Twin Cities Model Aero Club

Pictured is Denis Daniels new Hangar 9 Piper Pawnee. This aircraft test flew recently and handles extremely well. Scale ARF’s have certainly improved in recent times.

Latest offering from that prolific builder Barry Kilpatrick is a huge Pilatus Porter PC-6. The model, an ARF from V.Q Models has a wing span of 107 inches and is 78 inches long. The aircraft is to be powered by a Supre Tigre 3000. The colourful aircraft was used a skydiving platform, makes a change from the drab military colour schemes usually seen on these aircraft.

I picked up a quarter scale and a third scale Balsa USA Piper Cub kits from a garage sale last month and have been keenly building away ever since.

I really didn’t think that I had the patients for scale building, but now I’ve started, I kind of have the ‘bug’ for it. I am putting the quarter scale, 2.5m span, together first as a practice run for the “BIG” 3.5m span third scale! The quarter kit had the plans but no instructions, so I’ve been nutting it out myself ever since. The third scale has no plans or instructions, so I will draw up my own plans and enter it in the masters class. With some valuable guidance from Dave Balfour, I am trying to stay as true to scale as possible. David has an incredible eye for detail and how to replicate it, usually with an easyish method. (It still requires a LOT of patience.) I took out ‘F2′ and replaced the structure with the scale cabin bars under the dash. This leaves the space where the pilots legs and rudder pedals go. Dave was concerned with the strength of the main ‘box’ section in the nose and the attachment of the ‘box’ on the side walls with ‘F2′ removed. To fix this, some alloy rod was twitch in with wire and epoxy, and two alloy plate ‘posts’ for the side wall mounting points. Dave’s happy now. Scaling a Cub is a nice easy intro because they were incredibly simple aircraft. e.g. the scale joystick set only took one hour because it is a very simple mechanism. I have managed to find some excellent pictures from the internet, the most detailed are ’screen shots’ from Flight Simulators. From these, and some basic blueprint pictures, I have managed to replicate the real cub quite accurately. Engines are both 2 cylinder 4 Cycle glow motors, a 1.20 for the 1/4 and a 3.00 for the 1/3. regards and Happy flying

Tony Ball

Barry is well under way with his new creation, this time it is a scale model of the British, War One fighter, the SE5A. Barry is building his aircraft from the Dave Platt designed Top Flight kit.

This is a very old kit, that Barry acquired. There is an equally old four stroke engine, with exposed rockers going to power the aircraft.

Barry has gone to some trouble to weather the model with the help of the boys at the Albury Hobby Centre.

You are not seeing double, so no need to run off to get your eyes checked.

These two identical aircraft are Fairchild F-24 Argus’s built by David Balfour. Both aircraft are identical, built from a modified plan from English designer Phil Kent. The aircraft are powered by OS 120 four stroke engines and weigh just under 10 kilos. The colour scheme selected represents a civil aircraft impressed into service with the RAAF in 1939. The civil aircraft registered VH-ABZ became A36-2 in air force service.

The aircraft still exists and is owned by a pilot in Sydney and has retained its original pre war registration of VH-ABZ, although it is now finished in a different colour scheme. Why build two identical models, one will be retained by the builder, the other is for a mate in Sydney.