What started it all

Here's a photo of our intrepid leader George with his mother, standing in front of a Fox Moth. It's probably 1935 or so, and for five shillings each, the family enjoyed a pleasure ride. The four seats in the enclosed cabin faced each other and the pilot was up top in an open cockpit.

Happy days, when the world was at peace and there was no wind at Lakeville.

Tom.

Lubomir Koutny and the Czech approach

Perhaps you know of Lubomir Koutny, the distinguished Czech free flight modeler. He has been a top competitor for decades and many of his scale model plans have been published. In 2003 his book, "Rubber Powered Models," was published in the Czech language.

Koutny's book is said to be an excellent resource, particularly as it explains the Czech approach to design and construction.

There is a chance that the book will be published in English. This depends on gathering a certain number of pre-orders. If you are interested you will find more information at Minimakety.cz including the author's email address.

But wait, there's more. Bernard Guest is organizing a Koutny cookup at the Hip Pocket Aeronautics Builders' Forum. Participating in this cookup promises to be a good way to learn about Czech style models. Many plans are available including peanuts and 1/20 scale from Michael J. Woodhouse and other sources.


Koutny's P-51H

If you are like me (which is to say relatively new to free flight modeling) you may be asking: What is so special about the Czech approach? Bernard explains some of the basics in this excerpt from the HPA Forum:

1. The wings are quite special...look at the airfoil. It changes from near-scale, semisymetrical at the root (which makes the intersection of the wing a fuselage more scale like) to strongly undercambered at the tip.

2. The wing structure is unusual too in that it uses closely spaced sliced ribs near the center section with the spacing increasing towards the tip (lighter).

3. The fuselage is interesting too of course....all those stringers! Why? Apparently, the main reason is that this yields a much more realistic representation of the metal skinned bird.

4. The propellers are light and made using a hot bending technique that involves taking an airfoiled blade blank and twisting it free hand against a hot iron.

Another Koutny design, the Ki-61 Hien

I am intrigued by this cookup and expect to start building one of the Koutny designs later this summer. Either of the models pictured above, the P-51H or the Ki-61, would be fun to build. I believe the cookup expires in one year, so I have a realistic chance of finishing on time. Anyone else want to join in?

Photos from Openscale reports at Minimakety.cz

Fike

If you come to a Marin Aero Club meeting you'll see a wide range of aircraft types. One of the most distinctive designs is George's peanut scale Fike Model E, a 1970s era light plane with a wing chord that seems to cover half the fuselage.

George explains how he rebuilt and repaired his Fike during our winter hiatus:

The Fike flew well until its flight path coincided with the steel uprights at the end of the benches in the gym, resulting in the necessity of building a new wing or scrapping the plane as the wing was beyond repair. As is often the case, further damage was evident so I built a new wing, stab. and fin. The fuselage was repaired but a new one could have been built in the time I spent patching and fiddling. Trimming has started, not helped by wing warping from a ride in a hot car to St. V. which shrunk the tissue further.

Fike as originally built, circa 1990

Dethermalizer Explained

George built a dummy DT and brought it to our meeting last week to demonstrate one way these mechanisms can be set up.

Meanwhile, at Lakeville...

Tyler and Dave K worked on trimming Tyler's new P-38, built from the Dumas kit. How are they doing? Check out this video:

Summertime

Summer is here. Sun up early. Coffee at six. Feed the dog. Pack up the little airplanes and off to the gym. Breakfast of cookies and apples courtesy of George. By eleven o'clock my motorcycle pants are too hot for the gym.


Mike's dime scale Boeing B-9


A pair of Beech Staggerwings, both by Mike. The smaller one is a Pistachio sized No-Cal.


Mike's B-25 Pistachio


Ed's new Bambino is almost ready for its maiden flight.

I didn't take many pictures today. Maybe Tom will post some of his and expand on this report.

SECOND TIME LUCKY

Here's the flyer for our second attempt at the outdoor contest. Same rules, same categories - but hopefully not the same weather. Mass launches are half an hour earlier.




George gave me a fabulous large format book of air to air photographs of WWII fighters, and my (rebuilt with more dihedral) Zero looks good on the page too. Lets hope it flies this time.

GLOBAL WARMING GROUNDS FLYING ACES

Why are Richard, Brian and Ding standing around like they're doing a coffee commercial at the inaugural FAC Squadron 27 contest?

Well take a look at the windsock - it's actually going up!



Other than the impossible wind, conditions were perfect at the Sam 27 Lakeville field this morning, when a bunch of us gathered to do combat with balsa weapons. My attempts to fly dime scale gave a good impression of a demented butterfly, while Ed's gollywock and Ray's Skokie could have won downwind distance records with one flight each. Tyler did really well with his pseudo dime chambermaid - which is about as esoteric as this "hobby" gets - but Dave's staggerwing looked promising too.

The FAC contest is now postponed, but we will announce a new date within days. It's a pity because quite a few people turned up. Dave took it pretty well considering his competitive nature, but he quickly started figuring out how many even better models he can build in the meantime.





Kermit helped out with timing, and provided his hi-tech (no longer available) stooge. Ray checked it out and came to the conclusion you would need at least a milling machine to make a copy.



Ed just found out his gollywock is illegal with a folding prop, and is considering the parallel bars instead.



Happy if flightless day. Thanks to everyone for the fine conversation.

Tom.

GUILLOW'S P40

This kit had been sitting in the garage for the last five years or so until I recently watched the restored P40 out of Schellville tearing around the skies over Sonoma. (Schellville airport)

It inspired me against my better judgment to build the kit. Yes it's a bit heavy, even after drilling a series of holes in all the bulkheads and keel, but it looks pretty good and provided I can work out the noseblock it might manage 30 seconds - well 20 anyway. Not a contender in the WWII combat mass launch on 6/14.

I will be at Lakeville on Sunday in the hope of getting in some testing for this event. How about you?

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who took part in the crucial D-Day landings 65 years ago tomorrow, and pay tribute to their amazing bravery.

Tom

The Obligatory Bones Shot

I am trying to finish my pseudo dime scale P-51B in time for our FAC contest next weekend. Will it be ready in time? Will the A's win the pennant this year? Will I get a BMW and ride from Key West to Prudhoe Bay in the Iron Butt Rally? You never know.