Indoor Flying Season Begins

We returned to the venerable gymnasium at St. Vincent's to begin the 2009 indoor flying season. Kermit's Born Loser embryo was one of the main attractions, consistently attaining flights of about one minute.


Kermit is experimenting with different motors to get optimal performance, given the constraints of our beamed ceiling.


Mike's Bald Eagle Bostonian circled fast and low over the hardwood floor as if hunting, but the only critters in the gym are dust bunnies that live under the bleachers.


George brought his new dime scale Miles Magister, which he built for our current group building project.


Mike's Akro has seen action in the gym for quite a few years. The 16" Dick Baxter design in Russian winter scheme reminds Mike of a P-39 Airacobra, hence the model's nickname: Akro Cobra.



Ed builds and flies all kinds of models, including ultra lightweight stuff like his electric powered R/C penny plane (above) and rubber powered ornithopter (left).


Dave K shows one of his outdoor planes, the Golden Age Reproductions P-47 with German markings. George stands in the background with his fantasy flyer, the Pfalz Canard.

George is building a larger version of the Pfalz Canard.


George utilized slice rib construction. Note the upper and lower halves are offset at the trailing edge.


Removable landing gear are retained by a rubber band. George's design allows each gear to pivot independently; the rubber band serves as a shock absorber.


Flyin_Brian brought his new camera to the meeting, setting up a portable photography studio with George's help.


Brian's XE-5

The wind finally lets up, so we let em fly

The grass has gotten quite tall at the Lakeville site...so, much of the day was spent searching for lost models. You could walk right past your plane, and not even see it!
The weather was sunny and hot, with occasional gusts.

Tom's razorback P-47, fresh off the building board, was being put through its paces.

Jerry flew an Island Flyer, a Hienkel, and T-6 Texan.

Ray flew his Jimmy Allen, a Guillows Skyraider, and a P-30.

George tells us that this little nickel scale model is a veteren of many flights and venues.

Here is Gale's latest creation, another of his original designs, I believe.
It flew very slow, stable circuits.

Think you got it tough? Try winding four engines!

Rather frightening flight by Dennis Norman's amazing B-24 Liberator.
Video posted to YouTube by maxfliart.

Indoor Flying

MAC will resume indoor flying on the fourth Sunday of each month starting April 26, 2009. The winter hiatus was longer than usual this year because the gym at St. Vincent's was needed for basketball.

Have a look at some action from an indoor meeting last Fall: a short video of Tyler's new twin pusher.

Mystery Plane Revealed

Traffic to the blog spiked after I announced the contest on Small Flying Arts, so I know that lots of people looked at the Mystery Plane, but nobody identified it correctly.

Was the Mystery Plane too obscure? The contest is supposed to be challenging; we can't ask you to identify P-51s. Tom says "the more obscure the better" and this is a fairly obscure airplane.

The unusual double-chassis Grade-Eindecker was designed and built by Hans Grade in Germany. These photographs from 1914 show aerobatic pioneer Gustav Tweer at the controls. It is unknown if the plane ever landed upside down on the auxiliary landing gear.

EDIT: Al Backstrom from Texas identified this as a "Grade something or other" which is a good way to describe it. Al emailed his answer after the Mystery Plane was revealed, but I don't think he knew that. Good answer, Al. Thanks for playing our game.

Barnstorming - A Documentary Film

I just learned about this in a new thread at Small Flying Arts.

Barnstorming, a documentary film, screened at the 2nd annual Reel Stuff Aviation Film Festival last week. Further screenings and a DVD are in the works. If the trailer is any indication, this looks like an interesting film with good production values.

Name The Plane Contest

The subject of this month's contest is a strange contraption, to be sure.

Can you identify the Mystery Plane?

The contest winner(s) - everyone to answer correctly by 18:00 PST on Saturday, March 21, 2009 - will be enshrined forever in the blog.

Email you answer here.

Here's a link to the P 40

WOW

I was returning from Novato this morning (having swapped Ray Bazurto a prop blank for the Zero canopy). As I turned off 137 at Sears Point a P-40 roared overhead. It circled and dived around the Carneros area and shortly after I pulled up at Schellville airport It landed and taxied right up to the parking lot.

It is in olive drab with 1944 markings - exquisite.

I've since found that it flew for the first time a month ago after owner Chris Prevost had completed 10,000 hours of rebuilding work. It was found in Australia in the seventies and partially restored in New Zealand.

What's remarkable is that its original South Pacific pilot, 90 year old Ray Melikian, lives in Visalia, and has been offered a free ride in the P-40 by Chris Prevost, who installed a second set of controls and a jump seat behind the pilot's seat.

If this hasn't already happened, I'd sure like to be there - it would be a special moment.

Update From Team K

Dave and Tyler K. are busy working on these projects. These guys are like our own Skunk Works, showing up with amazing new models every month, or so it seems.


Speaking of Lockheed, here is Tyler's P-38 ready for covering. Nice set of bones!


Dave is well along with the covering of his Lidberg TA152H and Golden Age Reproductions P-47. We can expect to see all three of these warbirds hunting thermals in the near future.