NEAT Fair 2016
The 2016 Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology (NEAT) Fair, held September 15-18 in Downsville, New York, was a great one. With nice weather during most of the event, pilots put a lot of flying time on their models.
I was impressed by all of the beautiful—and unusual—electric models that were at the gathering. Models of all types and sizes were flown outdoors, including micro models. One unusual model was a large twin-engine airplane that carried a model of the space shuttle on its back. The shuttle was released from the airplane when it climbed to altitude, and then glided down for a perfect landing.
NEAT Fair is also a great place to shop. There were some great vendors, including several that support micro-size aircraft. Stevens AeroModel had its
beautiful line of micro RC kits on display, as did Zeke’s Park Scale Models and Sawn Craft.
Sawn Craft Front Yard Fighters Showdown
Sawn Craft held the first micro Pylon race featuring its Front Yard Fighters. The event had 24 registered pilots. Sawn Craft provided the aircraft built to factory specifications for the race. Contestants merely had to bind their transmitters to the models.
Heats of 10 laps were flown, and the top two contestants from each heat advanced to the finals. The wind was blowing at approximately 10 mph or more, and that added to the fun and the challenge of the race. I actually made it to the finals, but was blown out of the sky by a gust! It was pure, fun competition. Congratulations to the winners! First place went to Mark Berardo; second place to Nick Michels; and third place to Rich Roland.
Indoor Night at NEAT
My wife, Cindy, and I were happy to hold the indoor event again this year at the Downsville Central High School gymnasium. It is always exciting to see all of the new and innovative models displayed and flown.
One of them was a slow-flying, tandem-wing FPV model built by Sam Johnson. The aircraft features a lightweight skeleton airframe covered in Mylar. Sam built the model for his high school senior project. He could not attend the event this year, but his father, Gordon Johnson, flew Sam’s airplane, as well as many of his own wonderful Cartoon Scale aircraft.
Joe Clements displayed an amazing collection of Brown CO₂ motors. His son, Ross, flew several great-flying models powered by CO₂, including RC and Free Flight (FF) airplanes! CO₂ was the power of choice for many micro modelers years ago, before we had LiPo batteries.
Mike Cripps had a beautiful collection of micro aircraft this year, including a scale balsa-and-tissue model of a 12-inch Aereon 26. The model weighs 44 grams and uses a brushless motor
for power. Mike also flew a 16-inch wingspan balsa-and-tissue scale model of a Pitcairn Fleetwing biplane that he built from an Easy Built Models kit.
Paul Stamison had at least two new aircraft on his table that he built for the event. One was an airplane called the PushAir, which resembled a Curtiss-Wright Junior. The aircraft was built with balsa and was covered in ultralight covering. The other model was also a pusher configuration called a Cement Mixer. The airplane was yellow with neat wiggly eyes.
Jin Woo Choe had his beautiful flying micro F-86 and F4U Corsair with him, as well as many other impressive micro scale models.
It was nice to see some rubber- and CO₂-powered FF models flying at the event. Thayer Syme had two beautiful balsa-and-tissue, rubber-powered FF airplanes with him.
Building a lightweight rubber FF model and getting it to fly in a small gym is an art that Thayer seems to have mastered. I watched his 15-inch wingspan Whimsy Embryo fly majestically for 40 seconds or more, and come down for a graceful landing right on the gym floor!
Each year, Cindy and I present awards to modelers for their outstanding efforts in micro modeling. This year’s awards were sponsored by Bob Selman Designs.
The award recipients were:
- Best Cartoon Scale: Gordon Johnson’s Cartoon Scale triplane
- Best Micro Model: Ross Clements’ CO₂ airplanes
- Best Micro Scale Model: Mike Cripps’ Aereon 26
Cindy and I would like to thank everyone for coming and making the 2016 Indoor Night at NEAT a success. We look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s event!
SOURCES:
NEAT Fair
www.neatfair.org
Stevens AeroModel
(719) 387-4187
www.stevensaero.com
Zeke’s Park Scale Models
www.parksscalemodels.com
Sawn Craft
www.sawn-craft.com
