A BIG THANK YOU ... to Larry Sorenson for stepping in and graciously creating the SFM October 2021 Newsletter for us this month as Scott Anderson was unable to attend.  This month 20 members and guests took part in the meeting.

David Andersen's Hurricane Design made the front cover of Nov/Dec issue of R/C Scale International! The actual aircraft highlighted on the cover was built by Chuck Hamilton and within the article both Hurricane models built by Roy Maynard and Jeff Quesenberry were highlight too.

David's comment on the article ... "The Hurricane was a group project.  I drew the plans and framed up the first prototype which was electrically powered.  Roy Maynard completed it and flew it with great success.  All the meanwhile, Jeff Quesenberry built the second Hurricane and powered it with a gas motor.  He also wrote the flight report for the construction article.  The cover picture is Chuck Hamilton's Hurricane.  Chuck lives in Indiana and regularly attends the Owatonna scale fly-in as well as Top Gun.  The retracts were designed by John Mesollela and the molded parts are from Jeff Micko.  Graphics by Callie.  Scott Anderson took the videos and in-flight photos.  And now MNBigBirds.com is distributing the plans world wide ... Amazing!"

PS:  The article in RC Scale International is a two-part article.  The second part will come out in January of 2022.

Did You See This One?

Sal Calvagna had a great write-up on the Warbirds and Classics over Fredericksburg event in the October 2021 Model Aviation Magazine.  In addition to a great overview and highlighting some wonderful pilots and aircrafts, our very own Jeff Quesenberry was high-lighted along with the Bearcat that Jim Greenly built many years ago.

Did You Know?

Last quarter over 28,000 folks visited MNBigBirds.com.  The top 5 Countries of Origin:

United States 36%

France 7%

United Kingdom 5.5%

Canada 4.7%

Germany 4.7%

Australia 4.4%

Brandon Archer shared his E-flite F-16 (newer model) with an 80 mm fan.  Brandon has over 50 flights on it.  Spektrum Avion ESC and has reverse thrust on a switch for short field landings!

Programs from the transmitter, SAFE, AS3X, lights, ordinance.

Brandon says high alpha flight is great! Painted in Alabama Tuskegee paint scheme.

He gets 3 to 5 minute flights with a 6S 6500 mAh LiPo battery.

The paint scheme will be Red with White tail paint and markings to “Death or Glory Boys” test pilots flew the full size off of a ship in WW2.  It took 6 weeks to build (Ahmed is getting faster!) weight estimated to be 36 lbs with a King Tech K210 (maybe a K230)  He's adding a 3 liter smoke tank too!

Roy Maynard & Pedro Restrepo showed off there JAS 39 Gripen 80mm EDF Jets.  Roy's is powered by two 6S 4400mah batteries to get it to balance. It has active canards used for pitch control and was a great deal at $400 shipped!  Pedro's was about $600 with fan, gear and kit accessories. He used Freewing's F-16 retracts for this one.

Scott Russell shared his Skymaster F-14 Tomcat. Powered by a pair of JetCat 160’s producing 70 lbs of thrust with an 8.4 liter (2.25 gallon) fuel tank. It weighs 55 lbs dry, and is 72 lbs wet.

First flight was a bit of a surprise as it seemed underpowered. It turned out that he was flying on one engine with the second on idle due to a filter problem.

Second flight was a bit tail heavy. Scott used (14) 7.4V servos, (5) valves and no gyros (yet) to run leading edge flaps, spoilerons, and tailerons.  Custom VF-31 Tomcat markings were by Callie Graphics. Tested with wing swept at take-off and landing.

Jan Larsen displayed his new Hangar 9 OV-10 ARF (1/4.8 scale) with 108” span.  (Sorry, picture is stock photo) Jan powered this with a pair of OS GT-33’s vs the electrics many others are using.  With a 32 oz fuel tank he’s getting 20 to 22 minute flights.  The glass fuselage has all the batteries in the nose, all else is in the wing center section.

It takes about 20 minutes to assemble at the field and is easily transported in an SUV (in 7 sections).  Full flaps are about 80 degrees.  Jan reports that it flies like a trainer and is very steady at full flaps.  He has about 12 flights on the OV-10 Bronco as of this meeting.

Dennis Simmons HSD foam T-33 EDF took 1-2 hours to assemble.  Using a King Tech K85 has auto-plug wings and electric BVM retracts.  The cost is estimated at $1,600 plus turbine, RX and servos.