Ed Solenburger RIP

Ed Solenburger could be a charming, grouchy, comic, know-it-all, Ebay addicted, smart guy - just like the rest of us, but above all he was a committed model airplane builder and flyer.

Power, freeflight, indoor, RC, outdoor rubber and a lot more, from penny planes and peanuts to Jimmie Allens and Gollywocks.

He was generous with advice on occasions, and always generous with plans and materials and kits and rubber and pretty much anything else you might have needed from his vast collection.

When Ed was already older than most of us, he made sure that Earl Hoffman, (who was as old as god) was picked up, and brought to Lakeville to fly those last few times. Ed wound the motors and hung on to Earl's waistband while he launched in case propwash blew him down, and they cursed each other the way only friends can.

Thank you for your support Ed, and thanks for the red tissue, the prop blanks and the freewheeler, and maybe one day we'll finally tie our rubber motors the way you tried to teach us.

Fly on!

Your friends at Marin Aero.

Martin MO-1

The MO-1 was an American observation aircraft built by the Glenn L. Martin Company for the U.S. Navy.

In the early 20's the Navy became interested in a thick airfoil cantilever winged observation aircraft developed by Fokker.

The Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics designed a 3 seat monoplane to use a similar wing.

It had an all-metal structure covered with fabric and was powered by the Curtiss D-12 engine.
36 were built with one being converted to float landing gear in 1924.

Fairey Barracuda - The biter bit.

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The Barracuda was going down.

At the controls the captain knew something was wrong when he felt a rush of cold air around the knees and the torpedo bomber went into a series of dizzying loops.

Most of the front end was gone and the DT was completely shot away.

“I can’t hold her,” shouted Flt. Lt. Benson to the navigator. “You better get out!”

“But what about you sir?”

“Don't worry about me. Just leave me here alone at the controls. As long as you're alright.”

The navigator baled out, and the stricken Barracuda looked like it was headed for a crushing future.

More to come . . .

Marin Aero Club's 2011 Bostonian Contest

Paul took all the marbles in this years Bostonian shoot-out. His original design puts in an amazing performance, beating all previous winners. First prize was a pair of ChannelLock round-nose pliers.

Congratulations Paul, on a well deserved win!

                      Indoor models in action.

Mike's tandem-twin engined Skymaster Bostonian was still in testing and didn't compete.

George shows us how its done...head down, prop held with left hand, start timer with right hand, breathe deep...and follow through.

                    Tom frees the Flying Fish

Peter flew his trusty Prairie Bird...an amazingly popular kit from Peck-Polymers, still in production.

Sept Indoor Session 2011

This indoor session saw many Bostonians being tested and tweaked for next months contest... trying to squeeze every last second of air time from these little workhorses.

MAC has some very creative builders / designers in its ranks.

Ed found time to fly his stick, when the air wasn't being churned up by Bossies.

Haoyang built the Basic Bostonian, a nice T-tail model.

                           

Sowing a seed.

How hard can this be?
Let's give it a try .......

Sunday, September 25th was the last chance you all had to trim your Bostonians indoors before our yearly competition planned for October 23rd. Lot's of new and old Bossies were seen .... many of them flying nicely ... if you have a Bossie in your collection and intend flying it on the 23rd then you need to test fly sooner than later. You haven't heard the last of me on this subject I intend to moan at you regularly over the next 4 weeks to make our Bostonian Contest a hard fought event and erase last years meager showing from our history books.

Arado 440

Just thought I'd post a picture of the Arado 440 before it got crunched.

No, seriously. It flies fast, high, and on the rails. I used my own plan, developed from the best three view I could find. The only deviation to the original is that the nacelles are lowered to allow the rubber motors to avoid the leading and trailing edges of the wing.

I like three bladed props - they suit my preference for a scale looking flight, rather than duration. They counter rotate and are made from a Smart Balance container. Guess what - they balance. But because they don't freewheel too well, the drag was nosediving the model when the winds came off. So trim consists of a tiny bit of lead in the tail countered by downthrust. The glide to the right is now flat and sidethrust gives a lefthand climb.

