New competition planes for 2019

[Alan Resinger]

Well I guess that Springtime is officially here with temps in the 60's and what we like to call "stunt heaven" conditions.  Mr. Walker, Cox and myself have been the usual busy boys during the winter and have produced another set of new models for competition use in 2019.  If I'm not mistaken this is the 8th year in a row that the three of us have built new models.  Actually the 8 year period is really longer and could be as many as 15 years.  Anyway we build lots of planes.
Thursday evening Mr. Cox got his new Hellcat out for some preliminary test flights and after a few short times flights to get his RPM set and flaps tweaked, his first full 5 min. 10 second flight was the entire pattern.  On Friday afternoon, Chris and I met at the field for the first flights on my new "Rare Bear" Bearcat.  Again a few short flights to sort things out and the first full flight was the entire pattern.  Then on Saturday, Mr Walker found a path out to his circle and put up first flights on his new rakish version of the Impact.
All three models are electric powered using Plettenburg 15-22 motors, Jeti Spin 66 ESC and Igor's active timer.  Batteries are TP 6S2800 and props are 12 X 5 hollow 3B Igor props for Chris and I and Paul is using the 11 X 5, 3B hollow Igor prop.
For anyone that saw Chris' Nats Concours winning and 5 place finishing model last year, this one is better. Paul's new model is bound to attract attention with it's unique shape and flashy paint work.
All three plane seem to have excellent performance.  First contest is only 2 weeks away.  Practice, practice, practice.

[Dennis Nunes]

Very nice!. I look forward to seeing all of them in person at the Northwest Regionals in May.

Here's mine for 2019 that I just completed. Hopefully my pipe comes in soon so I can get this thing trimmed.


Dennis

[Les McDonald]

Wow, some really neat planes and I can't but help to notice some flat flaps.

[Howard Rush]

...flat flaps.

When I put 'em on I'm rarin' to go.

[wwwarbird]

Wow, some really neat planes and I can't but help to notice some flat flaps.

 The flaps on the Hellcat stood out to me too, can't quite tell on the other two photos. Did Howard design the paint on Paul's plane? 

 Very nice stuff guys!

[Alan Resinger]

Nice looking ship Dennis. See you in Roseburg.

Les, flat flaps are "the bomb".

[Howard Rush]

Did Howard design the paint on Paul's plane?

No. That’s one of his old planes that’s been hanging by the nose for 20 years.

[M Spencer]

Theyre all very nice . A bit of resemblance to the Miss D.A.R.A. Goodyear there ?



Easy to see the priorities . Wonder if the walls will be finished to the same standard . 

[Jared Hays]

My dad's new plane, Half Stiletto half Strega...  STILEGRA

[TDM]

The Rearbear is beautiful. But there is one big disconnect in the paint job. But not particularly the paint job itself. I am talking about panel lines. If you put panel lines on one item and then you do not do it for the rest of the plane, otherwise it looks disconnected like something that doesn't make sense. And another cool trick is to mix the white and black to get a gray color for panel lines that show nicely over white and the dark colors.

[Alan Resinger]

I agree completely.  The Bear was finished in December and the tail and fuselage were being buffed out.  I held out on the wings and flap as I had some concerns with the wings.  Once I got started on the wings the problem quickly became apparent.  I kept sanding through the clear in spots and attempts to repair the faded colors resulted in darker areas.  Futher attempts only worsened the look.  In early January I  made the decision to strip the wings and flaps and start over.  Time got short so no inklines applied.  I told Mr Cox that the Bear's wing was damaged in a race in Reno and they replaced the metal wing with a composite wing, so no panel lines.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[proparc]

My dad's new plane, Half Stiletto half Strega...  STILEGRA

Jared, I am EXTREMELY interested in how well this plane flies.

[wwwarbird]

  I told Mr Cox that the Bear's wing was damaged in a race in Reno and they replaced the metal wing with a composite wing, so no panel lines.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 You're good to go Alan, the Bear's wing isn't composite but it is filled except for some of the inspection panels and what's left of the folding portion of the wing. Filling the wing is fairly common practice for the "Big Time" Reno birds. The Bear's flaps are also fixed and filled, making for attention getting landings, I think they touch it down somewhere around 140. Looks like the fuse is also filled except for a few of the inspection/access panels.
 At the '08 race they had another main landing gear issue where the R/H wouldn't extend, L/G problems have forever plagued the Bear. This one almost resulted in a bail-out where we would have lost the Bear for good. Thankfully John Penney shook it loose and got it locked with literally seconds to spare. After they got it back to the pits I took a stroll down to the hangar where I witnessed them grinding away a good sized amount of filler under the L/E area of wing root to gain access and attempt to fix whatever the issue had been.

 Here's a few pics attempting to show the filled wing and fuse...