President's Column

As hard as I fight it seems as though I’m losing the battle and Mother Nature is pushing the door shut on our 2004 flying season. The last time I was out flying was on a Monday in Corcoran with Sina and Wayne. The weather was perfect and we got in several hours of undisturbed flights. I played until I was out of fuel and went home with nothing broken and no repairs needed. Of course I had to call John and brag. I know others that others have been out since then, but if that were to be my last session of 2004 I’d be completely happy.

Speaking of last flights it never fails to surprise me on how differently our planes work in the cold and dense fall air. Motors make more power, props bite harder, and wings develop more lift. There is also more drag to contend with but I don’t notice that as much as the other stuff.

The last time I was at our field John brought out the Brodak Oriental ARF that he had just received. This plane seems to have a little better quality then the Nobler ARF’s that I’ve seen lately but the controls still need to be tossed and replaced with something more dependable. Any 35 or 40 will fly the plane just fine and for about a hundred bucks it’s a great deal especially considering the time saved in the construction of a kit plane alone. Brodak will be coming out with other ARF and ARC (almost ready to cover) planes soon and I can promise that you’ll see more people, myself included, at the field with them.

As we talked about at the last meeting I’m trying to get hotels set up for Oshkosh. The dates that I’m looking at are July 30&31 so the only night we’ll need rooms for is the night of July 30. Let me know at the next meeting who’s interested in going so I can arrange for rooms.

Since nominations are at this months meeting, it is an important one to be at and one of the items we’ll talk about is next years schedule. I know this seems early but I’d like to be ahead of the game for a change. Here’s a rough draft of what I’ve got so far. If there are any additions please let me know:

January 1 Frozen Fly, Blaine sports arena

May 7&8 Polk City, Iowa contest

June 12 Milwaukee, Wisc. Contest

June 25&26 Sig contest Montezuma, Iowa

July 10 Kids Kontest, at our site

July 30&31 Kid venture at Oshkosh airshow, Oshkosh, Wisc.

July 30&31 Fargo contest, Fargo, North Dakota

August 13&14 Bentfield contest, at our site  

So that about sums up my knowledge for this month.

The October meeting is on the 28^TH and I hope to see you there,

Keith Sandberg

Vice President's Column

This month I want to tie up a few loose ends from last month and maybe move on to one new area. I talked a bit about carbon fiber last month. The other side of the CF coin is that CF, by itself, isn’t the end-all for model structures. I’ve done this myself-slap a little CF on someplace and think smugly that I was pretty cool, and that this ship was now protected from all harm by the CF strip I just CA’ed on it. Well, the doofus that I am, all I did was make it heavier. CF used improperly is just dead weight. It works best in tension. So it makes good spar caps, for instance. But a layer of CF between two layers of balsa isn’t worth a lot. For best results, the CF needs to be on the outside where it can be loaded under tension.

If the ship is already strong enough for the intended purpose, adding CF has little value. If you can use less wood along with CF, then you may show an improvement in strength and weight. And the CF veil is a very base for dope finishes. But it requires considerable thought to really pay off in strength without adding unneeded weight. Another piece left out last time was the Bob Hunt lost foam wing building method. The wing starts as a foam core. The core is sliced up to make patterns for balsa ribs. Then the wooden wing is built in the cradles left over from cutting the cores. Seems weird, right? But you can cut diagonal ribs or geodetic structure using the foam patterns, reducing the parts count and increasing the stiffness (remember Stiffness?) of the wing. Bob Hunt wings are probably the lightest and stiffest that there are.

Build the wing, if you want to build wings on rods, you can get 3/8th inch aircraft grade aluminum tubing from Discount Steel and Aluminum on I-94 at 26th Ave. North. I think 12 feet of tubing was less than $15, and a bargain for good jig parts.

As several people saw, the red Pathfinder bit the dust last Sunday. Sometimes, flying the pattern, you need to react and don’t have time to think. In that last outside square, I failed to do either one and dug a fair size divot. I think we all thought the ship was totaled, but it had a surprise in store. Only the outboard wing is ruined. There is a small crack in the fuselage at the wing TE and cracked sheeting around the inboard landing gear blocks. I’ll open the wing up and be sure the ribs are intact, build a new inboard wing, splice it onto the existing structure and should be good to go.

Usually, I wouldn’t go into all this detail, but the crash highlighted a couple of things about the structure of the ship that caught my eye. The fuselage is covered with one half-ounce glass cloth and finishing epoxy, and it suffered only one tiny crack in a very hard impact. I’ve always liked the glass cloth, but now I’m totally convinced of its value and strength as a base covering. The other item was that the wing/fuselage joint was undamaged by the crash. I have been using Aeropoxy Light for fillets and the fillets on this plane were undisturbed by the crash. This stuff isn’t totally easy to use. It takes a gram scale to mix it right and it’s kind of gooey to work with. But it feathers out and sands to a wonderful finish, and I’ve only had one tiny lift of paint over it. This crash seems to
confirm its strength, too.

