118 MODEL AVIATION
THE NATS STARDUSTER event has had a name change. It is now
called the “One Design Combo,” to more accurately reflect its intent.
You can fly any of the former One Design event 1/2A Gas models
in the class. If the airplane is early Nostalgia or Nostalgia-legal, it must
be flown with a Nostalgia-legal engine. All other designs can use a
Nostalgia-legal engine or a TD .049 or .051.
Paul Grabski built a Lincoln Beachey monoplane for the Slow race at
the 2009 Flying Aces Club (FAC) Nats at Geneseo, New York. As the
event’s name implies, the challenge is to fly a course as slowly as
possible.
Paul’s model is based on Walt Mooney’s plans for a 16-inchwingspan
Beachey. Paul made several changes to make it closer to
scale and easier to fly.
He changed the wing and rudder outlines and the wing airfoil, and
he shortened and corrected the fuselage shape and corrected the cowl
outline. Paul enlarged the wingspan to 21 inches.
The color of his Lincoln is based on an eyewitness account in the
book Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky, by Frank
Marrero. The airplane was described as being yellow and silver. The
name “Beachey” on the wing is shown in a photo in the book.
Paul is using a wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor
peg bearing. The holes for the peg are slightly oversize. The left side of
the peg is retained with a short length of the next-larger-size aluminum
tube, which is glued to the motor peg. The right side is retained by a
small piece of surgical tubing, which can be removed for motor
changes.
Karl Gies has continued his love affair with rise-off-ground models by
building a New Millennium Sleek-Streek, which Clint Brooks
designed. As a kid, Karl had his first successes with AJ Hornets and
then North Pacific Sleek-Streeks. He went through many of them.
Somewhere along the line, Karl and his friends learned about
winders, stretch winding, and good rubber. They customized Sleek-
Streeks with longer fuselages, different wings, etc. and had some
terrific flights, losing many of the models to roofs, trees, dogs, and
thermals.
Clint has designed what Karl believes is the ultimate Sleek-Streek.
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
FF Nats event name change
Also included in this column:
• Lincoln Beachey by Paul
Grabski
• New Sleek-Streek
• Tip stall and the Yak
• Dave Mitchell’s P-80
• Doug Beardsworth Albatros
• US Indoor Championships
dates
• Max-Fax Dime Scale plans
• Flight-packed Nats schedule
Paul Grabski built this Lincoln Beachey for the Slow race. It uses a
wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor peg bearing.
George White photo.
Clint Brooks’ New Millennium Sleek-Streek design weighs 29.9
grams less rubber. Plans are available on the Small Flying Arts
Web site. Gies photo.
The author with his Yak-3, built from Don DeLoach plans from Flying Models. The Yak
had a seven-minute flight at Denver, Colorado, in the fall.
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 118
It weighs 29.9 grams less rubber. You can find
the plans on the Small Flying Arts Web site.
Tip stall is a typical characteristic in models
with highly tapered wings. When a wingtip
stalls, it drops and the airplane enters a spin. The
cure is to wash out the wingtips.
Raise the wingtips’ TE in relation to the LE.
That decreases the angle of attack of the tip
airfoil, and the tips will stall after the centersection,
resulting in a more straightforward and
safer stall.
In Walt Mooney’s Val Peanut Scale
construction article in the June 1981 Model
Builder magazine, he wrote about the model’s
tip-stall issues. Spitfires have the same
tendency. Walt described how he solved the
problem with wing washout.
Many of the World War II Russian fighters
had extremely tapered wings, including the
Yak-3. I built one of those models from Don
DeLoach’s plans and used slight washout in
both wingtips. It is stable and flies great.
Don’s Yak-3 design was published in the
June 2009 Flying Models magazine. He has a
few laser-cut short kits remaining, for $20 postpaid. You can obtain the
plans (CD0371, for $7) from Flying Models.
Some aeromodelers don’t like the looks of a propeller on the front of
a model jet, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Once the aircraft gets into
the air, the propeller tends to disappear, especially if it is painted black.
The FAC now has two events in which models of jets can be flown.
Modern Military is open to post-WW II propeller- or jet-driven
aircraft, and the new Rubber Jet Scale is for models of jets.
