Warbirds “RC Forever”

Heavy-metal action from Brazil

Afew 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.

ON THE FIELD

For this year’s event, 82 pilots registered and about 140 airplanes showed up, including one full-size WACO biplane. My good friend and American flying buddy Dino DiGiorgio was our invited guest, and he commented that this was his biggest show abroad. He was sponsored by Juniaer Modelismo.

The venue includes a nice 760-foot-long asphalt runway, with a 170-foot-long grass strip added at each end of the runway. Although it was a little tight for some of the planes, everyone enjoyed the layout. Even though Thursday and Friday evenings were a little rainy, everyone had lots of fun as Saturday was a perfect sunny, hot day. As anticipated, Saturday was the big day, and all together more than 15,000 spectators were present. There were more than 300 spectators who bought passes for access to the pits and a specially designated observation area near the runway.

Flight stations allowed four planes to be flown at the same time, and this kept the action going. In fact, the event went so well that even with hundreds of flights flown, there was only one mishap. So at the end of the event, almost everyone went home happy. Although the word “warbird” is in the name of the event, it was not a rigid rule; some scale civilian planes were on hand as well, including an electric-powered Cri-Cri twin. Being our international special guest, Dino found himself right at home. He was

able to fly just about everything offered to him. Of particular note was when Dino was calling for Flademir with his Top Flite giant-scale P-47 Thunderbolt. Powered with a Saito 60cc radial gasser, Flademir’s warbird made some amazing low-level passes.

FLIGHTLINE STANDOUTS

Many participants came from near and far. Guys from Porto Alegre, Curitiba, and Brasília, among other cities within a 1,000-mile radius, showed up and shared in the fun. My friend and travel companion Brigadier Costa Filho brought along his 40-year-old Sterling Mustang, powered by an old SuperTigre .60. The old Mustang is still controlled with its original Kraft servos but has a new and modern 2.4GHz receiver.

Other standouts included Cassio Miguel with a beautiful F-16 in Zeus commemorative Hellenic Air Force livery, and Rodrigo Narvaes with an Su-27 and a splendid F-5 in Brazilian commemorative Senta Pua livery. Fernando Caveira’s fantastic Red Tail CARF Mustang was powered by a twin-cylinder DLE engine.

Julio Dasgostini flew his beautiful BAE Hawk, which was an awesome plane to see fly and his landings were spot-on. Heraldo Boldrin, from Equipe Verde Amarela, flew his A-10 Thunderbolt II with Flademir’s P-47 Thunderbolt in a formation tribute flight. Mr. Padua brought his magnificent Cessna 195 to the event along with his beautiful Ziroli Plans’ B-25 bomber, and flew them both with authority. With extremes at each end of the age scale, we had 79-year-old Aldo Glauco Land, who flew his Great Planes’ Curtiss Hawk, and 13-year-old Daniel Rossi, flying his O.S. .46–powered Phoenix Cirrus.

AFTER HOURS

We had a great time Saturday evening with a raffle that included a 50cc Tucano, donated by Juniaer’s owner Rodrigo Pantoja, as well as a pilot figure donated by Adam Martin of warbirdpilots.com. And being a Futabasponsored pilot, Dino brought along a bag of Futaba goodies as well as ZAP glue courtesy of Frank Tiano Enterprises to add to the raffle table.

Nothing like this event can ever happen without the support we received from the local club: the Associação Limeirense de Aeromodelismo (ALA). Its facilities are awesome, with camping areas, a storage area, electricity at all tables, a huge covered area, and onsite food services. Kudos to all the ALA members, and especially to their president, Virgilio Daloia.

All, in all, the third annual event was a huge success, and we plan to expand it again next year. All our international RC friends are cordially invited. Flying is great, but the friendship and camaraderie are even better.

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 first 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. One of several super-low-level passes of Flademir Cesarin’s Top Flite giant-scale P-47 Thunderbolt.

To help celebrate the third annual event, owner/pilot Agenor Granzoto flew his full-size WACO YMF-F5C biplane for some low-level flybys over the runway. A close friend of scale builder and flier Antenor Spiller, Agenor excited everyone with his WACO.

Originally built in 1970 by Colonel Tulio Brandao, this P-51 Mustang was built from an old Sterling kit. It’s covered with Silkspan and tissue, and it has original hinges. It still has all its original Kraft servos installed and is flying with a modern 2.4GHz receiver controlled by a Spektrum DX18. Power comes from a SuperTigre G-60.

Mr. Padua’s impressive B-25 Mitchell bomber comes in for a perfect landing.

Fernando Caveira Bellegarde moves his impressive Red Tail Mustang to the flightline for another flight. His fantastic warbird was built from a CARF-Models kit powered by a DLA 116cc twin-cylinder engine. The radio is a Futaba 12FG. The Mustang is finished entirely in Flite-Metal.