Right now the model is missing the big vertical vane at the very rear of the fuselage, but I kind of like the way it looks.
The silver finish may be more accurate because with only three prototypes made towards the end of WWII, it's doubtful that the real thing ever received camouflage paint.

I will have some in-flight photos soon.

Tom

PS Motors are each four loops of !/8 - it's fast!

JOHN PRATT MODEL EXHIBITION AT PETALUMA MAIL DEPOT

John Pratt, one of SAM 27s most prolific builders and flyers of freeflight rubber models, has 30 of them on display at downtown Petaluma's Mail Depot at 4th and C from now until September 6th.

John will be in attendance on Saturday August 20th - at a reception between 11am and 1pm.

You can see the collection during the Mail Depot's regular hours (Mon-Thurs 8 - 6, Friday 8-5 and Saturday 9-3)

John has flown his exceptionally wide range of models competitively all over the US and in Europe, and his models are beautifully built, as evidenced by this classic 1932 Gordon Light Wakefield which was performing at Lakeville this morning along with Paul's similar model.(Despite the wintry appearance, it wasn't long before the fog blew away to reveal clear blue sky.

Skymaster, skokies, 49er, bostonian, bees and "the boys"

Skydate August 14, 2011.

Having failed to find a Swift Tuttle particle burning up like an HTV-2, a few of us tried to create a daylight meteor shower at Lakeville this morning.

Mike L muscled in in his Mustang, opened its cavernous trunk and produced another two miniature marvels. Brian S posted an article on the all-sheet 49er earlier this year and Mike took up the offer to build one. It proved a great flier.



Not content with this, he unveiled his new Bostonian. Wow! Not only does it fit the Bostonian rules, but it happens to be a perfect scratch built scale rendering of the push-pull Cessna Skymaster. And on top of that in Spanish Navy markings. Again it flew really well as the overhead shot shows.




THERE WILL BE A BOSTONIAN CONTEST AT THE SEPTEMBER INDOOR MEETING

Mike claims the Skymaster is a "bit heavy". This could be subterfuge of course, but maybe offers a chance for one of us to pip him at the post this year - maybe Jim's pelophylax could leapfrog to victory.

Paul flew his p30 - beautiful - blew by and beyond us, bothering the busy bees, two of which stung Paul as he attempted a retrieve. Don't wear yellow. When the bees find out you're not a pollinating prospect they attack.

George B, Jerry L and me flew Jimmie Allen Skokies. My huge four loops of one eighth proved useless against a vicious windshear, but switching to three loops and more winds worked wonders when the thermals picked up. Both Jerry and George enjoyed high flights and easy limits which bodes well for the upcoming Jimmie Allen contest.



It was a fun morning with Jim B confessing that his recent reintroduction to free flight had presented him with some of the happiest times of his life. If ever you wanted a celebrity endorsement of a sport/hobby there it is. Thanks Jim

Beautiful day - friends, sunshine, laughter. Where else could a retired packaging expert, airplane mechanic, chemist, retired engineer, musician and sculptor begin to believe they were boys again - all for a couple of gallons of gas and some rubber lube.

Tom

Where Hobby dreams come true

Great news!
Ian Dauth and his wife Caryn have opened a hobby shop in San Anselmo.
Jim B and George B attended the grand opening last week of Dauth Hobbies - 224 Greenfield Ave #2 San Anselmo 415 454 3087
http://www.dauthhobbies.com






George helped Caryn and Ian put together an order for freeflight materials and I urge you to support the new venture whenever you can.

Best of luck to Ian & Caryn - at last there's somewhere for me to get what I just ran out of at the last minute and usually end up "borrowing".

I wrote a small piece on Gale W's sculpture and giant rubber models called "BIG" for the SAM 27 folk's website - you can view the pdf right here

Tom