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Palouse Ridge Runners R/C Newsletter

Pullman Ridge Runner Moscow

============================== April 2003 ==============================

Next Meeting:

The April club meeting will be at the Jack-in-the-Box in Moscow at 7pm on Tuesday, April 1.

Me262 Reproduction

By Don Hart

The April 203 issue of “Custom Planes” (a magazine for full size aircraft builders and restorers) has a very interesting article about a project to build five flying replicas of the Me 262, a WWII German jet designed in 1938, and the world’s first operational jet fighter. The original flew at about 540mph (about 120mph faster than the Mustang) on two Junkers Jumo turbine engines. The Jumo turbines had only a 25-hour maximum operational life! It made its first jet powered flight in 1942. Of 1443 built, only about 300 saw combat.

Very few examples of the Me 262 survive, none in flying condition. Stephen L. Snyder, a pilot and aeronautical engineer decided to change that by building five new ones. The five replicas are to be sold to fund the project.

Complete plans were unavailable. A WWII era example built originally as a two place trainer has been on display for the last 50 years at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania. Snyder made arrangements with the Navy to restore this plane to museum quality and use the original components as a reference for plans for the replicas.

Work began in 1993 in Texas. The fuselage design was nearly complete in 1996. Disagreements with the original contractor lead to a move to Paine Field near Everett Washington. The availability of lots of talented Boeing alumni made this a great move. Five replica fuselages, three wings, and the original Navy example were moved to the new location.

A modern turbine engine, the GE J-85, was chosen to power the replicas. This engine was designed in the 1960s for the military and powered such planes as the F-5 and T-38. A civilian version powered the original Lear Jet.

The Jumo engine produced about 1800 pounds of thrust. The J85 produces about 2850 pounds of thrust on 40% less fuel. This much thrust should allow the replica Me 262 to reach 600mph, but since the airframe is not designed for those speeds, it’s placard top speed is 500mph.

The original design had problems with weak landing gear and bad brakes. Brakes were greatly improved on the replica. The landing gear mount was reinforced, but there was a landing gear failure on a test flight of the first flying prototype.

Additional information is available at the following web sites:

Home page:

http://www.stormbirds.com/project/general/updates.htm

News:

http://www.aviationnow.com/content/ncof/ncf_n60.htm

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/personalfortune/articles/0,15114,367239,00.html

Photos:

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/stormbirdrisingjg_1.htm

Restored Me 262:

http://www.dvhaa.org/me262.htm

Flight simulator sound recording:
http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/CFSInsider/Me262_recording_sessions.htm

At the last meeting…

By Don Hart

The March meeting was held at the Jack-in-the-Box in Moscow.

Attending:

Bruce and Colleen Bumgarner

Les Grammer

Bertle Spence

Mel Colvin (VP)

Bob Boettcher

Dave Walker (President)

Wally Bigelow

Pat Gates

Joe Bolden

Vance Penton

K Tarbet

Larry Bobisud

Jeff Nelson

John Sandell

Eric Bair

Ben Troka

The first order of business was final planning for the Mall Show. This included scheduling club members to man the show for the three days (March 7-9), making arrangements for pickup and delivery of the money box each day, people’s choice ballots and ballot box, model identification forms, TV/VCR and videos, and purchase of a “Fighter Bird” ready-to-fly electric plane to raffle and a $30 gift certificate for the People’s Choice winner.

The next order of business was discussion of the Model Train Swap Meet at the WSU Coliseum on March 16, a week after the Mall Show. The group sponsoring the model train swap meet would like to expand to include other hobbies including R/C planes. This would be a great place to sell those excess, unused and outgrown planes, engines and radios and pick up replacements at swap meet prices. Les Grammer and Bruce Bumgarner agreed to man tables displaying R/C planes and literature at the swap meet to see if this would work. We’ll get a report at the April meeting.

At the previous meeting we decided to make this a “bring something OLD to show” session. Bob Boettcher brought an Olsen & Rice 23 ignition engine, a Madewell 49 engine, and a Bonner “digimite” linear servo. This servo may have been small for its day, but it is huge compared to what we have today.

