FOCAL POINT
Polaris Aircraft
Ed Lysaght (email: quattovision@hotmail.com) submitted this photo of himself and his two Polaris airplanes. The smaller Polaris has a 4-foot wingspan and is powered by two 70mm electric ducted-fan units. “It flies like it’s on rails and even does knife-edge!” Ed wrote.
The larger, lime-green Polaris has a 6-foot wingspan and is 100 inches long and powered by an E-flite Power 90 motor running on 8S 5,000 mAh LiPo battery packs, turning a 16 x 8 three-blade propeller. “It handles well in the air, doing loops, rolls, and inverted flight,” he noted.
The photo was taken at the Quaddick Reservoir in Thompson, Connecticut. Ed quipped, “The water level in the lake tends to rise a little when this giant touches down.”
Cessna T-50 Bobcat Songbird
Robert (Bob) Davis (Seymour, Tennessee; email: bdavispilot@aol.com) built the Songbird, a Cessna T-50 Bobcat that was featured in the 1950s TV series Sky King. The stick-and-tissue construction was designed by Pat Tritle and a full kit is distributed by Brodak Manufacturing.
Affectionately known as the Bamboo Bomber, Bob’s T-50 is powered by two Turnigy 2836/9950 Kv outrunner motors turning APC 9 x 6 slow-flyer propellers, two 20-amp ESCs, and a single 2,200 mAh two-cell LiPo battery. It’s covered with Coverite Microlite and graphics are from Callie Graphics. A pull-pull system drives the rudder and tail wheel steering with conventional pushrods used on the elevator and ailerons. A Spektrum radio provides the guidance.
Bob wrote that with a flying weight of 34 ounces, it’s a great-flying airplane that gets a lot of attention at the field, but it mostly brings back many fond memories of his boyhood fascination with aviation.
FJ-1 Fury
Larry Wright (S Wy ersville, Pennsylvania; email: larry-wright@verizon.net) sent in a photo of himself and his scratch-built FJ-1 Fury. Larry wrote:
“This is a plane that I wanted to build for some time. I started it in 2001 and then set it aside because I didn’t think the ducted fans at the time would fly it. After flying turbine jets for 10 years, I decided to make it out of fiberglass. I made the plug for the fuselage out of foam and fiberglass. The molds are made of 6-ounce fiberglass and are 1/4-inch thick. The three-view drawings were enlarged at OfficeMax to a 76-inch wingspan. This gave me a fuselage of 70 inches. It took me a year to make the molds and build it to a flying state.”
The FJ-1 Fury is powered with a JetCat P-120, Hitec servos, and a 3,000 mAh NiMH battery, and uses Robart retracts and custom-built rotating retract nose gear. The 28-pound model is controlled by a Futaba 10CAP FASST 2.4 GHz radio. At the time of this writing, Larry had 11 flights on it.
Larry received the plaque in the photo for the Pilots’ Choice award at the 2013 Hamburg Jet Rally in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Top Flite P-40C
Peter Nazaroff (Deerfield Beach, Florida; email: drpeter33@mac.com) submitted a photo of a Top Flite P-40C he built in the early 1950s as a 1/16-scale Control Line aircraft with a .15 SuperTigre engine. He crashed the P-40C on its first flight, but his father saved it for him to repair. Peter wrote, “… so in dedication to him, I’ve done his wishes.”
Peter now flies RC model aircraft, but thanks his dad for being a great saver.
Mysterion
David Spradlin (Southern Shores, North Carolina; email: davidspradlin@gmail.com) submitted his Mysterion, which he saw in a construction article by Al Clark in the January 2015 Model Aviation. He ordered the plans from AMA Plans Service and built the airplane as his first scratch-build.
“I tried to follow the plans as best as I could,” he wrote. “My version of the Mysterion weighs in at 40 ounces. It is powered with a brushless Park 480 outrunner motor at 1,020 Kv, 40-amp ESC, and three-cell LiPo battery. I went with the 10 x 7 folding propeller and turbo spinner. The covering is MonoKote and control is [with a] Spektrum DX7.”
Record Breaker
Chet Lanzo’s Record Breaker was originally built in 1938 as a fuel-powered Free Flight model, then reintroduced and updated in 1984 as a Ben Buckle kit for a fuel-powered RC aircraft.
Charles Eaton (email: eaton1943@gmail.com) spent much of 2015 building and configuring his Record Breaker as a modern, electric RC aircraft.
Weighing 7 pounds, 40 ounces, Charles’ Record Breaker has an 89-inch wingspan and is powered by a Hacker motor swinging a 14 x 8 propeller. “You get it up there and it [doesn’t] want to come down!” he wrote. “Somebody said, ‘It flies like a kite—just kind of hangs there.’”
Alien Aircraft ArrowMaster
Don Kargo (Centennial, Colorado; email: donkboys@comcast.net) had just finished his Alien Aircraft ArrowMaster laser-cut kit before submitting the photo to “Focal Point.” Powering it with an Evolution 15cc gas engine, Don noted that the kit went together amazingly well.
The ArrowMaster is covered with Super MonoKote on the top and blue Coverite on the bottom, with MonoKote trim. The airframe only has lower ailerons for simplification. It has a 60-inch wingspan, weighs 7.5 pounds, requires five servos, and has 996 square inches of wing area. Futaba is Don’s radio of choice.
Don is a member of the Jeffco Aeromod’lers based at Chatfield State Park, outside of Denver. “[It’s a] beautiful flying field with great views of our beautiful Rockies!”
F-5E Aggressor
Jerry Kraft’s (Oregon City, Oregon; email: kraft2728@comcast.net) F-5E Aggressor is from an old Cressline Model Products kit. The 1/8-scale model has a 48-inch wingspan, is 70 inches in length, and has an all-up weight of 15 pounds. It features a fiberglass fuselage, foam wings, elevators covered with balsa and .75-ounce fiberglass cloth, and is painted with Rust-Oleum. With electric retracts and a 120mm Ander electric ducted-fan (EDF) unit, it uses three four-cell 5,500 mAh LiPo batteries.
Jerry’s F-100D is a JePe FastFoam model from JePeJets.com. With a 48-inch wingspan, it is 55 inches long and weighs 8 pounds. The all-foam F-100D is covered in .75-ounce fiberglass and painted with Rust-Oleum. It features electric retracts and a 90mm EDF unit, using two four-cell 5,500 mAh LiPo batteries.