With the latter event in mind, Dave Mitchell decided to model the
P-80 Shooting Star. He finished it in the colors of the post-WW II US
Air Force Acrojets demostration team.
March 2010 119
Stew Meyers with a bevy of Dime Scale WW I biplanes that he
featured in the Max-Fax newsletter. They fly amazingly.
Doug Beardsworth did a fantastic job on this Golden Age Reproductions Albatros D.V.
The airbrushed finish is his thinned Floquil-tinted nitrate dope.
Dave Mitchell holds his FAC Scale-winning P-80, finished in the
livery of the US Air Force Acrojets aerobatic team.
Dave chose that scheme primarily because he thought it looked
sharp, but also because he wanted to model a P-80 without wingtip
tanks—and there were many pictures of the Acrojet P-80s flying sans
tanks.
He built it to compete in the FAC Rubber Jet Scale class, thinking it
could moonlight in Modern Military. Then Dave learned, to his
chagrin, that the P-80 actually qualifies as a WW II design, since
production began before the end of the war. Finished in the postwar
colors, the Shooting Star cannot compete in a WW II mass-launch
event.
The P-80’s finish is silver acrylic airbrushed over black tissue.
Lettering and trim are mostly tissue, but there is a bit of computer work
on the small lettering. The insignia are computer-generated, printed on
tissue, and applied with Elmer’s spray adhesive. Dave applied the
panel lines with a Sharpie marker.
He made the model’s intake and wing fillets using molded and
sanded watercolor paper. Those fillets are spectacular! The wings are
the friction-fit, pop-off style.
The P-80’s empty weight is 45.6 grams with ballast. The test motor
was four loops of 3/16-inch rubber weighing 19 grams. The wing area is
98.5 square inches, giving a wing loading of .67 gram/square inch.
Frank Rowsome collaborated with Dave on the model’s test flights.
As the power was ramped up, the P-80 didn’t want to climb until the
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 119
initial torque burst wore off. Downthrust was
decreased until the climb improved.
Roughly 1/2 gram of weight was added to
the tail, to improve the glide. At that point, the
model had an open right-hand pattern
throughout the flight with an easy transition
into the glide.
The P-80’s first contest was in Raeford,
North Carolina, in the fall. The wind dropped
at the end of the day, and Dave got in three or
four flights; the final one at 80% max winds in
damp air.
Despite the air, the jet notched a 90-second
flight to win the FAC Scale event. That flight
was impressive enough that Dave has been
considering retrofitting a DT.
He wrote a great article about using
watercolor paper for fillets, which was
published in the September 2009 Thermalier:
the newsletter of the Pensacola Free Flight
Team. Each issue of that publication is chockfull
of FF building and flying tips. To
subscribe, send $15 to George White.
Doug Beardsworth used a Golden Age
Reproductions kit to build an Albatros D.V,
and he finished it in the colors of 36-victory
Ace Max Muller’s aircraft. The finish is
Doug’s tried-and-true thinned Floquil-tinted
nitrate dope with plasticizer added, airbrushed
over white Esaki.
What Doug likes best about that finish is
that once the dope sets for a few days, it tends
to be “cured” and is stable and warp-resistant
from that point onward. Doug sprays the
surfaces, blocks them down flat, and forgets
about them for a week or so.
The Albatros has been flown and has
proven to be a nice, stable performer.
Durations were pushing close to a minute on
the early flights, so Doug was thrilled.
The D.V weighs 49 grams empty, with 99
square inches of wing area. The motor is four
strands of 1/8-inch Supersport, weighing
approximately 9 grams. The propeller is an 8-
inch Peck-Polymers. The model is dressed up
with a quick spritz of tan paint, followed by
brown tissue strips glued on to simulate the
laminations.
The Albatros incorporates all the tricks for
power Doug has picked up in the past year.
He is using an adjustable thrust button, a
figure-8 propeller hook, the forward “Gamble
peg,” and a rear spool. Now he can pack in the
turns despite the relatively short hook-to-peg
length.
Dates for the 2010 US Indoor
Championships have been set: Wednesday
June 2 to Sunday June 6. Tuesday will be a
setup day.
