Warbirds 'RC Forever'

Here’s a fun group: (from left to right) Elton Batista, Rogerio Araujo, Dino DiGiorgio, Fabiano Mazzer, and Rodrigo Pantoja. Fabiano owns the plane, and Rodrigo owns Juniaer, the company that produces the Tucano. The plane is the fi rst in a series of 50cc Tucano ARFs from Juniaer.  The Tucano is powered with a DLE 55 and controlled with a Futaba 14SG. Johnny Simoes retracts and struts are used.

- Rogerio Araujo

A few years back, Flademir Cesarin and a group of his flying buddies decided to get together in Santa Gertrudes, São Paulo, Brazil, for an RC event. What was supposed to be just a weekend fly-in became a popular and well-attended event with about 50 pilots showing up. Last year, the venue was changed to Limeira, a town west of São Paulo. In a rich community surrounded by citrus plantations, the event enjoyed some growth with more than 60 pilots attending, and it drew an unexpectedly large number of spectators as well. For this year’s Warbirds “RC Forever” event, the organizers decided to think bigger, with better planning and organization, more advertising, and increased sponsorship. The event was also supported by the Brazilian Air Modeling Confederation, with its president Manoel Maneco and the scale director Fernando Cavera in attendance. By all measures, this warbird event is set to take off and become a must-attend occasion for all serious warbird enthusiasts.

F-16 Fighting Falcon

This impressive 1/6 scale F-16 was flown by Cassio R. F. Miguel. Cassio started modeling 20 years ago at the age of 16, and is from an aviation family. He comments that “aeroccocus” contaminated him at a young age, and there is no cure. Nowadays, Cassio competes in RC pylon races, and he started flying jets seriously five years ago. He has always had a soft spot for the F-16, and he built his Fighting Falcon from a Legend F-16 PNP package. It is powered with a JetCat 180 RXi turbine engine and has a 63-inch wingspan and a length of 97 inches. Equipped with a Spektrum DX18 radio system for guidance, Cassio’s jet is finished in the Air Force (Greece) Zeus commemorative paint scheme.

Helicopter Action