Ultimate champ

Model Airplane News, Jun 2003 by Yarrish, Gerry

By now, almost everyone who reads this column knows that the winner of the 2002 Tournament of Champions (TOC) acrobatic competition was Chip Hyde of Sierra Vista, AZ, and that he flew a 42-percent-scale Ultimate biplane at the 18th and final Las Vegas event. Chip's Ultimate was the only bipe at the TOC, and I thought it would be neat to take a closer look at this impressive aerobat from Aeroworks.

Designed by Chip, the new Aeroworks Ultimate 10-300 biplane is an ARF! That's right; you can order it in either ARF or almost-ready-to-cover form. A Desert Aircraft DA-150cc twin cylinder is the engine of choice for this impressive biplane, and the completed model weighs 38 pounds. The two-piece wing design (top and bottom) and two-piece, removable stabilizer allow quick field setup, and the flying-wire reinforcement that Chip used on his competition plane enhances down-line braking flight performance and increases the model's overall strength. The tail surfaces have airfoil cross-sections, and the traditional balsa, sheeted-foam and lite-ply construction is extremely lightweight and strong for a model of this size.

Aluminum landing gear, a molded-fiberglass engine cowl and wheel pants, aluminum wing and stabilizer joiner tubes, aluminum center cabane struts, a formed canopy and built-up interplane struts come with the kit. The wing center sections, outer wing panels, horizontal stabs, elevators, fin and rudder have foam-core construction and come sheeted. All the control surfaces come slotted and hinged for CA-type hinges and are ready for the control surfaces to be glued into place, The ARF version comes covered in Ultracote and is available in Chip's famous pink and white color scheme and in a red and white scheme.

THE LATEST IN GIANT-SCALE AIRPLANES

Recently, I attended the 35th annual Westchester Radio Aero Modelers (WRAM) trade show in White Plains, NY, and saw some really nice giant-scale models. One of the more exciting models on display was the still unfinished Beechcraft D-17 Staggerwing bipe suspended over the Nick Ziroli Plans booth. Designed by Nick Sr., the Staggerwing is an impressive example of traditional balsa-and-plywood construction. Using his tried-and-true designing technique, Nick's newest warbird (yes, he plans a scale military paint scheme!) is 22.5 percent scale and has an 86-inch wingspan. The fuselage is 72 inches long, and the wing area is 2,350 square inches. Its finished weight should be about 30 to 35 pounds. It will be powered by a Zenoah G-62 gas engine, and Robart has a set of electric retracts for it. On display next to the Ziroli Plans booth were the shock-absorbing, fully articulated retracts that operate in exactly the same fashion as the full-size gear do. A long jackscrew drives the gear up and down, and microswitches stop the motion in the full-up and full-down positions. Transition time is about 8 seconds-very scale-like! The Staggerwing's tailwheel is a standard mechanical Robart retract and is servo-operated. Nick says that he plans to cover the D-17 with Stits Lite from F&M Enterprises and will also use Poly Tone paint products (from F&M, as well) to finish the giant biplane. Nick uses low-profile Airtronics servos in the top for the ailerons and lower wing flaps. Work on the plans is progressing, but the plans won't be finished until sometime next year. For more information on other Nick Ziroli designs, check out the website: ziroliplans.com.

I also saw a great ARF seaplane high over the Lanier RC booth. Part of Lanier's 21st Century line of ARFs, the Mariner 1.20 is designed for easy water takeoffs and landings. Designed by Jerry Smith, the model is intended for .90 to 1.20 2-stroke or 1.20 to 1.80 4-stroke engines, and it has spray rails and hull lifters to quickly get it "up on step" before it leaves the water.

The kit comes with a built-up balsa-and-plywood wing and hull/fuselage; the hull is fiberglass reinforced. The engine pod is above the wing, and the pylon issecured through the fuselage to the base of the hull for strength. Fiberglass tip floats help stabilize the airplane on water. The entire model comes completely finished with iron-on covering, and the fiberglass engine pod and wing floats have been painted to match one of the three color schemes; they're available in orange and white, red and white and yellow and white.

The Mariner 1.20 includes 4-40-size flight-control mechanisms, carbon-fiber pushrods and metal clevises and hardware from Du-Bro, Sullivan and Robart. Its wingspan is 80 inches, and its wing area is 1,140 square inches. If you ever wanted to fly off water, the Lanier Mariner-with a street price of $599.99-looks like a winner!

Sometimes, it's the little things that get me the most excited, and the new F1 Fueler from Slimline is one of those things you just gotta have. Available for both glow fuel and gasoline, this well-made fuel fitting is machined out of aluminum and differs slightly from the rest. The port is permanently secured to the fuselage and to the filler fuel line and uses an O-ring-equipped cap to seal the fuel system. Remove the cap, and a filler nozzle attached to your fuel supply line fits precisely into place for hands-free fueling and defueling. To avoid having to use a separate filler line in my new G-26-powered Hangar 9 Super Cub, I attached the F1 Fueler to the engine fuel line with a short length of fuel tubing and a T-fitting. The Walbro pumper carb on the G-26 prevents it from flooding while refueling the tank-a neat and simple setup! There was a lot more neat big-bird stuff at the WRAM show, but I don't have enough space to show it all. Keep an eye open in a future issue for all the great products coming our way. Until next time, keep thinking big!