Traditionally, there has been no flying that
day. However, East Tennessee State
University in Johnson City, where the event is
held, said it has no problem with some
practice-flying on Tuesday.
Stew Meyers is a big fan of Dime Scale
models and has been featuring a number of
such plans in the Max-Fax newsletter, of the
D.C. Maxecuters, in the past year. He built all
of the models in the accompanying picture.
These 75-year-old designs fly amazingly well.
You can subscribe to Max-Fax by sending
$20 to Stew.
Twelve FAC events will be held during this
year’s AMA FF Nats. Wednesday is for
Jimmie Allen, Phantom Flash, and Dime Scale.
Thursday events are Embryo Endurance,
Golden Age (Military and Civilian), Old-Time
Rubber, and WW II Mass Launch.
Friday’s events are Power Scale, Rubber
Scale, Peanut Scale, No-Cal, and WW I
Mass Launch. Judging will be done from
noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon
on Friday. MA
Sources:
Small Flying Arts
(253) 970-0014
www.smallflyingarts.com
Don DeLoach
831 E. Willamette
Colorado Springs CO 80903
Flying Models magazine
www.flying-models.com
George White
5928 Hermitage Dr.
Pensacola FL 32504
Stew Meyers
8304 Whitman Dr.
Bethesda MD 20817
National Free Flight Society
www.freeflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/03
Page Numbers: 118,119,120
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/03
Page Numbers: 118,119,120
118 MODEL AVIATION
THE NATS STARDUSTER event has had a name change. It is now
called the “One Design Combo,” to more accurately reflect its intent.
You can fly any of the former One Design event 1/2A Gas models
in the class. If the airplane is early Nostalgia or Nostalgia-legal, it must
be flown with a Nostalgia-legal engine. All other designs can use a
Nostalgia-legal engine or a TD .049 or .051.
Paul Grabski built a Lincoln Beachey monoplane for the Slow race at
the 2009 Flying Aces Club (FAC) Nats at Geneseo, New York. As the
event’s name implies, the challenge is to fly a course as slowly as
possible.
Paul’s model is based on Walt Mooney’s plans for a 16-inchwingspan
Beachey. Paul made several changes to make it closer to
scale and easier to fly.
He changed the wing and rudder outlines and the wing airfoil, and
he shortened and corrected the fuselage shape and corrected the cowl
outline. Paul enlarged the wingspan to 21 inches.
The color of his Lincoln is based on an eyewitness account in the
book Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky, by Frank
Marrero. The airplane was described as being yellow and silver. The
name “Beachey” on the wing is shown in a photo in the book.
Paul is using a wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor
peg bearing. The holes for the peg are slightly oversize. The left side of
the peg is retained with a short length of the next-larger-size aluminum
tube, which is glued to the motor peg. The right side is retained by a
small piece of surgical tubing, which can be removed for motor
changes.
Karl Gies has continued his love affair with rise-off-ground models by
building a New Millennium Sleek-Streek, which Clint Brooks
designed. As a kid, Karl had his first successes with AJ Hornets and
then North Pacific Sleek-Streeks. He went through many of them.
Somewhere along the line, Karl and his friends learned about
winders, stretch winding, and good rubber. They customized Sleek-
Streeks with longer fuselages, different wings, etc. and had some
terrific flights, losing many of the models to roofs, trees, dogs, and
thermals.
Clint has designed what Karl believes is the ultimate Sleek-Streek.
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
FF Nats event name change
Also included in this column:
• Lincoln Beachey by Paul
Grabski
• New Sleek-Streek
• Tip stall and the Yak
• Dave Mitchell’s P-80
• Doug Beardsworth Albatros
• US Indoor Championships
dates
• Max-Fax Dime Scale plans
• Flight-packed Nats schedule
Paul Grabski built this Lincoln Beachey for the Slow race. It uses a
wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor peg bearing.
George White photo.
Clint Brooks’ New Millennium Sleek-Streek design weighs 29.9
grams less rubber. Plans are available on the Small Flying Arts
Web site. Gies photo.
The author with his Yak-3, built from Don DeLoach plans from Flying Models. The Yak
had a seven-minute flight at Denver, Colorado, in the fall.
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 118
It weighs 29.9 grams less rubber. You can find
the plans on the Small Flying Arts Web site.
