Radio Control Giants - 2010/05
Steve Schooler's Gere Sport
Welcome back! Purchasing a used model can come with rewards and disappointments. What looks at first like a beautifully finished airplane on the outside could be below standard on the inside. Conversely, an aircraft might be operationally sound but may not have the level of finish or appearance you’d prefer.
Every once in a while we stumble across a model that, with a little work and care, can be transformed into a favorite within our Giant Scale stable. Such is the case with Steve Schooler and his Gere Sport.
The full-scale Gere Sport was a 1930s-era home-built biplane designed by a young George “Bud” Gere. He engineered it around Ford Model T and A four-cylinder engines that were reliable and in plentiful supply. Bud Gere was killed in an accident before he could see his airplane’s first flight. The Gere Sport became a popular home-built; some examples are still flying today, often with upgraded power plants.
Steve Schooler of Cypress, California, found an advertisement on Craigslist for a completed Bud Nosen kit-built 1/3-scale Gere Sport. It had been constructed more than 15 years earlier by a man who had passed away without ever flying the model; his son was offering it for sale. The model was powered by a Quadra .50 gas engine, covered with Solartex, and included an old World Engines radio. Steve promptly removed the old radio to make room for an updated 2.4 GHz system.
He wrote: "I had the old Quadra 50 fired up and she flew beautifully. I've had so much fun flying a plane that looks and flies realistic, I haven't been able to leave it alone.
"I've repaired some of the Solartex, repainted and lettered it to give it some character, and made a replica Model 'T' engine out of balsa and some scrap hardware. Now she looks just like the original did."
Steve also gave the homemade cowl an aluminum-tape makeover, adding what he says are “real” rivets—about 250 of them. He has been flying RC for approximately 30 years and is a member of the San Gabriel Valley Radio Control League. The club field is located at Whittier Narrows Park in South El Monte, California. Super job on that four-cylinder engine, Steve, and congrats on a fine-looking Gere Sport.
Henry Harjes — 1/6-scale de Havilland Series 300 DHC-6 Twin Otter
Henry Harjes of Etna, New Hampshire, a retired electronics engineer, designed and built a 1/6-scale de Havilland Series 300 DHC-6 Twin Otter. The model has a wingspan of 132 inches and an all-up weight of 49 pounds. Henry chose the Twin Otter for its rugged, versatile workhorse design and excellent STOL (Short Takeoff & Landing) performance, which suited his modest flying skills.
Unable to locate plans of any size, he contacted the operations manager at Viking Air Limited in British Columbia, Canada, the company that holds certificates for many de Havilland aircraft. A week later he received an email containing the factory drawings in TIF format.
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