FanFacts W
elcome back! As the days get warmer, and longer … a man’s fancy soon turns to model jets of course! Hopefully all the main-
tenance items our planes needed have been done, and done correctly, so that we don’t have a nasty surprise at the field. Bob Reynolds took that philosophy to heart as he was redesigning the classic Mid- west Jetster, taking eight months just to get from bare-bones to flying, but also making sure that everything was as it should be so that the first flight was completely unre- markable and stress-free. In fact, I received the photos one hour after they (Bob and his son/test pilot, David) returned home from the field with the following “huge” comment from Dave: “Just did the maiden on dad’s latest design. Very nice flyer.”
It’s a good thing he doesn’t get paid by the word, but also a testament to the original design coupled with 25 years of tweaking and not rushing to finish and fly it; rather, making sure things were ready and done correctly. (I’m writing the last sentence as a reminder for me ….)
Completely redesigned, resized and re- named from the original, but still leaving very little to the imagination as to its line- age, this 52¾-inch wingspan, (460 square inch area) beauty takes the venerable Jet- ster to levels of “modern-ness” that the original couldn’t even begin to dream about. Therefore, its name Fantasia. Bob says that it is pushed along by an 85mm fan and motor from Leadershobby (howev- er, they measure the OD of the housing, so the fan is really only an 80mm) and the
motor is an F2839, 3000Kv brushless unit. Electrons come from a 4S 2650 mAh pack and a Hobby King 70A ESC controls their release.
Flights are an easy 5 minutes, with the re- tracts (HET 25S+S electric units) probably having something to do with that by clean- ing up the airframe considerably over its fixed-gear predecessor. Hopefully, I can con- vince Bob to share the plans! Also taking time to do a little building is Mike Warren, whose pilot-less Hawker
by greg moore You can reach Greg Moore via e-mail at
jetflyr@comcast.net
PHOTOGRAPHY: GREG MOORE Bob Reynolds’ Fantasiain the bones. Weight is all of three pounds as she sits there.
Hunter has graced these pages. Knowing that the airplane flies (and very nicely at that) he has built a nice cockpit and ejection seat for his pilot to ride in.
Not only does a cockpit and ejection seat fill space, it also hides all the little bits we have to put somewhere (like fill valves, UATs, switches and receivers). Let’s face it, an ejection seat in a modern fighter is a huge visual “event”, and if you have a really good looking one, it is not only very self-satisfy- ing, it also generates lots of positive com- ments from other pilots which results in a nicely swollen head as well.
Each generation of Martin-Baker and ACES seats look totally different from each other, so a few hours of enjoyable (for some of us) labor produces a nice degree of cus- tomization and scale fidelity. I have made simple seats from balsa sheet, but never even thought of skinning them with styrene. Mike started off with a basic struc- ture of blue foam for a crutch/core, and cov- ered that with either .010-inch sheet styrene, 1⁄16 balsa or 1⁄32 ply, depending on which part/area it was, and then covered the wood with styrene for a nice smooth metal-looking surface.
The little detail bits are various sized cut
and shaped styrene tubes, strips, pieces of wire and cord. The chute pack was made with blue foam for the basic shape, and then covered with suitable fabric for the cover and harnesses, glued into place. Gluing things together requires time. Yes, gap-filling CA can be used (you need to roughen the styrene with 220-grit sand - paper first) but regular “good-ol’ styrene model glue” (à la Testor’s from my child- hood/teen years) is the preferred glue of choice. This, of course, requires time for the glue to soften the styrene, congeal it togeth- er (basically a weld) and then dry … and sometimes I don’t think the kicker sets the CA fast enough! However, the results speak for themselves, and I’ve included a number of photos to give us all some ideas. Looking at the web: I have found an inter- esting video at:
http://pal-v.com. This site details a “roadable”, personal aircraft simi- lar to a gyrocopter. It is a way kool project that is worth a few minutes of your time. Who knows, it might be coming to your neighborhood in the near future! In order to allow space for the photos, I’m going to call this a column, so until next time: keep busy with your building projects, fly safe, and trust in thrust!
Maiden day! The Fantasia’slooks and classic construction (above) make it an easy jet for all of us to contemplate, and Greg can’t help but think about the Lockheed Electrawith those twin fins. Bob Reynolds (at right) with his newest creation, which he proudly reports is a fantastic flyer.
30 APRIL 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