Tip stall is a typical characteristic in models
with highly tapered wings. When a wingtip
stalls, it drops and the airplane enters a spin. The
cure is to wash out the wingtips.
Raise the wingtips’ TE in relation to the LE.
That decreases the angle of attack of the tip
airfoil, and the tips will stall after the centersection,
resulting in a more straightforward and
safer stall.
In Walt Mooney’s Val Peanut Scale
construction article in the June 1981 Model
Builder magazine, he wrote about the model’s
tip-stall issues. Spitfires have the same
tendency. Walt described how he solved the
problem with wing washout.
Many of the World War II Russian fighters
had extremely tapered wings, including the
Yak-3. I built one of those models from Don
DeLoach’s plans and used slight washout in
both wingtips. It is stable and flies great.
Don’s Yak-3 design was published in the
June 2009 Flying Models magazine. He has a
few laser-cut short kits remaining, for $20 postpaid. You can obtain the
plans (CD0371, for $7) from Flying Models.
Some aeromodelers don’t like the looks of a propeller on the front of
a model jet, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Once the aircraft gets into
the air, the propeller tends to disappear, especially if it is painted black.
The FAC now has two events in which models of jets can be flown.
Modern Military is open to post-WW II propeller- or jet-driven
aircraft, and the new Rubber Jet Scale is for models of jets.
With the latter event in mind, Dave Mitchell decided to model the
P-80 Shooting Star. He finished it in the colors of the post-WW II US
Air Force Acrojets demostration team.
March 2010 119
Stew Meyers with a bevy of Dime Scale WW I biplanes that he
featured in the Max-Fax newsletter. They fly amazingly.
Doug Beardsworth did a fantastic job on this Golden Age Reproductions Albatros D.V.
The airbrushed finish is his thinned Floquil-tinted nitrate dope.
Dave Mitchell holds his FAC Scale-winning P-80, finished in the
livery of the US Air Force Acrojets aerobatic team.
Dave chose that scheme primarily because he thought it looked
sharp, but also because he wanted to model a P-80 without wingtip
tanks—and there were many pictures of the Acrojet P-80s flying sans
tanks.
He built it to compete in the FAC Rubber Jet Scale class, thinking it
could moonlight in Modern Military. Then Dave learned, to his
chagrin, that the P-80 actually qualifies as a WW II design, since
production began before the end of the war. Finished in the postwar
colors, the Shooting Star cannot compete in a WW II mass-launch
event.
The P-80’s finish is silver acrylic airbrushed over black tissue.
Lettering and trim are mostly tissue, but there is a bit of computer work
on the small lettering. The insignia are computer-generated, printed on
tissue, and applied with Elmer’s spray adhesive. Dave applied the
panel lines with a Sharpie marker.
He made the model’s intake and wing fillets using molded and
sanded watercolor paper. Those fillets are spectacular! The wings are
the friction-fit, pop-off style.
The P-80’s empty weight is 45.6 grams with ballast. The test motor
was four loops of 3/16-inch rubber weighing 19 grams. The wing area is
98.5 square inches, giving a wing loading of .67 gram/square inch.
Frank Rowsome collaborated with Dave on the model’s test flights.
As the power was ramped up, the P-80 didn’t want to climb until the
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 119
initial torque burst wore off. Downthrust was
decreased until the climb improved.
Roughly 1/2 gram of weight was added to
the tail, to improve the glide. At that point, the
model had an open right-hand pattern
throughout the flight with an easy transition
into the glide.
The P-80’s first contest was in Raeford,
North Carolina, in the fall. The wind dropped
at the end of the day, and Dave got in three or
four flights; the final one at 80% max winds in
damp air.
Despite the air, the jet notched a 90-second
flight to win the FAC Scale event. That flight
was impressive enough that Dave has been
considering retrofitting a DT.
He wrote a great article about using
watercolor paper for fillets, which was
published in the September 2009 Thermalier:
the newsletter of the Pensacola Free Flight
Team. Each issue of that publication is chockfull
of FF building and flying tips. To
subscribe, send $15 to George White.
