1/2A Streaker makes headlines with AMA

Hello my modeling friends. Back in February I received a call from the AMA regarding my Streaker kit and said they would like to do an article on the kit and would I be receptive to sending a kit to Jon Barnes in New York. They said Jon does their building and product reports for the Academy. I was more than happy to send a Streaker Kit to Jon.

I did not hear from Jon and wondered what was going on with the building of the kit. That very same day while at our Westside RC Flyers model airport site one of the members mentioned he had just just read the article on the Streaker and ask if I had seen it; which I had not since I had not received my Model Aviation Magazine. Later when I returned home I found I had received my May issue and sure enough it had the article on the 1/2A Streaker.

If you haven't read the article he did a good job especially mentioning the difficulty he had trying to take off on his grass strip similar to ours here in Yukon, Ok, which is a short distance west of Oklahoma City. What he was writing about my kit also mentioned the landing gear hit a nerve because I have been having the same experience with difficulty on takeoffs. It never occurred to me that the 1/16th wire gear (which works fine on pavement) was flexing in the grass causing the plane to go wherever it wanted too and mostly not down the runway. As an engineer you would have thought I would have recognized this as to the cause, but I didn't. With that said I immediately upgraded the landing gear on my Streaker to size to 3/32 piano wire which is at least 50% stronger. My first flight was phenomenal to say the least. It was perfectly straight down the runway, but good enough to takeoff which was sure better than I had done before. Anyway that solved my problem and now all kits going out the door will have the new 3/32 wire landing gear.

Since Jon's first test flights were with the recommended COX engine it fits in our COX group. Surprising to me was during his product report he switched to electric powered which is shown on his Video. He commented that I failed to say anything positive about going electric. I have since added a supplement to the kit which includes the electric power requirements. If you haven't seen the video, it it is quite good and professionally executed. It may be seen by Calling up on your computer (Dick Russ 1/2A Streaker model Aviation Magazine). Even though he is flying the Streaker powered with an electric motor it is still entertaining to watch and could have been flown with COX power as well.