Larry Bobisud brought an Olsen & Rice 60.

Mel Colvin brought a 1970 vintage OS35 and a McCoy 35 from the 1960s.

In addition to these wonders, Wally Bigelow and Don Hart brought their newest model building projects. Wally’s plane is a gorgeous yellow 36” span scale model of the Aeronca Champion. It’s powered with a Cox .049 engine (no throttle) and is controlled by a Hitec micro flight pack. It has rudder and elevator controls.

Don brought his Morris Hobbies “Jerry’s Big Boy”, one of the kits from the Chuck Schuring collection. The “kit” consisted of plans, a set of die-cut ribs and landing gear struts. Everything else had to be built from scratch. This is a LARGE fun fly plane – the original design wingspan is 80 inches – this was shortened to 76 inches during a minor redesign of the wing tips. The model is powered with an Enya 120 four stroke, and has ailerons and flaps operated by four servos. The elevators are operated with a split pushrod. The rudder has pull-pull controls from a servo mounted near the tail. Ihnchoel Park weighed the plane on his digital scale – under 8 pounds. It has a rather weird thick airfoil that should provide plenty of lift and excellent slow speed maneuvering. With that weight and power, it should hover with no problem.

John Sandell donated a MDS48 engine to the club. This engine was put up for sale at the mall show with the proceeds going to the club.

Palouse Ridge Runners Annual Mall Show

The club mall show was a great success! There were over 30 airplanes of all types were displayed, from giant scale aerobatic planes to ½A gas and electric scale planes; from 10 foot span thermal soaring gliders to 4 foot slope soaring combat gliders; there was a seaplane and a float plane; civilian and military scale planes; fixed wing planes and a helicopter. Joe Bolden’s display of model engines was particularly interesting.

Larry Bobisud won the raffle for the “Fighter Bird” electric plane. This is a complete package with plane, power system and radio system. It has an infrared “combat” system – Larry can fly against at least 2 other “Fighter Bird’s” in the Palouse area.

People's Choice
Model Name	Type	Owner	Votes
Fun Fly Hots	Fun Fly	Jordan Nelson	44
Edge 540T	Scale Aerobatic	Eric Bair	24
Extra 330L	Scale Aerobatic	John Sandell	20
Raptor 30	Helicopter	Ben Troka	19
Hopefully Fun	Fun Fly Bipe	Jeff Nelson	16
Piper Cub	Scale	Larry Bobisud	15
Sukoi	Scale Aerobatic	John Sandell	12
Aeronca Champion	Scale	Wally Bigelow	10
Kawasaki 61 "Hein" (Tony)	Scale	Larry Bobisud	6
Rascal	Electric Sport	Les Grammer	6
Stik Bipe (built by Chuck Schuring)	Sport	John Sawyer	5
Pizzaz	Aerobatic 3D	John Sandell	4
Encore	Hand Launch Glider	Les Grammer	3
Graphite	Slope Soarer	John Sandell	3
Mongo Bomber	Slope Combat	Bruce Bumgarner	2
1913 Eastbourne Monoplane	Scale Antique Racer	Ron Rae	2
Zagi 400 Electric	Flying Wing	Bruce Bumgarner	2
Dazzler	Sport Aerobatic	Joe Bolden	2
Lucky	Slope Racer	Bruce Bumgarner	2
Spectra	Electric Glider	Joe Bolden	1
Jerry's Big Boy	Sport Aerobatic	Don Hart	1
P-40	Slope Combat	John Sandell	1
V-Tail Sloper	Slope Glider	Don Hart	1
Shark	Slope Racer	John Sandell
Engine Collection	Model Engines	Joe Bolden
Star Cruiser	Sport	Joe Bolden
Mr Lucky	Sport Aerobatic	John Sandell
Ultimate	Scale Aerobatic	Eric Bair
Zagi	Slope Combat	Pat Gates
Laker	Sea Plane	Don Hart
Falcon	Float Plane	Dave Walker
ASST	1/2A Sport	Larry Bobisud
Number 16	???	???	5
Number 29	???	???	4