Doug Beardsworth used a Golden Age
Reproductions kit to build an Albatros D.V,
and he finished it in the colors of 36-victory
Ace Max Muller’s aircraft. The finish is
Doug’s tried-and-true thinned Floquil-tinted
nitrate dope with plasticizer added, airbrushed
over white Esaki.
What Doug likes best about that finish is
that once the dope sets for a few days, it tends
to be “cured” and is stable and warp-resistant
from that point onward. Doug sprays the
surfaces, blocks them down flat, and forgets
about them for a week or so.
The Albatros has been flown and has
proven to be a nice, stable performer.
Durations were pushing close to a minute on
the early flights, so Doug was thrilled.
The D.V weighs 49 grams empty, with 99
square inches of wing area. The motor is four
strands of 1/8-inch Supersport, weighing
approximately 9 grams. The propeller is an 8-
inch Peck-Polymers. The model is dressed up
with a quick spritz of tan paint, followed by
brown tissue strips glued on to simulate the
laminations.
The Albatros incorporates all the tricks for
power Doug has picked up in the past year.
He is using an adjustable thrust button, a
figure-8 propeller hook, the forward “Gamble
peg,” and a rear spool. Now he can pack in the
turns despite the relatively short hook-to-peg
length.
Dates for the 2010 US Indoor
Championships have been set: Wednesday
June 2 to Sunday June 6. Tuesday will be a
setup day.
Traditionally, there has been no flying that
day. However, East Tennessee State
University in Johnson City, where the event is
held, said it has no problem with some
practice-flying on Tuesday.
Stew Meyers is a big fan of Dime Scale
models and has been featuring a number of
such plans in the Max-Fax newsletter, of the
D.C. Maxecuters, in the past year. He built all
of the models in the accompanying picture.
These 75-year-old designs fly amazingly well.
You can subscribe to Max-Fax by sending
$20 to Stew.
Twelve FAC events will be held during this
year’s AMA FF Nats. Wednesday is for
Jimmie Allen, Phantom Flash, and Dime Scale.
Thursday events are Embryo Endurance,
Golden Age (Military and Civilian), Old-Time
Rubber, and WW II Mass Launch.
Friday’s events are Power Scale, Rubber
Scale, Peanut Scale, No-Cal, and WW I
Mass Launch. Judging will be done from
noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon
on Friday. MA
Sources:
Small Flying Arts
(253) 970-0014
www.smallflyingarts.com
Don DeLoach
831 E. Willamette
Colorado Springs CO 80903
Flying Models magazine
www.flying-models.com
George White
5928 Hermitage Dr.
Pensacola FL 32504
Stew Meyers
8304 Whitman Dr.
Bethesda MD 20817
National Free Flight Society
www.freeflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2010/03
Page Numbers: 118,119,120
118 MODEL AVIATION
THE NATS STARDUSTER event has had a name change. It is now
called the “One Design Combo,” to more accurately reflect its intent.
You can fly any of the former One Design event 1/2A Gas models
in the class. If the airplane is early Nostalgia or Nostalgia-legal, it must
be flown with a Nostalgia-legal engine. All other designs can use a
Nostalgia-legal engine or a TD .049 or .051.
Paul Grabski built a Lincoln Beachey monoplane for the Slow race at
the 2009 Flying Aces Club (FAC) Nats at Geneseo, New York. As the
event’s name implies, the challenge is to fly a course as slowly as
possible.
Paul’s model is based on Walt Mooney’s plans for a 16-inchwingspan
Beachey. Paul made several changes to make it closer to
scale and easier to fly.
He changed the wing and rudder outlines and the wing airfoil, and
he shortened and corrected the fuselage shape and corrected the cowl
outline. Paul enlarged the wingspan to 21 inches.
The color of his Lincoln is based on an eyewitness account in the
book Lincoln Beachey: The Man Who Owned the Sky, by Frank
Marrero. The airplane was described as being yellow and silver. The
name “Beachey” on the wing is shown in a photo in the book.
Paul is using a wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor
peg bearing. The holes for the peg are slightly oversize. The left side of
the peg is retained with a short length of the next-larger-size aluminum
tube, which is glued to the motor peg. The right side is retained by a
small piece of surgical tubing, which can be removed for motor
changes.
