Well, Dave's been an aeromodeler for over twenty-five years playing with everything from free-flights to giant scale warbirds. He's also professionaly built F3A, F3B, Scale, IMAC and Pylon ships. His latest passion is scale sailplanes....
Two new PSS projects..
Dave and son Ian wanted to have some cool new planes for the Cajon Pass PSS Festival this year, so they set to making some molds for fuselages. Here's the results!
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| This is a 48 inch span Ki-61 Hien. Area is 320 sq.in., SD6060 airfoil, RTF weight is 38 ounces. Glass fuselage, wood skinned foam core wings, solid balsa tail feathers. All wood surfaces finished with .75 oz. cloth. Testor's Model Master paint with semi-gloss lacquer clear coat. | This is a 21 inch span Spitfire.. check out the transmitter next to it!! It's tiny! Area is 75 sq.in., SD6060 airfoil, RTF weight is 6.8 ounces. Glass fuselage, wood skinned wings, solid balsa tail feathers, .75 oz. glass finish. Model Master paint with gloss lacquer clear coat. Cute as a button. |
The Ki-61 hasn't flown yet due to lack of suitable conditions. Spitfire has flown, but on a rather soft day. Still, it flew nice. These will undergo the full test program, then very likely be released as kits. Stay tuned!
 The GW-7 utilizes 1.9 lb. EPP foam in the wings, and 1.3 lb. for the fuselage and fin / rudder. Spars are basswood and the fuselage has a full length / depth 1/4" balsa stringer on the vertical centerline. Covered with strapping tape and Ultracote.
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We decided to try an experiment in high aspect ratio wings using EPP construction. The scale prototype is one of our favorite full scale ships - the Wigham GW-7. The full size ship is an all-aluminum, 15 Meter contest ship. The model you see here is exact 1:4 scale, and crafted entirely of EPP with the exception of the stabilizer, which is slab balsa. Of course, it has wood spars, trailing edges, etc. Did it work? Yeah.. the model flies pretty well and the EPP wings are a lot better in torsion than we expected. Would we kit it? No way.. it's technically challenging to construct.. I wouldn't wish the project on my worst drinking buddy. In addition to exploring the limits of EPP foam, we wanted to evalute the plane's performance in preparation for a traditionaly constructed model. She's a keeper for sure, and lands as slow as a regular TD ship - it's equipped with 90 degree flaps and has full crow capabilities. |
 Pretty well finished on a soggy day. Graphics were masked and sprayed like the full-scale aircraft. What you see here represents a few months research, 100 hours of drafting and about 400 hours construction time. Model was first flown January 1st, 2000 at Torrey Pines, CA while still wearing only primer - flew great! At 12 pounds flying weight and 18 ounce per square foot loading, it's got pleasing feel on the sticks. |
What is it?! It's the Perl PG-130 Penetrator. The original aircraft was designed and built by Harry Perl in the early fifties, and first flew in 1953. Span was 48 feet; a typical standard class ship. It's notable that it represented a crossroads in sailplane design between the old wood and fabric vintage planes and the modern all-composite super-ships. My model is at 1:3.5 scale, yeilding a span of about 13'-9", so it's a good sized plane. Construction has been designed to match the full-scale Penetrator as closely as possible. Since there's basically no documentation of this ship in existence, other than a semi-accurate 3-view from an old issue of Soaring magazine, I've become the proud owner of probably the only accurate 3-view drawing of it in existance, which is based on measurements and photos taken of the real ship at the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, NY. The full-scale aircraft was altered in quite a few areas over it's lifespan, and this model represents it's final iteration. Many thanks to Jim Armstrong and Dave Jones for their assistance in helping me measure and document this subject. It's first event will be the 2000 Torrey Pines Scale Classic in San Diego, CA. See you there!! | |
 Bones prior to covering. Fuselage was glassed, wings rudder and stabilizer were covered with Coverite 21st Century Fabric. |
 Cockpit detailing (left and above). While in Elmira, NY for the '99 Elmira Aerotow, the entire cockpit and external features of the full-scale Penetrator were photographed, as well as external outline, features and finish examined to insure accuracy. Internal structure of the fuselage visible inside the cockpit is to scale. The 1:1 scale Penetrator is currently in storage in the basement of the National Soaring Museum awaiting restoration. |
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 This is a photo of the full-scale Perl Penetrator (above) from an old issue of Soaring magazine... Compare with the photo of the model to the right. |
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 Detailing at tail area (above).
Stabilizer is full flying, as on the real airframe,
however the small booster tab along the trailing edge is
fixed on the model. Aileron counter balance and linkage
(right). |
 AWARDS: |
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 A peek into the cockpit. Details include scale instrumentation and seat belts. Seat cushion was fashioned from blue styrene foam then painted with acrylic paints.
Cockpit viewed from opposite side. |
 Dave and his big toy in the neighbor's yard. This is my 1:3 scale CB-15 Crystal, from the French MCM kit, imported by Unbeaten Path Imports. I bought this ship on a whim at Visalia '97 and this was the result 8 months and 300 hours later. The kit was quite nice, but many reworks were done to improve scale fidelity and finish, notably the wing fillets and canopy frame areas, as well as the lower portion of the rudder. The obechi skinned wings, stabilizer and rudder were finished with 1.5 ounce glass cloth and Z-Poxy resin, then the entire airframe filled, sanded and painted with K&B Ultrapoxy paint. This was then completely rubbed out and polished to yield a very scale finish. Cockpit details are largely shop fabricated to achieve exact scale appearence of the fittings in the full-scale sailplane. Other functional features include retractable landing gear, Multiplex spoilers, tow release and scale canopy hinge. Pilot figure by John Derstine. AWARDS: |
 Call letters and two-tone diamond logo were cut from self-adhesive trim sheets to match documentation supplied with kit. Also note scale buldge to fair with fuselage at ventral rudder. This was built up in foam then glassed. |
 Scale hinging of canopy adds lots of character to a scale model. |
Crystal in flight at Soar Utah '98. Photo by Shelby Sanders.
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Here's my 1/8 scale Akaflieg
Braunschweig SB-10 Schirokko. I started
with a Viking Models (Jerry Slates) glass fuselage and
the rest is scratch built. Wings are four piece,
1/64" ply over blue foam cores; stabs and rudder are
glass/balsa over foam. The only departure from exact
scale outline was increasing the wing and stabilizer
chords slightly to improve structural strength and
aerodynamics. The root chord is only 5 7/8" on it's
144" span! Looks very cool in the air! RG-15
section starting at 13% thick at the roots and thinned to
9% at the tips. Flies real nice and has surprisingly
docile stall characteristics. AWARDS: |
John Roe does the honors on maiden throw... Nice form, eh?
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Here's a shot of my 2.6 meter (90 inch) Salto H-101. This ship is also based on a Viking Models glass fuselage and utilizes Fred Mallet's recommended wing sections; S7032 root with S7037 tips. This plane absolutely kicks butt for aerobatics and is a real gas to fly!! |
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Here's a shot of my Salto comfortably nestled in it's travel box. I can take this thing on airliners by checking it as regular baggage with no fear whatsoever. Box is made from 1/4" douglas fir ply with reinforcements at the joints and has custom fitted EPP foam linings that hold all the parts in place. This is a great way to travel as well as prevent hangar rash around the shop. |
