The meeting promptly started at 7:02 in the new meeting location at CrossPoint Church at France Avenue & 98th street in Bloomington, MN. 

Twenty one (21) members & guests were present, as well as some great projects and some wonderful conversation.

Summer Events

Jan Larson shared his experiences at the Warbirds and Classics over Horizon at Eli Field near Champaign, IL, and how during a rainy afternoon Jan, Ahmed, and Scott Russell decided to design and build a bigger Me-163 (45% scale).

Scott Anderson shared his travels to Rosewood Flyers just north of Louisville, KY for the Warbirds and Classics over the Bluegrass which was also attended by Jeff Quesenberry and Dave Szabo.

Cal Branton’s Me-109E built from a FOKKERC Kit

This kit is unique in that it is a built-up structure covered by molded fiberglass panels that contain all the surface detail similar to a full composite airframe.

Cal had brought the structure to last year’s meeting and was looking to sell it then.  He’s built the structure and has commented that the wooden structure did not go together very well, requiring many hand-built parts and modifications.

Once the structure was completed, Cal tells us that the pre-molded fiberglass panels fit perfectly and the model looked good!Cal did have to rebuild the canopy structure to fit the model.

This Me-109E is powered by a DLE-35, has Sierra Custom Gear, and weighs about 26# dry. Looking forward to the maiden flight!

Cal Branton’s Grumman F9F Panther

Cal brought in his repaired F9F-Panther originally built from a “Feibao” kit. Powered by a KT-140 turbine and weighs about 39# dry.  Cal says it is one of his favorite Panthers as it is so predictable to fly.

It had a landing mishap at the Warbirds & Classics Air Supremacy over Goshen event that had seriously damaged the wing. He was able to get new parts from China with the help of the ‘Global Jet Club’.

Cal purchased the new parts with gear installed and all were shipped for a very reasonable price. As the weather this weekend will be unusually warm, Cal is looking to re-maiden the Panther at Owatonna SMMAC field Sunday.

Jan Larsen’s Tomahawk Dynamic Soaring Glider

Jan shared his new Tomahawk dynamic soaring glider with a retractable mono-wheel and retractable EDF pod.  Jan had seen Zack Spychalla fly a similar airframe set-up previously with impressive results.

The Swift S1 Carbon (by Tomahawk) Glider Class with Dynamic Soaring.

• Full carbon and Kevlar construction

• Flaps, ailerons, rudder and elevator, throttle, tow release, EDF retract, retractable main wheel

• Wing Span = 3.33m

• Length=1.140m

• Weight=3.9Kg

• Power= EDF Jetec E80 (80mm 4.8Kg) @ 12S - 4500mHa

• Dual battery for Futaba receiver, telemetry for a receiver, and ext. battery

Impressive performance: Level flight ~ 100 mph EDF deployed, DS mode with EDF retracted 120mph+.

John Baligrodzki’s, MILES Messenger Project

He's developing this to pull a canopy for his Andersen Designs, MILES Messenger project.

We look forward to seeing you in Novemebr!

Our next meeting will be on Friday 11/25, 2022 at 7pm.

David Andersen’s ¼ scale SAAB J21 WW2 Fighter

David wallpapered the room with his new design, the SAAB J21 self-defense fighter from World War II.  This is a unique twin-boom pusher design that the Swedes had designed and built to maintain their neutrality during World War II.  As a pusher design, the airframe works well for an electric-powered model. It would be very difficult to cool a combustion engine and still keep the scale look of the design.

Roy Maynard visited the air museum in Sweden to provide images of all the scale details for David’s design.

David shared his method of creating the original plans in pencil, then tracing them in ink for digital copying for his “No Charge” R/C Scale Aircraft plans available through MNBigBirds.com.

David then used his plans to frame up the airframe of the SAAB in ¼ scale wood built-up structure.  Roy Maynard provided the Esprit Elite E105/ 30-125 electric motor and a Jeti 300 amp ESC for the airframe as it is the same as he had used for David’s ¼ scale Hawker Hurricane project. This motor is a 200cc gas equivalent powered by (4) 7S 5000maH batteries in a 12S configuration. Roy expects that he will get a similar performance to his Hurricane which was able to fly for 10 minutes and have 30% left on the batteries on landing.

The 8-inch diameter spinner is also custom-built.  The landing gear is ROBART modified P-38 gear (electric) with the nose gear lengthened by 2 inches.  The nose wheel with be 5” in diameter and the mains will be 7” in diameter.  The full-size aircraft had a knobby main tire for the unimproved roadways and pastures used for defending Sweden.

The full-size Saab used a Daimler Benz engine built under license, the same as in the German Me-109.  This model will have a sound system from Model Sound in Canada with a Daimler/ Benz sound card. 

The model will be finished in a scale paint scheme from the Swedish Air Force.  This consists of an olive-drab top surface and gray bottom.  Roy expects it will take over a year to finish and plans for test flights SMMC in Owatonna hopefully in 2024. 

The TEAM Composite 45% Me-163 Project

Based on Ahmad’s 1/3rd Scale Me-163, the TEAM was challenged to design and build a larger Komet.  The Komet ME-163 is 45% scale with 164” wing span.

The Build TEAM of Jan Larson, Scott Russell, and master composite builder, Ahmad El Bassal are using their (5) 3D printers to build each 2-inch thick section of the estimated 240 sections, required to create the plug for the fuselage, rudder, and canopy.  Each two-inch thick section takes approx. 10-12 hours to print.  The wings will be sheeted and glassed hot wire cut foam.  The fuselage will be classic molded fiberglass and the entire airframe is targeted to be 45 lbs.

The Komet will feature vector thrust (rudder) to improve ground handling for take-off & landing.  The power system will include a 5 ft tailpipe with options for either King Tech K210 or K260 turbine.

Flight controls will include: rudder, wheel (scale-dolly) release, smoke, vector rudder, ailerons/elevators, and air flap/brake.

The TEAM currently has orders for (4) airframes with an estimated maiden flight schedule of early Spring 2023.