NEAT Fair 2011
Dave Johnson puts Flyzone’s new FW-190 into a nice photo pass (above left). Comes with retracts and flaps. A little later Al Fusco does the same with his 82-
inch F7F Tigercat (above right). Shawn Spiker is a pro when it comes to the perfect launch as he demonstrates with a Hitec Funjet(below left).
cluded a small windsock, a great feature to give wind direction a final glimpse before take off. Volunteers stood at the entry of each flight area and made sure that each pi- lot had a spotter. If the pilot did not have a spotter available, a NEAT volunteer was there to help watch the skies. To the untrained eye, this small city of modelers would look to be utter chaos, how- ever that could not be anything further from the truth. Tom and his band of volunteers from Long Island’s SEFLI club ran the flight line, contests, demos and organization like a well-oiled machine. Cliché, but definitely true. As a result, the amount of mid airs and general “oops” or “sorry!” was at a mini- mum, something that can be trying for a contest director of an event of any size. Just a few short years ago, flying electric
airplanes limited you to flying small park flyers or flat foamies. With the introduction of brushless motors, Li-Po batteries and the continuing decrease in prices for said hard- ware, the limitations are essentially gone. While park flyers and flat foamies still enjoy a large percentage of this segment, it is not
unusual to see models that are ¼ scale and larger. Some models of the larger variety that were once motivated by large gas en- gines have had their engines swapped for brushless electric. Not surprisingly, the larger scale modelers
have subscribed to electric power for many good reasons. Maintenance is certainly low- er, the model stays cleaner and with electric, there is little to no vibration. When you have spent many hours placing small-scale details such as flying wires, antennas and cockpit details, the last thing you want is vibration. One such model that has seen such a transformation was Paul Weigand’s ¹⁄₃ scale Culver Dart. Paul drew up the plans himself and spent two years building it. In 1985 the model was finished with a Quadra 50cc gas engine swinging the prop, but recently the model has seen some changes. Paul in- stalled an Axi 5345 brushless motor, a Cas- tle Creations ICE HV160 and two 5-cell Li- Po packs. The combination is more than enough to not only fly the 122-inch wingspan, 37-pound airplane, but also per- form some aerobatics.
Rich Krebs got put to the test when his right main gear wouldn’t come down on his ESM PC-21 (above left). Made a great uneventful landing. Thoroughly
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scratchbuilt, Jim Ryan’s small AH-56 Lockheed Cheyenne (above right) features retracts as well as a functional pusher prop. A superb heli.
JANUARY 2012
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