Last, I want to touch on some newer ways of putting a base on the wood for paint.  We’ve all used the basic ways of prepping balsa wood, from doping on silkspan, to opening a can of dope and hurling it in the general direction of the airframe (like I’ve done for so long!). But there are three recent developments in this area that are really useful and all give good results. I mentioned CF veil last month. Doped on, it makes a very hard smooth base without needing a lot of dope. I also mentioned the half-ounce glass cloth. This is laid on with polyester resin, dope, or finishing epoxy. The epoxy is probably the best. It sticks better than dope and is harder, and it doesn’t stink up the entire neighborhood like polyester resin does. You just cut the cloth an inch or so oversize, pour on the mixed epoxy, spread the epoxy with a tool (a foam brush works well) and mop up the excess with toilet paper or paper towels. Take off every drop that you can. Leave only enough to wet the cloth down. Sand the excess off at the edges. Apply the next piece and overlap them a little. Sand again with 180-220 grit and start in with your favorite filler.  Last item is Minwax PolyCrylic over silkspan. Some of the guys in the Dallas area figured this one out. Just use the Minwax PC to apply silkspan over the sanded balsa.  Apply a second coat, let dry and sand with 150-180 grit. Start applying filler coats. Since it is water-based, the wood will want to warp. Warps will go away as the PC dries. If you do a flap or other flat piece of wood with this stuff, let it dry to the touch and weight it down on a glass surface to finish drying. When it is dry, it will be stiff and straight and won’t warp again. Like CF, it gives you a rock-hard surface to work with. You can sand it very aggressively. Two coats of filler, or even two coats of Brodak Polar Gray dope will give you a completely filled, slick base. Be sure to get Minwax Polycrylic. This is the only product like it on the market. Works great, and doesn’t stink up the house.

Personal question-does anyone have a Fox .07 they would part with? I have a project in mind for one.

Enough, already. Bob needs to get this ready to go, and I’m not giving him enough time. Nominations and elections are coming up all over the place. Time to turn out the vote.

See you at the field.

Kelvin Heath

Members Space

To some people the dreaded season is approaching, to others a chance to relax, to the modeling types BUILDING SEASON!

As we start our projects there are many sources of help within our club. Throughout this year we’ve been getting some fabulous articles from Norman in the design page and Kelvin has brought us information on the technology available today. Others have given us a lot of great thoughts also. Keith and John the 4-Stroke experts seem to have a good understanding of these wonderful power plants and what it takes to get them to run properly. When it comes to a dope painted finish ask Keith for some guidelines on how to proceed his finishes can stand up to a very close-up inspection. For numbers and graphics of any kind Wayne has brought us information of a person who can make anything you can think of. The name of this person is Robb Kaiser of Blown Concepts specializing in everything and anything dealing with vinyl.          

He’s located at:

2078 East Center Circle
Plymouth, MN. 55441
Phone # 763-694-8951
Fax # 763-694-8971
E-mail: SWEETJOBO@EARTHLINK.NET  

But before you get to the designing of your finish talk to Sina as he can work with you and then generate a computer image of what your plane will look like. Keith has done this with his Legacy, Thunderbird and his P-40 you can see the results.

Others in our club have many things to offer you just have to ask and the right person will hear. Jeff Lange for line tying, Jim Gevay for researching scale documents, Jeff Welliver for improving your flying pattern, Jim Ehlen or Tony Kubes for machining parts and the list goes on and on.

So remember if your going to be building, seek out some help in the planning, designing, building, flying and you will have more fun and success in our hobby. Just another benefit to belonging to a club.

Many of us know Leo Wittenberg throughout the area. He has flown many times with us and has traveled to our site to fly the sport Goodyear races we used to hold. A few months ago the Fargo Skylarks ran a club profile of Leo and I thought I would share it with all of you.

Bob

Profile:  Leo Wittenberg

I grew up in Bismarck and was a hangar rat at the airport watching all of the World War II era airplanes take off and land.  I got a ride in a J-3 Cub, a DC-3, 6 and 7.  I was hooked for life.  That led to building stick and tissue and plastic models.  My son, Matt and I were looking for something to do together in the early eighties, when we wandered down to Skylarks field and met a lot of the flyers.  My son got to fly a ½ A airplane, and he was hooked.  Paul (Kegel) invited us down to his store (candy land) where he relieved us of a lot of hard-earned money and sent us away happy with all of the supplies we would need.  Building led to flying, and flying led to contests all over the place, and we were on our way to a satisfying life-long hobby.

From 1987 to 1990, Paul and I competed as the dreaded K&W Racing Team, and we had a lot of success in Goodyear and Midwest sport racing.  Matt also brought home a Nats Trophy in 1990.  I am still actively in flying carrier and stunt, although in 2000 I went blind and had my eyes rebuilt over the next three years, making it impossible to do any more racing.  In 2002, I fell and broke my left pelvis.  In 2003, I fell on ice and fractured my left hip in three places.  I also lost my kidneys after a 33-year battle with diabetes, so I am now on dialysis.  Consequently, I don’t move like a ballerina any more when I pilot a model!.  Lest you think all is glum, I can assure you quite the contrary; life is still great!!!

As far as other interests: for the past 13 years, I have been playing bass and singing in a bluegrass Gospel band that tours Minnesota and Wisconsin.  I have also done a lot of “pulpit Fill” preaching and teaching at Bible Camp.  In addition, I am education officer for the Richard Bong Chapter of the Air Force Association and teach aviation history in 52 area classrooms during the course of the school year.  Yes, I am happily busy in my retirement!

I have enjoyed my membership in the Skylarks immensely, and having all of you as friends, even though I don’t get to see you as often as I would like, is a real treasure.