Southeastern Electic Flight Festival - 2008/09

September 2008 37
by Dave Terry
Electric flight sparks
the imagination
of today’s modeler
Right: Best in Show: Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil built
the Martian Spaceship. Yes, it
flies!
Right: The SEFF Police (L-R): Dave
McConnell, Dave Mason, and Matt
Klos. Below: “People come up and
tell me their ‘user name,’ and I
recognize them,” said John Morgan,
who is known as Pilot94. “Now I
have a face to match Internet chat
fellowship. We’re all here for the
same reason: sharing.”
One of the most outstanding experiences at
SEFF was the night flights. One night, when all
was still and stomachs were full, pilots came
together for this photo.
Below: Ethan Fuller
flies on the RealFlight
simulator a few hours
each week. He likes the
loops, rolls, and his dad
teaching him how to fly
this Lady Bug.
Above: 3D Hobby Shop’s Extra SHP
spans 87 inches and weighs 15
pounds running a STORM power
system by Hurricane Flight Systems
and Vision Hobbies.
Photos by the author
Right: The crowd was thrilled by the
halftime show. Most pilots even stopped
flying!
Below: Quique Somenzini’s Turbine
Toucan prototype spans 42 inches. It uses
an E-flite Power 25 motor and Thunder
Power 2200 4S battery pack cranking a 12
x 6 propeller, pulling 60 amps off an E-flite
ESC with shift mode.
DREAMING OF A giant, inflated RC
mosquito with camera-view technology, a
Tetracam voice co-pilot, tiny buzzing
ornithopter wings, a body like the amazing
Martian Spaceship, a VecJet XT thrustvectoring
tail, and robotic legs pulling on
his covers, my new flying friend Bo Lovell
awoke. He opened his bedroom door,
looked out across the still-sleeping Ron
Pinson and through the crowded RV’s
picture window, and saw Dan Schwartz
with Scott Hurley attempting to fly Dan’s
recently constructed Flying Tank.
“It isn’t getting off the ground yet!” he
yelled. “I’ll work on it tonight.”
The three friends, who stay in touch on
RCGroups, drove from Michigan,
Alabama, and North Carolina to meet at
Americus, Georgia. Dan had parked his
rented RV in the middle of Mac Hodges’
farm, where nearly 450 other electricpower
pilots would experience the
Southeast Electric Flight Festival, or
SEFF.
Among the pilots were old and young
friends from around the world who came
to share electrons, tent space, shade, water,
information, and new stories that had
developed since they had seen each other
last, and fly some of the craziest electric
contraptions ever to scare air molecules
into having a more meaningful and lifting
existence.
Without a doubt, the electrons did flow.
SEFF CD Jeff Myers said:
“It’s a festival of fun! There was a need
in the Southeast for a large electric event,
so our original goal was to create an
electric-only event for this area. We
started batting it around on RCGroups.com.
It grew, and now it’s the world’s largest
electric event.
“Of course the event wouldn’t be what it
is without Mac Hodges.”
Mr. Hodges was tinkering in a 5,000-
square-foot shop filled with electric-powered
airplanes and one massive gas-powered B-29
with a 20-foot wingspan, equipped with a
remotely detachable RC model of the Bell X-
1. Chuck Yeager used the full-scale to fly
beyond the speed of sound on October 14,
1947.
Forty years later, Mac Hodges and his
good friend Buddy Curtis honor the X-1
Left: The VecJet is
a thrust-vectoring
movable motor
system. Move the
rudder and the
motor moves to
the right or left,
which will spin the
model up to 500
rpm.
Mac Hodges with his B-29 that Dan Stephans built. The 20-footwingspan
model has four ZDZ 80cc engines and carries a 3.5-
pound X-1 rocket, which pilot Buddy Curtis has the bomber
drop in flight.
38 MODEL AVIATION
September 2008 39
Left: The 3D Hobby Shop
team was on the scene
with electricity and
enthusiasm.
Mac’s brother, Billy, was in a terrible
accident. Mac said:
“My brother, Billy, was flying the Cub
and it quit. He made a bad decision, turned
back and it went in and almost killed him.”
But Billy appeared for the halftime show
and got a huge round of applause from the
crowd.
The Sailplane contest started the event.
There were good thermals, and Don
Richmond sought them out with his buddy,
Paul Perret, using a Super AVA-E. It had a
147-inch wingspan, 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and a flying weight of 62 ounces,
and Don used a Picolario variometer thermal
sniffer. He claimed victories in both Class A
and Class B.
Other events included the Best in Show
those sheds [that are now filled with RC
model mall and event operations] had farm
equipment underneath. The farm’s been in
the family since ’bout 1905. We have about
2,400 acres. Now we rent the land for others
to do the farming.”
This gathering consists of four days and
nights of fun, May 1-4 this year, with the
Fayette Flyers of Atlanta, Georgia. The club
works hard to “give” to almost everyone
who attends, but this year was missing the
full-scale Cub rides. On August 1 last year,
during SEFF halftime shows. And honor is
the word that describes Mac Hodges.
