NEAT Fair 2012
The Warbird Gaggle begins with at least 30 pilots and planes (above left). Surprisingly little carnage with all those planes swirling around, but plenty of laughs, cheering and fun. Flyzone’s new Beaver(at right) makes a pass down
44 grams. It will take off and fly from water but it can be easily hand launched and flown in a small gym as Bob demonstrated. One of the driving forces behind micro R/C systems has been Sergio Zigras and his Z-Tron line of radios. Some of his new 3- and 4-channel receivers were installed in some of the planes. His receivers range from full 4-channel and have ESCs incorporated. One also has two magnetic coils onboard and another has a micro geared servo as part of it.
So that’s the news about the ongoing and welcome presence of scratchbuilt planes. There’s a lot more to NEAT than that. One
the little pond at the far edge of the NEAT field. Dan Landis flew it with floats and the interchangeable wheels. Dave Johnson flew the little Flyzone Nieuport 17 (below) that he designed. Though an indoor flyer the plane can handle wind too.
of the biggest draws there are the fabulous noontime demos that are a carnival of really spectacular flying. Hobbico’s team of out- standing flyers—Dan Landis, Tim Lampe, and Dave Johnson—were a big part of that. Dan has been a staple of NEAT, along with his father, Rich. This year Dan officially rep- resented Hobbico with a virtuoso perform- ance of scale and competition flying. He demoed the new Great Planes Fw 190 with picture perfect flying that looked like it was on rails. Then he moved to the small, new Flyzone Beaver, and from there to a bravura 3D performance with his large, 105-inch 35% Aztech Models MX 2.
Tim Lampe offered a different tempo to the demos, when he flew both the new Great Planes Phazer (see Don Belfort’s review in the December 2012 issue of FM) and the Stratair Viper. The Phazer, an edf plane, is fairly potent and needs a good set of eyes to fly the plane because of its speed. The super- sonic Viper had spectators’ eyeballs whiplashing from side to side. How Tim could see and control the F5D plane was spectacular. He got a well-deserved round of applause for that. Dave Johnson, who has designed a number of great little Flyzone planes, got apprecia- tive applause for the new Flyzone Nieuport
Tim Lampe specializes in fast planes (at left), more like supersonic ones. He demoed the pretty quick Great Planes Phazer, then flew his blistering StratAir F5D Viper. By the time he finished everyone who watched suffered eyeball whiplash! FM’s Electric Flight columnist, Don Belfort, showed the opposite with his very graceful, beautiful 1
24
/4-scale Piper Tri-Pacer (above). Don documented its build in his column over the past year. JANUARY 2013
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