Bill Bradley and Manzano Laser Works bring us a WWII Japanese Val kit
I have had the privilege in past columns to present the work of Bill Bradley. Although our last names are the same, we are not directly related. Bill does some nice small-field-compatible scale model designs.
His latest effort is the World War II Japanese Aichi D3A Val torpedo bomber. Sporting a 36-inch wingspan and a flying weight of 28 ounces, it is perfect for small fields.
Bill’s Val is covered with Polyspan and finished in satin latex paint. Bill noted that not all Vals were silver or dark green. During the summer of 1941, some Type 99 Vals were painted light gray, which is the color scheme that Bill chose for his model. The graphics were made using ink-jet-printed clear decal paper.
For power, Bill is using a Turnigy C3530-1700 motor turning a Master Airscrew 8 x 3 three-blade propeller. He noted that this is more power than necessary, but what the heck. If decent power is good, then a lot must be great!
The fuselage is planked with 1/16-inch balsa. The landing gear legs are plug-in modules, allowing them to be knocked off on hard landings to help prevent damage to the model.
Another nice feature of the aircraft is the way the plastic cowl is mounted. Rather than using rare-earth magnets to hold the cowl in place, Bill set up a twist-on, twist-off mount that uses three #8 pan-head screws.
Bill reported that the model flies nicely. He has teamed up with Manzano Laser Works to make kits for his Val. Kits include formed plastic parts from Keith “Sparky” Sparks of Park Flyer Plastics. See the “Sources” listing for Manzano Laser Works.
Transitioning to Ailerons
How often have you wanted a relatively simple model that is not quite micro size, but is still on the small side of the small-field model spectrum? You know — a nice, comfortable-flying airplane that can be flown in a tight space. If you have an interest in such a model, consider the Transition 75 from Bob Aberle.
As the name suggests, it has a 75-square-inch wing area and is intended to introduce pilots who are accustomed to rudder-and-elevator control to airplanes that include ailerons. Bob designed this model using experience gained when he designed 200-square-inch and 55-square-inch models intended for small venues. The Transition 75 has a 20-inch wingspan and a flying weight of 4.7 ounces.
Power comes from an E-flite Park 180 brushless motor. It can be flown using either 250 or 450 mAh two-cell battery packs. The 250 mAh pack delivers about 5 minutes of flying time, while the 450 mAh pack will fly for about 9 minutes. Plans for the Transition 75 appeared in the January 2014 issue of RC Micro World. Contact information is in “Sources.”
External Control Linkages
Regular contributor John Krouse sent a photo of his recent project: a rudder/throttle control model that uses wire-cut foam wing blanks from Bob Selman Designs.
During the model’s concept phase, John felt that an external pushrod for the rudder would look wrong. Rather than a wooden stick for the fuselage tailboom, he used a hollow carbon tube. The hollow carbon tube provided a convenient place to hide the rudder pushrod while maintaining a relatively simple installation.
His close-up photo shows the magnetic actuator used for the rudder control and its mounting location relative to the carbon-fiber tube tailboom. The pushrod simply passes through the tailboom to the rudder. Although not a unique idea, it’s easy to overlook when setting up a "simple" model. Concealing the pushrod makes for a much cleaner-looking model and reduces the occurrence of hangar rash. It’s easy to hook an external pushrod on something when moving a model. Nice work as always, John.
That's it for this installment. Please let me know what you are up to in the world of small-field flying.
SOURCES
- Manzano Laser Works
(505) 286-2640 www.manzanolaser.com
- RC Micro World
[email protected] www.fullsizeplans.com
- Bob Selman Designs
(417) 358-9521 www.bsdmicrorc.com
- Paul Bradley
10201 Scarlet Oak Dr. Independence, KY 41051 [email protected] www.parmodels.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