“I’m a farmer,” said Mac while selecting
a tool in his shop. He was dressed in tan
slacks, a freshly ironed shirt, and tennis
shoes. He’d just finished stocking the public
bathroom with paper rolls, and the night
before at 10 p.m. he’d been restocking the
soda machine on the front porch of Hodges
Hobbies.
He said:
“We quit farming this area in ’98. All
Above: Jeff Pecca
with the future of
RC fun, which
may be in electricpowered
cars,
rockets, and flying
tanks.
Don Richmond, who traveled
from San Diego CA, launches his
Super AVA-E. It spans 147
inches, has 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and weighs just 62
ounces.
Above: The full-scale
Bumble Bee is known as
the world’s smallest
aircraft. This cabinversion
model of the
famed aircraft buzzed
the skies at SEFF.
Right: John
Howe and Scott
Hurley made this
swept-forwardwing
Talon. Its
construction is
rugged, and tight,
high-speed turns
are its forte.
There was also live music and a
fantastic barbecue, co-coordinated by Ric
Vaughn and Ernie Schlumberger with the
help of the Fayette Flyers.
The environment at SEFF is unique.
There’s Mac’s farmhouse, a windmill, and
a huge shop full of electric-powered
models. Hodges Hobbies retail store
overlooks a 1,700-foot Bermuda grass
runway. The site is divided into four flying
fields and a massive playground where
friends camp out, fly their latest creations,
and take part in this fun-filled gettogether.
“It’s like no other event I’ve ever
attended,” said one experienced pilot.
“There seems to be a different kind of
judging and awards, which builders Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil won with their
Martian Spaceship, and a record attempt.
Ninety-nine models destroyed the
Guinness World Record for the most RC
airplanes in the air at a time for one
minute. (See page 10 of the July MA for
the story.)
During the four days, thousands of
prizes, totaling more than $25,000, were
given away. Pilot 1 (who purchased 1,000
raffle tickets) was one of the big winners.
brotherhood among the people who attend
SEFF.”
“Yeah, imagine a group of Star
Trekkers and a group of professional
athletes, working, playing, and living in
close quarters, having fun and interacting
like best of friends,” said one of his
buddies.
And that group included the locals.
Fast Freddy and his wild bunch of Fayette
Flyers supplied 346 bottles of “Loose
Rudder Red Ale” and did most of the
work.
Ric Vaughn, Ernie Schlumberger, and
the SEFF police wagon were on duty
most of the weekend. They let you know
if you were out of line (or your flight
zone) and might have subjected you to
Right: Glenn Lewis
and Charles Parish
work on Charles’
GWS P-40. Vendors
were bountiful
enough at the event
that almost any
missing part or
whole project could
be acquired.
Below: Raffle tickets dropped from an
airplane attracted a lot of attention. Dust
was flying everywhere, and a few attendees
scored big. More than $25,000 in raffle
prizes was distributed by the end of the
event.
You couldn’t ask for a more perfect
spot at which to fly. However, the pilots
had to be prepared to land against a
crosswind.
Above: Dan Schwartz piloted this Flying
Tank late in the day toward the end of the
event. The expression “flies like a tank”
has since been redefined.
Right: Priorities! When someone said it
was going to rain, this is what became of
the electrics.
40 MODEL AVIATION
English designer Kevin Saunders
designed this unique thrust-vectoring
system (right) for his Pyranha, which
flies almost 140 mph. The thrust
vectoring is achieved with a servo
pulling two strings, which push a paddle
against the Mylar nozzle.
the model to pull two paddles on the outside
that indent the acetate tube tail’s form. The
cord is monofilament fishing line. Each line
pulls on a bellcrank, which redirects the pull to
a little paddle, which pushes on the tube,
which indents the shape and redirects its thrust.
Kevin said:
“Actually, I’m using it to taxi on the
external storage tanks, which go on the wings.
That means you can take off on wet surfaces,
fly, land again, and taxi back using the thrust
vectoring for steering, as these models were
designed for catapult launches.”
But what if you could use this same control
system to make a VTOL model? This might
lead us modelers to designs that haven’t been
explored. It might be interesting to see an
electric car or flying saucer use Kevin’s design
to control the shape and direction of
downward thrust from an induced low
pressure.
We are in a new world, with the use of
electric motors and increasing gas prices. As
modelers, we have the right to do what has
never been done. All we have to do is think
inventively, as Kevin did with his trust
vectoring. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
Michael Heer’s VecJet thread
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t
=809045
SEFF brought me to a world in which
minds were open to unique new ideas and
avenues of creative thought. It was a meeting
place of minds, a sharing of electrons, and a
stimulation of the neurons. This was the year
of “thrust vectoring.”
Thrust vectoring is altering the thrust from
a power source in a direction other than
parallel to the vehicle’s longitudinal axis. We
are modelers limited only by time and the
direction of our thoughts. As humans who
need to find other ways to travel, we should be
vectoring our ideas into new realms of
thought.
