SUPERMAN JET WEEK 2002
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by Bob Violett

Blue Angel #2 was built and finished by Bill Harris for Paul McCaulley. It has an AMT Pegasus for power and has been flying since last year's Superman. The wing tanks were used by the Blue's for cross country flights to get to the airshows and definitely help the model's visibility. The sky signaled that we were minutes from rain that followed this unique pre-frontal cloud formation.

The BVM pit area adjacent to one of our business tents was busy with some of the 12 factory demo jets that we brought to the show.

Ad Clark Jr. gets some council from Justin while flying his BobCat with AMT power.

The Top Gun '02 winning F-100F was rolled out for a flight along with Joe Grice's F-100D during the manufacturer's demo period. Here Dana Rieman (BVM design engineer) services the 2 seater for the flight.

A pair of winners.

Jason Somes was handed the keys to Beauteous Butch II and he did exceptionally well with it. Several other pilots got some stick time on the F-86 and a few of them liked it so much they ordered one at the show. This JetCat P-80 powered Sabre was flown dozens of time at Superman '02 with zero maintenance; just fuel, charge and fly. Even though it is a scale subject, Jason showed off its aerobatic capabilities, inverted snaps and spins included.

This beautifully crafted BobCat is owned and flown with great enthusiasm by Kemp Gallineau from Orlando, Florida. Kemp's position as General Manager of the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center (six acres under glass) affords little time for model building, so he enlists the very competent services of Barry West. Great Pilot - Great Builder.

Tom and Kemp prepare the factory demo T-33 with an early air start RAM 750 for flight. BVM's new burnt orange hats were very much in vogue at Superman '02.

Kelly Rhorbach accompanied Ad Clark on a 48 hour drive from Kalispell, Montana to enjoy the greatest jet event in the world. Both are BVM Reps and are excellent modelers. Here Kelly shows us his RAM powered Bandit.

There were a lot of great jet pilots at Superman, but all in attendance agree that David Shulman gives us a pinnacle to strive towards. David flys all of the BVM factory jets and helps many of our customers with their new machines. This year, David concentrated on exploring the realm of "High Alpha" flight capabilities of the Rafale Sport powered by the brand new AMT USA AT-400. The almost instant throttle response and 35 pounds of installed thrust gave David the opportunity to demonstrate extreme slow flight maneuvering where the rudder is the primary directional control. Top end speeds of 200mph were also achieved. The 25 knot crosswind on Friday did not interfere with David's Rafale flying either - perfect landings on centerline, full right aileron (into the wind) and left rudder allows the Rafale and other good jets to handle the conditions. With most others grounded, the crowd really appreciated such skills.

Immediately following David's display of "No Fear" of the crosswind, I chose my F-100D to show that "Top Gun" winning pilots who train for these conditions, can handle them. Certain airframes are better suited to handle the crosswind and it is my opinion that our F-100's are the best in our fleet. The fact that I have over 100 flights on this one bolstered my confidence in being able to handle the challenge. Not a scratch and pretty close to centerline on landing.

This colorful BobCat XL with JetCat P-120 power made its debut at Superman '02. This paint scheme is easy to accomplish using ProMark paint masks and transfers. The blue and yellow are documented Blue Angel colors (from the 80's) and the red is military insignia red, darker than most automotive reds. The result is eye appealing and quite visible due to a good balance of contrast.

Top view

Bottom view

Black airplanes that can handle the sun are tough to accomplish, but they sure can be beautiful. This scheme is borrowed (and modified) from a NAVY Aggressor F-5. Multiple coats of black, multiple sun curing and block sanding between coats, then sanded and buffed out clear is a demanding, but necessary process. Skin temperature reached 186° F on a 95° F Florida summer day. Metal-Kote (BVM #1960) was applied to the wing pylons and exhaust nozzle. ProMark's raised 3D panels #S-14 give accent to the skin detailing and ProMark's paint masks were used to apply all of the markings. The gold canopy affect (used on modern fighters) was accomplished with RIT dye. Use two packs of yellow with one of tangerine in very hot water. BV flew it fairly conservatively while David showed off the Super Bandit's knife edge capability with the wing tip 2ft off the deck for thousands of feet down the outer edge of the runway. Super Bandits are super flyers and very fast to assemble. They are also extremely capable of difficult crosswind landing conditions.

Click here for some leftover Superman specials