Indholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2024 i Model Airplane News

THE ANNUAL PLANS GUIDE Experienced RC enthusiasts know nothing beats building an airworthy plane from plans, and the satisfaction of seeing your own handiwork take to the skies is a milestone achievement. Building from plans requires planning, a few readily available materials, a willingness to learn, and of course some time and patience, and the results are always worth it. In this year’s Guide, we showcase some of our favorite plans as well as highlight a few MAN plans built by readers who share their tips and insights. If the Plans Guide inspires you to build your own masterpiece, then head to AirageStore.com, where you’ll find a searchable database of more than 700 Model Airplane News plans to kick off your project. From sport fliers to WW II fighters and…

Perhaps no topic in the history of RC model aircraft flight has caused as much angst, consternation and emotion as the subject of Remote Identification, or Remote ID. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is charged with “providing the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” The FAA has been trying to figure out what to do with managing drones, or Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS), in the National Airspace System for a number of years. The commercial drone industry is growing fast in the United States. Drone business is estimated to reach $30 billion in 2023, to include such diverse activities as agriculture, delivery services, energy, media, real estate and law enforcement. We can add to this total widespread and growing hobbyist use of drones. According to industry experts the…

PIPER CUB Rick Rader, Cleveland, Ohio Every modeler’s hangar should have a Cub! Rick writes that this Hazel Sig 1/6-scale Piper Cub kit was a challenging but rewarding build. Instead of using a bell crank system for ailerons, he used a separate servo was assigned for each aileron. The J-3 Cub is powered by a Saito .40FS and is controlled by a Spektrum AR410 receiver and five Hitec Mighty Mini servos. It is covered with Sig Koverall fabric and hand-painted with Brodak butyrate dope. The vinyl decals are from Callie Graphics. RAZZLE DAZZLE Dave Lees, Ravenna, Ohio Dave designed and built this 36-inch-span, 34-ounce balsa profile plane. It uses a 2814 1000kv Sunnysky motor, 40-amp speed control, 12 x 6 APC prop, and 3S 1300mAh battery. Servos are 17-gram Emax…

Only one thing gets more instant attention at a flying field or event than a jet, and that is a scale helicopter. They usually attract a crowd from the time you unload them until you fly! That’s what makes a large gathering scale helicopters such a special occasion. One such occasion takes place in Hinesville, Georgia the week and weekend after U.S. Labor Day. Long known as “Dalton” for the town in northern Georgia where the event originated, last year the event moved to the Heath-Green Sky Ranch in Hinesville, just a short drive from historic Savannah. THE VENUE The Sky Ranch is an absolute gem of a venue dedicated to all things aviation. A 2,000-foot full-scale grass runway allows even the largest turbine-powered scale helicopters plenty of room to…

The Alien is a fresh new concept that was designed by Christophe Bourdon and manufactured by Anton Ovcharenko’s OA Composites, which is based in Kyiv Ukraine. The Alien has a unique design, is compact in size, and has a good amount of pre-fabrication that should only take a few hours to complete. It can also be used as a Discus Launch Glider (DLG). UNIQUE FEATURES The Alien is supplied in a sturdy reinforced carboard box to help protect it in transit. Once out of the box the unusual design can be seen in all its glory. There are four main parts to the model: the main one-piece carbon wing, the carbon rudder, fuselage, and the nose cone. The wing is constructed from a solid Rohacell core mold with spread weave…

SERVO CONNECTORS It’s often a good idea to secure mating servo connectors so they don’t come loose. Heat-shrink tubing works, and some commercial products clip the connectors together and prevent them from coming apart. But by far the simplest approach is to use a small zip tie between the center and signal wire of each side of the connector—fast, cheap, and reliable! Bill Hickey, Naperville, Illinois STRONGER JOINTS Balsa is awesome for models because it’s so light, but the tradeoff of course is sometimes strength. A 90-degree joint can often use a bit of help, so if you need to strengthen a 90-degree balsa joint, you can simply use a few pieces of triangle-shaped 1/32-inch plywood. Sand a step for the plywood and glue in place. Sand the plywood to…

For a new project, I always try to find something unusual. I prefer WW I aircraft and this time I selected a French Nieuport 24 sesquiplane, specifically, aircraft no. 4393 flown by MdL (Sgt.) André Loyseau de Grandmaison. He flew with the Escadrille N 561 based out of Lido field near Venice, Italy during the summer of 1917. I chose his plane because of its striking “winged Chimera” paint scheme. DESIGN & PLANS I started by importing Bergen Hardesty’s 3-view drawings from the December 1956 issue of Model Airplane News into CAD. I needed an 11-inch cowl to fit my engine, so I drew the plans to 27.5% scale. This produced an 87-inch wingspan, and the model is close enough to 1/4-scale to use commercially available accessories like machine guns…

The 80mm FMS Futura I reviewed in the January 2023 issue turned out to be one of my favorite foam jets in a long time, so I was excited to find out I would be reviewing its little brother. The latest offering in the EDF Jet line from FMS is the 64mm Futura PNP (Plug and Play) EDF. Not every model scales down well, but the 80mm model flew a lot like the larger composite Futura models so I was excited to see how this little hotrod performed. The Futura is constructed of injection molded EPO foam and reinforced with hard plastic in critical areas where extra strength is called for. Each of the screw holes have machined inserts so you’re not screwing anything into plastic that could strip or…