Thrust vectoring was originally sought
after to provide upward vertical thrust for
aircraft and was used on Vertical Takeoff and
Landing (VTOL) aircraft. Using vectored
thrust in combat situations enables aircraft to
perform various maneuvers that are
unavailable to conventional airplanes.
This year we are using thrust vectoring for
the new electric-powered VecJet, which does
600 rpm rolls. There’s a great thread by
Michael Heer about this new product that
wowed the SEFF crowd.
An Englishman traveled to SEFF with a
unique design; the simplicity of Kevin
Saunders’ inventive skills captures attention.
He added a piece of acetate to form the tail
tube of his 140 mph Pyranha. The original kit
was by John Paul Schlosser, and it was
designed for Ni-Cds. Kevin converted the
model to use a Hacker motor and then set up
thrust vectoring.
He uses a single microservo in the front of
EXPLORING
A DIFFERENT VECTOR
judgment by the dreaded Bad Bill!
Those who were there for the entire
event were exhausted by the end of
Sunday afternoon. Participants
climbed into their gas-powered
vehicles and drove home realizing that
the electric world of SEFF was not
only an experience they would never
forget, but one that might also bring
changes to their future.
They carried home new ideas, great
experiences, and a few prizes. The
question they could answer with
certainty was, yes, they’d be back next
year. MA
Dave Terry
[email protected]
• Horizon Hobby
• Kool Flight Systems
• Hobby Lobby
• Radical RC
• Thunder Power
• AtlantaHobby.com
• Area-5X
• Classic Flying
Machines
• Team AirfoilZ
• Peak Electronics
To see a complete list of sponsors
and awards and obtain more information,
visit the SEFF home page. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
SEFF
www.koolflightsystems.com/seff.htm
September 2008 41
Right: The Georgia sky was full of all kinds
of models. The ParkZone T-28 Trojan
proved to be extraordinarily popular.
Below: Dan Schwartz’s -XPG3 Auto
Gyrocopter weighs 16 ounces and has a 3-
foot rotor diameter. It was designed in
AutoCAD and has CNC-cut parts.
Ty Brown was in the running for
Best in Show with his 132-inchspan
Vickers Wellington. The
31-pound bomber uses E-flite
Power 110 motors with Castle
Creations’ Phoenix 85-HV ESCs.
Left: Mark
Padilla
whacked
the weeds
out of the
Bermuda
grass
morning,
evening,
and night
with his
Align T-Rex
600.
Below: Gerry King wears the
Tetracam voice co-pilot, which
gives voltage and amperage
readouts from a 2.4 GHz voice
recording system. The package
can be upgraded to provide
GPS and altitude readouts.
42 MODEL AVIATION
Left: The X Stick is an advanced variation,
with tried-and-true parts, of the popular
Slow Stick and Big Stick sport designs.
Canards are fun and unique to fly.
A “dawn patroller” with a
wind-direction indicator.
This A-10 Warthog is another of Kevin
Saunders’ masterpieces. He came over from
England to attend this event.
Left: Scott Anderson
of Performance Model
Aviation shows off the
new Extension GATOR.
As the name implies, it
holds an extension.
Above: A check from SEFF is donated to
the Fuller Center for Housing. Pilots gave
money, and the Fayette Flyers auctioned
off the Guinness World Record T-shirt
signed by all 113 pilots who participated in
the record-breaking event.
September 2008 43

September 2008 37
by Dave Terry
Electric flight sparks
the imagination
of today’s modeler
Right: Best in Show: Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil built
the Martian Spaceship. Yes, it
flies!
Right: The SEFF Police (L-R): Dave
McConnell, Dave Mason, and Matt
Klos. Below: “People come up and
tell me their ‘user name,’ and I
recognize them,” said John Morgan,
who is known as Pilot94. “Now I
have a face to match Internet chat
fellowship. We’re all here for the
same reason: sharing.”
One of the most outstanding experiences at
SEFF was the night flights. One night, when all
was still and stomachs were full, pilots came
together for this photo.
Below: Ethan Fuller
flies on the RealFlight
simulator a few hours
each week. He likes the
loops, rolls, and his dad
teaching him how to fly
this Lady Bug.
Above: 3D Hobby Shop’s Extra SHP
spans 87 inches and weighs 15
pounds running a STORM power
system by Hurricane Flight Systems
and Vision Hobbies.
Photos by the author
Right: The crowd was thrilled by the
halftime show. Most pilots even stopped
flying!
Below: Quique Somenzini’s Turbine
Toucan prototype spans 42 inches. It uses
an E-flite Power 25 motor and Thunder
Power 2200 4S battery pack cranking a 12
x 6 propeller, pulling 60 amps off an E-flite
ESC with shift mode.
DREAMING OF A giant, inflated RC
mosquito with camera-view technology, a
Tetracam voice co-pilot, tiny buzzing
ornithopter wings, a body like the amazing
Martian Spaceship, a VecJet XT thrustvectoring
tail, and robotic legs pulling on
his covers, my new flying friend Bo Lovell
awoke. He opened his bedroom door,
looked out across the still-sleeping Ron
Pinson and through the crowded RV’s
picture window, and saw Dan Schwartz
with Scott Hurley attempting to fly Dan’s
recently constructed Flying Tank.
