NEAT
FAIR2012
One of so many highlights of this year’s event, the Top Flite 85-inch Fw 190 slides by in a dirty pass along a flight line loaded with e-powered models of every description.
By Frank Fanelli PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK FANELLI, GREG CARDILLO, BRYAN WEED AND SCOTT STAUFFER S 18
imple, complex, big, small, prop, fan, heli, glider, quads, and more—you name it—and it was at NEAT 2012, just as long as it was electric pow- ered. Also in very welcome abundance was the best weather you could find for this nom- inal 3-day event, fair skies and occasionally windy weather. For an increasing number of the almost 400 pilots and well over a thou- sand planes, this 12-year-old event really starts earlier in the week when they begin arriving at the Peaceful Valley Campground in Shinhopple, NY.
That’s a very small hamlet about 10 miles south of Downsville, NY in the heart of the Catskill Mountain Park. Scenic doesn’t ade- quately describe this beautiful area and that lends even more enjoyment to this long weekend of all-electric flying. In what seems to be now the twelve short years since NEAT first appeared here, the evolution in electric powered models from the Ni-Cd powered, brushed motor basic models back then to the
far more capable Li-Po powered, brushless motor models of today has been very evident here.
Modern electric setups have become equivalent and more to the internal combus- tion engines they compete with and have opened an extraordinarily wide window of applications. Some can’t be matched by the i.c. engines. Perhaps the most prominent ex- ample of that was Adam Woodworth’s very big Eurofighter. It was and is a work in progress and at the time Adam brought it to NEAT it was in a very prototypical, but op- erational status.
His big model illustrated what is becom- ing more of a design trend: think outside conventional wisdom and practice. It is a big plane, 100-inch length, the more appropri- ate measurement for a delta wing jet, but light—11 pounds—because it’s 90% insula- tion foam. Part of that light weight relies on his design philosophy: keep it simple. There are no landing gear. He designed it to be
hand launched in accord with his design phi- losophy. Just take a look at one of the pic- tures here to see just how big it is and how easily it was hand launched... yeah, hand launched.
A big part of that capability is the fantas- tic thrust-to-weight ratio (2:1) of the 11- pound plane afforded not by twin ducted fans as would be assumed for a jet, but by two props. Here that design trend just men- tioned really shines. Adam put the twin props and motors on a ply cage that projects from the wing stations that would ordinarily house the large external fuel tanks. Though it isn’t the first time a model jet has been powered by props—think of all the pusher jets in the past—the visual effect will be minimized once the drop tanks are clothed in foam.
Adam’s wasn’t the only unique scratch- built plane there. Two others come quickly to mind, Rob Kallok’s Weekender, and Eric Maglio’s Boeing 717. In the former, Rob
JANUARY 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68