Mike Brandt's planes

This site was last updated on February 15, 2008.

Here are some pictures from Mike Brandt, in Nova Scotia, showing his recent construction project.

He writes: Until recently, my little fleet consisted of Matador's. This one is the closest to 'stock', the others have single-boom tails plus other changes. I believe that the Matador was the best of the 'olden-days' kits, although I've never had a Hoffelt Monoboom to compare it with.

These are shots of my first building attempt using the latest construction techniques reverse-engineered from all of the combat web sites I've visited this winter (thanks Loet!). I had to build a foam-cutter to do the leading edge first (using bright pink foam from the local hardware store!) . The spar is a 1/8" slice taken off the edge of a perfectly straight spruce 2x4 - a couple of bucks worth of wood makes about 20 of these! The center rib is in two parts connected through a hole. I don't like how this turned out, the next one will be stronger. Meanwhile, I added some triangle supports.

My wing building jig (again, thanks to Loet for the concept). More reinforcement on the motor mount in the form of Kevlar can be seen here. The foam is now covered by a layer of .75oz glass cloth held down with West Systems epoxy resin. They make a wonderful product that gives perfect results every time.

The new planes are a lot bigger than Matadors! The lower wing loading should make a big difference.