“It isn’t getting off the ground yet!” he
yelled. “I’ll work on it tonight.”
The three friends, who stay in touch on
RCGroups, drove from Michigan,
Alabama, and North Carolina to meet at
Americus, Georgia. Dan had parked his
rented RV in the middle of Mac Hodges’
farm, where nearly 450 other electricpower
pilots would experience the
Southeast Electric Flight Festival, or
SEFF.
Among the pilots were old and young
friends from around the world who came
to share electrons, tent space, shade, water,
information, and new stories that had
developed since they had seen each other
last, and fly some of the craziest electric
contraptions ever to scare air molecules
into having a more meaningful and lifting
existence.
Without a doubt, the electrons did flow.
SEFF CD Jeff Myers said:
“It’s a festival of fun! There was a need
in the Southeast for a large electric event,
so our original goal was to create an
electric-only event for this area. We
started batting it around on RCGroups.com.
It grew, and now it’s the world’s largest
electric event.
“Of course the event wouldn’t be what it
is without Mac Hodges.”
Mr. Hodges was tinkering in a 5,000-
square-foot shop filled with electric-powered
airplanes and one massive gas-powered B-29
with a 20-foot wingspan, equipped with a
remotely detachable RC model of the Bell X-
1. Chuck Yeager used the full-scale to fly
beyond the speed of sound on October 14,
1947.
Forty years later, Mac Hodges and his
good friend Buddy Curtis honor the X-1
Left: The VecJet is
a thrust-vectoring
movable motor
system. Move the
rudder and the
motor moves to
the right or left,
which will spin the
model up to 500
rpm.
Mac Hodges with his B-29 that Dan Stephans built. The 20-footwingspan
model has four ZDZ 80cc engines and carries a 3.5-
pound X-1 rocket, which pilot Buddy Curtis has the bomber
drop in flight.
38 MODEL AVIATION
September 2008 39
Left: The 3D Hobby Shop
team was on the scene
with electricity and
enthusiasm.
Mac’s brother, Billy, was in a terrible
accident. Mac said:
“My brother, Billy, was flying the Cub
and it quit. He made a bad decision, turned
back and it went in and almost killed him.”
But Billy appeared for the halftime show
and got a huge round of applause from the
crowd.
The Sailplane contest started the event.
There were good thermals, and Don
Richmond sought them out with his buddy,
Paul Perret, using a Super AVA-E. It had a
147-inch wingspan, 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and a flying weight of 62 ounces,
and Don used a Picolario variometer thermal
sniffer. He claimed victories in both Class A
and Class B.
Other events included the Best in Show
those sheds [that are now filled with RC
model mall and event operations] had farm
equipment underneath. The farm’s been in
the family since ’bout 1905. We have about
2,400 acres. Now we rent the land for others
to do the farming.”
This gathering consists of four days and
nights of fun, May 1-4 this year, with the
Fayette Flyers of Atlanta, Georgia. The club
works hard to “give” to almost everyone
who attends, but this year was missing the
full-scale Cub rides. On August 1 last year,
during SEFF halftime shows. And honor is
the word that describes Mac Hodges.
“I’m a farmer,” said Mac while selecting
a tool in his shop. He was dressed in tan
slacks, a freshly ironed shirt, and tennis
shoes. He’d just finished stocking the public
bathroom with paper rolls, and the night
before at 10 p.m. he’d been restocking the
soda machine on the front porch of Hodges
Hobbies.
He said:
“We quit farming this area in ’98. All
Above: Jeff Pecca
with the future of
RC fun, which
may be in electricpowered
cars,
rockets, and flying
tanks.
Don Richmond, who traveled
from San Diego CA, launches his
Super AVA-E. It spans 147
inches, has 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and weighs just 62
ounces.
Above: The full-scale
Bumble Bee is known as
the world’s smallest
aircraft. This cabinversion
model of the
famed aircraft buzzed
the skies at SEFF.
Right: John
Howe and Scott
Hurley made this
swept-forwardwing
Talon. Its
construction is
rugged, and tight,
high-speed turns
are its forte.
There was also live music and a
fantastic barbecue, co-coordinated by Ric
Vaughn and Ernie Schlumberger with the
help of the Fayette Flyers.
The environment at SEFF is unique.
There’s Mac’s farmhouse, a windmill, and
a huge shop full of electric-powered
models. Hodges Hobbies retail store
overlooks a 1,700-foot Bermuda grass
runway. The site is divided into four flying
fields and a massive playground where
friends camp out, fly their latest creations,
and take part in this fun-filled gettogether.
“It’s like no other event I’ve ever
attended,” said one experienced pilot.
“There seems to be a different kind of
judging and awards, which builders Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil won with their
Martian Spaceship, and a record attempt.
