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ElectricFlight J


inwoo Choe and I drove up to NEAT to attend the indoor session at Downsville that Gordon Johnson and Joe Malinchak arranged. KIEF


was not in the cards this year due to trou- bles with the dome. The number of vendors was down a bit this year, especially those of interest to indoor fliers. Bob Selman can- celed at the last minute. Friday, we arrived at the field just before dusk. Most vendors were closed at this point. We ran into Gor- don and Joe as well as Dave Johnson and saw some NEAT (as it were) micro flying into the evening. Joe had lights on his small models. The bigger ships loaded with LED strips were spectacular in the dark. Dave flew the new 14-inch span Fokker


Tripe that he designed for Flyzone. It should be on the market by early November for around $90. Flight characteristics for the Tripe are similar to those of the Albatros. However, the 2.4 GHz Tactic™ micro radio is quite different with linear servos featur- ing outstanding resolution, speed and pow- er. It also has a micro plug socket for a fourth channel and brushless ESC. Flyzone also had the new Uberlite con- vertibles with actuators. These are current- ly on the market for $110. I got a chance to fly one. Very nice. With a wing loading of just under an ounce per square foot, they are similar in flight to a Vapor. The 8.3 gram motor-radio unit snaps into place with mag- nets. Unfortunately the magnet spacing on the 2.5-gram 65 mAh Bahoma battery is 8.5 mm, making it incompatible with Plantraco. The charging unit plugs into the 2.4 GHz transmitter or a USB port for power. The Uberlites are from “It Can Fly” and


are similar to some planes they had a year or so ago, but with a new radio system. Fly- ing buddy John Smith found you could bind two different transmitters to the same Uber- lite receiver. Since the transmitters have USB ports to provide power to the charger, John reasoned he could remove the trans- mitter batteries and power the transmitter through the USB port. He made an external battery box with a switch to provide power to either transmitter through a USB cable. This functions as a trainer cable for begin- ner flyers. Saturday, Jin and I were at the field ear-


by stew meyers You can reach Stew Meyersat 8304 Whitman Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20817, or via e-mail at stew.meyers@verizon.net


PHOTOGRAPHY: STEW MEYERS Zeke’s Park Scale Models Mini Drakebased on a Ken Willard design.


ly. It was a little cool, but low wind. Again a lot of flying at the small model end of the field. One of the more interesting models was Mike Tully’s nifty Earl Stahl TG-2 from the December 1942 Model Airplane News with ParkZone gear. Zeke Brubaker, www.parkscalemodels.com, had a $36 Mini Drake based on a Ken Willard design. Thay- er Syme flew it off the water. Very nice, I’ll have to get one. Thayer also had a version of Dave Johnson’s Albatros B1 done up in Turkish colors. It looked good and flew well. I particularly liked the dummy Cox PeeWee actually driven by an outrunner and the pi- lots. We watched the big stuff fly at noon and then traveled to Downsville at 3 p.m. for the indoor session. Not very many people were there when we arrived—just Joe and Cindy Malinchak, Gordon Johnson and his son, and Art Va- land. Art had some stretched Vapors that flew very slowly. After dark, more people poured in from the field, including Dave Johnson and Thayer Syme. Jim Wiggin from FLYING MODELS was taking pictures forFM. Pete Carpenter was taking pictures for Cloud 9. Thayer was taking pictures for Fly R/C, and Joe was taking pictures for his Model Aviation column. Some other guy was also taking pictures for AMA, and someone else was videoing, I think for AMA. There were more photogs than flyers at times. Gordon’s skeletonized stuff flew nicely as did Joe’s. Jin did not fly his F-86, as the gym


was just a bit small for it. The highlight of the evening was Dave Johnson’s Fokker Tripe and Jin’s Sopwith Tripe chasing each other around. But Jin really needs to put a paint scheme on his. In order to test the David Theunissen, at www.deltang.co.uk, micro DSM2 receivers I need to put them in test beds. I selected the Rx42 actuator receiver because I thought it would be easy to solder 1.27mm pitch Nano connectors compatible with Plantraco actu- ators directly to the board—the spacing was correct. The job turned out to be harder than I thought and I ended up using leads. Bob Selman, at www.bsdmicrorc.com,


sells the slightly larger Rx43 with these con- nectors in place and a battery lead to mate with a ParkZone battery as well as the Rx53 with Bahoma battery magnets. I highly rec- ommend going this route. I have a micro Nieuportenezzer, which I


had flown freeflight with a timer and used to check out other receivers. The Rx42 mounted easily with servo tape. I only used motor and rudder controls. The motor is a PKZ 6mm from a J-3 and the actuator is a Plantraco MiniACT from BSD Micro. Plenty of actuator power and control. I did notice the low voltage cutoff was sen-


sitive and gave me short flights on some well used batteries that I should cull. This cutoff can be disabled, but I think it’s doing its job and left it on. Dave has improved the bind- ing algorithm so it now locks quickly. The


Dave Johnson describing his new Flyzone Fokker Tripeto Joe Malinchak (at left). Uberlite unit assembled into the monoplane (above). Wing loading is under one ounce/square foot. Uberlite motor-radio unit snaps into place with magnets. Magnets also couple the pushrods to the tail surfaces (above right).


42 JANUARY 2012


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