Focal Point
Perky Grande
Bill Neff III (454 Country Club Rd., Avon CT 06001; e-mail: [email protected]) built his Dave Robelen-designed Perky Grande from plans that accompanied the construction article published in the April 2007 MA.
The model spans 63 inches, weighs roughly 3.75 pounds, has a Thunder Tiger Pro .40 engine, and is controlled via a Futaba 6EX radio system with five Futaba S3004 servos. The covering is MonoKote.
Bill wrote:
“I made a few modifications to the plans. One-eighth lite ply was used on the fuselage sides and spruce was substituted for balsa on the main wing spars. Maple motor mounts were replaced with a reinforced 1/4 plywood firewall and fiberglass-filled motor mounts.
“The windshield was changed to a flat surface which fairs into the upper wing surface. The landing gear mounts were reinforced and tapered gussets were added to each side of the vertical stabilizer to strengthen the attachment to the fuselage.”
Fairchild 24 Argus
Gary Owen (4002 26th Avenue W., Seattle WA 98199; e-mail: [email protected]) built his Fairchild from Model Airplane News plans.
He referred to Bob’s Aircraft Documentation to determine what scale details and color scheme the model would have. Its finished wingspan is 89 inches, and it weighs 12.5 pounds.
“I also had help from AMA member Dick Orvid for the custom spring-loaded landing gear,” wrote Gary.
Fouga Magister
Larry Dudeck (74 Bragg Ct., Williamsville NY 14221; e-mail: [email protected]) designed and built this Fouga Magister, which is powered by an electric-ducted-fan (EDF) unit.
The model features all-balsa construction, with pink foam for the nose and canopy, and is covered with UltraCote. Power is an MF480 EDF, driven by a Mega 16/15/2 BL motor, powered by a 3S 4400 mAh Li-Poly battery. Servos are Hitec HS-81s connected to a Castle Creations Berg four-channel receiver.
Larry designed the Magister for bungee launches. It took him roughly 125 hours to build—and that includes drawing the plans. The model spans 52 inches and has a flight-ready weight of 53 ounces.
Kaos
Kent Garrett (5455 Val View Dr. SE, Turner OR 97392; e-mail: [email protected]) brought his Kaos out of retirement, after last flying it in May 1985, and made some modifications to it. He wrote:
“I have been away from RC modeling for about 24 years. ... I stopped by my old RC club flying field and was astounded by what I saw. After leaving the field I went home and looked up in the rafters of my garage and thought ‘why not?’”
Kent already had an Airtronics VG6DR radio, which he had saved for roughly 20 years, and he purchased a Sirius Smart Charger to install the radio in his model.
“I thought that perhaps this story may inspire others who haven’t been active to dust off their airplanes and get back into the air as I have,” he wrote. “The HP runs as well as it did 25 years ago and at the price of fuel, I am very pleased.”
Floatin' Taylorcraft
Henry "Hank" Jacobs (20728 Highland Hall Dr., Montgomery Village MD 20886; e-mail: [email protected]) assembled this E-flite Taylorcraft ARF on Plane Fun Floats.
The model is powered by an E-flite 480 outrunner and a 2100 mAh Li-Poly battery, guided with a Spektrum flight system.
To use the balsa-covered foam floats, Hank beefed up the existing landing-gear support and added a second set of blind nuts to attach the rear float supports. According to him, the Taylorcraft flies off the water identically to the full-scale airplane and has plenty of rudder authority in the air and on the water without any type of extension.
AG-1 Agrivation
Ken Lawrence (2455 Grafton St., El Cajon CA 92020; e-mail: [email protected]) built his Agrivation from plans that accompanied the July 1978 MA.
He made 20 modifications to the model, including mounting the engine sideways, adding landing-gear fairings, installing a smaller engine, and employing iron-on covering instead of a silk-and-dope finish.
The Agrivation spans 60 inches and weighs 4 pounds, 14 ounces. Power is an O.S. 46LA, and radio equipment is an Airtronics RDS8000 FHSS transmitter with Airtronics receiver, servos, and battery.
"The construction was quite straightforward, and a lot of fun," wrote Ken. "I really prefer building from plans or kits, and this airplane was a real delight!"
Horten Ho 229 V3
Mark Amisano (220 Deerwood Dr., Baldwinsville NY 13027) built this Horten Ho 229 V3 that Gary Hathcoat of Wings on the Web (www.wingsontheweb.com) designed using accurate drawings by Arthur Bentley.
It spans 66 inches, weighs 4.2 pounds, and has a wing area of 833 square inches, for a wing loading of roughly 12.5 ounces per square foot.
Power is twin HET 6409 70mm fans, HET Typhoon 2W brushless motors, and two Venom Power 3S 2100 mAh Li-Poly packs in parallel. Two Turnigy Plush 60-amp ESCs are used in parallel.
"This model was a prototype 'beta build' for studying the aerodynamics of Horten wings," wrote Mark. "It features scale outline, scale Horten airfoil, and scale frise-style elevons. It flies very well with a beautiful glide ratio as well."
Beechcraft Musketeer
John Bittner (W. 6216 Spencer St., Appleton WI 54914; e-mail: [email protected]) finished this Altech Marketing ARC (Almost Ready-to-Cover) model.
It spans 96 inches, is 72 inches long, and weighs 28 pounds dry. It has plywood-covered foam wings, stabilizer, and fin. The rest of the Musketeer is either plywood or basswood.
The numbers on the airplane are those from a Musketeer that John's son, Bob, trained in for his pilot's license. The color scheme is John's. He covered the model in MonoKote and painted the cowl.
A Futaba 8UAF radio system controls Futaba and Tower Hobbies servos. A SuperTigre S2000 glow engine turns an 18 x 8 Master Airscrew Simitar propeller.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
