Gentleman, watch your six! The line for the Warbird Mass Fly (above left) drew many pilots with many different fighters and bombers. A Corsair and Spitfire(above right) await their turn to taxi out to the runway. Dave Trucon, of
We were blessed with a beautiful blue sky and winds were only a slight crosswind of a few miles per hour. As a result, just about everyone got a chance to fly. Friday was a more relaxed day with most of the action taking place on Saturday but that did not stop many from taking the day off to kick off their weekend at the event. Tents and easy ups were lined up and down the pit area, many filled with models of every shape and size. There was even a fair showing of heli- copters and quads this year.
With Friday being a slower day, I thought I would use the time to see all that Hobbico had brought out to the event. I started by speaking with Greg Meyer, who is a Product Manager at Hobbico and is responsible in part for many of the Great Planes, Top Flite, Electrifly and Flyzone planes we enjoy. Greg has been building and flying model airplanes for many years, and takes any chance he gets to come to an event and talk with fellow modelers and fly. Greg took a few minutes to talk with me and showed me how Great Planes has been designing their
La Crosse, Wisconsin (below, at right) built this Astro Challenger and lengthened the nose to easily accept a brushless motor. Dave was seen throughout the weekend catching thermals with the model.
popular .40 size class of model and making them dual-purpose.
Take, for instance, the new Great Planes
Cirrus SR22T. It is the typical size for a .46- .55 two-stroke nitro engine, but has also been designed to accept a Rimfire brushless motor, ESC and a pair of Li-Pos. “It allows us to sell our planes to more than one mod- eler, the traditional nitro sport pilot or the electric modeler.”, said Greg. At this point, Chris Sydor was sliding the wings on the SR22T and getting the model ready for a quick flight. To see more on this new plane, check out Vic Macaluso’s review on page 42. Sig Manufacturing also had a large pres- ence at Watts. Sig, whose very existence was in question just a few short years ago, was in full force at the event. Parked outside their tent was a wide range of models, both new and familiar. The popular Sig Rascal was there in giant scale along with the recently updated 4-Star 54EG and 64EG. It just so happens that Larry Kruse has reviewed the 4-Star 64EG this month. Check it out start- ing on page 50.
Combat was a popular event on Saturday. Pilots were lined up on the runway (above) and released their Combat plane one by one to start a small circular pattern (above, at right) until the word was given. It did not take long for the models to develop into the fur ball (at right) as seen here. Scott Russell would win in the end with a little bit of good flying and an efficient battery.
FLYING MODELS 35
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