Karl Gies has continued his love affair with rise-off-ground models by
building a New Millennium Sleek-Streek, which Clint Brooks
designed. As a kid, Karl had his first successes with AJ Hornets and
then North Pacific Sleek-Streeks. He went through many of them.
Somewhere along the line, Karl and his friends learned about
winders, stretch winding, and good rubber. They customized Sleek-
Streeks with longer fuselages, different wings, etc. and had some
terrific flights, losing many of the models to roofs, trees, dogs, and
thermals.
Clint has designed what Karl believes is the ultimate Sleek-Streek.
[[email protected]]
Free Flight Sport Gene Smith
FF Nats event name change
Also included in this column:
• Lincoln Beachey by Paul
Grabski
• New Sleek-Streek
• Tip stall and the Yak
• Dave Mitchell’s P-80
• Doug Beardsworth Albatros
• US Indoor Championships
dates
• Max-Fax Dime Scale plans
• Flight-packed Nats schedule
Paul Grabski built this Lincoln Beachey for the Slow race. It uses a
wobbly rear peg, which acts like an oversized motor peg bearing.
George White photo.
Clint Brooks’ New Millennium Sleek-Streek design weighs 29.9
grams less rubber. Plans are available on the Small Flying Arts
Web site. Gies photo.
The author with his Yak-3, built from Don DeLoach plans from Flying Models. The Yak
had a seven-minute flight at Denver, Colorado, in the fall.
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 118
It weighs 29.9 grams less rubber. You can find
the plans on the Small Flying Arts Web site.
Tip stall is a typical characteristic in models
with highly tapered wings. When a wingtip
stalls, it drops and the airplane enters a spin. The
cure is to wash out the wingtips.
Raise the wingtips’ TE in relation to the LE.
That decreases the angle of attack of the tip
airfoil, and the tips will stall after the centersection,
resulting in a more straightforward and
safer stall.
In Walt Mooney’s Val Peanut Scale
construction article in the June 1981 Model
Builder magazine, he wrote about the model’s
tip-stall issues. Spitfires have the same
tendency. Walt described how he solved the
problem with wing washout.
Many of the World War II Russian fighters
had extremely tapered wings, including the
Yak-3. I built one of those models from Don
DeLoach’s plans and used slight washout in
both wingtips. It is stable and flies great.
Don’s Yak-3 design was published in the
June 2009 Flying Models magazine. He has a
few laser-cut short kits remaining, for $20 postpaid. You can obtain the
plans (CD0371, for $7) from Flying Models.
Some aeromodelers don’t like the looks of a propeller on the front of
a model jet, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Once the aircraft gets into
the air, the propeller tends to disappear, especially if it is painted black.
The FAC now has two events in which models of jets can be flown.
Modern Military is open to post-WW II propeller- or jet-driven
aircraft, and the new Rubber Jet Scale is for models of jets.
With the latter event in mind, Dave Mitchell decided to model the
P-80 Shooting Star. He finished it in the colors of the post-WW II US
Air Force Acrojets demostration team.
March 2010 119
Stew Meyers with a bevy of Dime Scale WW I biplanes that he
featured in the Max-Fax newsletter. They fly amazingly.
Doug Beardsworth did a fantastic job on this Golden Age Reproductions Albatros D.V.
The airbrushed finish is his thinned Floquil-tinted nitrate dope.
Dave Mitchell holds his FAC Scale-winning P-80, finished in the
livery of the US Air Force Acrojets aerobatic team.
Dave chose that scheme primarily because he thought it looked
sharp, but also because he wanted to model a P-80 without wingtip
tanks—and there were many pictures of the Acrojet P-80s flying sans
tanks.
He built it to compete in the FAC Rubber Jet Scale class, thinking it
could moonlight in Modern Military. Then Dave learned, to his
chagrin, that the P-80 actually qualifies as a WW II design, since
production began before the end of the war. Finished in the postwar
colors, the Shooting Star cannot compete in a WW II mass-launch
event.
The P-80’s finish is silver acrylic airbrushed over black tissue.
Lettering and trim are mostly tissue, but there is a bit of computer work
on the small lettering. The insignia are computer-generated, printed on
tissue, and applied with Elmer’s spray adhesive. Dave applied the
panel lines with a Sharpie marker.