Ninety-nine models destroyed the
Guinness World Record for the most RC
airplanes in the air at a time for one
minute. (See page 10 of the July MA for
the story.)
During the four days, thousands of
prizes, totaling more than $25,000, were
given away. Pilot 1 (who purchased 1,000
raffle tickets) was one of the big winners.
brotherhood among the people who attend
SEFF.”
“Yeah, imagine a group of Star
Trekkers and a group of professional
athletes, working, playing, and living in
close quarters, having fun and interacting
like best of friends,” said one of his
buddies.
And that group included the locals.
Fast Freddy and his wild bunch of Fayette
Flyers supplied 346 bottles of “Loose
Rudder Red Ale” and did most of the
work.
Ric Vaughn, Ernie Schlumberger, and
the SEFF police wagon were on duty
most of the weekend. They let you know
if you were out of line (or your flight
zone) and might have subjected you to
Right: Glenn Lewis
and Charles Parish
work on Charles’
GWS P-40. Vendors
were bountiful
enough at the event
that almost any
missing part or
whole project could
be acquired.
Below: Raffle tickets dropped from an
airplane attracted a lot of attention. Dust
was flying everywhere, and a few attendees
scored big. More than $25,000 in raffle
prizes was distributed by the end of the
event.
You couldn’t ask for a more perfect
spot at which to fly. However, the pilots
had to be prepared to land against a
crosswind.
Above: Dan Schwartz piloted this Flying
Tank late in the day toward the end of the
event. The expression “flies like a tank”
has since been redefined.
Right: Priorities! When someone said it
was going to rain, this is what became of
the electrics.
40 MODEL AVIATION
English designer Kevin Saunders
designed this unique thrust-vectoring
system (right) for his Pyranha, which
flies almost 140 mph. The thrust
vectoring is achieved with a servo
pulling two strings, which push a paddle
against the Mylar nozzle.
the model to pull two paddles on the outside
that indent the acetate tube tail’s form. The
cord is monofilament fishing line. Each line
pulls on a bellcrank, which redirects the pull to
a little paddle, which pushes on the tube,
which indents the shape and redirects its thrust.
Kevin said:
“Actually, I’m using it to taxi on the
external storage tanks, which go on the wings.
That means you can take off on wet surfaces,
fly, land again, and taxi back using the thrust
vectoring for steering, as these models were
designed for catapult launches.”
But what if you could use this same control
system to make a VTOL model? This might
lead us modelers to designs that haven’t been
explored. It might be interesting to see an
electric car or flying saucer use Kevin’s design
to control the shape and direction of
downward thrust from an induced low
pressure.
We are in a new world, with the use of
electric motors and increasing gas prices. As
modelers, we have the right to do what has
never been done. All we have to do is think
inventively, as Kevin did with his trust
vectoring. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
Michael Heer’s VecJet thread
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t
=809045
SEFF brought me to a world in which
minds were open to unique new ideas and
avenues of creative thought. It was a meeting
place of minds, a sharing of electrons, and a
stimulation of the neurons. This was the year
of “thrust vectoring.”
Thrust vectoring is altering the thrust from
a power source in a direction other than
parallel to the vehicle’s longitudinal axis. We
are modelers limited only by time and the
direction of our thoughts. As humans who
need to find other ways to travel, we should be
vectoring our ideas into new realms of
thought.
Thrust vectoring was originally sought
after to provide upward vertical thrust for
aircraft and was used on Vertical Takeoff and
Landing (VTOL) aircraft. Using vectored
thrust in combat situations enables aircraft to
perform various maneuvers that are
unavailable to conventional airplanes.
This year we are using thrust vectoring for
the new electric-powered VecJet, which does
600 rpm rolls. There’s a great thread by
Michael Heer about this new product that
wowed the SEFF crowd.
An Englishman traveled to SEFF with a
unique design; the simplicity of Kevin
Saunders’ inventive skills captures attention.
He added a piece of acetate to form the tail
tube of his 140 mph Pyranha. The original kit
was by John Paul Schlosser, and it was
designed for Ni-Cds. Kevin converted the
model to use a Hacker motor and then set up
thrust vectoring.
He uses a single microservo in the front of
EXPLORING
A DIFFERENT VECTOR
judgment by the dreaded Bad Bill!
Those who were there for the entire
event were exhausted by the end of
Sunday afternoon. Participants
climbed into their gas-powered
vehicles and drove home realizing that
the electric world of SEFF was not
only an experience they would never
forget, but one that might also bring
changes to their future.
They carried home new ideas, great
experiences, and a few prizes. The
question they could answer with
certainty was, yes, they’d be back next
year. MA
Dave Terry
[email protected]
• Horizon Hobby
• Kool Flight Systems
• Hobby Lobby
• Radical RC
• Thunder Power
• AtlantaHobby.com
• Area-5X
• Classic Flying
Machines
• Team AirfoilZ
• Peak Electronics
To see a complete list of sponsors
and awards and obtain more information,
visit the SEFF home page. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
SEFF
www.koolflightsystems.com/seff.htm
September 2008 41
Right: The Georgia sky was full of all kinds
of models. The ParkZone T-28 Trojan
proved to be extraordinarily popular.
