Richard Suppes built the Alien Models P-51 (at left) and he encountered no major problems but did find changing the prop to a 9–6 helped acrobatic performance. Adam Woodworth’s Eurofighter(above) surprised the crowd with a hand launch and some 3D performance. Twin folding 3-blade props provide the thrust.
with less than 10 flights on it just waiting to have its picture taken.
The ever popular mass warbird fly showed its losses at the flight line on the second af- ternoon and is always a hoot. The Satur- day’s night fly competition, pitting pilot against pilot in balloon bust events, is al- ways a crowd favorite. The calm cool condi- tions were perfect for night flying. For those preferring indoor flying this was held at a lo- cal school just a few miles from the field with many state of the art micro models. The vendors were plentiful and business was brisk with many smiling modelers walking away with boxes under their arms. The noon demos went smoothly for my Tri- Pacer and my landing skills are improving or Jim Ryan is getting better at talking me down as my spotter. The range of models was hard to believe. A very large Eurofight- er, with twin 3-blade folding tractor prop, was built by Adam Woodworth. It wasn’t yet wearing its finish but still caught a lot of at- tention on the ground and was thrilling in flight after a hand launch. Greg Covey’s 1913 Eastboure Monoplane,
flown by Devin McGrath, was beautiful on the ground or in the air. The gas to electric conversion has a wing span of 109 inches and 5,100 square inches of wing area weigh- ing 22 pounds. Powered by a Just-Go-Fly
5330 outrunner on an 8S2P 8,000 mAh Li- Po, it turned an Xoar 26–10 for 3,000 watts of power.
Many modelers have been arriving days before NEAT officially starts which I’m starting to understand. The action is non- stop with so much to see and learn, not to mention seeing old friends. SKS Video Pro- ductions
www.sksvideo.com has a full length video of the event to relive all the ac- tion or see it for the first time.
New Project
My choice this time was an Ercoupe kit of the Nick Ziroli design from National Balsa and Spruce
www.nationalbalsa.com. The Er- coupe is a full kit with laser-cut balsa and plywood and all the needed wood stock. Na- tional Balsa not only sells some of the best high quality balsa and ply, they do short and full kits for many giant scale models. Nation- al Balsa also offers custom cutting services. Nick Ziroli Plans
www.ziroliplans.com supplies the plans, cowl, wing tube and canopy material for the 1⁄4.5 Ercoupe. They specialize in giant scale plans and acces- sories to make your dream project a reality without driving yourself crazy. The plans are clear and easy to read, the cowl was well formed and surprisingly light which is per- fect for electric. Nick Ziroli Plans invites
builders to call or write with concerns dur- ing the build which can really be a life saver. Robart
www.robart.com tricycle landing gear set and wheels will be used as shown on the plans. Robart makes many fixed and retractable gear options to suit most models. Check out their web site to use their “gear finder” for many commercially available plans and kits. Robart’s newest efforts have been with electric retract systems. The neat thing is that their Progressive Retract Sys- tem can upgrade mechanical and pneumatic actuators to electric as most are inter- changeable making for easy and low cost changeovers.
The cockpit detailing will be a treat using a Dynamic Balsa
www.dbalsa.com cockpit kit designed for the Ziroli plan. Dynamic Balsa can provide you with a wide choice of contest level cockpit kits for existing designs along with many hard to find scale accessories. To find a trim scheme, Bob’s Aircraft Documentation
www.bobsairdoc.com was my first stop for documentation services since it had many choices for the Ercoupe with a military version being chosen along with a 3-view. Documentation and 3-view drawing can really help out from construc- tion to fly-in; they are a great way to en- hance your building experience. Till next time fly safely.
Greg Covey’s 1913 Eastbourne Monoplane (above left) was a gas to e- conversion. It flies light as a feather despite its 22-pound weight. National Balsa’s Ercoupelaser-cut kit (at right) and accessories from Nick Ziroli, Robart, Dynamic Balsa and Bob’s Aircraft Documentation are the building blocks of a satisfying project.
FLYING MODELS 49
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