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October 2022
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Click any photo
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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Cal
Branton’s Grumman F9F Panther |
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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.
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Jan
Larsen’s Tomahawk Dynamic Soaring Glider |
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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.
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Full carbon and
Kevlar construction
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Flaps, ailerons,
rudder and elevator, throttle, tow
release, EDF retract, retractable
main wheel
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Wing Span =
3.33m
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Length=1.140m
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Weight=3.9Kg
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Power= EDF Jetec
E80 (80mm 4.8Kg) @ 12S - 4500mHa
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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 |
John shared the
challenges he's having building his
first giant scale canopy vacuum form
machine.
He's developing this to pull a canopy
for his Andersen Designs, MILES
Messenger project. |
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We look forward to seeing you in
Novemebr!
Our next meeting will be on Friday
11/25, 2022 at 7pm. |
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David
Andersen’s ¼ scale SAAB J21 WW2 Fighter |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The TEAM
Composite 45% Me-163 Project |
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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. |
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