ElectricFlight H
i Fliers: attending fly-ins is one of the favorite parts of my hobby en- joyment. Seeing old friends and the newest offerings on the e- market along with showing off your new pride and joy can be a great way to spend a weekend of fun.
The E-Fest 2013, hosted by Hobbico
www.hobbico.com and CD’d by Frank Noll, was held in the beautiful University of Illi- nois Track and Field Armory on February 9 and 10. With the doors opening at 7:30 a.m. and closing at 10:00 p.m., the action never stopped due to the hard work of the Hobbico teammates staffing the event. The schedule included plenty of open flying along with specific time slots for certain types of air- craft such as jets and scale. Representatives from both Hobbico and Horizon
Hobby
www.horizonhobby.com were explaining the features of their newest products and helping fliers in the pits or on the flight line to be successful. After 5:00 p.m. things got serious with the competition events starting with the Make It and Take It mass launch for the children, at which Hob- bico does a great job giving future modelers a start.
Other events included Red Bull style rac- ing, Obstacle Course with multiple planes per heat, Free Style Acrobatics, Combat with prize money, Black-out Night Fly and the FMsponsored Scale event followed. The Armory was almost silent as one by one the scale fliers put in their flights. All the com- petitors did an excellent job of building and flying their aircraft with Shawn Cassidy’s bomb dropping Vickers Vimy taking first place.
You may remember seeing Shawn’s Vick-
ers Vimy on the cover of Model Aviation a few months back. The Vickers is 1⁄18-scale with a wing span of 42 inches made from De- pron® foam and painted with acrylic paints. The flying wires are functional as are the pull-pull control cables with a total weight of 6.75 ounces. Scheduled seminars, led by experts in the
PHOTO: JIM WIGGIN
Shawn Cassidy’s Vickers Vimy brings indoor scale to new levels. Made of Depron® with full flying wires. Total weight is 6.75 ounces.
industry, ran throughout the day on topics from radio programming to building and covering models. There were plenty of ven- dors with all the e-accessories to keep you flying over a long winter of indoor fun. Fly- zone’s
www.flyzoneplanes.com new micro P- 38 Lightning and Tiger Moth both displayed good flight performance on their single-cell battery.
The new Aircore Modular Aircraft System offers a slide-in “power cartridge” complete with brushless motor, receiver, speed con- trol, 2-cell 250 mAh Li-Po and three ultra- micro servos with magnetically attached pushrod ends. This allows easy swapping between models from trainer to WWII fight- er. I can see the power cartridge finding its way into many homebuilt designs. Neal Zahn built a pair of nice flying foam B-
58 Hustlers based on plans by Keith Sparks. The 3-cell mid-prop mounted jet had the speed and sound to match its looks. Bob Freukes brought a table full of pre-WWI fliers that were all enlarged from peanut scale plans and built from foam that performed beautifully. E-Fest is a great time with plenty to learn, see and do with perfect weather guaranteed. Hope to see you there next year.
Project Update The National Balsa
www.nationalbalsa.
com full wood kit of Nick Ziroli Plans
www.ziroliplans.com Ercoupe has framed up smoothly with no major issues and the time has come to cover the fuse with 1⁄8-inch balsa. This was my first experience at a fully sheeted fuselage and I remember being taught by other modelers to wet the wood for the section being covered and hold it in- place till dry then trim to the final size and glue. It is much easier to cut and align a formed section of balsa than one that is fighting to straighten itself out. Using a couple of ace bandages wrapped around the wood I was able to apply pres- sure to form the wet balsa sheeting without damaging the surface. Robart Manufacturing’s
www.robart.com ZECoupe tri-gear set and wheels were used. The gear are extremely well made and felt solid as a rock. I was impressed that the gear literally dropped into place with all Na- tional Balsa’s laser-cut holes matching up perfectly. A complete replacement parts list is included. Due to the Ercoupe’s relatively small wheels for its weight, Robart’s recom- mendation is to add a foam insert to the
by don belfort You can reach Don Belfortat 8250 Twin Cove Court, West Chester, Ohio, 45069
PHOTOGRAPHY: DON BELFORT
Neal Zahn’s foam B-58 Hustlers (above left),based on plans by Keith Sparks, looked great and were speedy. Bob Freukes’ pre-WWI fliers (above right) were
60
all enlarged from peanut scale plans and built from foam. That might be a recipe worth trying.
APRIL 2013
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