Wow, I haven’t posted on here in 6 weeks! Let’s see if I can provide some updates.
ACTIVITY:
In our (the Cloudbusters) monthly Indoor contests, I’ve been trying to “get better”. The AMA indoor Nats are going to be held on my “home field” – at the Soccer Arena in Pontiac. This is exciting, but my flying probably needs to take a couple steps up. I will be surprised if I come out on top of any of the FAC events – and there are a LOT! Online registration is now open on the AMA web site.
Outdoor season is set to start here in Michigan on the second Sunday in April. Our normal schedule is the 4th Sunday, but we add one in April and one in October, just in case the weather is bad. Or rather, there is a good chance that one or both April contest will be called due to rain.
Yesterday (Saturday), I drove down to Muncie for some test-flying. Archie Adamisin (Kentucky) and Mike Smith (Dayton) were driving over to fly their Vintage Coupe de Hivers for a Postal contest that ends at the end of the month. Archie had planned on LAST weekend, but he wasn’t ready. Too bad, because the weather was great LAST weekend. Yesterday was windy. Not breezy, but windy. When we wrapped up, it was probably approaching 20 mph.
Nevertheless, the three of us flew. Archie had two coupes, Mike had one, and I brought two new models that I built over the winter: the Three-Nite P-30 (Mike Jester design) and the HepCat OT Fuselage (John Barker design). Both flew off the board, but trimming for really great flights will have to wait until there is less wind. I did hit 90 seconds on both of them. By the way, Archie hit 2:07 on his last flight and Mike had a very long flight, too (no one timed it, but it went way off the field). Oh, no one broke a plane, even in that wind! Archie did have a cracked spar, but I’m not counting that.
Here they are right before we packed up.
Archie (left) and Mike with their Vintage Coupes
NEW PRODUCTS:
I have released some new products since the last announcements of tissue paper and the Cessna 177RG.
I’ve added Teflon Washers in three sizes – find them HERE
I’ve added a cute little original Dimer – the Comet Curtiss-Wright Coupe. The Short Kit comes with copy of the original plan and the parts layout and prototype built by Archie Adamisin. He had it at the March Indoor Meet and it was cute as a button AND flew great!
There’s a flight video on the product page – find it HERE
Archie’s Comet Curtiss-Wright Coupe from our Short Kit
Mike Jester, in California, asked me if I would be interested in producing a P-30 Short Kit for beginners. He designed a flat-winged P-30 he has called the “Three-Nite” (read all about it on Hip Pocket) and I produced a Short Kit. It comes in two flavors: a) plan and laser-cut wood and b) plan, laser-cut wood, Gizmo Geezer P-30 Prop Assembly, DT fuse, rubber, for one motor, dowels and tubing. That’s pretty much everything except tissue and stick wood.
Mike lost his kit prototype and is now building his third. As I mentioned above, i had mine out yesterday and it was a very good flyer, even in the wind.
Find it HERE
my Three-Nite P-30 . “Props” to my cell phone, because the prop was really spinning in the wind!
Another modeling friend, Ken McGuire, designed his first model – an Embryo – and it flies, too! He asked if I wanted to kit it – I like kitting planes that are flyers! He’s built two, including the kit prototype, and will probably build another. He calls this embryo the Zephyr. It has clean lines and should be a quick build.
Find it the Short Kit HERE
Ken’s prototype Zephyr
Over the winter, I drew up and built a new Old Timer. As you can see above, I took it out yesterday and was very happy with the performance right off the board. It is the late John Barker’s HepCat and it qualifies for FAC Old Time Fuselage. It was flown by John in 1944 and on newstands in December 1945 (in the Jan 46 Aeromodeler).
You can find my Short Kit HERE and a 3D-printed noseblock HERE
my HepCat for old Time Fuselage
OTHER ACTIVITY:
Since the beginning of the year, you all have been sending in orders like I’m going out of business. You sure are keeping me hopping. I know that I am behind on getting some of them out to you, but I will get to them – thanks for your continued patience. As you should know, Superior Props folders are custom made and I have to wait for my 82 year old dad to send them to me. In addition, the Superior Props hardware is all made by him. I have to make some other hardware, and some days packing orders takes priority over machining parts.
Other things that have been getting in my way – winter blahs and sniffles, getting COVID shots, doctors’ appointments, family obligations, sick dogs, and so on. I’m one guy deep and I have to make choices all around. A similar choice is not to answer my business phone at 9:30pm – haha!
Some weekends this spring and summer will be taken up with contest flying. Other “days off” will be taken when I take my 1963 Studebaker Lark down to my dad’s so we can do a two-car engine swap. That will take some time, but should produce a good-running car on my end and a sale-able 55 Studebaker President sedan on his end. This will be time-well-spent with the old man, something which I haven’t done enough of over time.