prizes, magazine
coverage and National Venders, not to mention a
Steak dinner on Saturday! Hope to see you
there ...
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SFM
Discussion Topic: What to we do
with IMAA Chapter 46? Continue or
disband it? Merge it with SMMAC? What
should we do with treasury funds?
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Tim Len
presented his first turbine jet, a F9F Panther,
from
FBJets, a Faibao ARF. Imported
from China by Global, which
does the final assembly
and quality control. Previous version had
a two-piece
fuselage but this one is one-piece for less
weight. JetCat's 120SZ turbine id big ger
than the Ziroli version. It has a 74” wingspan
- 84” w/ wing tanks and weights in at 28 lbs.
Features C/Ff wing rods and two fiberglass fuel
tanks with a one(1) gallon total capacity.
Speed brakes are effective and instantaneous -
they must be retracted for a go-around.
Six color schemes are available. Tim chose one
of a privately owned aircraft. The kit
comes painted but without markings. Len
applied markings provided by
ProMark
Graphics.
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Cal
Branton brought a tiny Mosquito by
Park Zone. 2 ounces. Fly's “very
well.” Designed to operate with JR
radios. Just put the battery in, bind
and fly. Counter-rotating props. Has
rudder. Available from Tom at
Hobby Warehouse, $100. Small enough
to be passed around during the meeting. |
Cal’s other
airplane was a ¼ scale DeHavilland DH-4 built by
a friend from a Balsa USA kit. 138” span, 38
lbs. 9 lbs of lead in nose. Flies “like a
giant box kite.” Manual says don’t do
aerobatics, just level flight. Unpainted
SolarTex is a perfect color match. The
full sized experienced increased air pressure
inside the fuselage that tended to balloon the
fabric outward, so it has scale air holes under
the tail to let the air out.
In addition
to other media sources, Jon Bomers
has been working with Eric Malkerson
for a few years to market and sell his
tires/wheels and retracts thru our
website. Because global sales
volume has out-paced supply coupled with
Eric's snowbird schedule, Jon has
expanded his suppliers to bring a new
group of premier scale wheel designs to
the market.
These
designs & custom tires, prop-hubs and
axels will be available thru our website
in just a couple weeks.
The older
5" tires/wheels (designed & used
primarily on Aerotect's/Topflight's P-51 )
and the other 5" designs will still be
available. A dditionally,
the 5 1/2" designs that came out
just a year ago will also be available. (The 5 1/2" wheels
are targeted for Ziroli and Vaillancourts'
Warbird designs). A
new economical Stearman style will also
be introduce with solid aluminum facings
on both sides.
The new 5"
& 5 1/2" designs are lighter than the
older designs, while incorporating
unique structure improvements to enhance
strength and durability.
Prop hubs
will be somewhat limited in size but you'll
find the scale quality is better than
what's available
in the market
and they will be much
more competitive
price. Here's a few preliminary
photos for your review, check back
to the
website in a couple weeks for complete
details and pricing.
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Where’s Joe
Casey? Well he’s an official Snowbird these
days only coming to Minnesota during the prime
months, usually the end of May thru
Septem ber.
For the past few years he has been working on a
new scale project
“an RV9”. Now this project is taking up more
room in his shop than normal because it’s a full
size RV9 that he hopes to have completed by
2012. The completed photo is the paint scheme
he will use or at least that’s his plan. I know
you’ll see Joe this summer at a few R/C events
in the area, don’t forget to ask’em for a ride!
Dick Steine
showed his first WW1 airplane, a 1/3rd scale
Sopwith Pup built from a Balsa USA kit.
Dick assembled it in only 5-6 weeks.
He added functional wing wires and he added
metal plates to supplement the wires. He also
added scale
bracing to the end struts and intentionally
built it nose heavy. The cowl is attached
with 20 screws into maple blocks. There are 8
braces in the tail. He reinforced the cabane
struts. He replaced the 1/8” dowels in the tail
with 1/8” carbon-fiber rods.
The plans do not
show shear webs between the wing spars, so Dick
added them. Dick described how he fished string
thru the tail to pull the scale control cables
thru. The wheels are heavy—6 lbs each!
machine gun kit was “ver y
tricky.” Ace of Iron unpainted pilot cost
$50. Two scale aluminum hatches were
fabricated from scrap from the cowl exhaust
area. He added extra holes in the firewall for
cooling. In pite of all the extra
reinforcement, the result weighed only 34 lbs.
Dick was disappointed - he wanted 40!
Despite the DLE 111 engine, Dick will add
another 2 lbs weight in the nose. Wants to
fly with 32 x 10 prop but will check it out with
a 28 x 10 first.
Roy Maynard
discussed his ¼-scale Lavochkin La 7 - a
“great-flying machine.” Horizon Hobbies gave Roy
a new Saito 450 3-cylinder glow engine when they
c ouldn’t
provide valves for his old engine.
Century Jet struts on Eric Malkerson
Retracts.
Jet Model Products sequencer to operate
inner doors. Covered with 0.7 oz glass
cloth and
Feather Fill G2 polyester gray primer
applied with a wide camel hair brush. Then
sanded and a second coat was sprayed. Klass
Kote epoxy paint provides color and for
graphics, contact ProMark and order the Red
Banner rub-on graphic. All was toped off
with
Flex-N-Flat clear coat.
Fromeco A123 batteries and a McDaniels
onboard glow driver, to which Bernie Kobilka
replied ... “You don’t need a McDaniels - all
you need is a toggle switch.” The engine uses a
collector ring for all three cylinders.
First flights
used a Xoar 22 x 10 prop but was very
“disappointing.” Second flight used a 22 x
10 Mejzlik prop that was “perfect.” Big flaps
use a separate servo for each of the four flap
sections. “Lands really slow.”
Roy discussed the
properties of A123 lithium ion nano phosphate
batteries. Rapid charge in only 20 minutes due
to very low internal resistance. Lifetime of
1000 cycles. Very flat discharge rate requires
a special, sensitive voltmeter (Electro
Dynamics) accurate to 0.003 volts or an onboard
device (Fromeco and Duralite) that integrates
discharge current to calculate and display
remaining charge. For example, Duralite sells an
onboard LED charge meter for 4500 MAH A123
batteries for $45. Turbine ECUs can be
programmed for A123. Custom battery packs can
be made from DeWalt batteries.
... then a
discussion of wood versus carbon fiber props
followed. C/f props tend to be thinner, giving
400-500 more RPM.
The City of
North Mankato has built a new city park just
for electric model aircraft. The
dedication and flying demonstration of the park
is May 21, 2011 at 11 am
to 12noon. The park is open to the
public and is located on 6 acres of soon to be
grass along with an asphalt runway of 75 feet x
150 feet. The City of North Mankato is
proud of their parks and they have done an
outstanding job on this new electric aircraft
park!
Brian
Crossley reported that the TriValley
field search committee is currently working
with Dakota County parks. A deal with
VoTech fell thru but work continues.
Rich Valley RC currently limits membership
to 60 but that limit has not yet been
reached. Tim Johnson invited
TriValley members to fly at SMMAC in
Owatonna. “You don’t have to join right
away…feel free to come down.”
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