FOCAL POINT
Astro-Hog
Joseph Chadwick (905 N. Amy Dr., Deer Park, TX 77536) built his Astro-Hog from a Sig kit. The model was finished in UltraCote and weighs 7 lb 5 oz. Joseph uses an O.S. .61FX for power with guidance supplied by an Airtronics 2.4 GHz radio.
Senior Kadet
John O’Brien (92 Arch Rd., Harmon, IL 61042; email: [email protected]) kitbashed this Senior Kadet he had stored in his attic. Twenty years ago, John bought four Tower Hobby .40 motors. They were lying around new but unused, so he decided to put them to use. He added 13 inches to the wing and sheeted the body. John wrote: "I have about 25 flights on it now and it flies real nice as long as you don’t lose an outboard engine! I just chop the throttle and glide it in."
1977 Magnum
Edward Pasick (7664 Brofield Ave., Windermere, FL 34786; email: [email protected]) constructed this 1977 Magnum .80 from a set of plans designed by Dick Sarpolus from New Jersey. Construction is balsa, light plywood, and clear MonoKote. The original Magnum flew at 109 mph with twin K&B 7.5s and tuned pipes. This 2011 version is powered by two Super Tigre .40s, which is fast enough for Edward. The original plans were tweaked for today’s modern radio equipment. Total construction time was roughly 80 hours. The original model was sheeted and painted.
Douglas Dauntless SBD 5
Matt Ventura (2612 E. Torrey Pine Ln., Chandler, AZ 85249; [email protected]) built this 1/7-scale Dauntless from a 1978 Bob Holman kit given to him roughly three years ago by his former club president. Matt wrote: "This older kit was very challenging as all I had to work with were the blueprints, no instructions, but some very precisely cut balsa. Fortunately the wood was still in good shape. The build took me almost six months, but the end product was worth the effort." The power plant is a Magnum XL 120 four-stroke engine. The cockpit is a modified Dynamic Balsa cockpit used in an ESM Dauntless. Matt built and submitted this Dauntless to MA in memory of Frank Bigelow.
Desperado
William Hayes (5462 Constantine Rd., Cecilia, KY 42724; email: [email protected]) built this Bill Evans Desperado from scratch. The wings are hand-cut, foam-core sheeted with 3/32-inch balsa. The fuselage and tail were built from Luan flooring plywood. The Desperado spans 62.5 inches and is powered by an O.S. Max .61FX. This is William's fourth scratch-built Simitar. "It flies like an eagle and is a real head-turner at the fields," wrote William.
Chilton WD 1
Emerson Melton (180 Coffey St., Brooklyn, NY 11231; email: [email protected]) spent four months building his model from a drawing. He wrote: "This airplane was designed by two student design engineers in England in early 1937. They only built four over two years. The intent was to build a lightweight racer that would operate cheaply, yet have exceptional performance on low power." Emerson's model is 1/4 scale. Many of the wing ribs had to be designed because there were no templates to use. The Chilton spans 84.5 inches, weighs 11.5 lb, and uses a Zenoah G-26 for power.
Byron F-16
Carl Malta (3 Valleyview Ave., Jamestown, NY 14701; email: [email protected]) wrote: "I've had this kit for 30 years and I finally decided to finish it." It's powered by a Rossi .81 and controlled by a Spektrum DX7 radio with eight Hitec servos.
"I did not use the wishbone system for the elevator. Instead, I installed two servos. I also installed an Iron Bay pressure valve with two fuel tanks and no header tank and this worked very well.
"The plane also has retracts installed. I had the first flight last week and it flew absolutely beautifully. All systems operated perfectly.
"I would also like to thank my pit crew of Tom Griehm and Bill Parenti for their great help (a pit crew is essential to fly the F-16). Due to my mistake of leaving the throttle trim set too low, my first landing was a dead-stick landing, but it was a great landing."
Kloud King
Jay Barkdull (4755 S. Xenon Way, Morrison, CO 80465; email: [email protected]) recently completed this 1938 DeAngelis design. The original Kloud King has a 63-inch wingspan, but Jay enlarged his to 108 inches. Covering is many rolls of Oracover. It is powered by an O.S. Gemini Twin with an onboard RAM glow igniter and controlled by a Futaba T7CAP. The Kloud King was kitted by Bob Gray of B&M Models, Layton, Utah.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
