FOCAL POINT
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FW 190 A5
Gonzalo Bures’ (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico; email: gonzalobures@gmail.com) Meister Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A5 was built by Ramon Medina in the early 2000s and restored by Gonzalo in 2021.
Gonzalo selected a Russian front winter scheme. Because the airplane was so white, he named it Blanca Nieves. After restoration, he named it SchneeWittchen—Snow White in German.
The model has a wingspan of 100 inches and weighs 40 pounds. It is powered by a 3W-70i engine with a 24 x 10 wood propeller. The Fw 190 is controlled by a Futaba 9C radio. It has one servo each to control the engine’s throttle, rudder, and tail wheel, and two servos on each elevator, flap, and aileron. The main gear consists of Century Jets modified Fw 190 retracts and a fixed tail wheel. Two large air tank reservoirs have a four-way valve to distribute air pressure.
Gonzalo stated that it flies extremely well and looks imposing in the air.
Speedy Bee Bat Plane
Ken Lawrence (El Cajon, California; email: mkaway@cox.net) won this Andy Clancy Designs kit in the March 2021 Model Aviation “About Us” contest! “I was really surprised!” he wrote. “I got to choose the kit I wanted, so I chose the Speedy Bee because I already had the Lazy Bee, which you so kindly printed earlier [in ‘Focal Point’].”
Ken made the Speedy Bee into a Bat Plane using graphics from Callie Graphics. It is powered by a RimFire 10 motor with a Tactic radio and Hitec servos.
“[I’m] still looking for a Batman head of the correct size for the pilot!”
HOTS
Lou Hudson (Wilson, North Carolina; email: lohudson@myglnc.com) scratch-built this .60-size HOTS in winter 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The airplane is covered with MonoKote, powered by an O.S. 65AX engine, and uses a Spektrum radio system.
Lou chose the HOTS because it’s the airplane that he and his son flew quite a few years ago. “I saw the plans for this airplane, ordered a set, and scratch-built [it].” He chose the color scheme because it is easy to see in the clear blue sky at the Tarheel RC Flyers club in Elm City, North Carolina. “P.S., it flies like a dream.”
Zeta Flying Wing Modification
George Lumpkins (Katy, Texas; email: gulumpk@swbell.net) made some small modifications to his Value Hobby Zeta 80-inch flying wing. He initially added a 25-size Tacon motor, 4,000 mAh four-cell battery, a 10-inch folding propeller, and 60-amp ESC. He planned to hand-launch it with the help of friends who had wing experience. “Holding and hand-launching an 80-inch anything is a challenge, but a big wing was intimidating,” he wrote.
George then added tricycle landing gear of his own design, with the main gear in 1/4-inch plates, and a steerable nose gear that was mounted to a 1-inch square block then recessed into the nose area. He also incorporated clamshell rudders. The final design is nearly 8 inches across and controlled directly from a servo on each end. Two 50mm EDFs were added, with two 50mm ESCs and Y connectors, as well as six lights (three on a remote-control switch), a pilot and canopy, landing gear, and cooling fans inside the fuselage.
“I am satisfied for now,” George stated. “It did actually gain performance with the two additional EDFs. It flies and looks great.”
Twin Avanti Conversion
Steve Munsey (Katy, Texas; email: voodooblade@gmail.com) has several Motion RC Avantis. “Most are ‘well-worn,’” he wrote. He had an idea to do “something different,” joining two of his jets together into a formation-flying EDF Avanti, which took a lot of carbon fiber, Gorilla Glue, and more.
Six retractable landing gear, two receivers, two six-cell batteries, four flaps, and a clear plexiglass plate joining the horizontal stabilizers add to the illusion of two formation-flying jets. The downward-sloped stabilizers were heavily reinforced to help carry the load and further stabilize the rear of the completed airframe.
Takeoff and flight characteristics, according to Steve, are satisfactory at approximately 75% throttle. He stated that the only problem is that he now looks at everything around him as a possible twin-fuselage conversion.
A YouTube video of the Twin Avanti can be viewed at https://youtu.be/uJl21wHp7rE.
Bridi Big Bee
Roger Post’s (Newtown, Connecticut; email: planedrum@gmail.com) Bridi Big Bee was built by him, John Ganter, and Steve Halpern.
The 96-inch wingspan model runs on a 50cc RimFire motor, Castle Creations 160-amp ESC, two 5S 5,000 mAh LiPo battery packs, a 22 x 12 Xoar propeller, a Spektrum radio, and digital servos. It weighs 19 pounds, 12 ounces, with a wing loading of 27.94 ounces per square foot. The UltraCote covering represents a World War I asta.
Roger stated that it has extremely stable flight characteristics.
Kitbashed Sig Four-Star 120
Jim Tiller (Custer, South Dakota; email: jtiller@hotmail.com) wrote that he is not the first to turn a Sig Four-Star 120 into an agriculture airplane. “I was inspired by one built by a fellow modeler in Wyoming,” he noted. “My twist on it was to make it a single-engine air tanker. There are several operating near my home field in the Black Hills.” He stated that Hawkins and Powers Aviation, of Greybull, Wyoming, was once one of the largest operators of air tankers, so he included the company’s name on the airplane.
The kitbashed Four-Star sports a VRRC .20 gas motor, which supplies an abundance of power. Jim added effective half-span flaps and Hitec servos all around. It’s controlled by a Spektrum DX18 radio and receiver.
Jim, the AMA District IX vice president, feels that the best part, even after the modification, is that it still flies like a Four-Star. “A real sweetheart.”
Baby Buzzard Bombshell
Edward Pasick (Brick, New Jersey; email: realtor7430@yahoo.com) submitted a photo of Tom and Salvatore Barone (South Hackensack, New Jersey; email: weepingpine73@gmail.com) with their 1960s Baby Buzzard Bombshell that they restored with the help of a fellow Ocean County Modelers club member.
The project consisted of airframe repair and reinforcement to meet today’s modern O.S. .15 engine. The original covering was tissue paper and dope, which had to be removed by scraping and sanding. The aircraft is now covered with heat-shrink Top Flite MonoKote. Edward wrote that it was quite a challenge to install the servos and a battery in such a small cabin space.
Ocean County Modelers is a 5-year AMA Gold Leader Club located in Jackson, New Jersey.