Below: Dan Schwartz’s -XPG3 Auto
Gyrocopter weighs 16 ounces and has a 3-
foot rotor diameter. It was designed in
AutoCAD and has CNC-cut parts.
Ty Brown was in the running for
Best in Show with his 132-inchspan
Vickers Wellington. The
31-pound bomber uses E-flite
Power 110 motors with Castle
Creations’ Phoenix 85-HV ESCs.
Left: Mark
Padilla
whacked
the weeds
out of the
Bermuda
grass
morning,
evening,
and night
with his
Align T-Rex
600.
Below: Gerry King wears the
Tetracam voice co-pilot, which
gives voltage and amperage
readouts from a 2.4 GHz voice
recording system. The package
can be upgraded to provide
GPS and altitude readouts.
42 MODEL AVIATION
Left: The X Stick is an advanced variation,
with tried-and-true parts, of the popular
Slow Stick and Big Stick sport designs.
Canards are fun and unique to fly.
A “dawn patroller” with a
wind-direction indicator.
This A-10 Warthog is another of Kevin
Saunders’ masterpieces. He came over from
England to attend this event.
Left: Scott Anderson
of Performance Model
Aviation shows off the
new Extension GATOR.
As the name implies, it
holds an extension.
Above: A check from SEFF is donated to
the Fuller Center for Housing. Pilots gave
money, and the Fayette Flyers auctioned
off the Guinness World Record T-shirt
signed by all 113 pilots who participated in
the record-breaking event.
September 2008 43

September 2008 37
by Dave Terry
Electric flight sparks
the imagination
of today’s modeler
Right: Best in Show: Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil built
the Martian Spaceship. Yes, it
flies!
Right: The SEFF Police (L-R): Dave
McConnell, Dave Mason, and Matt
Klos. Below: “People come up and
tell me their ‘user name,’ and I
recognize them,” said John Morgan,
who is known as Pilot94. “Now I
have a face to match Internet chat
fellowship. We’re all here for the
same reason: sharing.”
One of the most outstanding experiences at
SEFF was the night flights. One night, when all
was still and stomachs were full, pilots came
together for this photo.
Below: Ethan Fuller
flies on the RealFlight
simulator a few hours
each week. He likes the
loops, rolls, and his dad
teaching him how to fly
this Lady Bug.
Above: 3D Hobby Shop’s Extra SHP
spans 87 inches and weighs 15
pounds running a STORM power
system by Hurricane Flight Systems
and Vision Hobbies.
Photos by the author
Right: The crowd was thrilled by the
halftime show. Most pilots even stopped
flying!
Below: Quique Somenzini’s Turbine
Toucan prototype spans 42 inches. It uses
an E-flite Power 25 motor and Thunder
Power 2200 4S battery pack cranking a 12
x 6 propeller, pulling 60 amps off an E-flite
ESC with shift mode.
DREAMING OF A giant, inflated RC
mosquito with camera-view technology, a
Tetracam voice co-pilot, tiny buzzing
ornithopter wings, a body like the amazing
Martian Spaceship, a VecJet XT thrustvectoring
tail, and robotic legs pulling on
his covers, my new flying friend Bo Lovell
awoke. He opened his bedroom door,
looked out across the still-sleeping Ron
Pinson and through the crowded RV’s
picture window, and saw Dan Schwartz
with Scott Hurley attempting to fly Dan’s
recently constructed Flying Tank.
“It isn’t getting off the ground yet!” he
yelled. “I’ll work on it tonight.”
The three friends, who stay in touch on
RCGroups, drove from Michigan,
Alabama, and North Carolina to meet at
Americus, Georgia. Dan had parked his
rented RV in the middle of Mac Hodges’
farm, where nearly 450 other electricpower
pilots would experience the
Southeast Electric Flight Festival, or
SEFF.
Among the pilots were old and young
friends from around the world who came
to share electrons, tent space, shade, water,
information, and new stories that had
developed since they had seen each other
last, and fly some of the craziest electric
contraptions ever to scare air molecules
into having a more meaningful and lifting
existence.
Without a doubt, the electrons did flow.
SEFF CD Jeff Myers said:
“It’s a festival of fun! There was a need
in the Southeast for a large electric event,
so our original goal was to create an
electric-only event for this area. We
started batting it around on RCGroups.com.
It grew, and now it’s the world’s largest
electric event.
“Of course the event wouldn’t be what it
is without Mac Hodges.”
Mr. Hodges was tinkering in a 5,000-
square-foot shop filled with electric-powered
airplanes and one massive gas-powered B-29
with a 20-foot wingspan, equipped with a
remotely detachable RC model of the Bell X-
1. Chuck Yeager used the full-scale to fly
beyond the speed of sound on October 14,
1947.
Forty years later, Mac Hodges and his
good friend Buddy Curtis honor the X-1
Left: The VecJet is
a thrust-vectoring
movable motor
system. Move the
rudder and the
motor moves to
the right or left,
which will spin the
model up to 500
rpm.