He made the model’s intake and wing fillets using molded and
sanded watercolor paper. Those fillets are spectacular! The wings are
the friction-fit, pop-off style.
The P-80’s empty weight is 45.6 grams with ballast. The test motor
was four loops of 3/16-inch rubber weighing 19 grams. The wing area is
98.5 square inches, giving a wing loading of .67 gram/square inch.
Frank Rowsome collaborated with Dave on the model’s test flights.
As the power was ramped up, the P-80 didn’t want to climb until the
03sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 1/25/10 12:33 PM Page 119
initial torque burst wore off. Downthrust was
decreased until the climb improved.
Roughly 1/2 gram of weight was added to
the tail, to improve the glide. At that point, the
model had an open right-hand pattern
throughout the flight with an easy transition
into the glide.
The P-80’s first contest was in Raeford,
North Carolina, in the fall. The wind dropped
at the end of the day, and Dave got in three or
four flights; the final one at 80% max winds in
damp air.
Despite the air, the jet notched a 90-second
flight to win the FAC Scale event. That flight
was impressive enough that Dave has been
considering retrofitting a DT.
He wrote a great article about using
watercolor paper for fillets, which was
published in the September 2009 Thermalier:
the newsletter of the Pensacola Free Flight
Team. Each issue of that publication is chockfull
of FF building and flying tips. To
subscribe, send $15 to George White.
Doug Beardsworth used a Golden Age
Reproductions kit to build an Albatros D.V,
and he finished it in the colors of 36-victory
Ace Max Muller’s aircraft. The finish is
Doug’s tried-and-true thinned Floquil-tinted
nitrate dope with plasticizer added, airbrushed
over white Esaki.
What Doug likes best about that finish is
that once the dope sets for a few days, it tends
to be “cured” and is stable and warp-resistant
from that point onward. Doug sprays the
surfaces, blocks them down flat, and forgets
about them for a week or so.
The Albatros has been flown and has
proven to be a nice, stable performer.
Durations were pushing close to a minute on
the early flights, so Doug was thrilled.
The D.V weighs 49 grams empty, with 99
square inches of wing area. The motor is four
strands of 1/8-inch Supersport, weighing
approximately 9 grams. The propeller is an 8-
inch Peck-Polymers. The model is dressed up
with a quick spritz of tan paint, followed by
brown tissue strips glued on to simulate the
laminations.
The Albatros incorporates all the tricks for
power Doug has picked up in the past year.
He is using an adjustable thrust button, a
figure-8 propeller hook, the forward “Gamble
peg,” and a rear spool. Now he can pack in the
turns despite the relatively short hook-to-peg
length.
Dates for the 2010 US Indoor
Championships have been set: Wednesday
June 2 to Sunday June 6. Tuesday will be a
setup day.
Traditionally, there has been no flying that
day. However, East Tennessee State
University in Johnson City, where the event is
held, said it has no problem with some
practice-flying on Tuesday.
Stew Meyers is a big fan of Dime Scale
models and has been featuring a number of
such plans in the Max-Fax newsletter, of the
D.C. Maxecuters, in the past year. He built all
of the models in the accompanying picture.
These 75-year-old designs fly amazingly well.
You can subscribe to Max-Fax by sending
$20 to Stew.
Twelve FAC events will be held during this
year’s AMA FF Nats. Wednesday is for
Jimmie Allen, Phantom Flash, and Dime Scale.
Thursday events are Embryo Endurance,
Golden Age (Military and Civilian), Old-Time
Rubber, and WW II Mass Launch.
Friday’s events are Power Scale, Rubber
Scale, Peanut Scale, No-Cal, and WW I
Mass Launch. Judging will be done from
noon to 5 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon
on Friday. MA
Sources:
Small Flying Arts
(253) 970-0014
www.smallflyingarts.com
Don DeLoach
831 E. Willamette
Colorado Springs CO 80903
Flying Models magazine
www.flying-models.com
George White
5928 Hermitage Dr.
Pensacola FL 32504
Stew Meyers
8304 Whitman Dr.
Bethesda MD 20817
National Free Flight Society
www.freeflight.org
