2010 NEAT Fair
Joe Malinchak | [email protected]
As I write this month's column I am still winding down from a wonderful weekend of flying at the NEAT (Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology) Fair, held in Shinhopple, New York, September 17–19. Because we moved the indoor-flying portion of the event to the Keystone Indoor Electric Fly in October, attendance of the true micro-fliers was down.
However, the sky in the park-flyer area was consistently filled with micromodels of all sizes and types. New designs such as the ParkZone T-28, HobbyZone Champ, and Flyzone Albatros were everywhere. It was great to see modelers of all ages enjoying these RTFs and the growth and potential of our segment of the hobby!
Pete Foss had fun with his ParkZone Sukhoi, to which he added some beautiful Celtics decals. Personalizing your RTF is a great way to set it apart from others. The Celtics decal set and several other beautiful graphics for the ParkZone Sukhoi are available from Dennis Watson at Smokey Mountain Graphics.
I took many of my old micromodels and a few new ones to the NEAT Fair. I flew my 1/72-scale MiG-15 in front of others for the first time, but I could make only a few short flights with it because of the winds and minor problems I was having with it.
I also flew my latest Classroom Fighter design: a 1/48-scale P-51D Mustang. I am calling it the "Ultimate Classroom Fighter," because it has much more detail than my previous designs and features a custom light set. This P-51 has drop tanks, cowling covers that hide the GB05 motor, and was even signed by Bud Anderson, who flew the full-scale original "Old Crow" P-51.
Also included in this column:
- Nick Leichty's incredible Micro Acrobat
- The Flyzone Albatros is a hit!
Tiny Brite Lights and Classroom Fighters
After reviewing the great new light sets from Tiny Brite Lights in the September 2010 column, I contacted the company to see if it could make a set that would work on my Classroom Fighters. I told the employees that the set would have to weigh 400 milligrams or less to suit my needs.
To my surprise, they told me that they already had a set working in one of my Plantraco Classroom Fighters that they had purchased. It features red and green navigation lights, a solid-white position light, and working machine-gun lights that fire at random!
The company sent me a sample set to test, and I was blown away by the way the lights look on a model in flight. The unit with wires weighs right at 400 milligrams, and I hope it will be added to the Tiny Brite Lights product line.
I am thankful that we aeromodelers keep pushing the limits of what we can do with micro-size aircraft designs. One area in which some are hoping for development is in micro 3-D aerobatics models.
Nick Leichty — Micro Acrobat Biplane
Nick Leichty is making that dream a reality with his new Micro Acrobat Biplane. He designs and builds some of the world's smallest RC components and has helped many modelers, including me, achieve success with his wonderful products.
Nick's new aircraft weighs only 5 grams ready to fly and can do loops and rolls and go straight up on a single 20 mAh Li-Poly cell. It is constructed from .018-inch Durobatics and 1 mm Depron foam.
The biplane features a 115-milligram Rabbit receiver with actuator amplifiers on the aileron, elevator, and rudder channels; three of Nick's 50-ohm miniactuators; and a Gasparin G9 700 motor. He constructed everything on the model except for the motor and ESC.
According to him, it will fly aerobatics for up to 10 minutes with the 20 mAh cell. He also said that the airplane flies well at slow speeds and can even perform circles in a living room.
Nick will sell you all of the necessary components to build your own model, or even an RTF version of the Micro Acrobat Biplane. Please see his Micro Flier Radio Web site for more information and to see his wonderful line of products.
Flyzone Albatros
After seeing the new three-channel Flyzone Albatros at the NEAT Fair, I could not wait to fly one. It has a 14.5-inch wingspan and comes nicely packaged in an attractive box that also serves as a carrying case and protective storage container.
The Albatros comes with everything needed to fly it, including a 2.4 GHz transmitter, batteries, plastic machine guns, and even an unpainted pilot figure to add to its beautiful scale looks. (I still have to paint my pilot when I get some time.)
The transmitter also functions as a charger for the 130 mAh Li-Poly cell. I simply removed the model from the box, charged the battery, and took the Albatros outside to test-fly.
It weighs only 1 ounce ready to fly without the guns and pilot figure, so I knew that it would perform well. The first flight was great, but the model needed considerable up-elevator trim to stay level.
I landed the airplane and made a simple adjustment to the linkage with needle-nose pliers. Once properly trimmed, it flies wonderfully. The motor has plenty of power to allow the Albatros to do basic aerobatics such as loops from level flight. I was even doing some nice hammerhead stalls.
However, I like to fly these aircraft low and slow, and fortunately this design has good slow-speed characteristics. It also features nice-looking scale wheels for easy takeoffs and landings.
The Flyzone Albatros is a winner, and I am looking forward to seeing other releases in this category of models—maybe an S.E.5a with which to do a little dogfighting.
JM
Sources:
- NEAT Fair
- Smokey Mountain Graphics
http://smokeymountaingraphics.com
- Tiny Brite Lights
- Micro Flier Radio
(941) 377-9808 http://microflieradio.com
- Gasparin CO2 Motors
- Flyzone
(800) 637-7660 www.flyzoneplanes.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