Mac Hodges with his B-29 that Dan Stephans built. The 20-footwingspan
model has four ZDZ 80cc engines and carries a 3.5-
pound X-1 rocket, which pilot Buddy Curtis has the bomber
drop in flight.
38 MODEL AVIATION
September 2008 39
Left: The 3D Hobby Shop
team was on the scene
with electricity and
enthusiasm.
Mac’s brother, Billy, was in a terrible
accident. Mac said:
“My brother, Billy, was flying the Cub
and it quit. He made a bad decision, turned
back and it went in and almost killed him.”
But Billy appeared for the halftime show
and got a huge round of applause from the
crowd.
The Sailplane contest started the event.
There were good thermals, and Don
Richmond sought them out with his buddy,
Paul Perret, using a Super AVA-E. It had a
147-inch wingspan, 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and a flying weight of 62 ounces,
and Don used a Picolario variometer thermal
sniffer. He claimed victories in both Class A
and Class B.
Other events included the Best in Show
those sheds [that are now filled with RC
model mall and event operations] had farm
equipment underneath. The farm’s been in
the family since ’bout 1905. We have about
2,400 acres. Now we rent the land for others
to do the farming.”
This gathering consists of four days and
nights of fun, May 1-4 this year, with the
Fayette Flyers of Atlanta, Georgia. The club
works hard to “give” to almost everyone
who attends, but this year was missing the
full-scale Cub rides. On August 1 last year,
during SEFF halftime shows. And honor is
the word that describes Mac Hodges.
“I’m a farmer,” said Mac while selecting
a tool in his shop. He was dressed in tan
slacks, a freshly ironed shirt, and tennis
shoes. He’d just finished stocking the public
bathroom with paper rolls, and the night
before at 10 p.m. he’d been restocking the
soda machine on the front porch of Hodges
Hobbies.
He said:
“We quit farming this area in ’98. All
Above: Jeff Pecca
with the future of
RC fun, which
may be in electricpowered
cars,
rockets, and flying
tanks.
Don Richmond, who traveled
from San Diego CA, launches his
Super AVA-E. It spans 147
inches, has 1,346 square inches of
wing area, and weighs just 62
ounces.
Above: The full-scale
Bumble Bee is known as
the world’s smallest
aircraft. This cabinversion
model of the
famed aircraft buzzed
the skies at SEFF.
Right: John
Howe and Scott
Hurley made this
swept-forwardwing
Talon. Its
construction is
rugged, and tight,
high-speed turns
are its forte.
There was also live music and a
fantastic barbecue, co-coordinated by Ric
Vaughn and Ernie Schlumberger with the
help of the Fayette Flyers.
The environment at SEFF is unique.
There’s Mac’s farmhouse, a windmill, and
a huge shop full of electric-powered
models. Hodges Hobbies retail store
overlooks a 1,700-foot Bermuda grass
runway. The site is divided into four flying
fields and a massive playground where
friends camp out, fly their latest creations,
and take part in this fun-filled gettogether.
“It’s like no other event I’ve ever
attended,” said one experienced pilot.
“There seems to be a different kind of
judging and awards, which builders Chuck
Orrick and Gene Senkbeil won with their
Martian Spaceship, and a record attempt.
Ninety-nine models destroyed the
Guinness World Record for the most RC
airplanes in the air at a time for one
minute. (See page 10 of the July MA for
the story.)
During the four days, thousands of
prizes, totaling more than $25,000, were
given away. Pilot 1 (who purchased 1,000
raffle tickets) was one of the big winners.
brotherhood among the people who attend
SEFF.”
“Yeah, imagine a group of Star
Trekkers and a group of professional
athletes, working, playing, and living in
close quarters, having fun and interacting
like best of friends,” said one of his
buddies.
And that group included the locals.
Fast Freddy and his wild bunch of Fayette
Flyers supplied 346 bottles of “Loose
Rudder Red Ale” and did most of the
work.
Ric Vaughn, Ernie Schlumberger, and
the SEFF police wagon were on duty
most of the weekend. They let you know
if you were out of line (or your flight
zone) and might have subjected you to
Right: Glenn Lewis
and Charles Parish
work on Charles’
GWS P-40. Vendors
were bountiful
enough at the event
that almost any
missing part or
whole project could
be acquired.
Below: Raffle tickets dropped from an
airplane attracted a lot of attention. Dust
was flying everywhere, and a few attendees
scored big. More than $25,000 in raffle
prizes was distributed by the end of the
event.
You couldn’t ask for a more perfect
spot at which to fly. However, the pilots
had to be prepared to land against a
crosswind.
Above: Dan Schwartz piloted this Flying
Tank late in the day toward the end of the
event. The expression “flies like a tank”
has since been redefined.
Right: Priorities! When someone said it
was going to rain, this is what became of
the electrics.
40 MODEL AVIATION
English designer Kevin Saunders
designed this unique thrust-vectoring
system (right) for his Pyranha, which
flies almost 140 mph. The thrust
vectoring is achieved with a servo
pulling two strings, which push a paddle
against the Mylar nozzle.
the model to pull two paddles on the outside
that indent the acetate tube tail’s form. The
cord is monofilament fishing line. Each line
pulls on a bellcrank, which redirects the pull to
a little paddle, which pushes on the tube,
which indents the shape and redirects its thrust.
Kevin said:
“Actually, I’m using it to taxi on the
external storage tanks, which go on the wings.
That means you can take off on wet surfaces,
fly, land again, and taxi back using the thrust
vectoring for steering, as these models were
designed for catapult launches.”
But what if you could use this same control
system to make a VTOL model? This might
lead us modelers to designs that haven’t been
explored. It might be interesting to see an
electric car or flying saucer use Kevin’s design
to control the shape and direction of
downward thrust from an induced low
pressure.
We are in a new world, with the use of
electric motors and increasing gas prices. As
modelers, we have the right to do what has
never been done. All we have to do is think
inventively, as Kevin did with his trust
vectoring. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
Michael Heer’s VecJet thread
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t
=809045
SEFF brought me to a world in which
minds were open to unique new ideas and
avenues of creative thought. It was a meeting
place of minds, a sharing of electrons, and a
stimulation of the neurons. This was the year
of “thrust vectoring.”
Thrust vectoring is altering the thrust from
a power source in a direction other than
parallel to the vehicle’s longitudinal axis. We
are modelers limited only by time and the
direction of our thoughts. As humans who
need to find other ways to travel, we should be
vectoring our ideas into new realms of
thought.
Thrust vectoring was originally sought
after to provide upward vertical thrust for
aircraft and was used on Vertical Takeoff and
Landing (VTOL) aircraft. Using vectored
thrust in combat situations enables aircraft to
perform various maneuvers that are
unavailable to conventional airplanes.
This year we are using thrust vectoring for
the new electric-powered VecJet, which does
600 rpm rolls. There’s a great thread by
Michael Heer about this new product that
wowed the SEFF crowd.
An Englishman traveled to SEFF with a
unique design; the simplicity of Kevin
Saunders’ inventive skills captures attention.
He added a piece of acetate to form the tail
tube of his 140 mph Pyranha. The original kit
was by John Paul Schlosser, and it was
designed for Ni-Cds. Kevin converted the
model to use a Hacker motor and then set up
thrust vectoring.
He uses a single microservo in the front of
EXPLORING
A DIFFERENT VECTOR
judgment by the dreaded Bad Bill!
Those who were there for the entire
event were exhausted by the end of
Sunday afternoon. Participants
climbed into their gas-powered
vehicles and drove home realizing that
the electric world of SEFF was not
only an experience they would never
forget, but one that might also bring
changes to their future.
They carried home new ideas, great
experiences, and a few prizes. The
question they could answer with
certainty was, yes, they’d be back next
year. MA
Dave Terry
[email protected]
• Horizon Hobby
• Kool Flight Systems
• Hobby Lobby
• Radical RC
• Thunder Power
• AtlantaHobby.com
• Area-5X
• Classic Flying
Machines
• Team AirfoilZ
• Peak Electronics
To see a complete list of sponsors
and awards and obtain more information,
visit the SEFF home page. MA
—Dave Terry
Sources:
SEFF
www.koolflightsystems.com/seff.htm
September 2008 41
Right: The Georgia sky was full of all kinds
of models. The ParkZone T-28 Trojan
proved to be extraordinarily popular.
Below: Dan Schwartz’s -XPG3 Auto
Gyrocopter weighs 16 ounces and has a 3-
foot rotor diameter. It was designed in
AutoCAD and has CNC-cut parts.
Ty Brown was in the running for
Best in Show with his 132-inchspan
Vickers Wellington. The
31-pound bomber uses E-flite
Power 110 motors with Castle
Creations’ Phoenix 85-HV ESCs.
Left: Mark
Padilla
whacked
the weeds
out of the
Bermuda
grass
morning,
evening,
and night
with his
Align T-Rex
600.
Below: Gerry King wears the
Tetracam voice co-pilot, which
gives voltage and amperage
readouts from a 2.4 GHz voice
recording system. The package
can be upgraded to provide
GPS and altitude readouts.
42 MODEL AVIATION
Left: The X Stick is an advanced variation,
with tried-and-true parts, of the popular
Slow Stick and Big Stick sport designs.
Canards are fun and unique to fly.
A “dawn patroller” with a
wind-direction indicator.
This A-10 Warthog is another of Kevin
Saunders’ masterpieces. He came over from
England to attend this event.
Left: Scott Anderson
of Performance Model
Aviation shows off the
new Extension GATOR.
As the name implies, it
holds an extension.
Above: A check from SEFF is donated to
the Fuller Center for Housing. Pilots gave
money, and the Fayette Flyers auctioned
off the Guinness World Record T-shirt
signed by all 113 pilots who participated in
the record-breaking event.
September 2008 43